Queen Elizabeth National Park - "What could possibly go wrong?" (Chandra)

Alright, so I'm sure I left you wondering what happened during our trip to the NP, well don't worry nobody was trampled by an elephant or attacked by a hippo. Really it was a good trip, we just had a few minor set backs. Before I begin let me give you a few words of advice, just in case you, or someone you know is planning a trip to a national park here in Uganda or anywhere on the continent of Africa.

Advice #1 - DO NOT FEED THE ANIMALS.
Advice #2 - DO NOT RENT A MINI VAN THINKING IT WILL WORK WELL AS A SAFARI VEHICLE.
Advice #3 - FULLY INSPECT ALL ASPECTS OF THE VEHICLE BEFORE LEAVING ALL MAJOR CITIES, TOWNS, VILLAGES BEHIND.

With those words of advice, let me begin...

When I left you last Catrine and Ben had arrived at our place at 10am sharp as was arranged. Poor Catrine and Ben had spent the previous night sleeping on the cement floor in Jen's room. They had changed hotels from The Brovad to The Laston (just around the corner) and when they got to the Laston later the previous night, the gate was locked and no one was around to let them in.( I guess the guard was passed out from drinking too much alcohol and he didn't hear them banging on the gate.) They had paid for a hotel room but ended up sleeping on our floor. I actually had no idea they had done so until I woke up early in the morning to find them exiting Jen's room and crossing our room headed for the door. I was so confused, I asked them where they had come from. Anyway, they went to the Laston, fought with the manager and got all of their money back. There trip here has definitly not been ideal.

So we headed out and along our way we filled up with gas, dropped Ida off with her mother and chatted about all the different animals we were going to see.

Our first night we were staying in Ishasha. It is in the southern part of Queen Elizabeth National Park and is known mainly for it's lions. Normally lions do not climb trees but in Ishasha they do. Nobody really knows why, but they think it has something to do with biting ants. I guess the lions learned over time that if they slept in the trees the ants would not bite them. Pretty smart lions. Anyway, I digress.

Just before we reached the road to Ishasha we saw our first animal. There was a baboon on the side of the road. We were all very excited so Nasser stopped the van for us so we could take pictures. I guess Nasser thought it would be neet to have the baboon come even closer so he decided to feed it a banana. The baboon jumped right up to Nasser's open window and took the banana right out of his hand. Okay, kind of cool I guess. So Nasser got a little more brave and the next thing we know the baboon was inside the van! It had come right in through Nasser's window and was on his lap! Really it only wanted more bananas, but we all started to freak out. You could hear us all in the back yelling, "get it out of the car!" "Nasser what are you doing!" Mind you, I think that Nasser was probably more surprised and scared than the rest of us, but I'll admit I did not want that baboon thinking there was food for it in the back of the van. Luckily, he got it out by starting to drive a bit which startled it and it jumped out with i's banana.

I wish I had gotten a picture of it. Looking back it was kind of funny, but I think we were all so shocked no one thought to get their camera out to take a picture of the baboon on Nasser's lap. I'm glad we moved on after that as another baboon was on the road looking at us and he was twice as big as the one that had come in through the van window.

After this excitiment we saw other animals, we saw Kobs, buffalo, other deer like animals, and elephants off in the distance, but no other animals up close and personal like the baboons.

Once we reached the road to take us to Ishasha we realized that the minivan was not the best vehicle to have brought. I don't know if I have explained to you the road situation here in Uganda, they are horrible. There are very few roads that are paved, the others are simply dirt roads riddled with extreme pot holes made by the rain. The road to Ishasha was no different. The whole way, until we reached the ranger station where we were staying, the van was bottoming out and it seemed to take all of the van's energy to make it through the potholes and along the road.

By the time we got to Ishasha we were all VERY dirty. The mini van only had two windows in the back that opened and they didn't roll down to let in a lot of air, they were the kind that you just push out, so needless to say the van was more than a little stuffy and very hot. To help aleviate the heat we traveled down the dirt road with the sliding door open. At first Catrine held it open then I switched her places and held it open. When we stopped the whole inside of the van was covered with dirt as well as all of us. Erin told me that it looked like I had a really good tan, but really I was just covered in dust.

We made it to Ishasha however and as soon as we got there a ranger came up to us and told us that if we wanted to see the lions we should leave as soon as possible. So we paid for everything we needed to pay for and the ranger hoped into the minivan assuring us that it would be able to travel over the road he was taking us on and we went in search of lions. The minivan had the same problems it had on the road to Ishasha but somehow it made it to the tree where we saw about 7 lions taking an afternoon snooze.

It was a pretty cool sight. They were really close to us and although we all climbed out of the van to have a better look, no one really got very close. You don't want to disturb a content, sleeping lion. All of the lions were female except one, but he was still a cub so he didn't have the big mane on him like a full grown male lion would have. We stayed for about 1/2 an hour and then our guide said we should leave as they would be waking soon and getting themselves ready to hunt for their dinner. I know that I didn't want to be out when the lions were looking for something tasty to eat. We drove back to the ranger station nice and slow with the van bottoming out and the sides of the van getting scratched by the dense bushes that were overtaking the road.

We got back and unpacked our things, settled into our rooms, and then decided to see if we could rent a different vehicle to take us out on the game drive the next day as we were all worried that the van would not make it. We talked to the warden and he said we could take the truck but it would cost us 2500 shillings a kilometre. Kind of expensive but after much deliberating we agreed that it's better to pay the money and have peace of mind then get stranded in the middle of QENP surrounded by wild animals. So we ate our meal of pasta and sauce and went to bed dreaming of the different types of animals we would see the next day.

Saturday morning we were up bright and early and we all piled into the flatbed of the truck with our ranger Godfrey and our driver who both came equipped with rather large semi-automatic weapons. I guess it is always better to be prepared.

We saw a lot of the same animals we had seen off in the distance as we were driving to Ishasha, only this time much closer to us. The buffalo were very interested in us and tried to intimidate us with their stares, horns, and digging into the ground with their hooves. The coolest thing we saw though was a lone male elephant who was only 30 feet at the most from our truck.

It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. We were all so excited. We were grabbing at our cameras and telling Godfrey to stop the truck so we could get some good pictures. We were yelling, "stop the truck, stop the truck."But at the same time that we were yelling this Godfrey was yelling, "keep going, I fear, I fear!" What none of us had realized was that the elephant had turned to face us and was advancing, slowly but straight for us. Who knows what he would have done, but Godfrey was worried enough to make sure we didn't stay there too long, he's the ranger with the experience so as much as we would have like to stay and stare at the elephant longer, we moved on.

We also saw a couple of warthogs but they didn't stay still long enough for us to get a good picture, mainly we say them running away as fast as their little legs could carry them through the tall grass to safety. All in all it was a pretty cool game drive.

When we got back to the ranger station we packed up our rooms, had some breakfast and headed off to our next destination of Mweya where we would spend two nights. We were traveling down the road away from Ishasha on our way to the main highway when we heard a horrible noise and something about the van did not feel right. We had Nasser pull over and when we got outside we found that the rear driver's side tire was completly shredded. I have never seen a tire do that before. Erin had told us when we started out that the tire wasn't going to hold but none of us had paid much attention to her, I guess we should have listened.

So we sat in the heat of the sun while Nasser and Christopher worked on changing the tire. They had a spare so no real problem right? Wrong. When they got the jack out the realized that although they had a jack, they did not have the correct piece needed to turn the jack so it advanced upwards lifting the van high enough to change the tire. We also found, once they got the spare out, that the spare itself had a hold in the tire that went so deep you could see the inner tubing of the tire. Not good. Luckily a man came along who was driving a Christian Children's Fund truck and lent us a jack, so despite the state of the spare tire we were forced to remove the shredded one and put on the damaged spare and hope and pray it would get us to the closest town where we could buy a new tire.

We got it all changed and started back down the road with Nasser going slowly, not as slowly as I would go, but whatever, when all of the sudden we heard a popping sound, the spare had blown. We were close enough to the main road that Nasser had no choice but to drive on the flat the remaining 2k's. When we reached the road he pulled over, hopped out, took one of the tires out of the van and told us he would be back in 50 minutes. He caught a ride into town with a taxi and the rest of us were left by the side of the road waiting for him to come back.

Well his 50 minutes turned into 3hrs and during that 3hrs Catrine tried to find a ride for us to Mweya with little success, Christopher got the van jacked up using the screwdriver that belonged to a man in a passing taxi (it cost us 1000shillings to use that screwdriver) and we were surrounded by a group of baboons. Caterine panicked when she saw them coming, ran into the van and yelled at all of us to come into the van. She then tried to get the windows rolled up and realized they were electric windows and the van was not turned on. It was quite funny to watch her. The rest of us were not too concerned, once the baboons realized we had nothing for them they grew bored of us and moved on.

It was around this time that we all started to go a little delerious from too much heat and lack of water. Christopher asked Ben at one point of we were gussed. (Christopher speaks english very well but he mumbles and with his accent it is often hard to understand him). So Ben said, "Are we gussed?" and Christopher said, "no gussed." Finally Ben understood and said, "Oh, are we cursed?"

It was also around this time that Erin was sure she saw a snake across the road in a ditch. She yelled out that she had seen a snake and her and Ben ran across the road to see it. There was nothing there. We figure it must have been a figment of her imagination but a little later on Erin said she wished we could have seen the snake, it was the prettiest red and white snake she had ever seen. Yup, I think we had all had a little too much sun!

Nasser eventually came back and we got the tire changed and made our way to Mweya. Just as we were approaching the main gate for Mweya I looked over and saw a hippo just standing there on the side of the road chomping on some grass. It was pretty cool and I yelled out, "look it's real! Nasser stopped the van and we all took pictures of the first hippo any of us had ever seen up close and in the wild.

We then continued onto our hostel, got there, settled in, had a bite to eat, unpacked and then decided we would go eat dinner at the fancy restaurant at the Safari Lodge. We were staying at the MUCH cheaper hostel just down the road. Now as a joke, I asked one of the women that works at the hostel if it was safe to walk to the lodge as it was dark and we didn't want to get eaten by lions or attacked by hippos. Much to my surprise she said that it was not advisable to walk after dark and we did so at our own risk. So we asked Nasser if he would drive us. He did. When we got there we found out that the buffet dinner was 27,000 shillings per person, a little pricey so we decided to come back in the morning when there was light so we could see the view and enjoy the much cheaper breakfast buffet.

We went back to the hostel and ate dinner at the canteen, had showers, and retired to our beds by 10pm. I loved our first night in Mweya, they actually had fans in each room and it was even a power on night so we had the fan blowing cool air on us all night long. I was in heaven!

Sunday morning we awoke andheaded to the lodge for an amazing breakfast. It wasn't much cheaper (20,000 sh each) but at least it came with a beautiful view of mountains and the lake. Breakfast was a buffet of bacon, sausage, fruit, eggs, toast and omlettes made to order. It was SO good. They even had brown bread! I was thoughouly stuffed when I was done eating and had enjoyed every bite. The bacon was cooked to perfection. It felt like I hadn't had bacon for years, it was SO tasty.

After breakfast we headed to the information centre to decide on what we were going to do for the rest of the day. We decided to go on the boat launch were we were promised to see hippos, crocodiles, and other animals. that wasn't until 3pm so we had some time to kill so we went back to our hostil and ate read, relaxed, and visited.

When it was time to go we decided for some reason we would walk to the where the boat launch was. We had been told that there was a foot path down to the launch area, we should have known better than to believe the ones who told us this. We walked out of the park, down the road, and came to the sign that said boat lauch. The "foot path" was a sheer rock face you had to somehow manouver down without tumbling to your death. Ben commented that he didn't remember reading anywhere that he was expected to bring his own rappeling equipment. We decided to continue down the road and eventually found the connecting road you could drive down to get to the boat launch. During this time about 5 vehicles passed us also on their way to the boat lauch but no once offered to give us a lift. That's alright, we made it there on our own.

The boat we took out was named Simba (which means Lion in swahili). It was a neat little boat with a covered top and open sides so you could take good clear photos as we went along. We had a few avid bird watchers with us who came with some serious camera equipment. It was actually quite entertaining to watch as the only ones who put on their life jackets were the group of African tourists. The boat was not moving fast and the water was not very deep, and I figured, if I fell over and a hippo dragged me under, no life jacket was going to save me.

We saw tons of hippos, they were all around the boat, surfacing at random times. I told Erin it reminded me of the wac-a-mole game they have at amusement parks. We also saw buffalos cooling themsevles in the water, some neet looking birds, a couple of crocodiles on the shore and we passed right by an elephant giving himself a bath. I have a picture with Erin and elephant in it just to show how close the boat was to him. It was pretty neat to watch and really he couldn't have cared less about us. We learned that hippos, buffalo and elephants all live together on the banks of the river in harmony as they are all herbavoires. We also learned that elephants are really the king of the jungle as even lions won't mess with them. An elephant can easily kill a lone lion and it would take a whole pack of lions to take down one elephant.

After we had been on the boat for about an hour and a half it started to rain, not just a little rain, but a downpour. Everyone who was up top the boat came down and the crew worked like mad to get the blinds pulled down and fastened so those of us inside would not get drenched. it was kind of funny and added to the whole experience. We got back to shore and it was still pouring and we realized that we had no way of getting back. We had planned to walk, but with the rain we thought it would not be such a good idea. Luckily this nice british man who had come in a van by himself offered us a ride back with him. We were very grateful as everyone else had professed to be too full to help us.

We made it back to lodge and found out that Einer had gotten more sick and was being transfered via plane to a hospital in Nairobi. Catrine was a little panicked and was feeling very guilty about leaving him behind and coming on this trip. She phone Einer's wife, and it was decided that there was little we could do, we were too far away and it was raining to hard to head out on the dirt roads so we said we would see what news we heard in the morning and we'd go from there.

We also decided we would check out a different canteen, just down the hill from our hostel that was supposed to have good food for cheap. We headed down there for dinner and we were joking about all the crazy things that had gone wrong with this trip and commenting about all the good things we had down and the cool stuff we'd seen when Ben said thesix words that have now become historic, he said "What else could possibly go wrong?" Right on cue huge amounts of smoke started billowing out of the kitchen where our dinner was being made. We all looked to our left and then back at each other and just burst out laughing. Sometimes all you can do is laugh.

Dinner eventually came, it took a little longer than usual, but it was tasty. The only thing was, dinner took so long that when we were done eating it had become very dark and we still had to walk back up to our hostel. Remembering the warning the woman had given us the night before made none of us overly pleased to be walking back in the dark. We asked at the canteen if we would be safe, they assured us the lions would not be out hunting for at least another hour and that even though the hippos sounded very close, they really weren't as close as we thought. So we headed out, making a lot of noise as we went so if we did come across anything we wouldn't startle it, and we made it back to our hostel safe and sound, thankfully.

I was tired so I went to bed soon after we got back, Erin came in our room about 45 minutes later and I was all ready to have a good nights sleep but that was not too be.

About 2am Erin and I were awoken by some horrible screaming noise coming from outside. It sounded like it was very close to our room. I was still very tired and figured that whatever it was, it was too late for us to help it now so I was ready to go back to sleep, but sleep did not come back easily for Erin. She had to go to the bathroom but was not about to leave our room. She also wanted to eat her banana but was worried that the lion (or whatever was outside) would smell it and try to get into our room. I assured her that Lion's don't care about banana's so she was safe and I turned over and went back to sleep. I heard the next morning that sleep did not come as easily for Erin, I guess the noises outside scared her more than I realized. Myself, I was too tired to worry.

The next day we decided we were going to go on a nature walk on our way out of the park at Maramumbumgo Forest. We were going to walk to a bat cave that was famous for this rock python that was supposed to live there also. Erin was pretty excited as she had really wanted to see a snake so we headed out. Nasser and Christopher had put a new tire on the rim of the spare, so we now had a good tire on the van and a good spare just in case. Einer was being taken in the morning so we would never have gotten back in time to see him, so we headed out to enjoy our last day in QENP.

We found the road that would take us to our nature walk and read it was 22k's to the walk. We also found the road was worse than any road we had been down yet. Nasser drove slow, but the constant scrapping on the bottom of the van made us all nervous and we figured with the luck we had had so far we shouldn't push it. We decided to turn around, leave the bat cave for another time and just head back to Masaka. The road was pretty narrow and had small ditches on both sides so I got out to help direct Nasser as he was backing up, I don't think he paid attention when I told him, well in advance to stop, as he backed right into the ditch. So we then had to rock the van as he put it into gear so we could get the van turned around and head back to the main road. It took some effort but we did it.

Once we reached the main road, nice and paved, we thought once again, what else could possibly go wrong, we thought too soon. We were about 1 hour out of the park when the van started to smoke. Nasser pulled over, we all pilled out and we realized the van was seriously overheated. Nasser also found that all around the engine was a nice collection of grass that the van had pulled out of the ground as it scraped over the dirt roads.

So we sat once again by the side of the road while Nasser caught a ride into town to see if he could get some parts and a mechanic. Once again we were in the African heat, but at least this time we had water. We waited for an hour, Nasser came back, we waited for another hour while the mechanic, Nasser, and some other guys worked on the van. I think again there came a point when we all lost it. Erin started to laugh, Ben started, then me, then Catrine and we couldn't stop. I'm sure the locals were wondering what was wrong with the four muzungu's laughing like crazy people on the side of the road by a van with smoke coming out of it.

The van got started, it got filled with water and we made it as far as Ishaka where we pulled over at a gas station. We waited there for an hour and a half while they worked on the van and had a lunch that consisted of snacks bought at the gas station. After that we hopped in the van again and made is as far as Mbrara where we stopped at an actual mechanics shop where we sat for another 3 hrs while they tried to figure out what to do about the van. Luckily it was a nice clean shop with comfy seats and baby kittens for us to look at. We sat here and Nasser eventually came in and showed us the thermostat I guess it was malfunctioning and causing the van to overheat. His answer was to just leave it out. I don't know much about cars but it made me nervous to take out a piece that I'm sure was put there for a reason, but I didn't question.

Nasser told us the van would not make it to Masaka so he had his friend come with his car and pick us up in Mbrara and take us back to Masaka. We eventually made it back home safely and with some good stories to tell. At one point while Nasser's friend was driving us, Nasser called his friend and asked to talk to me and told me to tell his friend to drive us safely. I'll admit that made me a bit nervous if Nasser felt he needed to call and tell the man to drive us safely, but we made it back safely so I guess that is all that matters.

All in all it was a good trip. We had some set backs but like I keep telling everyone, it has definitly made for a good story and one thing is for sure our trip was not boring and it was full of adventure. Sorry it took me so long to get this email out. The computers here do not always co-operate so I've actually been typing this email for about three days.

I hope that everyone is doing well and I will email again soon. Take care.

Chandra.