Our African Adventures

We were on a trip we'd organised ourselves to travel round Uganda, a country we visited in 1998 on an Overlander and fell in love with.

This time we hired a local driver/guide based in Fort Portal. We were on a budget so accommodation was in hostels or similar and food from local canteens or cooked over a campfire.

Our first port of call was Kibale Forest just outside Fort Portal. Staying in a room in a forest cabin we tracked chimpanzees and watched birds for a couple of days. Whilst here we met a South African couple who had spent several weeks on the road camping their way up to Kenya and now camping their way back home.

From Kibale we travelled to Murchison Falls NP and stayed in a basic rondavel on a campsite for a few days. The ladies who managed the camp cooked food we'd purchased and showed us how to make the best chapatis ever! Here we took game drives and saw lions, giraffe, wilderbeeste amongst others, and lots of birds. We were able to take a boat trip to the foot of Murchison Falls where some of largest Nile Perch can be caught. Once again the South Africans were on our campsite.

The same happened in Queen Elizabeth NP where we managed to find a room in the bunkhouse used by the National Park rangers. A few beers and US$5 a night worked wonders and they even allowed us to use their kitchen. This time the South Africans invited us and our guide to their camp for a brai and a beer. The couple's names were Ewan & Margie and they shared the same passion for wildlife and independent travel as we did.