Category: Uganda

Uganda 🇺🇬
Year-To-Date; Completed Travel Stats

Currently through:
January 2, 2020
Total Miles Traveled to date:
81,999 Miles

Since November of 2018:

1. Vietnam 🇻🇳✅
   12,906 Miles
2. Cambodia 🇰🇭✅
   1,860 Miles
3. Vietnam 🇻🇳✅
   (again)
   870 Miles
4. Malaysia, Borneo🇲🇾✅
   3,155 Miles
5. Brunei 🇧🇳 ✅
   672 Miles
6. Philippines 🇵🇭✅
   4,112 Miles
7. Papua N. Guinea🇵🇬✅
   7,478 Miles
8. Philippines 🇵🇭✅
   4,112 Miles
9. Taiwan 🇹🇼✅
   1,817 Miles
10. South Korea 🇰🇷 ✅
    3,516 Miles
11. Japan 🇯🇵✅
    1,866 Miles
12. Kazakhstan 🇰🇿✅
13. Kyrgyzstan 🇰🇬✅
14. Uzbekistan 🇺🇿✅
15. Tajikistan 🇹🇯✅
16. Turkmenistan 🇹🇲✅
    6,355 Miles
17. Mongolia 🇲🇳✅
    4,854 Miles
18. Kazakhstan 🇰🇿✅
    (again)
    3,851 Miles
19. UAE 🇦🇪✅
    2,147 Miles
20. India 🇮🇳✅
    9,742 Miles
21. Sri Lanka 🇱🇰 ✅
    1,803 Miles
22. Thailand 🇹🇭 ✅
    1,630 Miles
23. Indonesia 🇮🇩 ✅
    1,750 Miles
24. Singapore 🇸🇬 ✅
    1,231 Miles
25. Uganda 🇺🇬 ✅
    6,574 Miles

To get to our 25th Stop:
Uganda 🇺🇬
We flew by plane from Singapore 🇸🇬 to Mumbai, India 🇮🇳, then to Nairobi, Kenya, and on to Entebbe, Uganda 🇺🇬
6574 Miles

We traveled by way of: Plane ✈️, Taxi 🚕, Boat, 4×4, walking,

List of Traveling Points

Entebbe, Kampala, Lake Victoria; mouth of the Nile River….On Safari:
Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, Mbarara, ‪Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, ‬Queen Elizabeth National Park, Ishasha Sector, Kasenyi Plains, Mweya; Kazinga Channel, Kibale National Park, Murchison Falls National Park, Murchison Falls; Launch Cruise on the Nile, and Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary; 997 miles point to point

We began (again) from LAX, California, USA 🇺🇸
November 2, 2018. We were gone for another full-time year of travel, prior, but did not have an official travel blog yet. Relying on Facebook too much, proved to be disastrous

Our newly designed travel blog is up and running:

2 Gypsies In The Wind
https://2gypsiesinthewind.com/

We still have our replacement Facebook accounts that we will continue to use, some; for memory posts, general commentary, and videos:

Pen’s: Bunny Chronicles
https://m.facebook.com/Bunny-Chronicles-100562418040250/

Daryl’s: World Traveler
https://m.facebook.com/worldtraveleronthego/

In addition, I have photos available for viewing, which go way far back in our world travel on my photo website:

picsbypen.smugmug.com

I have visited 74 countries thus far, and Daryl around 50. We have many more country adventures ahead!

The highlight of our journey to Uganda was to track the wild Mountain Gorillas “somewhere” in the large protected mountain reserve. It was the actual purpose for this fully packed 8-day Safari adventure.

On Christmas morning, we were up and on the go, early. We had driven an 11-hour day, the day before from Kampala, to reach our first reserve, Track the Golden Monkey, then make our way, by dark, to Bwindi, where we would be ready for our Christmas morning activity. We were quite surprised to see the number of other travels who chose Christmas Day to track the Gorillas.

We would have eight incredible Safari days; on a Safari, unlike any other Safari we have ever been on. This safari was light on game drives from a jeep, and more on hiking, and boating to see the wildlife; right along with some full-day drives to get from one reserve to the next. Most of the drives were very scenic and enjoyable, where we went through numerous remote villages. It is always enjoyable to observe the life of the locals, going about their day-in and day-out activities. The roads are pretty torn up for the most part, as they are creating better ones, that will be in place one day.

It was not until we met at the briefing building in Bwindi, where we would learn which Gorilla family was selected for us to get to find, observe, and take photos for one hour, after we get to the family. Trackers go out early in the morning to locate each family, and report back. In small groups of 8 people, several groups set out in different directions to find their assigned Gorilla families. It was very exciting! In our case, we got a family called Habinyanja, so we got in the jeep and drove about 25 minutes to a trailhead, where we were let out, and with two armed guards; one in the front and one in the backs long with a guide, we began our climb. They call them Mountain Gorillas for a reason!

We would spend five hours on this Christmas Day finding, observing and returning from the Gorillas. The thrill, seeing my first glimpse of the large Apes was life changing. Here was a small family, peacefully going about their lives; eating, climbing trees, grooming, and playing.. When they moved, we moved. When they settled, we settled. The hike in was not easy, but we hired two porters to carry our bag, water and lunch. They helped us up from slipping down the mountainside in the mud, and they pulled us up the mountain, in the equally slippery mud. We waded through marshes, stickers, stinging nettles, and bee hives; along a tea plantation at the boundary of the reserve for awhile. The leader with the rifles, also had a machete and would cut in a trail, that we would follow, The cut vines and thick, soft floor of the jungle had me sinking, and getting vines wrapped around my feet, constantly. Between my walking stick and the porter, we came through it all. I have no desire to do another trek like that, but I would not have wanted to go my lifetime without this opportunity to see the Wild Gorilla. Bucket list for sure, that is complete ✅! It was the most incredible experience, ever! Nothing compares to seeing a Gorilla look right at you, or walk right by you. I thought they would smell super musky and strong, but I did not smell anything. They were all very clean, and incidentally, as hot as it was to sweat through this hike, December is a very good time to go, as the bugs are far less, because it is considered a cooler time of the year. I got eaten up plenty by the pesky mosquitos, but not at this higher elevation as much. I heard it is far worse at other times of the year.