Arriving into Uganda was a typical African experience - greeted with noise, crazy vehicles, vans with people singing and litter everywhere! Lines getting out of the airport became apparent at the exit as cars were pulling over and trying to reverse out of the barrier due to not having paid the parking ticket! After a minor delay ourselves due to a lost ticket, we finally made our way to the guest house - home for the night.

Papyrus Guest house was quiet and small - just one other couple no it was here that I met my fellow traveller - Sue. She was from North Wales, so close to my home town and was very used to travelling on her own.

Early start the next morning for the long drive to Kibale. We passed through many villages with stalls on the streets selling all kinds of things, fruit - mainly bananas and avocados. Children, cows, goats - you name it we saw it along the way.

Kibale Forrest Guest house was set bordering the Forrest reserve in beautiful grounds - this Country as a whole is very scenic. The next da we were split into smaller groups for the Chimp tracking. Not guaranteed any sightings, but we all saw several - the noise they make when they come across each other was LOUD and exactly as you would imagine it. Some parts of the trek were a bit challenging, but on the whole it stayed dry and the Forrest was beautiful. I especially liked seeing the older Chimp - he has such a wise, but sad face. Our guide explained that he was forced out of his group due to age and would spend the rest of his life alone.

I was interested to see how they heated the water here at the Guest house. They had these big chimneys at each house with stone stairs leading up. They then loaded it with wood and lit a fire under a water tank which then fed into the rooms - very cool!

Unfortunately, my travel companion Sue, had become progressively more sick as the day went on - the following 2 days were a round of Dr's, visit to the clinic and arranging a flight out for her and she was unable to continue the journey. Spent a pretty sleepless first night in Queen Elizabeth National Park with her, before seeing her off on the small plane back to Entebbe. I am happy to report that she made it home to her daughter safe - at this point the Dr's in the U.K. Feel it was a bad reaction to the anti-malarial - Malarone.

http://chimpanzeeforestguesthouse.com/