I haven’t had much luck on airplanes. On a previous flight, the flight attendant announced that someone was going to have to move to the back of the plane since there was too much weight in the front. I didn’t think much of it until she asked me to move to balance it out. After de-planing a different flight to Hawaii there was a large sign saying, “Looking for Amy Andree,” where I almost got arrested but that is a story for another time. While planning my trip to Uganda, the company I booked through thought I was a man and since I didn’t have the heart to correct him, I ended up with a flight booked under, “Mr. Amy Andree.” After finally speaking up he said I shouldn’t have trouble boarding as a man.
The day finally arrived and my mom dropped me off at the airport. She told me she wasn’t going to pay my ransom and that she wouldn’t even pay my brother’s so I better put someone else down as the emergency contact. She called an hour later saying she thought it over and probably would pay it since I’m a pretty good daughter. I made it to Chicago after a two hour bus ride then to Detroit after a one hour flight. Nine hours later I met Molly in Amsterdam where we boarded on opposite ends of the plane. I immediately fell fast asleep so I didn’t wake up the first time she tapped my shoulder to come up to the vacant seat next to her in first class. I woke up the second time a couple hours later and followed her to the front of the plane. We picked out a movie, reclined our seats and fell asleep shortly after.
Four hours later I was woken up by a couple flight attendants asking what I was doing and demanded that I go back to my seat in coach reminding me how expensive this seat was. Since the seat belt sign came on I had to stay where I was for another hour but I was reminded that I would not be receiving full service. The woman came back saying they had a team meeting about what to do with me and they decided I could stay. The food came and they fed me anyways and even recommended the champagne. Next thing I knew it I was offered gifts and more drinks so I would receive the full first class experience. We landed in Rwanda where some passengers de-planed and others boarded. An announcement was made saying anyone who switched seats mid-flight had to go back to their assigned seats. I assumed this was directed at me until they singled me out to tell me I could stay in first class for the next flight to Uganda. My bad luck with flying really turned around on this trip. We arrived in Entebbe around 10pm and were greeted by Ronnie, our guide for the next 11 days. A year ago I was leaving Africa and today I’m going back. This time to the Pearl of Africa: The land of the unknown destination. Nothing could have prepared us for what was to come…
Jet lag hit us hard. Waking up at 11pm, 1:30am, then at 3am, I didn’t know what else to do with myself other than yoga in bed. While in downward dog, trying not to wake up Molly, I look over to see her doing the same. Luckily, we didn’t get complaints from the neighbors the next morning from laughing so hard. Ronnie briefed us on the day and took us on an hour and a half drive through Entebbe to Mabamba Bay. The road was unpaved and bumpy. We didn’t get Ronnie’s reference to getting an African massage until we didn’t get one.
There are 16 languages in Uganda and 56 dialects. Ronnie speaks four of them. His English is good but ours must not be as we maneuvered around conversations in confusion. Our guide for the day, Joseph, took us on an hour canoe ride through the swamp pointing out different bird species in hopes to see the elusive shoebill stork. We passed by a speckled mousebird perched on a branch, fan-tailed widowbirds, a winding cisticola, Northern brown-throated weavers and a hamerkop flying overhead. We got word from another guide that a shoebill was in the grass up ahead. Ronnie told us to get our cameras ready then almost fell out of the canoe trying to push us out of shallow water. I don’t know if he was preparing us for that or for the shoebill.
The beautiful dinosaur stood stealthy hidden behind the tall grass. We inched closer as he went for a fish but missed despite his good eyesight. Leaving him in peace we made our way back to the vehicle for lunch and a local market where I supported the locals a little too much. That night sleep didn’t come easy again whether it be from the jet lag or the fact that we were about to embark on an adventure of a lifetime…
We drove six hours to Kibale National Park for our chimp trek the following day. While passing through villages we dodged pot holes and cows while people walking dodged our side mirrors. Women and children balanced bananas and lumber on their heads and I nearly escaped a robbery by a baboon.
Ronnie calmly repeated to close my window as it inched up just in time. We also saw majestic marabou storks as well as colobus and vervet monkeys playing in the road and trees. Two men with machine guns watched our vehicle when we stopped for a traditional African lunch. Afterwards, we passed several volcanic craters on our final stretch to The Isunga Lodge with a panoramic view of Kibale National Park, Queen Elizabeth National Park, the Rwenzori Mountains and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Occasionally, the forest elephants make an appearance at night. To top it off we are the only people here.
We tracked the Kanyantale chimpanzee troop through the rainforest for several hours. Most of the time they stayed high up in the trees undisturbed by our presence. When the second highest male in ranking came walking towards us my hands went numb and my heart started racing. His name was Ssebu meaning “Sir.” He walked right up to our group too close for comfort making his way to a large fig tree.
When he called to the troop, they all came running in between us to the tree we were standing under avoiding assault from falling figs. Chimpanzees are the animals I fear most due to their sometimes savage behavior. Observing them mate, eat, socialize and groom one another brought on a whole new perspective. On the other side of fear is freedom. Chase after what scares you and set yourself free.
Uranus was the only celestial object visible in the sky as the dark and ominous clouds rolled in. As jet leg set in I watched the clouds dissipate, briefly exposing the full moon while lightning intermittently lit up the sky. The following morning, the sun rose over Uganda, Rwanda and the DRC as I had coffee with yellow-fronted canaries, tawny-flanked prinias, black-headed weavers and common waxbills, thinking how fortunate I am to be here.
Ronnie kept us safe and entertained (mostly at our expense) while taking us to places I thought I’d only see in my dreams. On our way to the salt mines we saw more volcanic craters, breathtaking landscapes and people who really know what it means to work. We crossed the equator into Queen Elizabeth National Park where we watched an elephant cross Lake George as we ate a picnic lunch.
After watching the process of salt extraction in the salt mines in Katwe we made it to camp where we will be staying the next three nights. While showering outside I watched the birds fly overhead and the sun go down while the pod of hippos we saw earlier vocalized in the river. As if this trip can’t get any better we track lions tomorrow. As I write this I’m watching a saddle-billed stork and a male waterbuck wade in the river while a buffalo grazes on grass. Live your life with no regrets. It will be worth it.
Lions called last night from either side of our tent in between hippo vocalizations coming from the river. We woke up to fresh hippo dung and tracks outside our tent. After breakfast, we joined The Uganda Carnivore Program who does conflict mitigation between villages and carnivores through tracking, monitoring and researching lions, leopards and hyenas. We observed a lioness laying stealthy in the tall grass patiently watching a male Ugandan kob get closer and closer. Head down, ears back, crawling forward she went for the kill. The chase ensued but she missed since lions only have about a 50% success rate. She drank from a puddle exhausted from the chase and the kob survived another day.
One animal’s death is another one’s survival. We saw a lion in one tree and a leopard in another. The lion slept and the leopard’s piercing, calculated eyes watched our every move. We drove by buffalo on the left and hippos on the right to a herd of over 50 elephants with their babies who warned us to back off so we did. I knew this trip would be incredible I just didn’t know how incredibly special it would truly be.
Spotted hyenas woke me up in the middle of the night and I was too excited to fall back to sleep. The eerie menacing sound of their cackles of excitement masks their intelligence and importance in the ecosystem. They are more intelligent than some primate species and are capable of making distress calls warding off other hyenas so they can eat in peace. Spotted hyenas pick off the dying and weak and prevent the spread of disease. They aren’t “ugly scavengers,” they are beautiful successful hunters. They have an 800-pound bite per square inch and are capable of eating and digesting bone, teeth, fur and hooves. Without one species we wouldn’t have another. While with The Uganda Carnivore Program again today we watched three tree climbing lions watch us.
We drove a bit deeper into Queen Elizabeth National Park to another leopard in a tree who made my heart skip a beat when she jumped out of the tree at us. She gracefully walked by our vehicle as I moved a little closer to the center. Our afternoon safari was on a boat where I think we saw every hippo in the Kazinga Channel. Some were porpoising, two were mating and a few were obtaining nutrients from eating clay.
We watched the silhouette of an elephant gracefully walking in the distance and then watched the sun go down from our tent. Don’t let the sun set on your dreams.
Bwindi, meaning, “Into the darkness,” is where we head to track gorillas after our last water safari. This time we saw as many elephants as hippos. There were three separate herds drinking water in different spots along the channel. One female stood her ground, ears out as a hippo challenged her, mouth open.
Babies were playing in the water and trumpeting while others were dust bathing on land. Seeing two of them mate was something I never thought I’d witness in the wild and something I’ll never forget. The game drive through the savannah was vast, open and beautiful concentrated with birds, baboons, vervet monkeys and occasionally elephants. A pride of five lions was lying in a fig tree and when we approached the male jumped out and ran by our vehicle.
Feeling alive with my hair getting blonder, skin darker and heart happier, my mood did a drastic 180 when 12 dark objects ran across the road in a single file line ahead. We sped up to them lying flat like cowards in the tall grass under an acacia tree knowing rangers carry guns. We watched them crawl then run deeper and deeper into the bush armed with spears and snares: poachers. Watching an animal take its last breath due to a snare was not a memory I wanted to relive as we watched them get smaller and smaller. We avoided a shoot out but after law enforcement is notified they might not be so lucky. As a billboard read, “Tourism helps everyone, poaching hurts us all.” Feeling helpless and hopeless we entered Bwindi.
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is breathtakingly beautiful with rolling hills covered in tea and coffee plantations. The brilliant shades of green in the trees and the deep crimson in the birds was something I’ve never seen so vibrantly. Children played barefoot while goats and chickens were on high alert to any vehicle passing by. Clothing was scattered in yards and bushes drying and people kept busy in each village we passed.
Day turned into night, dinner into breakfast and the day was finally here. We penetrated the Impenetrable into the darkness of Bwindi into the Kigezi Highlands carefully placing one foot in front of the other up the steep, rocky, slippery terrain.
Our ranger, Boaz, took us up the mountain tracking the Mubare mountain gorilla family consisting of five females, three babies ranging in age from two to seven months and the silverback. Gorillas are 99% vegetarian but will also eat ants and termites for protein, dry wood for calcium and small rocks to obtain iron. Two hours into the trek the silverback emerged from the thicket, pure strength and beauty.
Amongst him, the rest of the family. We sat with them for an hour observing them eat, communicate and sweetly interact with their babies. I said goodnight to the sun and allowed the day to re-wire my brain. Few places have left me so awe struck, so grateful to be there and so happy to be alive.
The 12 poachers we reported ended up being a group of 15. All were caught, all surrendered and all are in jail. On our drive through Bwindi, colobus monkeys blanketed the canopy, a chimpanzee ran in front of our vehicle and baboons took post on the side of the road.
After having to change our flights to ensure we made it home, Ronnie went out of his way to ensure we went on our second gorilla trek and Molly and I were the only ones on it. With two rangers in front, one armed with an AK-47 and the other with a machete, we trail blazed through the forest, sliding down the muddy terrain, jumping over streams and strategically placing our feet in fresh forest elephant tracks.
We joined the Kyagurilo mountain gorilla family consisting of nine members. The baby walked right up to me then over my shoes with her mother following closely behind. I had to quickly back up when two sub-adult males wrestled into where I was standing. We watched them nest, play, laugh and roll around while moving out of their way as the silverback sat watching.
We entered the forest full of anticipation and left the forest completely fulfilled. Take only what you need, give all you can and be kind to all kinds. As we were leaving, Ronnie told us we arrived as visitors and are leaving as friends. If you want to see a place where survival is synonymous with living, where the animals demand your utmost respect and where the land is truly wild, go to Uganda. I’m not afraid to die but more importantly I’m not afraid to live. “When I look back on this I’ll smile because this is life and I decided to live it.”
Amy’s Journey Across the Globe 