Graydon's Travels: The Southwest Corner of Uganda (Retrospective, December 2022): Mountains, Lakes, Birds and Rain

October 6, 2024, Lipah, Bali

I've fallen disgracefully far behind in my travel blogging, but it's time to start making up for my sloth and lethargy by posting about our first foray into Uganda back in December of 2022. I hope the stories and photos make up for the extreme tardiness of my posts!

Scarlet-chested sunbird at Mgahinga

We entered Uganda on December 18, 2022 at the Cyambura border post, coming from the shore of Lake Kivu in Rwanda. It was a mellow, easy border crossing with almost no other traffic, and it took relatively little time to stamp ourselves (with the East African Visas we had bought at the Burundi-Rwanda border) and Stanley into the country. Shortly thereafter we were driving the 10 km or so into the Ugandan border town of Kisoro. I had been there before way back in 1995 when I was backpacking around East Africa, but I barely recognized the town. In 1995 it was a dusty town of dirt roads, while this time we drove through town on asphalt (interrupted by the most annoying speed bumps of our entire trip).

Mount Sabinyo

We paused long enough to buy Ugandan SIM cards (actually quite a bit longer than necessary, as the process was agonizingly slow) and then got back into Stanley to drive to nearby Mgahinga National Park, where we hoped to do some birdwatching.

It was at this point that maps.me, the map app that we were using for navigation, let us down badly. I was at the wheel and followed the app uphill as we climbed towards the large volcanic peaks visible above town to the south. We drove through a dusty crossroads village and followed the app's instructions south, directly uphill. The track began to deteriorate, getting steep and rocky, so I hopped out of the driver's seat and let Terri drive; as usual, when the going got tough, Terri got going. Even with her expert handling and Stanley in low-range 4WD, it was hard, unpleasant driving along a track that was barely driveable, while two massive cloudbursts added to the challenge. Terri kept saying that something had to be wrong, but we were so close to our destination that we elected to tough it out, with the truck rocking 30 degrees or more side to side as we crawled up an abysmal rock pile. Finally we emerged onto a perfectly decent track that would have been an easy drive. We turned left and stopped at the Amajambere Community Campsite, right on the boundary of Mgahinga National Park. We checked in, set up camp and had a long de-brief on group dynamics and decision-making before cooking up sausages and eggs for dinner and then sitting indoors in the common area chatting with a team of German cavers who were exploring underground lava tubes beneath the mountains. We were up at 2340 metres above sea level, and it was distinctly chilly by the time we turned in.

Side-striped jackal print

We slept a bit poorly, perhaps thanks to the altitude, perhaps due to the cold, but we awoke to birdsong and blue skies. We put on hiking boots, grabbed our binoculars and bird book and set off on the Sabinyo Gorge hike. The most famous thing to do in Mgahinga is to go look for mountain gorillas, but this is a seriously pricey activity and as both Terri and I had seen mountain gorillas in the past (me in DRC in 1995, her in Rwanda in 2006) we elected to give it a miss and go for a hike to look for rare birds. We picked up our two armed guards (it seemed a bit of overkill, but the park insisted), collected our local birding expert Noah, paid our money (a rather steep US$ 70 per person) and set off. It was a pleasant hike, up through former farmland, then into dense bamboo forest. We heard a lot of birdsong and saw a number of brightly-coloured sunbirds, but the special birds of the forest (mountain greenbul, various babblers and the Ruwenzori turaco) stayed stubbornly hidden. After a couple of hours of steady climbing, the trail began to peter out, with the ladders and boardwalks sinking into disrepair and the path becoming smothered in dense vegetation. This was not the main hiking trail of the park (leading up towards the summit of Mount Sabinyo), and the park staff had let it fall into disuse and dilapidation, to our frustration. We eventually gave up on further progress, stopped and ate some lunch in the forest, listening to birdsong and chatting with Noah and our park rangers. On the way back downhill, we noticed the tracks of a side-striped jackal (and its baby), and found the tracks and droppings of buffalo and bull elephants (the presence of these two species is the ostensible reason for requiring armed guards while hiking).

Mother and baby side-striped jackal prints

It began to rain on us as we trudged downhill, so we put on rain gear and walked back to the park gate and to our campsite, where we sat on the verandah of the lodge and watched more birds in the garden.

Forest elephant print

Just before we gave up on hiking

Peering up the Sabinyo Gorge

Our rather soggy team at the end of birding

We took the next day off from driving and serious exploration, sitting at the lodge and watching birds for a while, and then doing various chores, including me sorting through recent photos on my computer; with the miraculous repair job a few days before by the Wizard of Kigali, I could once again use my laptop to process the reams of photos I had accumulated over the previous weeks. The weather continued pleasant, and Terri and I ventured out mid-afternoon for a stroll around the village, where we found a spectacular chameleon that the villagers had spotted, and walked towards the Batwa village that was nearby. We were followed by a band of annoying children that tried to beg from us, but Terri engaged them in conversation and we ended up having a fun conversation with them. In the late afternoon the heavens opened and torrential rain continued for most of the evening. We huddled indoors around a wood fire chatting with the cavers as well as a BBC wildlife producer and a family of Aussies.

Grey woodpecker

Terri making friends with the local children

Spectacular coloration on this chameleon

First view of Lake Bunyonyi

On the 21st we packed up and drove back down the proper track (still a challenging drive, but nowhere near as unpleasant as the non-track we had followed uphill) to Kisoro. We had to take a long break in Kisoro to get cash from an ATM, eat a tasty lunch and sort out cellular internet which (despite the long time it took to sort out SIM cards) wasn't working. We eventually got it sorted out and left town around 2 pm bound for Kabale and scenic Lake Bunyonyi, where we planned to spend Christmas. It was a stunning mountain road, perfectly paved, which led from Kiroro to Kabale. The mountain slopes were densely cultivated except where the road cut through Echuga Forest, apparently a birding hotspot but one where locals were charging US$ 40 per person to enter. We paused for a few minutes beside the road, but couldn't spot any interesting birds. On the outskirts of Kabale we turned off on a dirt road towards Lake Bunyonyi. It was a slow, steep grind to a village on the lakeshore, and then a terrifying grind on a steep, slippery track slick from rain to get along the lakeshore to Lake Bunyonyi Rock Resort, one of the few places along the lake where it was possible to camp in our own vehicle. It was a white-knuckle drive, haunted by the unpleasant feeling that we could easily slide sideways or backward on the red mud and end up a hundred metres below in the lake. It was a relief to arrive unscathed just before sunset; we treated ourselves to a burger for supper in the spectacularly situated restaurant and turned in.

Weaver bird, Lake Bunyonyi

White-tailed blue flycatcher at Lake Bunyonyi

Cormorant

We ended up spending six days camped on the shores of the lake. Lake Bunyonyi is spectacular, a long, narrow, deep and steep-sided rift full of small islands. We had planned long before on spending Christmas at the lake, but it ended up being less idyllic than we had hoped. There were definitely good points: we could take the dugout canoes out on the lake (including a long paddle one day out to Bunyonyi Eco Resort and its resident animals), we could swim in the bilharzia-free lake, we could go for walks and runs along the lakeshore, we could spot animals and birds, and it was a great place for reading and editing photos. However there were also a few unexpected downsides. It rained a great deal, which put a damper on exploring, but which also turned our "campsite" (really the hotel parking lot) into a mud wallow. There was also a lot of noise from people in the parking lot, and from parties (equipped with massive loudspeakers) on the shore of the lake. It was, however, a fine place to relax after a fairly intense time in both Burundi and Rwanda, and we managed to create a small amount of Christmas cheer.

Gazing out over Lake Bunyonyi during a rare sunny interval

Spotted-necked otter, Lake Bunyonyi

My favourite thing about Lake Bunyonyi were the otters. We saw the spotted-necked otters swimming in the lake several times, although they were usually too far away for decent photography. They're generally not easy to see in the wild, but Bunyonyi is noted for its otters, so I'm glad we managed to tick them off our to-see list.

Spotted-necked otter, Lake Bunyonyi

Last view of Lake Bunyonyi

On Boxing Day we tore ourselves away from the Rock Resort and retraced our way back to Kabale. The track was less slippery and alarming this time, and we had a chance to enjoy the views out over the lake. We spent a few hours in Kabale, visiting the ATM, getting our gas bottles refilled (as it turned out, we were significantly overcharged by an unscrupulous gas merchant), stocking up on wine and diesel and having a hearty lunch. We set off around 1:00 for what should have been a few hours of easy driving to the Buhoma Gate of the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park (a great park name!). Instead, my diary refers to this as a TARDIS-like drive, as the distance and time seemed to stretch out impossibly. Maps.me once again gave us a bad route; afterwards it turned out we should have retreated to the pavement and taken a good asphalt road to the park. At any rate, we were on a series of steep, winding roads through the mountains that seemed to lead nowhere in particular. Eventually we realized that we were running out of daylight and followed directions from Google Maps to a hotel that didn't seem to exist.

Jacky, Elizabeth and other family members at Country Cottages

We asked for directions and eventually a small boy on a bicycle got us going in the right direction to the Country Cottages in Kihihi. As it turned out, they were on the map but they weren't yet officially open; the Ugandan family who had built the hotel had been celebrating Christmas with their entire extended family there. They were surprised to see us, but they gave us a room (a very luxurious room that made us realize how grubby we were after 6 nights of camping in the mud!), fed us and made us feel like long-lost relatives. It was one of the nicest places that we stayed in all of Uganda.

Tea plantations

L'Hoest's monkey

The next morning we had breakfast, and when we went to pay, they said that it was free. We actually prevailed on them to accept at least some money (which they eventually did) but it was clear that they regarded us as a good-luck charm that augured well for their future. We drove off grinning from ear to ear and made our way along a short, easy road through hillsides of tea plantations. We were down at a slightly lower altitude (only 1200 m until the final steep uphill grind into Buhoma). The countryside was very densely settled, so it was a bit of a relief to enter the lush dense forests of Bwindi. We were at the community campsite by noon, where we camped in the inevitable muddy parking lot and spent the afternoon relaxing in their lovely gardens watching red-tailed and L'Hoest's monkeys frolicking in the trees while trying to spot birds. We had a hearty meal of chilli, chatted with our neighbours, a young Dutch couple on bicycles, and went to bed contented.

Black-necked weaver

Great blue turaco

December 29th saw us up before the sun at 6 am, ready to go birdwatching with Jannik and Hester and our enthusiastic (and expert) birding guide. We walked along the perimeter of the park that morning, collecting an unprecedented (for us) 28 new bird species before retiring for lunch. We had kept a keen eye out in case we blundered across some of the mountain gorillas as well, but no such luck. That afternoon we reconvened for more birds, this time in the fields below the village. We saw 8 new species there, as well as plenty of others that we had seen before. Overall it was a brilliant day and the experience of walking in the dense forest was breathtaking.

Cape robin-chat

Lesser streaked swallow

Crested barbet

Misty morning in Buhoma

We spent a relaxed morning on December 29th at Buhoma, editing photos and doing laundry and eating good food, I finally caught up on my backlog of photo editing and managed to post to Facebook. (We had discovered that for political reasons Facebook is blocked in Uganda most of the time, so we had to use a VPN to access the site.) In the afternoon we went for a walk into the village in search of some of the Batwa (Pygmy) cultural sites and museums. They were highly commercialized and overpriced, so we ended up walking back, getting caught in a torrential downpour and sheltering in a half-closed bar. When the rain let up, Terri whipped up a delicious steak and potato dinner and we retired to bed, content with our walking and birding and ready to head further north into Uganda the next day.