Rain, Museums, & Pizza in Addis Ababa

October 8, 2014 Katie Barber Leave a comment

We loved Uganda (it ranks among our favorite countries visited on this trip), but we were looking forward to Ethiopia. We weren’t just excited about the food or the famous sites (although we were excited about both!), but because Ethiopia would be so different from the countries we had visited in Southern and East Africa. Just for starters, Ethiopia’s national language, Amharic, is not written in Roman characters, and Ethiopia uses the Julian calendar (rather than the Gregorian calendar) and therefore is seven years behind the rest of the world.¹

We were also looking forward to taking a breather in Addis Ababa. Our plans for the Ethiopian capital included picking up Egyptian and Sudanese visas,² and so we anticipated having some time to kill. After thirteen days of near-constant travel in Uganda, that didn’t seem like such a bad thing. We didn’t realize how much time we would need to kill, but that’s another story . . .

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia — Welcome to Addis Ababa! | image credit: Sam Effron

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Kenya

Skipping Kenya

October 1, 2014 Marc Hedrich Leave a comment

Although not something that we widely publicized here, one of our central plans for this African adventure was to travel all the way from Cape Town to Cairo in one uninterrupted overland journey in a sort of reverse Dark Star Safari.¹ In pursuit of this goal – and the resulting opportunity to get to see Africa unfold and gradually transition from Southern, to Eastern, to Northern – we have endured some particularly long and/or arduous bus journeys between destinations which reasonable people would have otherwise flown.

Up through Uganda, we had been fairly successful in traveling overland from South Africa, through a circuitous journey over several months, snaking thousands of kilometers along the way through Swaziland, Lesotho, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania, and Rwanda.² Aided by our American passports, we had been able to easily obtain visas on arrival at the borders of each of the countries we had visited in Southern and Eastern Africa. Unfortunately, this would not be the case for Ethiopia. Although visas are readily issued on arrival at the international airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia strictly refuses to issue any visas at its land borders. Our only recourse, therefore, would have been to apply for a visa at one the Ethiopian embassies we encountered along the way during our travels across Africa.³ Continue reading →

Uganda

An Island and a Swamp: Relaxing in the Ssese Islands and Boating around Mabamba Swamp Wetlands

September 30, 2014 Katie Barber Leave a comment

This is the ninth and final installment in a series of nine posts covering our 13-day tour around Uganda with Mountain Gorilla Coffee Tours (“MGCT”).

Our next stop after Lake Mburo National Park was the Ssese Islands, a group of islands in Lake Victoria.¹ We didn’t have any activities planned for the islands; it was just an opportunity to relax along the shore near the end of our tour.

Boat, Ssese Islands — We didn’t take many pictures of the Ssese Islands (we were tired), but I found this lovely one on the Creative Commons. | image credit: Simon Whitaker

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Uganda

Camping at Lake Mburo National Park (Or, Our Final African Game Drives)

September 29, 2014 Katie Barber Leave a comment

This is the eighth in a series of nine posts covering our 13-day tour around Uganda with Mountain Gorilla Coffee Tours (“MGCT”).

After we left Kisoro, we headed for Lake Mburo National Park. Our path took us past scenic Lake Bunyoni, where we stopped to admire the view.

Lake Bunyoni, Uganda — Lake Bunyoni and some of its many islands.

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Uganda

Tracking the Gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

September 28, 2014 Katie Barber Leave a comment

This is the seventh in a series of nine posts covering our 13-day tour around Uganda with Mountain Gorilla Coffee Tours (“MGCT”).

After leaving Queen Elizabeth National Park, our next stop was the small town Kisoro, in the far southwestern section of Uganda. Our plan for Kisoro was to spend two nights with a local family in a homestay and visit the wonderfully named Bwindi Impenetrable National Park to track the mountain gorillas.

The drive to Kisoro was beautiful, with countryside covered in a patchwork of fields and populated by Uganda’s national bird, the remarkable grey-crowned crane.

Panorama of Uganda countryside — Panorama of the countryside on the way to Kisoro.

crane-new — Pair of grey-crowned cranes, Uganda’s national bird.

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Uganda

That Time We Got Stuck in the Mud in Queen Elizabeth National Park

September 27, 2014 Katie Barber Leave a comment

This is the sixth in a series of nine posts covering our 13-day tour around Uganda with Mountain Gorilla Coffee Tours (“MGCT”).

After leaving behind the amazing views at the Top of the World, we drove to Queen Elizabeth National Park. On the way, we crossed back into the Southern Hemisphere and stopped to take an obligatory picture at one of the concrete monuments Uganda has erected along the Equator.¹

Crossing the Equator, Uganda — Crossing the Equator: always a great time for a photo op.

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Uganda

Don’t Move: Chimp Trekking in Kibale National Park (With a Bonus Trip to the Top of the World)

September 24, 2014 Katie Barber Leave a comment

This is the fifth in a series of nine posts covering our 13-day tour around Uganda with Mountain Gorilla Coffee Tours (“MGCT”).

After we left Murchison Falls National Park, we drove to the town of Fort Portal, where we spent the night before embarking on one of the highlights of our time in Uganda: chimp trekking in Kibale National Park.

Kibale National Park is home to more than 1,400 chimpanzees. Hiking through the rainforest to spot some of the chimpanzees that have been habituated for human visitors¹ was near the top of our list of things to do in Uganda, and we were really looking forward to the adventure.

We had been warned that we might have to hike for a good distance before we found any chimpanzees – if we found them at all.² Nonetheless, almost immediately after entering the forest, we came across a large chimp reclining under a tree.

DSCN3580 — Spotting our first chimp through the forest.

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Uganda

Animal- and Waterfall-Spotting in Murchison Falls National Park

September 18, 2014 Katie Barber 1 Comment

This is the fourth in a series of nine posts covering our 13-day tour around Uganda with Mountain Gorilla Coffee Tours (“MGCT”).

Although we had suspected that we overdosed on animals in Southern Africa, we were pleased to discover that, by the time we reached our first Ugandan national park, our sense of wonder regarding the animals had returned! Our first stop was Murchison Falls National Park, where we spent one full day and enjoyed a morning game drive, an evening game drive, and a boat ride. Plenty of time for animal-viewing! I’m not going to clutter up these animal photos with extra words, so here you go:

Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda — Giraffe crossing!

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Uganda

Trekking Rhinos at Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary

September 16, 2014 Katie Barber Leave a comment

This is the third in a series of nine posts covering our 13-day tour around Uganda with Mountain Gorilla Coffee Tours (“MGCT”).

On the morning of the third day of our tour with MGCT, we left Jinga to head up to Murchison Falls National Park in northwestern Uganda. Along the way we stopped at the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary. Both black and white rhinoceroses are indigenous to Uganda, but a combination of poaching and loss of habitat made all rhinos extinct in the country by the early 1980’s. In 2005, Ziwa was established with the goal of rebuilding the rhino population in Uganda and eventually reintroducing them into the wild.¹

Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, Uganda — A Ugandan rhino.

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Uganda

A visit to Jinga and the Source of the Nile

September 15, 2014 Marc Hedrich Leave a comment

This is the second in a series of nine posts covering our 13-day tour around Uganda with Mountain Gorilla Coffee Tours (“MGCT”).

After breakfast, we left Sipi Falls and backtracked to Jinga, the second largest city in Uganda, situated along the banks of Lake Victoria and the source of the Nile River.¹

Our accommodation in Jinga, the Eden Rock Resort, was located near Bujagali Falls, about 10 kilometers from the center of town. Unfortunately, Bujagali Falls – which had been an impressive series of rapids popular for rafting – has been “drowned” by the rising waters from a recently built hydroelectric dam, transforming this stretch of the Nile into a lazy northward flow. Nonetheless, we were pretty excited, after months of traveling across Africa, to finally be staying along the banks of one its most iconic rivers.

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