Selam, my dear friends!

So I finally managed to get my first blog post online and it took me only one month to do so. Currently I am in Ethiopia in a small town called Gondar in the northern part of the country. I will tell you more about this fascinating country in my next post. First I will try to sum up my experiences of travelling in Kenya and Uganda:

When I arrived in Kenya I was quite happy that my bro Paddy picked my up at the airport in Nairobi. We didn’t linger at all in the capital. Instead we headed of to the outskirts of a town called Naivasha where we spent a couple of days in an amazing camp called Carnelly’s. The people were great and food and drinks were too. We also were lucky enough to be taken to a private game drive into the Oserian Wildlife Sanctuary (Thank you, Tammy!). The abundance of wildlife in every form was stunning: warthogs, giraffes, zebras, ostriches, waterbucks, buffalos, baboons, eagles, hippos and many other animals all wild and free. Even along the main roads you would always encounter loads of wildlife. After spending a couple of days in Naivasha we moved on and took a night bus to Kampala in Uganda. The 12 hours ride was the bumpiest bus ride I had in my entire life. I literally jumped out of my seat a couple of times in the middle of the night because of the bad condition the road was in. After arriving in Kampala we took another 12 hours overland bus with seats that seemed to be made for pygmies. So it came to be that I had the most painful busride of my life on top. Anyway we arrived in the Queen Elizabeth National Park where we did a couple of safaris where I saw my first leopard. The grace and subtle power of this predator literally left me speechless for an hour. It was almost too much to see a pride of 7 lions only 5 minutes after that encounter. A couple of days later we headed on towards Bwindi Impenetrable National Park where we had another amazing experience: the mountain gorillas. After a 2 hours trek into the jungle we met a family of about 12 gorillas that decided to spend an hour with us on the path. Seeing these strong yet gentle creatures in their own habitat was another humbling experience.

Another terrible bus ride later we arrived back in Kampala where I was immediately put down by a food poisoning (I’ll never eat goat stew again!). It took me a couple of days to recover but then I was back to 100% again and we jumped right into the next adventure. At the source of the White Nile river we spent a whole day trying to drown ourselves in grade V rapids doing white water rafting. It was so much fun and a great work out. The two british girls in our raft that were constantly shitting themselves and our guide making fun of them were quite entertaining too.

Uganda, your people are lovely, your nature is amazing but your food is terrible. Also seeing the difference between those two countries was very interesting. Uganda is still recovering from the Idi Amin regime but is showing very fast development. Kenya on the other side is already some steps ahead and is still the economical powerhouse of East Africa hence the shockingly high prices for all touristic activities. The first month already blew a hole in my budget.

The last 10 days we spent back in the camp in Kenya where we relaxed, enjoyed great peoples’ company and had lots of good food and drinks. Many thanks to Lovat and Chris and all the others from the Naivasha crew. You are the nicest and most welcoming people ever!

One thing I really do not like about travelling is saying good bye to the people you meet along your way. First leaving the Naivashians who made me feel like home and then saying goodbye my travel bro paddy who finally came to the end of a trip that took him around the world over a course of three years. It was a pleasure, man!

Now I am exploring the third country of my trip and I am really looking forward to it. End of October I will fly down south to Tanzania and begin my journey to Capetown where I plan to arrive around Christmas. The countries I will visit along the way are Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and maybe Namibia.

So long!

Flo

Kenya – Oserian Wildlife Sanctuary: A family of bat eared foxes at sunset

Uganda – Queen Elizabeth NP: Apparently the Buffalo is one of the most vicious animals in Africa

Uganda -Queen Elizabeth NP: A Waterbuck at sunrise

Uganda – Queen Elizabeth NP: Early morning game drive

Uganda – Queen Elizabeth NP: The elusive Leopard

Uganda – Queen Elizabeth NP: The Lions we met

Uganda – Queen Elizabeth NP: Elephant bull crossing the road

Uganda – Katunguru: Meeting locals in a small fishing village

Uganda – Bwindi Impenetrable National Park: The Silverback Gorilla

Uganda – Bwindi Impenetrable NP: Gorilla mom and baby

Uganda – Bwindi: Paddy and me donating pens and books at the Bwindi Primary School

Uganda – Jinja:White water rafting in the Nile river. Paddy and me in the front