The final leg of our seven month journey had begun! Both excited and a little sad, we couldn’t think of a better way to finish than with a two week overland safari through Kenya and Uganda to see the amazing landscapes and wildlife – including the rare mountain gorillas.
We enjoyed a couple of extra days unwinding in Livingstone where our riverfront villa provided the perfect view of the Zambezi, before hitting the skies for the second last time heading for Nairobi.
Day one and we met our group, jumped in our 4×4 truck hybrid heading for Lake Nakuru National Park.
An afternoon game drive was a great way to start our trip and we were overwhelmed by the amount of animals, from herds of buffalo and zebra, to a million baboons, antelope, hyena, jackals, rhino and a few active hippos by the lake’s edge.
The next two days we had a couple of long drives ahead of us. We had an overnight stop in Eldoret, before we crossed the border into Uganda, also called The Pearl of Africa. Along the way we crossed the equator a couple of times and stopped for a photo to mark the occasion.
It was then on to Queen Elizabeth National Park (QENP) for two nights. QENP was named after Her Majesty following a visit in the 1950s.
Rising early we had a big day ahead of us, starting with a morning game drive. Driving into the park, it didn’t take us long to find wildlife with an abundance of buffalo, antelope and ‘Pumbas’ (wart hogs).
Making our way further into the park and we were greeted by a massive herd of elephants who were quite active, playing and making lots of noise!
Our guide got a call from a fellow ranger and before we knew it, he took off wheels spinning leaving dust in his wake as he told us we were heading for some lions! We luckily arrived in one piece as our Speedy Gonzales driver found a lioness and two cubs playing on the side of the road.
The cubs were curious and playful and mum was keeping a watchful eye making sure her babies didn’t wander too far. It was an incredible experience and one we will remember for a long time.
We went back to camp for a nice lunch before heading out again for our afternoon trek through the dense jungle of Kyambura Gorge to see wild chimpanzees.
Our afternoon guide Robert has been a ranger in QENP for 15 years and was a pro.
We hiked for around an hour, coming across an elephant and within metres of several hippos who gave us a fright with their loud grunting.
Our efforts were soon rewarded when we discovered three male chimpanzee eating fruit and grooming each other in one of the trees.
We watched them for around an hour as our guide had an inkling they would eventually come down from their tree.
Our patience paid off. We watched the three chimpanzees climb down the tree and we followed them as they walked along the jungle floor.
They eventually walked up into the bush and we made our way up a steep incline to the top of the gorge. Little did we know, our fast route to the top wasn’t for nothing. Roberts instincts were bang on again and before we knew it, we saw the three chimps come out of the gorge and cross the road into the Savannah in front of us.
We slowly but surely made our way towards the chimps while they ate from the thicket of bush, eventually getting as close as two/three metres away.
We watched them for a while and one passed right by Tom, before we made our way out of the park and back to camp.
The next day we were back on the road heading for Lake Bunyonyi. If there’s one thing we can say about the drives, the views were never boring…
After checking in our group hopped in a boat heading for the Little Angels Mission Uganda – a school and orphanage for local children who had either lost their parents or come from very poor families.
The charity was created six years ago by a young guy named Duncan who was sponsored by a UK family growing up. He decided to give back to the community by starting Little Angels and at the moment he is supporting around 350 kids with the help of sponsors, donations and local foster families.
We joined some of the older kids in class, before spending time together singing and dancing. A couple of us taught a song or two, including kookaburra sits in the old gumtree.
The next morning we were up very early to make our way to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park to see the rare mountain gorillas.
There’s only around 700 left in the wild and to see them requires one of few permits they allow per day and a challenging trek through dense and often tricky terrain.
Our group of seven were lucky enough to score the head guide Augustine, who would lead us to one of the largest gorilla families in Bwindi.
An hour into our trek and Augustine led us off the path and into the forest as the trackers ahead of us had found the gorillas.
Another hour and a half of trekking through thick forest, with plenty of slips and spills by our group and we finally came across the Mishaya gorilla family with one big silverback, 10 females and around seven babies.
Our guide and trackers helped us get quite close to the gorillas, as we watched the babies play and beat their chests and mothers eat. The silverback was the biggest in the area, weighing around 250kg and at one point we got a little too close into his personal space as he charged at us, teeth out and grunting (nearly pooped our pants).
Our guide knew it was just a warning though so we gave him a little more space as we watched him walk through the jungle and chew on some branches.
We spent around an hour with the family before it was time to leave, with a nice long trek through thick jungle to make our way back to the starting point.
An up close and personal experience with the mountain gorillas was an amazing experience we will remember for a long time. Our permit fees go directly towards the conservation and protection of these gorillas, with hopes their numbers will slowly increase.
Our final day in Lake Bunyonyi was spent by the shore line enjoying some sun baking, swimming and reading with our friends as we relaxed and recovered from our epic day of gorilla trekking.
After a relaxing day we were back on the road heading for Jinja, a town bordering on the Nile in Uganda.
We arrived at our camp site just in time for an incredible sunset over the famous river.
The next day we signed up for a two hour horse riding safari which took us along the shore of the Nile and through many local villages and farms where children ran out to greet us, and were excited to see horses.
After enjoying a relaxing afternoon it was all aboard the sunset cruise aka the “booze cruise” (tell a bunch of Aussies it’s all you can drink in two hours… Challenge accepted) which took us up the Nile past farms and towards a dam wall.
Our last day in Jinja Tom and I splashed out on a couple of massages ($11 for half an hour BARGAIN) and cooled off with a swim and some fun on the local zip line.
That night we enjoyed one last incredible sunset over the Nile.
The next morning we were up early and back on the bus for our long drive back into Kenya. Our last two nights of our Overland Safari tour would be spent at Crayfish Camp on the massive Lake Naivasha.
We took it pretty easy here, chilled out, lapped up the sunshine and enjoyed a boat cruise along the lake in which we spotted several hippo families and tried to entice the local African Fish Eagles to come down from their perches and enjoy our fish offering (the Eagles weren’t biting).
On the final day of our tour we had a short truck ride back to Nairobi, stopping again at the magnificent view of the Great Rift Valley, in which we said goodbye to Africa.
Shortly after, we would say goodbye to our new friends, repack and mentally prepare for our flight home the next day.
Having a taste of Africa was a fantastic way to finish an epic seven months of around-the-world travel, but we’re now ready to head home and start the next adventure, whatever that might be.
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