We woke up early the next day and took the day off in our hotel. We had breakfast, enjoyed the view and planned the visit to the park. It was not an easy task. I was really looking forward to get a 4 wheel drive car with open roof but it somehow seemed an almost impossible task.
First, we tried to arrange the drive at our hotel, but they said they could not find a car as we wanted. So, I called other hotels in the region with no luck. I tried almost all tour companies listed in my travel guide, but once we mentioned that we were at the park already, they would say, “sorry, we only organize tours leaving from Kampala.” I was almost going crazy when the girl from reception called E- and said she have found us a car with a guide and driver. E- confirmed with her many times that the car would be a 4-wheel drive with open roof. We scheduled to leave at 6:00 and went to bed happy and excited.
At 5:30AM we woke up for the drive. Our guide was there and when our car and driver arrived… well, it was just a salon car – neither 4-wheel drive or open roof. Ai ai ai…
We got into the car and headed first to the Kasenyi area in the north part of the park hoping to see hunting lions. We drove around without any luck for lions but many buffalo and gazelles. Then on our way back out we saw a couple of cars parked in one area and rushed there. At first, I only saw one lioness hiding near a rock, carefully staring at some kobs. The gazelles could sense the danger and were all frozen up staring at the area where the lioness was hidden. Then a saw a second lioness. The grass was high and our car low, so even though we were close, it was hard to spot the lioness. Our guide allowed us to open the door of the car in order to stand up on the car holding the door in front of us. Few minutes later one of the other cars passed us and the guide said there were a total of 8 lioness there and a couple of them was really near us. So we immediately got completely in the car and close the door. We waited for the action a while and then had to quit as we still needed to head far south to Ishasha before taking the boat trip we scheduled.
Ishasha is located at the south tip of the park and is very close to a region in Congo with conflicts. During our stay, the area was considered safe, which is great as it is here where you can spot tree climbing lions. We got there at 10:00 and a ranger said lions had been spotted at some fig trees. Our guide was clearly an amateur and not very skillful in spotting animals or discussing their habits. But we were always lucky to have at least one other car in view that could give us indication of where to go. The driver started to chase other cars instead of wildlife, what would invariably lead us to wildlife by default. We saw two cars parked near some fig trees and sure enough, two lionesses taking a nap.
After Ishasha, we headed north again to Kazinga Channel to take a boat trip. On our way we gave a ride to a nice soldier, but later E- confessed that we was a bit uneasy having the soldier with us and he was reading a book by a Ugandan writer which had some unpleasant passages about soldiers from the Idi Amin days. By the time we reached the boat, we were really hungry but we did not have time to stop for food as the boat was ready to leave 😦 . We jumped in for the ride. E- was quite frustrated and upset, specially due the hunger and that bought me almost to tears. We saw many hippos, a few crocodiles, buffalo and all sort of birds. At some point, we passed by a dead buffalo at the side of the river. It had its swollen belly up and tongue sticking out of its mouth. No other animals nearby. Later, we learned that it died of anthrax.
After the boat trip we were supposed to go back to Kasenyi, but we were starving and asked for a stop somewhere to eat. The food took forever to come and by the time we were done with our late lunch our guide said we did not have enough time to go up Kasenyi again. So, we drove out of the park toward the near village where we had to find another place to stay. The hotel we had spent the last few nights was too expensive and it was time to go budget again.
We checked in a small motel near the road and talked to our guide when it was time to pay about the differences between what was promised and what was delivered. As usual, we stared at a blank face that does not respond when criticized or questioned. E- asked me to give up on the inquisition as it would not take us anywhere, but I was so frustrated by the way many Ugandans do business. I will write a short post on this later. E- went to a more practical approach and simply asked for a discount, which was promptly met.
Dreaming 
