Nothing like a 14 hour bus ride from Nairobi to Kampala to start the second leg of the trip. By far the worse bus ride I have been on. Dirt rode all the way and it felt like someone was kicking you in the arse all of the way. A few times I actually had to redirect myself to the seat as I returned to mother earth after hitting a large pothole. Someone asked the driver why it was taking so long to leave and he informed us that last week a driver was shot and now we had to travel in convoys. Life can be cheap in Africa so this was a bit of a concern but no problems. One place we stopped for a bathroom break and talk about stage freight. I couldn’t find a urinal anywhere so I decided on using the great outdoors. There were 3 rats about the size of Great Danes watching me.
We make it Kampala without incident other the fact that I was not sure that everybody part was in the right place. Kampala was chaotic and without a lot to see (my opinion) however as we were walking to find our hotel we were stopped from crossing the street by a cop. About 2 minutes later who do we see in a motorcade but Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. There were so close and we got a really good look at the Queen giving the Queen’s wave. What happened next really surprised be. On the count of 3 she and Phillip hung moons out the window. My, my, the Royal Family has changed.
We went to one bar that perhaps that we should not have. It started out innocent enough but then the sex traders workers were getting really aggressive and then the guys were acting weird. A chap that we met earlier was there and basically told us that we should not be there so that was all we needed to leave. Met a couple of locals and went for some local food which was good. At one of the hostels a spider monkey was staring us down and I must say that he won. He actually took a swipe at Eddie. Eddie was ready to take on the 20 pound beast and called him a racist. After about a 5 minute slug fest I would have to say that Eddie was the winner by a split decision.
We were really anxious to see the chimps so we made our way to Kibali. We got a place to sleep and got out permits and were ready to go. We went on a nature walk and it was lashing rain. Didn’t really see anything interesting at this point but heard a funny story. The guide as telling us that the previous day that he saw a little baboon pull a bigger baboon’s organ while the big one just stared off in the distance. Really funny to hear the guide tell it.
So the next day it is off to see the primate that shares 97.3% of our genes and is smarter than I am. We trekked through the jungle for about 2 hours and found a troop high up in the trees eating, defecating at will and grooming. I was really surprised to see none of them in diapers, smoking and on roller sakes. They were a bit tough to see in the trees but amazing none the less. They are so complicated, structured and intelligent. The guide was telling us a poacher killed some chimps to steal the baby and the chimps plotted revenge and went into the village and killed the poacher’s kid. When some of the younger ones get lost they send out search parties and are good hunters. They will trap certain monkeys and will pull the branch away as he tries to flee and 20 meters below is dinner.
Your trivia for the day is chimps and humans are the only species that plan murder. So much for the roller skates. We wanted to see more of the chimps so now we went to Entebbe to go to a chimp sanctuary. This was great because we got a lot closer to the chimps. See them go crazy for food was very interesting to watch. Again, there society is so complex and there are many alliances, politics, and plotting. This was certainly the highlight of Uganda. However, I was disappointed that there were no feces flicking. After 2 weeks of African food I was ready for a good old fashion shit fight.
Entebbe is a nice town and hard to believe only an hour from Kampala. Clean, safe and peaceful. On the way to the airport the driver was telling us he can no take a short but because last week he was shot at and mugged with a pump action shot gun.
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