Mzungu In The Dust

by Elena Levon

After almost missing my flight to Uganda from London, I finally made it to Entebbe Airport.

( I blame it on my friend Darren, for showing me one of the best bars with the most magnificent view of London, from which I did not want to leave! )

But seriously, it wasn’t Darren’s fault… it was the fact that it took longer to get to Heathrow by metro than a ride from Airport to the center of London. To be exact, about 20 minutes longer…

If it wasn’t for a wonderful young man Keith, at the airport, I would have never made it on that plane…

Keith, you’re the best!!

However, usually my “Stanislavsky technique” in situations like these, works wonders …  ( wink )

( by the way, Keith, hope the picture you took of me with your phone, looks better than how I felt at that moment )

After I met with very kind Lydia from amazing Nkuringo Gorilla Camp and paid for my stay at their office in Entebbe, made my way to Kampala. It’s about a 40 minute ride by a local Matatu. Spend a night in Kampala.

Also found out that while I was on the road, this post got freshly pressed by WordPress. Thank you to the whole wordpress crew for liking my photography this much and sharing it with the wordpress community! I’m honored.

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is about a 12-13 hour journey from Kampala. So I decided to break it up and travel from Kampala to Kabale by morning Post Bus and spend a night at the beautiful Lake Bunyonyi. It takes about 7-8 hours. When I arrived in Kampala, went to Post Bus office and bought 2 tickets to Kabale which leaves at 7:30 am. Yes, 2 tickets…

Look, I have nothing against chickens or men that haven’t showered in a month, but don’t want them on my lap for 8 hours in a hot and packed bus in Africa…

Yep, I splurged, paid a whole $20 dollars for 2 seats.

This was my only luxury in Uganda.

I wanted a choice of either to sit there comfortably alone or share it with a child who didn’t have a seat..

Ended up doing both.

And then there is Boda-Boda…

LOVE them!

I took Boda-Bodas, shared taxi’s, matatus and buses everywhere.. from rush hour in Kampala to a bumpy ride from Kisoro to Bwindi …

I did it all..

This couple knows just how crazy the road is to Bwindi…

and I did it on top of Boda Boda.

I enjoyed their story so much, that wanted to share it with you. Enjoy.

The Bus ride from Kampala was crazy! Before my departure in Kampala security had a German shepherd sniff all the bags that were being boarded on Post Bus.

I guess it was because of 2010 bomb attacks.

The dog stopped at my bags for a few seconds, which made the security nervous … guess it smelled my dog.

before departure

Of course post bus sells more tickets than there are seats. They stop the bus everywhere and get more and more people. They even allowed someone with gasoline on the bus… And because I’m the “luckiest” Mzungu ( this was my name for the next 13 days ) in the world, the guy sat right behind me…

and then the whole can spilled all over the floor right next to my seats…

cigarette anyone?..

The bus does stop for toilet, if you’re lucky with a driver, that is…

“toilet” aka hole in the ground… ladies first..

On some stops you are even offered snacks, water and cows meat ( that I actually tried ) served to you by “bad man”…

small villages along the route

I met wonderful family on this bus ride. They are teachers and now invite me to visit them in their home, next time I’m in Uganda.

                              People in Uganda are very religious and before departure one teacher with kids were saying a prayer…

But then again, if you’re traveling by public means in Africa, one should always say a little prayer… especially if you’re sitting next to a full can of gasoline…

I said ” Amen ” with them.

After about 8 or so hours we reached Kabale.

Said goodbye to my new friends and climbed on top yet another Boda Boda en route to Lake Bunyonyi…

So, You wanna feel like a celebrity? Come to Uganda!

When you’re traveling in Uganda by Boda Bodas or walking, you will sure be followed by a bunch of kids who are running after you and screaming “Mzungu!!! , Mzungu!!”

It was a dusty and bumpy road, but was happy and proud that I was able to maneuver my way around Uganda solo.

after boda boda

In about 30 minutes we reached Lake Bunyonyi …

I stayed in a safari tent with a gorgeous view of the lake for 25 bucks.

early morning “Blue Hour” self-portrait

Here I met a lot of people who were traveling by overland trucks. One of those people was Alex, a guide from Barcelona.

Alex & his friend : )

His company KANANGA takes people on some really amazing trips! I know what some of you might say… yes, those kind of tours are not my cup of coffee at all, but if it wasn’t for this company, I wouldn’t have met a few truly great individuals, who later became my friends…

When you say, you don’t like something, Life will throw it at you in a way, which will challenge your own perceptions about it and turn your life upside down…

More about that later…

Alex invited me to celebrate a birthday of one of their clients, I said “ok, cool!”, however when I got to my tent and crashed on my bed I could barely move from the long journey… Even though Alex and his Spanish group were celebrating and watching football ( of course they were! They’re Spanish!! ) I tried to get some sleep, because I had yet another journey by public means in the morning to Bwindi. Spaniards were so loud that I thought to myself “5 more minutes of this craziness and I will get out of my tent in underwear and will scream at them to shut up!” , however I was so tired that this thought simply dematerialized into thin air.

I woke up pretty early next morning, so I could get my debut shots of the “Blue Hour”  …

It seemed like everyone who was there, came with overland trucks …

detail on an overland truck

After breakfast, I bumped into Alex near the office. He was there with 2 of his clients. I was going to tell them off for not letting me sleep, but that changed…

His 2 clients were robbed; Laptop, money, camera, all the pictures from trip, iphone… everything!

There’s only one security guard on premises and the whole camp is surrounded by water, so anyone can just take a canoe and make their way to the tents.

It seemed like they knew exactly who to target! This is another reason why I don’t want to travel with overland trucks … if you are traveling with one of those trucks, locals will know that you have money…

However, if you look like a total bum ( like me ) and ride Boda Boda …

these boots were made for walking… one of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you…

no one will ever think that you have a Macbook air in your dusty and worn-out backpack…

It turned out that Alex and his whole crew were staying at the same place in Bwindi that I was staying at…

NKURINGO GORILLA CAMP

Only the best people work here!

I can’t say enough good things about this place and people who work here! It’s one of the best camps that I stayed in around Africa!

Robert, the owner, helped me very much, by emailing me all information about Uganda, how to get to the camp and answered all of my questions!

Lydia is the manager who will greet you with a cup of coffee or tea in Entebbe and Dora is a true gem of this place. She will greet you with a warm smile at the gates of the camp. I’ll be writing more about this camp in my next posts. You will see that the money you spend here, go into helping the local community.

From the lake I took Boda Boda to Kabale, then hopped on a shared car with 4 people squeezed in the back and 4 people in the front including driver …

One of the guys said I’m a brave woman for doing this alone and that he has never seen a woman by herself in a shared taxi before…

In about an hour or so we reached Kisoro.

One of the guys helped me get a Boda Boda to Nkuringo Camp for around 10 bucks.

It takes about 90 minutes on a crazy bumpy road with insanely beautiful views…

After 90 minutes on Boda Boda, I could barely feel my ass and was happy my journey was over …

my tent

I chose Lazy Camping option …

slept my first night here.. with only mattress

Blue Hour from my tent

But then they upgraded me to a tent with actual bed… from now on all tents will have beds in them at the Nkuringo Camp…

not a bad view to wake up to … right?

The day ended with local kids performing for all of us…

I even had the chance to dance with them… barefoot…

Everyone went to sleep early, because the next day was the Gorilla Trek.

It turned out, that me, Alex and his co-worker George were trekking the same group of Gorillas – Nkuringo Group.

Also was very happy to meet a lovely French lady Aurelia  

who was traveling with her daughter Maëlia independently, riding post buses, taxis and boda bodas.

We were all going to trek the same group of gorillas the next day…

In the most Impenetrable Jungle of Africa…

BWINDI

_____________________

 The woman behind the words …

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