East Africa Day 14 - Kibale

Today was another travel day. We have a lot of travel days in Uganda. We left our lodge and drove through Queen Elizabeth National Park. Along the way we had an en route game drive. We saw elephants, antelope, cranes, guinea fowl, water buck, velvet monkeys, warthogs, banded mongoose, and topi. It was a good morning. While we did not see them as closely as in Tanzania, it was still fun to see some of our favorite animals again. I was also proud that I improved at quickly identifying some species, such as water buck. I am becoming a better game spotter. The drive through this park was the most efficient way to get to our destination. We are headed to Kibale National Park, which borders Queen Elizabeth National Park.

Elephant

We enjoyed the views of the misty countryside

Waterbuck

Once we got through the National Park the countryside became similar to what we saw on our first day driving across Uganda. We passed through many small towns with storefronts out on the road. 

We drove for ~4 hours to reach Fort Portal. In Fort Portal we were tested for Covid. It was a strange testing experience. We drove up to a random strip mall type area. Inside was a doctors office. There were lots of random people coming and going from the doctors office. A few of them asked us questions. We weren't entirely sure who they were, but one put on a lab coat and tested us. It was strange, but it worked. We will receive the results tomorrow. As long as they come back negative we will be going home tomorrow evening. 

Alison and I have talked a lot the past couple of days about our experience in Uganda. Uganda is not our favorite country we have visited. In fact, it is probably one of our least favorite. Don’t get me wrong gorilla trekking was incredible. That was one of our all time favorite experiences. Gorilla trekking 100% made coming to Uganda worth it. However, we are unlikely to go out of our way to visit Uganda again. Primarily because the rest of the experience (outside gorilla trekking) has been uneven. There are a few things we haven’t liked. Now granted, one strike against Uganda is that it is the last stop on a long trip. There it also a lot of travel time. This is unavoidable given our itinerary (we really wanted to see gorillas). We knew going in there would be a lot of travel time. Having lived this itinerary there really isn't a surefire way to decrease the travel time or number of travel days. That is what it is. One big area of disappointment is that there is also a lot of downtime. The downtime feels mostly unnecessary. Too many afternoons and evenings our tour company has been content to let us sit in a hotel. Unless we push hard for another activity they don’t take initiative to help us find an activity (we are even fine paying extra we just want to have an optimal experience and it isn't easy to plan things on our own in most of the areas where we have downtime). The guides are always telling us how amazing Uganda is, but the don’t showcase it as much as they could. Also, since we switched guides halfway through we noticed the guides in Uganda don’t seem particularly professional. If it was just one guide I would say it was a one off, but we have noticed it in multiple guides. They are often taking weird candid photos of us (or our hotel room). They have more than once come barge into the hotel room when we are checking in to take pictures of the room. It is strange. Also they eat every meal with us. Other than when we are alone in our hotel room they are always hovering in ways that are uncomfortable. We have had a lot of guides in a lot of countries and the guides in Uganda would rank at the bottom. It doesn’t seem like Uganda has tourism really dialed in. The whole program and tour company leave something to be desired, and our tour company is among the top rated companies in Uganda. Thank goodness gorilla trekking was such an amazing experience. 

Alison and I resigned ourselves that today was going to be a throw away day. The plan was to wake up early and drive to Fort Portal for Covid testing and then to drive to our lodge for the evening. The lodge was only an hour from Fort Portal. We arrived in Fort Portal at 11:30am. We ate lunch in Fort Portal. We ate at a buffet that had lots of local options. One thing I will say for Uganda that is positive is we have had a lot of local food and it has been good. During lunch we could see the writing on the wall and didn't want to spend another afternoon sitting in a lodge. We talked to Brian about options for afternoon activities. He said we could do a community walk. While this wasn’t necessarily our top choice of activities it sounded better than sitting in the lodge. 

We arrived at our lodge, Turaco Trees. It is amazing. That is another thing Uganda has going for it. We have loved all of the lodges. Other than the tented lodge on the Serengeti, all of our favorite lodges have been in Uganda. This lodge has a balcony that is literally in the treetops. It isn’t a bad place to spend the afternoon.

Despite the amazing lodge, we did go on the community walk. It greatly exceeded our expectations. Brian introduced us to a local guide and he showed us around the community. While we were walking we saw some monkeys in the trees. That was a good start. We also saw some of the local crops - tea, coffee, and bananas. 

Black-and-white Colobus

Black-faced Vervet Monkey

Tea

Coffee

Pin-tailed Whydah

The walk was split into two parts. The first part we learned about coffee farms. Coffee is one if the cash crops in Uganda (they grow it for export). We saw the coffee growing on bushes. We then visited a family who farmed the coffee. The wife showed us how she prepared the coffee. First, she pounds it to get the beans out of the shell. She then strains it and picks out the shells to separate the shells from the beans. She will then roast the coffee beans over an open fire until they are nice and brown. She has a huge thick metal pot that she uses for roasting. When it was done roasting she uses banana leaves to pull the hot pot off the of the fire (this was quite impressive - the pot was very hot). She then pounds the beans to grind them. She then strains the ground particles so that only the finest ones remain. She then adds hot water and presto you have a steaming cup of fresh coffee. It was quite impressive.

After visiting the coffee farm we visited a banana farm. I was excited for this portion of the tour. We met Dennis who runs the banana farm. He told us we could call him the banana man. We loved Dennis. He is an awesome banana man. He taught us all about how he grows bananas. He cut a bunch of bananas off of a tree and showed us how he processes them. He peels them so quickly it was unreal. He then put them into a bowl and added dry banana leaves. He mashed the leaves and bananas together with his hands until it made banana juice. Alison and I both tried some banana juice and it was delicious. He then told us how he can use banana juice to make banana beer, banana wine, and banana gin. All of these beverages are popular around here. Dennis had such high energy and was so excited to teach us all about bananas. This really was a great stop. At the end of his presentation he wanted us to take a picture by his sign and he made us promise we would follow him on Instagram. 

A baby banana tree

After the tour, we came back to our lodge. We relaxed and had dinner. It is hard to believe this is our last night in Africa. This trip really has been a dream. While the Uganda overall hasn't been our favorite place to visit, it has been refreshing to meet local people and to get to know them personally. This is something we didn't experience as much in Rwanda or Tanzania. That is another positive for Uganda.