Uganda 2019

When: January 2019
Duration: 15 days
Distance covered: 2000 km

We usually visit Africa twice a year – once around July/August and once around December/January. Since the end of the year is usually a wet season in most of the southern countries, we normally aim for Eastern Africa at that time and then concentrate more on Southern Africa during the southern hemisphere winter.

So, when planning a trip for this January, Uganda has whetted our traveling appetites again. “The pearl of Africa”. We visited it four years ago for the first time, and that trip remained in our memories as one of the most pleasant among all of our African ramblings. During that first trip, we have covered the central and western parts of the country, with most that Uganda has to offer to safari addicts – rivers, lakes, savanna, tropical forest, chimpanzees, mountain gorillas…

But there was still the northern and eastern part of the country that we haven’t seen. And there was one particular national park, that really was stirring our imagination ever since that first visit to Uganda – Kidepo! It was at the very top among the African parks on our bucket list, so the whole trip was planned around Kidepo Valley National Park as our central goal. As it lies in the very northernmost corner of the country, and we only had two weeks available, we left gorillas and parks of the western part of the country out of account for this trip. However, Murchison Falls national park, one of our favorite parks on the first trip, fitted perfectly into our plans. And with the addition of visiting the source of the Nile at Jinja and some iconic waterfalls under Mount Elgon, the backbone of this adventure was set.

We rented Toyota Landcruiser from our trusted rental company in that part of Africa again – Roadtrip Uganda. As usual in East Africa, we have chosen to sleep in a ground tent. Their small Quechua nylon tents are extremely easy to set and pack, certainly taking much less time and effort than fiddling with a roof-top tent. On the other hand, this kind of camping guarantees some tense moments during the night, listening to the nightly noises and wondering what kind of creatures are sniffing around your flimsy sleeping shelter. During such sleepless moments, one inadvertently curses the decision, not to take a more trustworthy roof-top tent…

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The car was excellent. A trusty Landcruiser 77 series, 1PZ engine, without any superfluous electronics. Simple and reliable. It didn’t cause us even a single moment of anxiety. Well, that is not entirely true. There were a couple of minutes of panicking, a few days into our trip, when I wasn’t able to put the car in reverse – whatever I tried with the gear shift lever, it simply refused to engage reverse. For a moment we thought that our trip ended in disaster before we even got to the Kidepo valley, but it soon turned out to be just a small glitch with the gearbox. Other than that, and the three tire leaks, we had absolutely no problem with the car. Something that one can only wish for during African wanderings.

The car was equipped with an electric fridge. However, as it was not powered out of a separate battery, it must have been switched off while the car engine was not running. This made it unsuitable for a long-time fresh meat store, but it was perfect for our cold drinks and some other perishable supplies.

The weather was perfect. Mostly sunny, with temperatures around 15°C during the night and around 30°C during the heat of the day, with only a couple of showers at the end of our trip, on the banks of the Nile.

Main roads in Uganda are generally very good – for African standards, anyway. None of the roads we have driven was excessively potholed. And there is one invaluable improvement in the Ugandan road network: an Entebbe – Kampala expressway! This proper, four-lane highway, now enables you to totally avoid hectic traffic through Kampala, if traveling from Entebbe to northern or western parts of the country. Anyone, who has gone through the ordeal of driving through Kampala city’s mad traffic, will agree with us: this new highway, together with newly emerging Kampala’s northern bypass, is simply priceless!

This was a rough plan of the trip:

Day 1:

After a whole day of traveling with Turkish Airlines from Ljubljana via Istambul, arrive at Entebbe airport in the early hours. Take over the car at the airport, and buy the main supplies for the trip in Entebbe. Drive past Kampala to Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary for our first night. In the afternoon, do the rhino tracking on foot.

Day 2:

In the early morning, try to find an elusive shoebill stork, under the guidance of a ranger from the Sanctuary. After that, drive to Masindi and further on to Murchison Falls national park. Overnight in Boomu Women’s Group camp, just outside the park gates.

Day 3:

Enter the park as soon as the gate opens and drive to the nearby Budongo Eco Lodge. Arrange morning chimpanzee tracking with them. After the trek, continue to the top of Murchison Falls. In the afternoon, continue from there to the Paraa ferry, cross the Nile, and arrange for a two-night stay at the UWA campsite on the north bank of the Nile.

Day 4, 5:

Spend two nights at the campsite on the north river bank, and explore the park’s most attractive area between the Nile and Lake Albert. On day 5, exit the park in the late afternoon through Wankar Gate on the NE side of the park. Overnight in the nearby Murchison Falls Safari Camp.

Day 6:

The whole day driving From Murchison Falls NP to Kidepo Valley NP. Drive on the newly tarred road through the town of Gulu toward the town of Kitgum. Just before reaching Kitgum, turn to the east and continue on a good and very scenic gravel road via Karenga to Katurum gate of Kidepo NP. Arrange for three nights camping at Kakine campsite, in the very heart of Kidepo NP.

Day 7, 8, 9:

Explore Kidepo NP. Concentrate mostly on the Naurus Valley, where most of the animals tend to roam during the dry season. Spend half a day on an excursion to the northern sector of the park, across a dry Kidepo riverbed, to the hot springs at the border with South Sudan.

Day 10:

Drive from Kidepo, through the remote Karamoja region in the far north-east of Uganda, through Kaabong and Kotido, to the district capital Moroto.

Day 11:

From Moroto, continue via Nakapiripirit to the foothills of Mount Elgon. Spend a night near one of many scenic waterfalls in the region.

Day 12:

Drive to Jinja, an adrenaline capital of Uganda, on the shores of Lake Victoria, where the mighty Nile starts its long journey to the north toward the Mediterranean See. Visit the source of the Nile at Jinja and then continue some 20 kilometers up the river to the Heaven Lodge, our base for the next three relaxing days.

Day 13, 14:

Relax, camping at Heaven. Do nothing, except maybe some excursion to a nearby village or some other lodge or camp in the vicinity. Relax, do nothing. Do nothing, just relax! 😉

Day 15:

Drive from The Haven past Kampala to Entebbe. Spend the afternoon there and get some sleep before a very early morning flight back home.

Check a detailed description of each part of the trip by clicking on the following links.

Trip installments:
Part 1: Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary
Part 2: Chimpanzees of Budongo forest
Part 3: Murchison Falls NP
Part 4: Kidepo NP
Part 5: Karamoja and wateralls of the Mount Elgon
Part 6: Upper Nile