Heart of Dougness: Sthwest Uganda Part 3 Finale

After a good night’s sleep on my two-dinner-full-belly (don't ask it needs diagrams and mime to explain) I woke to find a heavy mist over Lake Bunyoni below our hilltop lodgings. Doh. While we waited for the mist to clear we had breakfast and interesting conversations with our driver/guide. We covered diverse subjects such as D.R.C ‘it is a cursed country’ to Tanzania/Uganda differences ‘we have more cheese than them’ to the ignorance in our home land of New Zealand about Uganda. To some people, all they know of Uganda is Idi Amin. I mean it was all I knew of the country at one stage, but I just hope people are open to learning a bit more if the opportunity arises.

Our guide was disappointed to hear that New Zealand had ‘extreme danger’ travel advisories regarding the gorilla safari in Uganda. Interesting-and I suppose obvious- how things like that affect in a real way the tourism/economy of developing countries. I never had any sense of any immediate, credible danger during my time in Uganda. Just some irrational fears and a lot of awe at the beauty of the surrounds. In my own view, I would downgrade the travel warning to ‘high’, qualify that rating with good, up to date intel and place it only on specific regions in Uganda.

The mist had lifted as we three chattered revealing a stunning vista of lake and islands.

(Lake Bunyoni, Mount Mura Bora in the background)
The lake has 27 islands and is one of the deepest in Africa. The view reminded me of the tourist hotspot Lake Knysna in South Africa, but even more pretty.

(time to go, mke!)
We drove down to the water past a hotel that was Idi Amin’s former lakeside retreat, from the hustle and bustle of being a tyrant. The wife and I jumped in a boat and puttered out for a relaxing hour long jaunt.


Lots of cormorants and kingfishers looking for food as locals were ferried back and forth in eucalyptus wood boats. Part of the lake is in Rwanda; Mount Murabora of the Uganda/DRC/Rwanda shared Virunga ranges was in the near distance.




Back at shore and off the boat we jumped back in our vehicle and began (another) long drive back to Kampala for the night. Past the turn off to the Rwandan border (22 km away) lots and lots of road works, cows and fruit markets, lots of bucolic views of pastures and cultivation and a ‘burn off’ that had gotten out of control and was now an inferno.

It was about 730pm as we got into the outskirts of Kampala (looong drive) and immediately got held up in a huge unmoving traffic jam. Cursing, our driver turned around and tried to find an alternate route. As we drove, I saw armoured cars with water cannons and troops of heavily armed Police stationed at roundabouts. According to the radio, there had been protests today against the results of the recent election. Peaceful democratic protests ain’t too big on this continent. Protesters had been dispersed with an intimidating display of force. I took some surreptitious snaps of the roundabouts as we drove and hopped I wouldn’t get noticed.


Finally crawled to our hotel in central Kampala and after dinner, we relaxed watching the feel good Sam Raimi horror ‘Drag me to Hell’. Thursday, our driver met us early and glumly drove us off to Entebbe airport to fly back to Kilimanjaro. As we got to Entebbe Airport, we were stopped by Police for a weapons pat down. Prudent, I guess. A couple of UN heavy lifting helicopters thundered overhead from the nearby UN airbase. We said goodbye to our driver and friend and headed off to check in. Some medium turbulence as we got into Kilimanjaro Airport (I’ve had more bumpy landings in Africa than anywhere else) but otherwise got back to Moshi safe and sound. As we had moved out of our old pad we would be crashing at our friends’ houses over the next two night before we departed Tanzania.

Do the gorillas. Any money/time is well worth it. Do Uganda. It’s safe, beautiful and fascinating yo. I want to do more of that country one day. Happy to pass on details of our tour company if anyone wants it.