After almost two months of sometimes very long days, heat, dust, hard work at the farm, lots of meetings and visits related to the orphanage project, no electricity and constant food supply problems it was time I recharged my batteries. I had planned a few days off to go travelling and get to see all the animals in this beautiful country of which I had not seen too much by now.
Claudia had offered to organising a Safari with her former workmate Nelson. I had heard a lot of this guy even before I came here as Stephan told me enthusiastically about him. He’s a local multi-talented businessman who grows vegetables, trees, runs a shop, works for a Safari-company and organizes Safaris for anyone who’s interested in doing such a thing. So I waited for his offer for a 12-days-Safari. A couple of days later I received an offer for the following tour:
Chopalwor (that’s where the Eco-farm is)
Murchison Falls National Park (Nile river boat trip, top of Murchison Falls, Game drives)
Kibale/Bigodi Kibale (Chimp trekking, swamp walk)
Queen Elisabeth National Park (game drives)
Kazinga Channel between Lake Edward & Lake George (boat trip)
Bwindi (Gorilla trekking, community walk (traditional medicine, banana plant, pygmies)
Lake Bunyonyi (boat trip, islands)
Lake Mburo (game drive)
Entebbe (stopover)
Back home to Chopalwor
which roughly looks on the map about this…
A couple of days before the start I got to meet Nelson who explained the tour again and after some minor adaptions I agreed on it and handed over some money so he could book some of the lodges, which is very much recommended here. Even though the lodges are quite expensive compared to other African countries and in also in relation to the cost of labour, food etc., the lodges have the same liquidity problems as all people here. So they would mostly go for the quick Dollar which means that a booking will be cancelled in case some other tourist shows up and pays cash. Another reason is, that food will most likely be bought according to the paid bookings which means, that with the money that had been paid in advance, the lodge can buy the necessary food for the meals.
Anyway, on April, 23rd, Nelson showed up punctually at 06:30 a.m.
He owns a nice Toyota Landcruiser with a top roof so one can stand up to taking pictures on Safari, which is absolutely fantastic! On top of that this is one of the most reliable cars one can find here, which is very important as the roads are pretty bad at times, especially during the rain season which we are in now, and there’s hardly any workshop around that could fix those modern cars that are stuffed with electronic equipment. Sorry, all you modern SUV-drivers, but such cars are just not working properly over here.
After a quick coffee the luggage was stored safely in the car and off we went! Good bye Eco-Farm, see you in 12 days!
This is Nelson Okello our tour guide – an extraordinary man – and his baby, a Toyota Landcruiser with a top roof, which is actually not lifted up on these photos…
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