Epic East African Adventure 2018: Queen Elizabeth to Kibale Forest National Park

Queen Elizabeth – Kibale Forest National Park

Day 6: 3rd December 2018

Today's map

We packed up our stuff not so bright but early, then headed for our last breakfast at the Bush Lodge. The food here has been exceptional, if only I could get Lisa to cook like this…

breakfast was so good this little dude joined us for breakfast

One thing I can say about the good folks at Bush lodge is they have fantastic customer service skills, without fail they remembered Lisa’s and my name, always greeted us with a smile and happy to help.

We said our good bye’s etc and then headed off for our last game drive in QE National Park.

I had spoken to a German couple last night about what they had seen that day on the game drives, (that’s the usual topic of conversation around the campfire) they were somewhat disappointed that they had only seen 2 lions, but lots of elephants etc. It was everyone’s mission to see some lions and leopards if possible.

We had some inside knowledge from a ranger, who is a friend of Ronald’s as to where the lions might be, so we headed off in that direction. Whilst everybody tried really hard to find them, we came up short. The saying is wild animals aren’t like doctors you can’t make appointments to see them. (they clearly haven’t tried to make an appointment to see a doctor at home) Lisa & I weren’t disappointed in the morning game drive, we weren’t at work and still got to see wildlife.

We stopped at the other equator marking and got the photo to prove it.

some random rock

I picked up a massive piece of sugar cane to eat, now I just need to figure out how to cut it down to bite size chunks.

We took the short cut through the Crate Lakes, it was a bumpy ride but an interesting one because we saw extinct volcanoes that have filled up with water.

In regards to the bumpy Crater Lakes road there are plans to turn it into a sealed road, which will make it easier for the locals riding push bikes laden with bananas. But according to Ronald there will be an increase of deaths as the population gets used to the better roads. (that is they will speed and lose control)

The other interesting part was that was the place that I “cycled” whilst filming the doco. So to see how its changed in the past 11 years has been interesting for me.

We stopped for some photos of one of the Crater Lakes and Lisa made friends with some local children. One of the local girls taught the uncoordinated muzungu a local dance, let’s say that was worth the price of admission.

We hit the main road, which is in really good condition, to say I’m amazed at some of the roads is an understatement. But none the less there is always an accident on African roads, we passed a truck that had taken shall we say a spill and was currently on its side. It looks like he was going too fast and lost control on the downward side of the hill. It was still full of stuff and “the police were on the scene, if you know what I mean” (I could write a song with lyrics like that)

Next, we saw locals walking on the main road in effectively, the middle of nowhere. Ronald told us that if you were to walk alone you would probably be attacked by the chimps…whilst we didn’t see any there was a really large troop of baboons sitting in the middle of the road.

We arrived our accommodation for the next 2 nights, the Kibale Forest Camp Budget Lodge located just outside Kibale NP at around 1pm. Its another impressive place to stay, with more amazing food and pretty cool safari tents. Whilst eating lunch we watch some long-tailed monkey jumping around the trees right in front of us, pretty amazing.

the view from our tent

Muzungu at her tent

We dropped our stuff in the tent and it started to pour down, (but we hadn’t seen any goats so we had no real warning it was going to rain, other than the dark clouds and a bit of thunder. When it stopped we decided to go on a self-guided walk around the camp.

On the way to the tent to drop some stuff off, I slipped and did my knee again, there was a verbal submission as I hit the floor and slid down the steps. I bashed my camera with the long lens and my laptop on the way down, thankfully they both survived. Needless to say, I didn’t go for the walk.

One of the other guests heard my verbal submission and came to investigate, Lisa was trying to help me up, but I preferred the foetal position. The other guest called the staff from the lodge and they wanted to carry me to the tent. (if they had been white, I would have taken up the offer) but in all seriousness the care and genuine concern for my welfare was truly amazing, they apologised profusely for the accident (which was not their fault).

I hobbled back to the tent with a couple of brothers on either side, one of them wanted to massage my knee, but let’s say there were more verbal submissions. After that I basically lay on the bed with an ice pack on.

The Staff had offered to bring dinner to our tent for me, but after a stiff G&T a Bex and a lay down I felt well enough to hobble to the restaurant. The dining area is upstairs but I was pretty confident I wasn’t going to make it up the stairs so they setup the downstairs area for me & Lisa.