A Trek in Three Parts

Part I

(Originally written on 11/20)

It's amazing how fast life can change -- One day you are fearing for your life at the hands of a bus driver hellbent on seeing just how close he can take the bus to the drop off on the side of the road, the next you are staring down into the rain forest mountain valley that you just climbed as it fills with mist.

Yesterday, Courtney and I started our journey to western Uganda after staying the night in Old Kampala, a part of town we'd never been to before. The 5 o'clock bus left promptly at 5:29 am, right on African Time. Just after leaving the outskirts of Kampala and reaching the open roads through the hills, Courtney and I both came to the same conclusion -- Our bus driver wanted to kill us all.

He insisted on taking the hilly curves at break-neck speed. Apparently, he was trying to use the downhills to gain momentum for the uphills. To make matters worse, it had begun to rain, so the already shoddy roads were now slick, making the top-heavy bus tip slightly as it came careening around the turns. All I could picture the whole time was how it was going to tip over and fall off the road, so I spent the majority of the ride looking for soft spots for the bus to land during our eminent crash.

We finally got to Kihihi just before dark after winding through the mountain side, the road literally feet from a sheer drop off. It was gorgeous to look down into the forest valley, but equally terrifying. All of the African secondary school kids riding the bus back home thought it was hilarious how nervous the two Mzungus were about the cliff.

In Kihihi, we were able to get a boda-boda to Buhoma, our final destination. The day seemed to turn around at that point. The mountains had been beautiful during the drive Kihihi, but as the sun set, the mist rolled into the valleys and the moon shone down on the mountain sides, all of the worries from the day's journey melted away. Boda rides almost always provide great views, but this one tops them all. After an hour or so, we made it to the Buhoma Community Rest Camp, had a cup of tea and dinner, enjoyed a hot shower for the first time in months, and got a good night sleep. All of which was well needed for the day ahead.

The next day, we realized that we were going to need our passports to get into the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, the first part of our trek. Since we were not leaving Uganda, neither Courtney or I had brought ours, and we couldn't get a hole of Heather to get our passport numbers from her since the network wasn't working. So, we improvised. We sent our guide, Evarist (his parents' spelling error, not mine), to the park rangers' office with our drivers licenses and two phony numbers. I'm sure they were just formalities anyway...

Our trek started in Bwindi, a shadowy, swampy rain forest preserve known for its gorillas and chimpanzees. Unfortunately, Courtney and I saw neither but did see many different species of monkeys and birds. We even found a chameleon right at the beginning of the trail which is a sign of good luck according to Evarist. Bwindi is one of the oldest rain forests in Uganda at almost 25,000 years old, which means that the ferns, vines, trees, and moss were all very dense. Although we were in the shade for most of the forest, it was still incredibly humid, making us pretty sweaty going up and down the mountain trail.

The next part of the hike was secondary forest, meaning that it had been cleared by humans in the past for farmland but now has been restored to forest. It was nothing compared to the rainforest -- the vegetation much more spread out, few to no vines, and all the plant species had changed. After the secondary forest, we started into the farm lands. This was easily the most difficult part of the climb -- Imagine climbing up giant stairs that are made of slippery mud for an hour or two -- but it also provided the best views, the green mountain sides colliding with one another off as far as the eye can see. Once we got to the top, we were in Nkuringo, the location of our rest camp. It's nestled on the top of one of the taller mountains in the area and provides an amazing view of the surrounding mountains and, most spectacularly, a chain of five volcanoes to the south. An amazing end to a tough but rewarding journey. Now to rest and prepare for two more days of the same...