Our travels in Uganda

On our travels, we are touring several east African countries over 11 weeks and just had a fantastic safari in Kenya, seeing many animals. Next, we flew out of Kenya’s capital Nairobi, to Entebbe Airport in Uganda. After changing our Kenyan Shillings to Ugandan shillings, we took a taxi to Kampala, the capital of Uganda.

Cityscape of Kampala, capital of Uganda

We were staying in Kampala for a few days and had an interesting hotel with a balcony overlooking the city. But on our first night, the hotel was not prepared for us, and we stayed in what seemed like a garage in their ‘annex’ – it was not what we’d booked. We weren’t happy, but the next day we were moved to the room with a balcony that we had booked - all good. Kampala is a sprawling city and it was really hot so instead of walking the city, we booked a guide/driver to take us out to see the main sights. This worked well, as we went to places we could not have reached on foot.

Busy streets of downtown Kampala, Uganda

The Republic of Uganda is a smallish country geographically, but is home to almost 50 million people, with over 8 million of these living in Kampala. It is a very busy place with cars, motorbikes, minivan buses, taxis, trolleys, and people moving in a never-ending stream through and around the city. Our driver took us into the downtown area of Kampala, which we found mind-bogglingly busy. We’ve been to markets and busy places all over the world, but Kampala’s busyness tops the lot. It was fascinating.

Kabaka Gate, Kampala, Buganda, Uganda

Kampala is part of the kingdom of Buganda which sits within Uganda, and we were hoping to visit the Kabaka (King’s) Palace. Unfortunately for us, the King was in town that day and the palace was closed and heavily guarded (there are armed forces on every corner every day here, and you get to see a real gun up-close when walking around). Instead of the palace we saw the Kabaka Gate, a fenced roundabout with gates that are only opened for the King when he drives down the palace road. All other people must go around it.

(Top) Independence Monument and Rubga Catholic Church; (below) National Mosque and Bank of Uganda bldg

Uganda was colonised by the British from 1894 to 1962. When independence was gained, the British erected the Independence Monument that depicts a man uncovering and lifting a child as a symbol of freedom. A period of violent conflict and civil war followed independence, that included the tyrannical dictatorship of Idi Amin. But these days Uganda is safe, as is Kampala. We saw many of Kampala's sights, including the Rubga Catholic Church, the Uganda National Mosque, and several modern buildings.

Some rural villages in Uganda

While in Kampala, our hotel provided a daily breakfast of a hot chapati, fresh fruit including an enormous banana, and Ugandan coffee. It was delicious. But on our last day, we ended up with a packed breakfast as we were picked up at 7:00 am by Arafat of Dav Safaris, for a 7-day tour of Uganda. We began by driving north-west, through many small rural villages. In each village we saw colourful and fresh-looking fruit and vegetables being sold. Ugandans are proud of their soils and rightly so, because their fruit and vegetables taste beautiful.

Sample of housing in rural Uganda

Unlike Kenya, the villages in Uganda that we saw, have footpaths, and seem a little more prosperous than the rural villages we saw in Kenya. The housing became more rustic as we drove west deeper into the hinterlands, and ranged from concrete to mud in construction. In the more rural areas, the houses of family members were built around the house of the head of the family; usually the senior male.

Us with rhinos at the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, Uganda

We stopped along our route to visit the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, home to the only white rhinos in Uganda. The Southern White Rhinoceros was heavily poached for its horns during Uganda’s civil war and by 1983, was declared extinct in Uganda. The Sanctuary opened in 2005, and thanks to the gifting of rhinos from other countries and the careful work of the sanctuary staff, there are now 32 rhinos living in the wild at the Sanctuary’s 70-sq-km of bushland. We went out on foot tracking rhino with a guide, and because rhinos are almost blind, we were able to get quite close to them. It was great.

Cape buffalo, long-horn cattle, and baboons seen on the road, Uganda

Back on the road later and still driving north-west, we started to see animals along the roadside. One of these was a sad looking African buffalo (aka Cape buffalo). It was contemplating crossing the road until it saw us, and luckily it changed its mind. But we sure saw him up close! Another sight was large groups of baboons sitting on, and alongside the road. We slowed down to drive through them but they were not keen to give up their piece of warm tarmac. We also saw herds of Longhorns cattle that are domestic animals in Uganda.

The top of Murchison Falls, Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda

Our road trip on day one, came to an end at Murchison Falls National Park in north-western Uganda. At the Falls, water from the Nile River forces its way through a 7-metre gap in the rocks at a rate of 300 cubic metres per second. This makes Murchison Falls the most powerful waterfall in the world. We walked near the top of the Falls, enjoying the cool spray in the 28-degree Celsius heat. That afternoon, we managed to get some clothes washed and hung them on the bushes of the hotel like the locals do. They dried within hours in the heat.

A very tall and endangered Rothschild Giraffe, Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda

The next morning, we went on a game drive in Murchison Falls National Park with great results. One of the first animals that we saw was a huge and old Rothschild Giraffe. This is one of the most endangered of the giraffe species with only 2500 remaining worldwide in 2023. They are the tallest of all giraffes, sometimes growing up to 6 metres. We saw others after this one, and felt quite privileged to see them in the wild.

A large elephant closing in on our car, Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda

Our next animal was a close encounter. We were driving along the sandy track looking for game, and spotted a large elephant on the track walking toward us. Arafat stopped, thinking that the elephant would get off the road. But no, he kept coming and the closer he got the more menacing he looked. When this giant was around 2 car-lengths in front of us, Arafat quickly reversed until we could find a bit of flat land to get off the track. The elephant still kept coming and passed us, but not without looking at us as he passed by. That was close, and it was scary!

Lioness looking at us as we crept past her, Murchison National Park, Uganda

Our next special event, was seeing a lioness lying on the track in front of us. She had her back to us initially, and didn’t see us. So Arafat moved as far to the side of the track as possible and we slowly drove past her as quietly as the vehicle would allow. She finally realised we were there, and sat up and looked at us. We kept moving and she watched us but stayed put. It was absolutely amazing. We went on to spot antelopes, hyenas, hartebeests and other animals, including a distant sighting of a leopard up a tree. What a fantastic morning.

Elephants drinking at the edge of the Nile, Murchison National Par, Uganda

Later that same day, we drove to a port on the Nile River within Murchison Falls National Park, to go on a boat trip along the Nile. But after stopping to look at various animals along the way, we ended up missing the main group boat. However, Arafat arranged for us to have our own boat which was great because our speedy little boat passed the much bigger group boat and we managed to get further along the Nile seeing some fantastic sights. A highlight was seeing a family of elephants that walked cautiously out of the bush, and down to the water for a long drink.

Nile River crocodile, Nile River, Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda

We also saw five different Nile crocodiles sunning themselves on the river edge. The skipper estimated that each was 3.5 to 4 metres long. We saw heaps of bird varieties, two Rothchild giraffes, and many hippos submerged in the water. The submerged hippos made little water spouts as they blew water out of their nostrils when coming up for air. 

Murchison Falls seen from below, Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda

We went up-river as far as the Murchison Falls and having seen them from the top, we now admired them from below. All up, this had been a fantastic day. Next, our travels see us with endangered chimpanzees and mountain gorillas in the wild, but you can read about that in the next blog.

This blog is part of a series on our travels in eastern Africa. The first in this series is called Johannesburg, South Africa.