The following day we again loaded up the car, and this time drove back along the road towards a National Park, where we planned to spend the next two days. The guidebook says of this park, “Seldom visited by tourists due to the expense and difficulty of getting there, Kidepo is nevertheless one of the most alluring destinations in the country, boasting a strong wilderness atmosphere, rugged mountain scenery and exceptional game viewing.”
Met at the gate by some rather enthusiastic park rangers who asked more than enough questions to establish the entrance fees that we needed to pay, we were finally in the park after 30 minutes of “chit-chat”. The one park ranger offered to give me his telephone number – a nice change from the usual asking for MY number!
Just inside the gate, though, we were met with some zebras and hartebeests!
The safari was off to a great start!
A had booked us 4 bandas to stay in at the park headquarters. However, once we got there (around 4:30pm), we found that they had given away our reserved bandas to some tourist who had NOT previously booked! So there we were, 6 adults and 2 kids and only one banda with a double bed available for sleeping in. The only other place to stay within about a 2 hour drive was the very fancy and over-the-top Apoka Lodge, for about $300 per person, per night! A banda cost $20 per night. So what to do? Since A had been in the park many times before, she suggested that T take us all out on an evening game drive, and she would stay to put some pressure on the folks who gave away our reserved bandas for them to find us a place to sleep for the night.
While I did feel a little bad about leaving A there to solve our problems, I had to admit, it was great to get out on a game drive! We left the trusty little Corona parked at the bandas and piled into the Patrol. The scenery was stunning, and we saw quite a few animals, as well. The biggest herd of African Buffalo in East Africa lives in the park, and we saw a herd of probably 1000 of them gathered together for their evening meal. We saw some giraffes, including a tiny little baby, lots of elephants, some rock hyraxes (which were SO cute!) and some reedbucks, little oribis, dikdiks… and lots of birds. But I don’t know the names of any of the birds that we saw!
Upon returning to the park headquarters, we found our little lodging problem partially solved. Actually, it ended up working out really well for me, Grace and the wee ones! The park staff ended up putting us up in one of the cottages that belonged to the fancy schmancy Lodge! It was just down the hill from the Lodge, and was meant to house the drivers for the folks at the Lodge. It was really quite nice – still a bit “rustic”, as it was a thatch cottage with cold running water. But it had all the same linens that they use up in the fancy $300/per person/night lodge, as well as fancy little shampoos and soaps in the bathroom. The beds were these beautiful four-poster wooden beds, draped in really nice mosquito nets. Here's the pool from the fancy schmancy lodge that we did NOT stay in:
The best part was a little veranda which looked out over a little meadow, which just happened to be full of buffalo, warthogs, jackals and reedbucks! You could sit on the veranda and view the game 20 feet from your front door! And we paid $25/per night!
I didn’t want to vocally appreciate it too much, though, as our friends ended up with 4 of t hem in the same banda – two on the bed and two on mattresses on the floor, in a room with a leaky toilet all night. But with 4 of them in a room for $20, it only cost them $5 each!
Anyway, we woke up bright and early the next morning again and stood on the side of the road behind our little cottage, waiting for the Patrol to come and fetch us for our morning game drive.
We had arranged for a ranger to come along with us to help us find some animals this time… but it seems the tourists who stole our bandas also nabbed our ranger first thing in the morning before we got to him! So we were on our own… But we still saw some incredible animals, very up close and personal.
A little picnic breakfast of freshly brewed coffee and chapattis smeared with peanut butter and nutella gave us strength to continue the hunt for creatures.
And we were determined to find some lions!
We had to take a little break at one point to stretch our legs and climb a tree… and just as we were climbing, a van with a bunch of Aussies and a ranger came by. They called out that they had seen some lions… so we all scrambled back into the Patrol, and roared off into the bush to track the lions behind this van.
And sure enough:
Incredible. We were so close. And the lions just sat there and looked at us. And we just sat there and looked at them. They were so beautiful.
After seeing those lions so up close, everything else seemed a bonus – we were all happy with our safari experience! Plus, it was getting close to lunch time, so we slowly made our way back to the lodge.
As soon as we arrived at our little cottage, someone came by and said, “Sorry, we came by at 7:30am this morning to take your breakfast order, but you were already gone…”
So, even though it was noon, we proceeded to order our breakfast – since it was included in what we had paid for the room! And what a breakfast! We had Spanish omlettes, sausage, toast and a huge chunk of chedder cheese!
After eating a bit, the wee ones (and the not-so-wee ones!) took a little rest. I also spent some time sitting on the veranda, alternately enjoying the warthogs and baby reedbucks chasing some sort of rodent-type creature through the grass, and my book. What a way to spend a day, eh?
Our friends had to get back to Kbng that evening, as their visitors had to catch a bus back down to Entebbe to catch their flights to the States on New Year’s Eve. But we got to spend one more night in our little cottage. We had heard there were a few more lions hanging out in the bush near the Lodge, so we followed our friends’ Patrol in our Corona to where the lions were supposedly hanging out. At the side of the road, we parked the Corona and piled into the Patrol again to go off the road a bit. And sure enough, we found 5 huge male lions, sleeping off their meal of buffalo steak, which they had just polished off. These lions were also incredible – so big! They even had big manes, and they looked so healthy! It was pretty hard to get pictures of them, though, as they were hiding in the brush and trying to stay in the shade a bit.
After saying farewell to our friends, we went out for yet another game drive in the evening in our trusty little Corona this time. Admittedly, with the high grass, it was a bit difficult to see too many animals. But you couldn’t exactly miss the elephants or giraffes!
Another good sleep in our little cottage, and yet another early morning game drive. This time, though, we had to head toward the park gate, because we had to make it back to Entebbe. We only made one wrong turn inside the park. Again, there was a dearth of signs pointing anyone in any right direction to get anywhere! And of course, no maps or information brochures or anything to tell you where to go in the park. The only info we had was “go towards Idi Amin’s old palace and then turn left along the mountains”. Well, we found the palace ok – it’s hard to miss, as it’s the giant 200 room lodge that Idi Amin was in the process of building on a hillside when things went a little belly up for him.
I wasn’t sure we were going to make it through the herd of buffalo standing on the road, either. It was a bit scary trying to coax a herd of buffalo to make way for a Corona, but the big fellows did end up clearing a space in the road for us to go through. We were both a bit too nervous to remember to take pictures, though!
Anyway, we did make it to the gate before the gate guards were even awake, I think. Thankfully, the gate wasn’t locked or anything, and I got to practice my wildlife ranger skills and open the gate for the Corona to drive through.
As we were driving outside the park, and looking for a place to do some wild peeing, we realized we were driving through yet another little group of buffalo who were hiding in the thick brush. Not exactly the best place to stop and get out of the car! So we kept going. And we even stayed on the right road this time! At one point we did end up turning around and going to ask a group of soldiers if we were on the right road or not… and sure enough, we were on the right road!
The trip back to Entebbe was pretty non-eventful – which is a good thing when you’re talking about a road trip in these parts! There was certainly more traffic on the road, though still a lot more pedestrian and bicycle traffic than the 4 wheeled variety.
Driving through the countryside, I was quite amazed to see how much everyone was working. People were digging, carrying, planting, harvesting, transporting… everyone, including the children, were doing something productive. I hate to say it, but I’m not used to seeing that in the country where I usually live. It was kind of nice to see people working instead of sitting around and drinking tea! But man, it would be hard work to live out in those areas. Everything would take work – from hauling your water from the stream or bore hole to digging in the fields to get your food… everything would be a lot of hard manual labour! I think I’m just too lazy for that sort of thing, to tell you the truth!
I was also surprised to see how many cotton fields there were in that area. All of the towns had a small warehouse where people could bring their cotton, and there were trucks being packed full of cotton. Makes me want to go and learn more about where this cotton ends up! And the fact that the people are growing a sort of cash crop – does that mean they’re growing enough food for themselves to eat that they have extra land and energy to grow a cash crop? Or does it mean that they’re getting cash for their cotton and having to buy grain and food, instead of growing it for themselves? It would be really interesting to know what the economic situation in that area actually is, instead of making speculations as we did our drive-by!
Though there was more traffic on the road going back, it was still relatively quiet on the road, which was nice. And we ended up getting back to Entebbe by dinner time!
All in all, it was a very, very memorable Christmas holiday!
