Uganda Chapter 9: More Mud, More Mud and More Mud

To see a complete set of pictures from this day, click here.

Not only are we up early on this day, we're literally up before the sun has even STARTED to rise, stumbling to the main lodge from our tents with flashlights. We eat some quick breakfast. For me, because I am all about the special request breakfast, I skip the fruit and eggs and have the left over avocado soup from the night before BECAUSE IT WAS THAT GOOD. And then we are off for another round of chimp tracking.

Firstly, here is what you should know in case you are planning your own African safari. The reason that you go for so long and that you schedule so many game siting activities is because sometimes you will not see animals. Sometimes, the animals will not realize that they are there to entertain you. But that doesn't mean that you won't have an amazing time nonetheless.

So, this particular chimp tracking that we're about to go on is about a thirty minute drive away. It is, of course, a thirty-minute drive on a one-lane dirt road, because one-lane dirt roads are seemingly all that exist in Africa.

I may have neglected to mention that it had rained violently the evening before.

The road is, to say the least, torn up.

But we are in a four wheel drive LAND CRUISER for goodness sake. We figure we'll be fine.

We are not fine.

Fifteen minutes away from the research station where we will start our chimp track, the Land Cruiser simply will go no further. The wheels spin but refuse to propel us further. The roads are more like a foot of soft mud than a road, and nothing is moving. James calls the lodge, and they dispatch their...

Specially equipped Land ROVER.

Now we are talking, people.


The truck, completely stuck.

The Land Rover arrives promptly with a new driver for Lis and I so that James can stay and dig the Land Cruiser out of the mud. The only real good news so far? My boyfriend Julius comes along with the Land Rover.

Anyway, the new driver, Lisa and myself head to the ranger station where we pick up the two rangers who will guide us through the VERY MUDDY BECAUSE IT JUST RAINED jungle. In Uganda, wilderness rangers carry rifles with them, presumably to protect us from either a rabid jungle elephant or a stray rebel from Congo. You decide.


Justice talks about his rifle as we head out into the Jungle. I look rough in the morning.

This track is mostly a miss. We see some glimpses of chimps, but nothing like our first chimp track. We do see a lot of calibus monkeys, which makes us extremely happy since we love those. However, at the end of the trip, Lisa and I agree that that was our favorite hike (Bwindi excepted, but that can't be compared to anything). It was muddy, there were obstacles to maneuver like mud traps and river crossings. The greenery was dense. It was hot and humid. We got sweaty and had to work, and we had a fun time playing around with Justice (our guide) and the other two trackers.


There was a lot of this type of hiking on this jaunt.

After our hike, we shower in the wonderful full water pressure of Semiliki and then we hit the road. the rest of the day is spent in a seemingly endless drive to Mwea. We stop briefly for lunch, which is really more of a stop because James wants to get the vehicle washed. Washing the vehicle is fine with us, because it means that our boots will get cleaned along with the vehicle. But what's funny is that James wants to get the vehicle washed because we're going to be driving on the ONE GOOD PAVED ROAD IN ALL OF UGANDA that day, and he would be embarrassed to drive on that road in a dirty truck. I didn't just make that up.

This paved road is such a big deal that whenever anybody asked us where we were going from Semiliki and we'd say Mwea, they'd actually say, "Oh, you'll be on the best road in Uganda!" But honestly, I have to tell you that it was almost more frustrating to drive on the "good" road, because paved also meant that there were HUGE speed bumps constantly whenever you got near a village, so you'd be driving and then for five miles you'd be constantly stopping. It wasn't all that much better. The West Wing wasn't lying: Africa needs roads. Rwanda is the poorest nation in the WORLD and they supposedly have better roads than Uganda.

Mwea is fine. It's like being in the Dirty Dancing bungalows but in Africa. It ends up being our least favorite place of the whole trip, but that's kind of an unfair distinction because it's really, really nice. They had two pet wart hogs there!

Two pet wart hogs whose bleating kept me up all night, which is unfortunate since the next morning we ...

To see a complete set of pictures from this day, click here.