Our Africa Adventure Begins!!

Silverback Mountain Gorilla - this is who we came to see!

Anybody up for an awesome African adventure?? We’re deviating from the norm, so no RVs or puppy pics, but I can promise new National Parks, fun facts, and amazing wildlife - they’ll just all be in Africa! So, what are we doing? The primary goal of this trip was to see the Mountain Gorillas in Uganda and Rwanda. But we did so much more! We visited several national parks, did game drives and boat cruises, hiked, went fishing on the Nile River, experienced the local culture and food, and of course crossed off the top of my bucket list, mountain gorilla trekking.

A long way from home!
Entebbe International Airport in Uganda.

We left the house at 2pm on Tuesday, 9/12, to catch our flight on Turkish Airlines. Our itinerary was SeaTac to Istanbul (11 hr 40 min), a 3 hr layover in Istanbul, and then on to Entebbe, Uganda (9 hr 45 min).  Both the departing and connecting flights were delayed, so our total travel time from home to the hotel in Entebbe was a little shy of 30 hours. On the upside, our decision to upgrade to Business Class turned out to be brilliant and absolutely worth it. Because of the delays we also got to check out the Business Class lounges in SeaTac and Istanbul, an unexpected perk. The in-flight food was excellent, and the additional space made the long hours much more tolerable. The seats even laid down flat so you could catch some ZZZZ’s! That may be old news to those of you who regularly fly first class, but it was a revelation to economy-class me. Lol. If we ever do another of these intercontinental flights, we’d upgrade again in a heartbeat!

Turkish Airlines was a good choice!

I think business class was Rian's favorite part of the trip! Lol.

The food and amenities were a revelation. 
It made the loooooong flights almost fun. 

Just a small part of Turkish Airline's lounge in Istanbul airport. Wow!

Flying half way around the world.

Before we go any further, let me assure the Riley and Raney fans that Laurie, our house/pet sitter was doing some world-class spoiling while we were gone. It was hard to leave the puppers behind, but they were in capable hands. Bob and Carole brought Ruby over several times so the puppers had their regular play time too. Riley barely noticed we were gone, while Raney took her own sweet time warming up. She lasted about a week before finally deciding that snuggles on the couch was a better option than holding a grudge for being abandoned by mom and dad. Lol. I got regular updates and photos from Laurie, which I really appreciated. We sure missed them both! My heart nearly broke when Laurie sent a pic of Raney with her stuffie captioned, "Don't know why mom and dad went to Africa, I've got an elephant for them to look at. Patiently waiting for their return." Awwwwwwww.

Puppy updates! 
TV time on the couch and Raney watching and waiting.

Rian flew up from Sacramento on the 11th to join Rog and I on our African adventure. Although she had a few rough spots during the trip, it really wouldn’t have been the same without her. Rian has a gift for connecting with people and her charming, upbeat personality, hilarious sense of humor, candor and curiosity made the trip so much more fun and enriching. Randi opted out, gorillas and jungle trekking are not her shtick. No worries, we’re already planning a fun cruise with her and Jose…gotta make sure I keep things even between the girls and if that involves a sunny cruise to the Bahamas at some future date, well sacrifices must be made. Lol.

The trip wouldn't have been the same without her!

We lost ten hours on the time change and arrived in Entebbe around 5:30am on 9/14. Our tour was arranged by a travel consultant, Andrea Radke of Authentic Africa Tours and Safaris, but the boots on the ground in Uganda were all staff of Wild Frontiers Safaris. We were met at the door by Steven who ushered us through customs and handed us off to Yahaya who drove us to the 2 Friends Beach Hotel in Entebbe. We got checked in and took a welcome and long overdue hot shower. Refreshed, we headed down to breakfast and then met with Evelyn, the Client Liaison Manager from Wild Frontiers. She welcomed us and went through our itinerary to make sure we were all on the same page. Not counting travel time, we’ll be in Africa 17 days. She told us Eddie was assigned to be our guide and driver for the entire trip. We asked what he’d done to deserve that?! Lol.

2 Friends Beach Hotel

2 Friends Beach Hotel is located on the shore of Lake Victoria and we had lovely lake view rooms. We napped a bit in the afternoon, with the 10-hour time change we needed to get our days and nights swapped around. For dinner we walked across the street to Hinriksh, the hotel’s beachfront restaurant. We watched the locals cast fishing nets as we had a lovely meal, Rian tried the tilapia steamed in banana leaves with fried plantains. Yum!

Local cuisine and local craft beer!

A few quick facts about Uganda. It is a land-locked country in East Africa about the size of Oregon which lies almost completely within the Nile basin. It has a population of about 49.6 million, of which 8.5 million live in the capital city of Kampala. The landscape is diverse, including the snow-capped Rwenzori Mountains and the immense Lake Victoria, the second-largest fresh water lake in the world. The official language is English (whew!), although there are more than 50 tribal languages and Luganda is spoken in much of the country. A large majority of the population are subsistence farmers and 80% of exports are agricultural, including coffee, tea, and cotton. Tourism accounts for almost 8% of Uganda's GDP. Of special interest to me are the National Parks which are home to a vast number of animal and bird species including, you guessed it, the mountain gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park in the southern tip of the country! We were visiting four of the ten National Parks in Uganda, and we had lots on our agenda to see and do before we got to the gorillas.

We're saving the best (gorillas!) for last. 

The next morning (9/15) at 8am, Eddie arrived in a Toyota Land Cruiser with a pop-top, our ride for the next couple weeks. Rian was enthralled, she tried offering to swap her Toyota Tacoma pick-up truck for the Land Cruiser but got no takers on that deal. Lol. We loaded up and headed north toward Murchison Falls National Park. We drove through Kampala, the capital and largest city in Uganda. It was fascinating. I can say with authority that I will NEVER, EVER drive in the city here. It’s the closest thing to an automotive free-for-all that I’ve ever seen, with cars and trucks jockeying for position just inches apart, while scores of boda-boda (motorcycle taxis/delivery vehicles) dart and weave around traffic and pedestrians. Merging is a combat melee sport. Lol.

No, Rian didn't convince Eddie to give up the driver's seat.
Uganda is right-hand drive - felt so weird being on the wrong side of the road!

Local brickworks.

Rian rides shotgun with Eddie.

The local markets are popping!

Enroute we stopped at the Ziwa Rhino and Wildlife Ranch, a sanctuary dedicated to breeding and eventually reintroducing the white rhino in Uganda. The last white rhino in Uganda was killed in 1983. The Rhino Reintroduction Project is a collaboration between the Rhino Fund Uganda and the Roy family who own the sanctuary land. In 2006, six southern white rhinos were relocated from Kenya. Two more were donated by Disney in the US and the female from Disney was the first to give birth. (Disney princess for the win! Lol.) Since then, the rhino population has increased to 40 individuals. The goal is to begin re-introducing them to the national parks when the population hits 50.

Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary

The rhinos are free to roam over 27 square miles and are guarded 24/7. We drove into the sanctuary and then parked to approach on foot. Yes, we got to walk to within about 40 feet of these magnificent creatures! Our guide, Julius, gave us a safety briefing and some history on the project as well as lots of interesting information on the rhinos. We were lucky to find a crash of ten rhinos, including a juvenile. Yes, a group of rhinos is called a “crash”.  Appropriate, don’t you think?

A crash of rhinos!

Pretty cool to be standing just a few yards away from these big guys.

There were other animals at the sanctuary and we had fun
watching these two young warthogs butt heads.

From Ziwa we continued to Twiga Safari Lodge situated on the bank of the Nile River and just outside Murchison Falls National Park. What an amazing lodge!! The “rooms” are individual tented cabins with fantastic views of the Nile River. We have a resident herd of hippos that lounge in the waters a stone throw away. The hippos stay in the water during the day but come on land to graze at night. Because hippos are not to be trifled with (They top the list of most dangerous animals in Uganda!) we must be escorted to/from our cabins after dark. Our tented cabins are raised up so we are in no danger of hippos, but we do have to lock the tent flaps whenever we leave so the baboons don’t come in and help themselves. Rian was not a fan of the hippos, but I loved them. They communicate (loudly) as they move around at night and sound like giant river pigs. Lol. 

Ok, I think this goes beyond "glamping". 😁

Bar and lounge next to the open air dining area.

Nile river views during the day and a fire every evening on the patio.

All that and hippos too!

I cannot say enough about the wonderful staff and stunning accommodations at all the lodges we stayed at. All meals were provided on-site, and the chefs were masters. Breakfast was a buffet with eggs made to order, both lunch and dinner were typically 4 or 5 course meals. We finally had to ask the staff to please reduce the portion sizes, because we just couldn’t eat so much and the food was too good to waste! We also found that the staff at the lodges were tremendously welcoming. We learned so much chatting with them, like how many goats we need to have for Rian’s dowry. Lol.

Amazing food and even more amazing staff.

Stay tuned because we have game drives, boat rides, and an incredible fish story coming up in our next post!