Bwindi community walk – of medicine man, bananas and pygmies

 

After a very quick shower in the camp we had booked a community walk in town. The guide was already waiting. After a quick introduction we started that community walk. As we walked he informed us about Bwindi and also asked a lot of questions about Switzerland.

First stop was a small waterfall at a stream where the locals would meet. On the way he also showed us some old tee plantations and other stuff.

Then we visited some medicine man, who travelled different countries and is told to have helped lots of people simply with herbs, roots, berries etc. He received us in a hut at his place where he sat and smiled as we came. He had a few herbs, bowls and other things piled on a table just next to him. Surprisingly there were also a few books around, one of them was about birth control. Just when we took a seat some other group doing a community walk arrived at his place. And we even knew these guys as they were also in our gorilla trekking group in the morning. It’s been the ladies with the three porters. They had a very nice female guide who took over then. She told us a little about the medicine man’s work and translated as he didn’t speak English. One could also speak French with him. Anyways, he then introduced us to some of the local plants that he uses for medical treatments and also demonstrated how to prepare the medicine and how to intake it. We then were allowed to ask a few questions before we said good bye.

On the way to the next stop our guide spotted a tiny chameleon in a bush and told us about a women’s life in Bwindi until we arrived at a small banana farm where there was already a table prepared with some bottles, cups and mugs. Then we were told about different kinds of bananas like the big ones we know or the small sweet bananas or the ones that are used for cooking which is called Matoke and some other which is used to brew banana gin. She then told us that one can make banana juice which we also tried. Then she told us about banana wine which tasted a bit like cidre. Finally we also tried a sip of banana gin which tasted a bit like Vodka or maybe a bad Grappa. In any case it was strong and didn’t taste like banana anymore. We were then shown different kinds of banana trees and a banana pit that they use to store and ripe bananas.

We then moved on to the last station. We met with a group of pygmies who used to live in the woods before they had to move when the community built the National Park. They used to live and hunt there and used basically all the resources one can find in the woods. It’s always a bit sad to see when such things happen. One of the pygmies collected us at a meeting point and lead us to some tiny village or camp where a group of pygmies waited for us. They did not live there but used it to demonstrate their former way of living to tourists. One could tell that these people were very poor. I mean, I’ve met many people in Uganda and most of them were poor, but these guys seemed to be the poor amongst the poor. They showed us some of their tools, weapons and huts and one of them demonstrated how to make fire using two pieces of wood. Within 30 seconds he managed to lit a cigarette which was very impressive. After that the whole group sang and danced a few traditional tunes. When they sang the last tune they asked us to join them and so I soon found myself dancing hand in hand with a Pygmy boy till my legs muscles became sour. After thanking them for their demonstrations they sold some carvings, jewellery and other objects to whom was interested. Then our guide insisted on leaving quickly so that we could not even say good bye to the other group that joined us at the medicine man’s home. It was already getting dark and he – even though he was a pretty short guy – rushed away in a high pace. We didn’t feel like running the whole way back but when he explained that he had to walk another two and a half hours to his home we understood. After that unexpected round of jogging we came back punctually to the lodge for supper.

What a day…

 

a small waterfall at the stream in town – a perfect meeting point

Medicine man

some of the ingredients and tools he uses to making traditional medicine

demonstrating how to intake the medicine

on the way to the banana farm we met that guy

at the banana farm we first tasted banana juice, then banana wine and finally banana gin

a bunch of bananas

one can tell the difference between the different banana trees from the colour of the stem

they store and ripe the bananas in banana pits

Then we visited a group of pygmies. One of them showed us around and demonstrated
some of their traditional tools, huts and weapons

a group member demonstrated how to make fire

after not even a minute he was able to light a cigarette… bravo!

then they sang a few songs and danced some traditional dances

Gorilla tracking

I was pretty excited when I woke up in the morning. We were supposed to see gorillas in the morning. I had planned to doing this in July before I’d get back to Switzerland but one has to make a reservation up to half a year in advance, especially during the high season. When Nelson heard of that, he secretly made a few calls and surprised us with an offer to tracking mountain gorillas that day for a reduced price. Gorilla trekking is pretty costly, one has to pay 600 US$ to spend a few hours in the jungle and hopefully with the gorillas. But who knows if I ever get the chance to seeing these wonderful primates in the wild again? There’s only a small population left in the border zone of Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda.

After breakfast and getting a lunch bag for the trekking we were instructed by some guides. Every group followed some other family of gorillas. They showed us some pictures of the gorillas that we were most likely going to meet in the jungle. Then they asked if anyone needed a porter to carry their backpacks as we had to climb up the mountains, not knowing how long we’d have to hike up and down through the jungle before we’d meet the gorillas. I didn’t need one, I wanted to carry my backpack on my own. As Nelson insisted on booking at least one porter for the hike might end up during hours, we agreed on one to carry Suzie’s backpack. Two ladies of my group ordered even three porters to carry their stuff which was a bit ridiculous, I mean we were not supposed to climb the Himalaya. Anyways, in case of emergency the porters would even carry one to the gorillas and back for 300$ or 350$ a way. We later asked the guide if they – for real - would carry people up the mountain. He just replied that, for 350$, they would even run up the mountain with someone!

After a few minutes a bunch of people in overalls showed up. Those were the porters that had been ordered. The locals can subscribe to a list if they like to be doing this job. They will get at least 15 US$, which they will receive directly after the trekking from their clients, so they will probably even get more. They may show up in order of the list, so no one will be preferred, which I find a fair solution, plus they involve the local people who can thus make a personal profit thanks to the park so they will be loyal with the community and support them, which leads to less poaching and firing in the protected area of the reserve. Very clever! Well, there was also a female porter amongst the group who starred at Suzie all the time. When they were told to chose their clients she literally ran towards our direction smiling a bit in embarrassment which was kind of cute. We introduced ourselves before we entered Nelson’s car. We then drove to the starting point of our tracking and hiked up the hill. We marched on top of the group with the guide and only after a few minutes we could not see the rest of the group anymore. So we had to stop many times in order to not losing the rest of the group. The guides were well organized and had sent trackers in the early morning who were supposed to find the gorilla families. They permanently communicated by radio during the hike or when we stopped to wait for the others to catch up. It was only about 500 m to climb to get to the top but it was steep and sometimes slippery. No problem for a Swiss hiker though. When our guide was told where the gorillas were we had to leave the path to fight ourselves through the jungle which was pretty funny apart from the many thorny bushes. I’m still impressed that all of the group managed to do that hike, but I guess some had been pushed and pulled upwards by their porters.

Then we heard some twigs cracking in the bushes and after a few steps we saw the first gorilla… Then a bit further away the impressive silverback and soon even more members of the family. We followed them for a while and took pictures whenever possible. At one spot we just sat there watching the silverback chewing leaves at a very short distance. He then suddenly continued his way towards where I was sitting. He calmly passed by touching my whole left side. I was too excited to be afraid and it was amazing even though that guy smelled a bit funny. But that he might have thought as well of me.

We followed the gorilla family again until they rested for a while so everyone could take enough pictures and just enjoy. It was really amazing to be in between a group of such huge animals and one could see sheer happiness in every single face of the tracking group’s members and also the guide’s faces.

What can one tell about happy moments like this? Well, I hadn’t felt myself living a moment like this in a long time.

But we had to leave them and get back to the camp. When we got out of the jungle and found a nice spot for the group, we stopped to have lunch watching the village from top of the mountain. Then we hiked back home on slippery and steep paths.

Back at the camp the guides congratulated on mastering that “difficult” hike and presented a certificate. After that we said good bye and got back to the lodge for a very quick shower as we had booked a community walk…

Gorillas – Check!


that was the first of the gorillas that we encountered
then we saw the impressive silverback a bit farther away
soon we found ourselves in the middle of the gorilla family
then the silverback passed me by, touching my left arm, shoulder and leg…
after we had left the gorilla family we had lunch…
with a nice view from the top of the mountains
Suzie and our porter who did great

back at the camp we were presented a certificate by our guide

Ishasa game drive & heading to Bwindi

Today we had another long drive down to Bwindi planned. So we left early after breakfast and did some kind of game drive as we had to drive through the park anyway. We had spotted some eagles, monkeys, elephants and Topis.

We had also seen a heavily damaged wreck of a truck. One of the downsides of Uganda are the very bad roads with lots of potholes and mostly washed out because of the heavy rain. There’s some roads in mint conditions but those are rare. It’d help to boost business in Uganda had they proper roads. Despite the fact that the roads are quite poor, the drivers and their not so well maintained vehicles are another problem, especially truck and bus drivers who mostly don’t seem to care about other road users. It’s pretty darwinistic here, the bigger and heavier the vehicle the more ruthless the driving behaviour. No wonder there’s so many accidents here.

Anyways, we did another short game drive at Ishasha where the famous tree climbing lions are to be found. Unfortunately we couldn’t find any of them but we had seen lions the day before and thus we didn’t really mind. Before we left the park, Nelson spotted something on a tree. It was a leopard which is also a bit rare. We spent quite a while observing that beautiful predator and then left Queen Elisabeth National Park towards the south. As we drove the vegetation became greener and greener. At a very nice lodge we stopped to have lunch. After another one or two hours we reached a huge tee plantation and factory where we bought some fine Ugandan tea to bring home. Later in the afternoon we finally reached the Bwindi Community Camp where we enjoyed a nice supper after having taken a shower with water that smelled like burned wood. Later the staff explained that they would boil the water over a fire and that’s where that smell came from.

It was again time to going to bed and we were very excited for we had an exciting day to come.


Eagle

Topi

truck wreck

we also tried to track the famous tree climbing lions at Ishasha but wouldn’t find them
but we have spotted a leopard instead
tea plantations in the south

path to the Safari tent at Bwindi Community Camp
Safari tent

Jungle view from the Safari tent

Kazinga channel boat trip with a surprise

In the afternoon we set off for a boat trip on the Kazinga Channel that connects Lake Edward with Lake George. We stopped at a luxurious lodge close to the small docks to get the tickets for the trip. Unfortunately the boat trip was cancelled due to some cancelled bookings. So we had to wait for an hour to  board the next boat. We ordered some drinks at the lodge and – surprise, surprise – found out they had a WLAN installed! After more than two weeks I could finally check my emails and send a few messages home to my friends and family. Then we went on the boat trip where. There was a guide from the Ugandan Wildlife Authority on board who introduced us to the wildlife during our trip. We’ve seen so many animals during this boat trip, it was incredible. There had been loads of different kinds of herons, eagles, pelicans and other birds but also kobs, bucks, buffalos, elephants, hippos, crocodiles… simply beautiful…

After the boat trip we were supposed to go back to the lodge but for some reason Nelson started driving very quickly passing by some beautiful animals for which he usually would have stopped to give one time to take some pictures. He just stopped for some elephants and Ugandas national birds but other than that he would just rush through the park… But Nelson would not do such a thing without reason… Was he trying to somehow compensate this morning’s not so successful game drive? But how? Uhm, was he about to trying to find lions??? – After some fast and rough driving it was slowly getting dark and then he stopped and scrutinized the horizon and then rushed to stop again in the middle of the Savannah. And there they were: a family of lions!

That’s why Nelson drove like a berserk and one could see how happy he was to have finally tracked the lions.

After a while of watching the cubs play with their mother we drove back as it was almost dark now. As we reached the main road Nelson unexpectedly stopped the car and jumped out of it grabbing the fire extinguisher as he did so. He opened the bonnet and sprayed with the extinguisher on the engine. Some other guide also stopped his vehicle to check on Nelson.Then they checked for the cause of the fire. Some electric cable’s isolation was chafed off and thus produced a short circuit. He temporarily fixed it to bring us back to the lodge for supper. He looked pretty exhausted and – before having supper – organised some rubber to insulate the wires properly. He was still pretty exhausted when he got back but still relieved.
Another great day was over… bedtime!

Lions – Check!


the docks


and some fishermen

on the way home we spotted elephants and Ugandas National bird
after some kind of rally driving, Nelson lead us to a family of lions