Muzungu on the Kazinga

After an amazing journey across Tanzania a couple of years ago, David and I could not wait to get back to Africa!  We wanted to do something a bit different the next time around, and when John and Michelle returned from Uganda raving about their experience, we knew just what to do!  So we booked a week-long package with Matoke Tours and invited David’s mom to come along, too.

When the three of us arrived at Entebbe on Saturday night, we were greeted by the sights and sounds of Africa – car horns blaring, people selling street food to the late-night crowds, and goats and cattle complaining while being herded through the unmarked streets.

Through the organized chaos, we located our guide, Robert.  Or as I heard him introduce himself, Robot.  I really should have thought a second longer before answering back, ‘Oh Robot?  My name’s Sarah!’  David was so embarrassed for me, and turned to silently mouth, ‘No.  RobERT.’  But on our last trip to Africa, our driver had a difficult local name to pronounce so he told us to call him Dynamite.  I thought Robert was doing something similar, but no.  His name is just Robert.  We laughed about that for the rest of the trip.

After driving for an hour, we spent a short night at the Emin Pasha Hotel in Kampala.  The hotel was a quiet oasis in the middle of a loud, busy city.  With a sparkling pool, open reception and dining areas, and mosquito nets around the beds, it was clean and comfortable.  We had a great breakfast early Sunday morning before heading to the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary.

White rhinos were declared extinct in Uganda in 1983.  In 2005, conservative efforts resulted in the importation of 6 adult rhinos into Uganda, including a couple from Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Florida.  A few years later, Obama was born.  He was aptly named, as his father was Kenyan and his mother was American, and he made history for being the first rhino born in Uganda in more than 30 years.  Now Uganda is home to 16 rhinos – 2 in the Entebbe zoo and 14 in Ziwa, with another on the way this month!

We were privileged to meet 6 out of the 14.  The tour of the sanctuary was on-foot, so before heading out, we received strict instructions from our guide (also named Robot – I mean, Robert).  We started hiking and found the rhinos within just a few minutes.  Because of continued poaching problems in Africa, rangers live with the rhinos 24/7, so the team knew exactly where to find them.

As is typical with most families, the siblings paid their mother a visit on Sunday afternoon and decided to stay in the shade of her tree.  Rhinos are solitary creatures and once the children reach a certain age, they do not return to their mother, so we were fortunate to see a family unit together.

Once the rhino population reaches 30, a majority of the animals will be relocated back to their homeland near Murchison Falls.  Visiting the rhinos was a great way to learn more about these beautiful creatures and contribute towards their reintroduction into the wild.  

On Monday morning, we started our long drive to Queen Elizabeth National Park (QENP).  Our eyes were opened on this 8-hour cross-country trip.  In Uganda, the roads go through town after town after town, whereas in Tanzania, the roads between parks were mostly empty freeway.  So during our drives through Uganda, we were able to see what rural Africa is truly like.

From Pothole Pass to Clay Way to Speedbump Lane, it was evident the infrastructure in Uganda is lacking.  So when I say roads, I could really mean any path a car uses to get from Point A to B.

We saw anything and everything during our drives – a cow being skinned and butchered on the side of the road, children as young as three carrying heavy water buckets back from the town pump ALONE, motorcycles with goats in boxes strapped to the back, and taxi motorbikes carrying as many as the driver and three passengers. 

Bananas are very popular in Uganda, and bikes would be loaded down with 

them to carry from the plantations to the village markets

Karen and I were astonished when we learned that women in Uganda do not usually drive.  Not once did we see a female behind the wheel, but we saw plenty riding side-saddle on the back of a taxi motorbike.  We could only imagine going too fast over a speed bump and flying off.  And the craziest taxi motorbike of all?  Two women on the back of a taxi, one holding an infant and the other, a dead chicken.  I don’t think that’s kosher…

The women of Uganda impressed us all.  While the men worked hard carrying heavy goods on the backs of their bikes, the women carried them on their heads (and usually with a baby also strapped to their backs).  David was shamed when we got to our last lodge, and the porter (a woman) easily picked up our 50-lb suitcase, balanced it atop her head, and walked up two flights of stairs to deliver it to our room!

We were able to look past the poverty to discover that Uganda is a beautiful country, both the landscape and the people.  The sense of community and togetherness was evident in each town we visited.  Without technology like cell phones and computers, everyone seemed to spend their time outside together – socializing with their neighbors, playing soccer, and tilling the fields. 

Ugandans are also some of the friendliest people we have ever met on our travels.  As we drove through the country, almost every child we saw waved enthusiastically and shouted, ‘How are you, Muzungu?!’  We quickly learned that Muzungu is the Ugandan word for ‘whitey.’  It’s a term of endearment, but when literally translated, it means someone who roams around aimlessly, like a lost, white tourist.

Halfway through our journey, we stopped at Fort Portal, home to the King of Uganda’s palace and parliament.  We had a traditional lunch of bananas, g-nut sauce (peanut sauce, but not like the Thai version) with potatoes, and bean stew with rice and spicy chili sauce.

This is so random, but I noticed this billboard across from our table at lunch.  The model in this mobile phone ad is wearing the same reindeer leggings that I bought for myself this past Christmas!  I know for a fact that White Plum does not ship outside the US (as I tried to have my pair delivered to London with no success) so this must have been shot in America to look like a group of young Ugandans... false advertising!

After finishing our lunch, we drove a few more hours before arriving at QENP.  But before we could enter the park, we had to cross the equator.

David is in the Southern Hemisphere, Karen is on the equator, and I'm in the Northern Hemisphere

During our first game drive, David and I were shocked when the ranger accompanying us got out of the car to better see the lions in the distance.  Later, Robert instructed David to also get out of the car to get a better picture of a hippo crossing the road.  Hippos are wicked fast, so this probably should not have been allowed.  But with all of that freedom came added protection.  We were escorted by armed men and women nearly every day of the trip. 

In Ishasha, we were joined by a gun-toting man named Innocence on our drive through the park to find the tree-climbing lions.  As I was wondering why we needed a gun in the safety of our vehicle, Robert and Innocence pointed out that we would be having lunch at a scenic spot along the river, at the border of the Congo!  Innocence was there not only to protect us from the hippos in the river and any hungry lions that may wander into our camp, but also the Congolese militants across the border.

After a successful first game drive in QENP, where we spotted elephants, lions, cape buffalo, antelope, and warthogs, we arrived at the luxury tents we would be calling home for the next three days at Mweya Safari Lodge. 

The accommodations on this trip were amazing. I was a bit nervous to stay in a tent for three nights, but when we got to Mweya and saw it, I shut up. It was so Out of Africa. And the views across the Kazinga Channel were wonderful.

But the first night in the tent, I have to admit, I was scared.  We had decided to sleep with the door’s window-shade rolled up, so we could be woken by the sunrise the next morning.  But that night, heat lightning began flashing and a fierce windstorm blew through, rattling the flaps against the windows and shaking the tent.  The porch furniture scraped against the wood all night as it was moved along by the howling wind.  I kept imagining a hippo or family of elephants tearing through the tent, seeking shelter from the storm.  Every noise I heard, I swore was a lion looking for a midnight snack, ready to tear his claws into our room. 

We survived the night, and the two peaceful storm-free nights after that.  Tucked into our beds each evening, we could hear animals around us, and each morning after, we would wake up to find scat in our yard.

Between our morning game drives and afternoon boat safaris, we spent hours idling on our porch, watching the elephants wade in the water, listening to the hippos huff and puff, reading books, and jotting down notes of our trip so far.

Even though David and I had been on safari before, there were a host of new things to see in Uganda – such as a hippo strolling across the savannah and an albino hippo. 

We also saw elephants swimming in the channel.  While we’d seen them wading in watering holes in the past, we’d never actually seen them swimming. 

The elephants in Uganda are loud and proud!  In this video, we were driving down the road to our lodge and stopped to take some photos of a family having breakfast in the bush.  When the mother wanted to cross the street, she started to trumpet and didn’t stop – even as we drove away.  The best part is when she gets out into the road, begins to cross the street, and looks back at us as if to say, ‘That’s right, humans, outta my way!’

The elephants could also be very shy at times.  They would often walk away when people in cars or boats started to approach.  But when they didn’t think anyone was looking, they let loose.  One afternoon, David and I were watching them with our binoculars from our porch across the channel and a couple of young elephants began rough-housing in the water.  In this picture, the baby is completely upside down. 

If you look closely at the elephants in the center, you can see a young one completely upside down in the water, with its feet up in the air!

Along the Kazinga Channel that separates Lake Edward and Lake George, the elephant, cape buffalo, hippos, Nile crocodile, and baboons live harmoniously together.  They also live peacefully with the people from the fishing villages.  We wouldn’t dare go on-shore for fear of being met with a Nile crocodile or angry buffalo, but we saw plenty of boys pulling in their catch of the day next to a group of hippos, and we even saw a lone elephant strolling through the village on its way to get a drink of water from the channel.

Along with our new experiences, there were the usual sites:  lions lazing the day away in the tall grass, monkeys watching cars pass from the tops of trees, and newborn elephants sticking close to their mamas.

Uganda is also a bird-lovers paradise and we saw numerous brightly-colored winged creatures.  We aren’t even that into birds, but even we had to stop to admire them.  They would swarm around us any time we were outside, picking insects out of the air to eat.  And at night, the bats would fly around our porch looking for food.

Besides spending our downtime at Mweya Lodge viewing the wildlife from our porches, we were encouraged to take advantage of the local activities like yoga and nature walks.  David participated in his first-ever yoga class with me one afternoon, and the two of us braved a walk outside the lodge grounds another.  Karen was not into doing either, which was probably smart when it came to the walk.  Even on the grounds of the lodge, we saw mongoose foraging for beetles and running amuck, and a lonely warthog eating grass on the lawn.  So who knew what we would find down the road outside the safety of Mweya?  (But even Mweya wasn’t that safe – at night and in the early mornings while it was dark, we had to be driven from our tents to the dining room to avoid walking across a leopard or lion on the open grounds.)

But we went for a walk anyway.  When we began seeing large dung heaps along the road, I began to get nervous.  After about fifteen minutes, we found an old airstrip filled with waterbuck and warthogs.  The warthogs were much scarier up-close than in our Landcruiser.  Their heads and tusks are huge!  I was taking a picture of David when we heard a hippo or an elephant or a buffalo in the bush behind him.  Needless to say, both our hearts started racing.

Even though David was obviously nervous, he wanted to carry on.  I didn’t want to walk back by myself, so I stayed with him.  A couple of minutes later, David noticed some movement in the bush ahead and announced, ‘Ah, there’s a water buffalo right there!’  We had been warned to avoid lone buffalo because it meant they were ornery males cast out of the herd.  So we both immediately turned around and started speed-walking back to Mweya.  (David had learned his lesson after getting spooked by a rhino in Ziwa a couple of days before.  Instead of running this time and getting yelled at to avoid becoming a moving target, he calmly walked away.)

That was the last of our solo nature walks.

And this is the last of the blog.  Next up, the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest.

In the Land of Fire and Ice

Since moving to London, David and I had been wanting to travel to Iceland to see the Northern Lights.  As the lights are brightest during the cold winter months, the timing never quite worked out for us.  But this year, we vowed to get the trip booked and take a weekend to visit the land of fire and ice.

We booked a package through Icelandair that flew us direct from Heathrow to Reykjavik late Thursday night, with a return flight booked for Sunday evening, giving us two and a half days to see the Northern Lights, Blue Lagoon, Golden Circle, and Reykjavik.

When we arrived at our hotel in the center of Reykjavik, we noticed Americans everywhere!  Usually when we travel around Europe, we will see Americans at some of the more popular destinations, like Paris or Rome.  But Iceland?  We met a few groups of American tourists on our excursions, at dinner, and hanging out in the hotel bar so we asked them, 'why Iceland?'.  Well, it turns out that Icelandair flies direct to Reykjavik from Minneapolis and Boston, as well as other destinations around the US.  And apparently there was a great Groupon deal that many couldn’t pass up!  So to all of my family and friends in Minnesota, if you’re looking for a fun getaway, keep your eyes peeled for travel discounts and seriously consider Iceland.  There is so much to do.  From whale-watching to dog-sledding to horse-back riding across a volcano, the possibilities are endless and it's easier to get to than you might think!

Before our boat tour on Friday evening to see the lights over the harbour of Reykjavik, we spent the day at the Blue Lagoon.

We’d heard great things about the lagoon and its healing waters, but I think everyone was surprised when we drove up and realized the lagoon is not natural, but man-made, with its water supply coming from the nearby geothermal power plant.  Haha, either way, the waters were warm and inviting and we had a good time.

The lagoon spa is located in a lava field about 45 minutes from Reykjavik.  The temperature of the water is around 100 degrees F, while the outside temperature was freezing!  When we got outside, we had to quickly jump out of our robes and make a mad dash for the water before freezing our bums off!

Once in the water, there are steam rooms, saunas (one of them carved out of the lava rock), mud pits (for DIY facials), and a swim-up bar. 

The funniest moment of the trip happened as David and I were floating around a group of American frat boys.  Everyone at the spa receives a free volcanic or algae scrub for their face and neck when they arrive.  Even the frat boys were getting in on the action, and they suddenly realized why women love spas and beauty treatments so much.  We heard one of them exclaim, ‘Dude, my face feels so smooth!  Bro, feel my face!  Ohmygosh, this is the smoothest my body has ever been!  Let’s get more mud!’

After that, David wasn’t embarrassed to try out the face masks.

Before we knew it, we had spent 4 hours in the water and it was time to go!

Our boat tour was at 8:00 that night, so we only had a couple of hours after the Blue Lagoon to shower, dress, and eat dinner.  So we decided to grab a quick bite at our hotel.  We were blown away by the food at the new Satt restaurant at Hotel Natura.   Because the hotel is simple and affordable, we didn’t expect the food to be that great.  We were so wrong.

We each had a three course dinner featuring Icelandic specialities.  We started with brie croquettes (delicious!) and for our mains, David chose the pan-fried ling (a white fish) with artichokes and I had lamb with root vegetables.  And to finish the meal, David had the dessert of the day, hazelnut crunch covered in custard and topped off with chocolate chips.  Being in Iceland surrounded by volcanoes, I had the lava cake oozing with rich, dark chocolate sauce.  After we were done eating, we just kind of looked at each other and realized, that was one the best meals we’ve had in a long time.  Every part of the meal, from start to finish, was fantastic.  And that’s hard to find.

That night, we boarded our boat and headed out into the bay. 

I felt like an Alaskan crab fisherman in my flotation overalls, but they sure did keep me warm!

Our guide proceeded to tell us all about the northern lights, and how they work.  Then she explained that because it was a bit cloudy, the lights would be difficult to see.  However, our cameras would pick up the colors better than the naked eye.  So we were told to take a picture if we thought we spotted something… and sure enough, as she was talking, a faint green light began to appear over the mountains.  Unfortunately, because we were on a swaying boat, the tripod we had borrowed from friends didn’t work that well, so the pictures are a bit blurry.

We stayed out for a few of hours, watching the lights eerily appear behind the clouds and grow stronger, before moving across the sky, disappearing, and coming back again.  And even though it was cloudy, our guide told us that she actually liked our pictures because the lights appearing behind the clouds made them look more mystical than usual. 

The next morning, we woke up early for our Golden Circle tour.  After driving for a couple of hours, our first stop was a greenhouse to better understand how Icelanders produce their own food year-round, even in extreme temperatures.

We met a farmer and his family that grows tomatoes, and got an overview of how technology is helping him to be successful.  After the presentation, David had a Bloody Mary while I tried the tomato soup – an unusual, but yummy, breakfast.

From there, we made our way to Gullfoss, Iceland’s most popular waterfall.  

What amazed me most about the waterfall was how cold it must get to actually freeze the water as it’s coming over the edge.  Most of the water was frozen but the waterfall was still powerful.  We could only imagine how spectacular the falls must be in the peak of summer with all of the water rushing over!

The wind at Gullfoss was extreme.  As we made our way down into the canyon carved out by the Hvítá River, it got worse and worse.  I thought it was even stronger than the winds at the Cliffs of Moher, and that wind was intense!  With the wind-chill, it was unbelievably cold.  I had my hood up and most of my face covered.  David took off his hat for pics (so it wouldn’t blow away) and braved the temperature, but I told him I would just try to smile with my eyes…

After snapping a few photos and trying not to blow off the cliff, we hopped back in our coach to head to the geyser. 

While driving, I was taking pictures of the beautiful Icelandic horses.  I realized later, when going through all of the photos, that in the background (to the left of the glacier) the geyser is going off.  Good timing!

After watching the geyser bubble over and explode out of the ground a few times, we headed to our next stop in the Golden Circle – Þingvellir National Park.

It’s here that Parliament was established in 930, shortly after Iceland was settled by a Norwegian chief.  Its location was central to most tribes, and they would gather regularly to enact laws and settle disputes.

Þingvellir is also the site of the North American and European continental divide.   The violent, ever-changing landscape of Iceland was evident as we walked through the cliff-lined gully.  Every year, the plates drift apart one inch, literally ripping Iceland in half. 

When I saw this picture, I joked to David that it looked as if I was in the arctic tundra.  And then I realized, I was kind of in the arctic tundra! 

One of our friends, Laura (who you may remember as the winner of the 2013 London Texas Exes Halloween costume contest), just happened to be in Iceland during the same weekend as us.  So we met up with her and a few other people for dinner at Sjavargrillid later that night.

After a large dinner of arctic char for David and lobster pasta for me, we went on the hunt for the Northern Lights again!  This time, David and I hitched a ride with Laura and our friends in their rental cars and drove back out to Þingvellir.  We’d heard this was a great place to see the lights, away from the glare of the city lights, but close enough to drive to and from in one night.

We didn’t need to go far to see the lights, though, because as we were walking to the house Laura and company had rented for the weekend, David and I looked up and just happened to notice the Northern Lights right above us – in the middle of Reykjavik!

It was pretty cool to see green streaking across the sky, over the rooftops.  It’s much more difficult to see the lights in the city due to the brightness caused by the man-made light, which meant that the lights were pretty strong on Saturday to break through. 

We rushed to the cars, piled in, and started driving.  As we approached the national park, I thought it was so strange that we could drive right through.  That would not be the case in America… there would be a park ranger in a booth charging an entrance fee, or more likely, the park would be closed after-hours.

Nope.  Not in Iceland. 

We just drove right in and parked near Þingvallavatn Lake, the largest lake in Iceland known for its crystal clear waters.

We didn’t need to wait at all for the lights to show up; they were already there.  The green was much stronger and we even saw a bit of purple.  Best part was, we weren’t on a boat, so David could use the tripod to take clear photos.

We spent a lot of time in the park, hanging out, messing around with our cameras, and watching the lights.  

Only towards the end of the night did we realize how to actually take pictures so we could see our faces, but by then everyone was too cold to stand outside, holding perfectly still for the 30-second shutter.

Because we didn't get back to our hotel until well after 2AM, we slept in on Sunday morning.  We spent our last couple of hours in Iceland exploring Reykjavik.  We strolled along the historic harbour, had lunch at Seabaron (recommended to us by Nicole, whom we had shared a meal and car-ride with the night before), and shopped on Laugavegur Street. 

Seabaron is known for its hearty bowls of lobster bisque

Out of the 300,000 people that live in Iceland, 1/3 of them reside in Reykjavik, the world's northernmost capital.  With a population of only 100k, space is not limited so the houses in the city center were larger than we'd seen in any other capital city.

Cute red house tucked behind one of the main roads.

Best house we saw?  This tree house of course!  Shutters, a bridge to the main house, a rope ladder, and window-boxes.  This is definitely the coolest treehouse we've ever seen!

Finally, we walked to Hallsgrimskirkja, the largest church in Iceland, and took the lift to the top to get a great view of the city and ocean beyond.

Statue of Leif Erikson, who discovered America well before Columbus

After nearly four years of living in London, we finally made it to Iceland and we were successful in our hunt for the Northern Lights.  Mission accomplished!