Trekking Through Western Uganda

Well, I made it to and from western Uganda all in one piece, which following the bus ride out there, I was not convinced would happen. The trek was incredible, we covered 51 km by land and I'm not sure how many by dugout canoe. Western Uganda is the most beautiful place I have ever been (even more beautiful than my home state of Washington, as hard as it is to believe!). As opposed to presenting my jumbled thoughts all over the place and out of order, I will summarize the experience day by day to provide some sense of order and continuity.

Day 1-4:30 am

Adam and I arrived at the bus park in Kampala 30 minutes prior to our scheduled departure that we had been assured would be leaving at, "exactly 5 am." So, at promptly 5:31 the bus finally rolled out of the bus park and we were headed to Kihihi! About two hours in, I was dozing with my headphones in when I was jolted awake by our bus hitting something and then swerving back and forth across the road. Adam and I had no idea what had just happened and as the bus continued to speed down the road, we asked the other passengers what was going on. One of them replied, "Oh, we just hit a car." The bus was still speeding down the road and everyone on it was completely unperturbed that we had just hit another car going in the opposite direction!! Needless to say, Adam and I were a bit shaken up. Thirty minutes later we pulled over in front of a police station and everyone got off the bus. The entire front of the bus had been smashed in and the driver's side window had completely shattered. As we waited for four hours in a small village in the middle of nowhere for another bus to come from Kampala, we learned that everyone in the car we had hit had been killed. I wanted to throw up.

The other bus finally arrived and with great trepidation, we climbed back on. We figured that since a fatal accident had already occurred that day, this second bus driver would be a bit more cautious than the first had been. Wrong. So, so wrong. As we covered the hilly, mountainous terrain of western Uganda, the bus careened around corners and up and down hills at breakneck speed, trying to gain as much speed going down the hills as possible. I spent the next six hours praying that we would arrive in one piece in Kihihi, and trying to come to peace with the fact that this could be my last day on earth. Adam spent that time picking out the most likely spots of where the bus would land should we indeed crash, and determining whether or not the landing would indeed be fatal. I just assumed that any crash would lead to death. Oh, and when we asked the driver to please slow down, he and all of the passengers in front just laughed at the request. There is very little value placed on life here.

Finally, we turned off the tarmac roads and onto the dirt roads, which forced the bus driver to proceed at a more sane pace. There were a handful of high school kids on the bus who had enjoyed seeing Adam's and my discomfort for the entire ride, and they started talking about this dangerous bridge that was coming up soon. I was freaking out of course and contemplating getting off the bus and walking across. As we neared the bridge, we started our descent into this huge gorge that was surrounded on all sides by steep hills. The bus was soon skirting along the edge of the cliff where the road had been carved out of the hills. I was terrified, and at first just closed my eyes in order to wait it out. But, I forced myself to open them eventually because as scary as it was, it was also the most beautiful part of our journey thus far. We eventually approached this "scary" bridge. It was made out of steel, only a few feet above the river below it, and was the sturdiest piece of infrastructure we had encountered all day. I breathed a sigh of relief and wondered why the kids had felt they should warn me about the bridge, yet failed to mention the cliffs we had been traversing.

Fourteen hours after we had started our adventure (the guidebook was sooooo off in stating that the trip only took about 5-6 hours) we reached Kihihi, just as dusk was setting in. Since Buhoma was only about 35 km away, we hired a boda to take us there, figuring it would be nice to ride in the open air after the long bus ride. It was very nice for the first thirty minutes of the ride. Twilight was descending over the landscape, with a full moon lighting our path. Mist had settled into the folds of the mountains that surrounded us and it was all rather picturesque and lovely as we drove on through the expansive Ugandan countryside. Well, an hour and a half later it had gotten quite cold, we were battling mud in spots where the rainy season had destroyed the road, and all we wanted was to reach the first campsite. We finally did, cold, hungry, exhausted, and emotionally drained from all of the events of the day.

Day 2-Bwindi Impenetrable Forest

The first hike of our trip took us through Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, home of the mountain gorillas. Although we didn't see any gorillas, we did see three different types of monkeys, lots of birds and butterflies, and our guide even found a chameleon that we held (apparently chameleons are a sign of good luck!). Bwindi was beautiful, a lush forest that was so thick you could barely see what kind of weather was actually present outside of the canopy of trees. We hiked for 14 km, the way down was rather easy, but the climb up to Nkuringo during the latter part of the day was quite difficult and definitely had us sweating. The scenery was incredible though, and we had lucked out that it was cloudy and raining intermittently after we emerged from the forest.

Our guide was awesome! His name was Evarest, fittingly, although I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't spelled the same as the actual mountain. We also had a porter whose name was Adolf. He was a big Manchester United fan, so we hit it off immediately and he made sure to point out the chicharitos (little peas) when we reached the farmland later in the day, in honor of Javier Hernandez, aka Chicharito, on Man U.

Our day concluded when we reached the Nkuringo campsite, which was situated on the top of a mountain with a 360 degree panoramic view of the surrounded hills and mountains. You could look back over Bwindi forest and the Rwenzori Mountains on one side, the Virunga chain of seven volcanoes on another, and then down into the Congo Basin on the third side. It was incredible! One of the volcanoes was still active too, so at night you could see the glow of the spitting lava off in the distance against the backdrop of the night sky.

Day 3-Rest Day, Nkuringo

On the third day we rested and explored the small town of Nkuringo which was nestled between two peaks on a mountain. The weather was crisp and cool and the townspeople were friendly and I wished that this was where I was living for the next ten months of my life, I had fallen in love with Nkuringo! Adam wasn't feeling too hot, so he rested while I went with Evarest and Adolf to the other peak called the "Top of the World View." There is a makeshift soccer pitch cresting the top of it, and the local guys play pickup there every evening. I jumped in and played, and the soccer was even more chaotic there than it is in Ndejje. Half the time was spent chasing the ball down the sides of the mountain when it would get booted out of bounds. Regardless, it was a lot of fun and the guys were pretty inclusive after I had proved I could actually play during the first ten minutes or so. I ended up scoring a goal, a nice left-footed shot into the upper-90 of the far post and my teammates went crazy! They were whooping and hollering and running over to hug and high-five me. I wasn't sure if they were more impressed because I was a mzungu, or because I was a girl...probably a combination of both factors. Evarest was hilarious during the pickup game. He is the only African I have met who doesn't like to play football, and so he insisted on commandeering my camera and running around the pitch, dodging the ball and trying to snap shots of me playing soccer. He was the typical American soccer mom, it was quite entertaining.

After the match, we went back to the campsite and had dinner. There were a lot of travelers staying that night which made for lively dinner conversation. Following a delicious meal, two other American, two Germans, an Italian, a Brazilian, a Swiss, and Adam and I huddled around a campfire while one of the Americans played a guitar and sang and we all chatted intermittently between the songs. The moon was nearly full and cast light on the beauty of our surroundings, and as I sat there, listening the the guitar and in the presence of new found friends, I wondered, does life really get much better than this?

As much as I wanted that night to last forever, I eventually had to drag myself away from the fire and music and head to bed, we starting the second leg of our trek early the next morning and I knew that I would need my energy for what lay ahead.

...Well, I have used up almost all of my internet time, so I will have to describe the second half of the trek another time, hopefully at the beginning of next week. Hope everyone at home enjoys a great Thanksgiving!!