Friday 19th June: Uganda. Fort Portal to Katungura:
We had breakfast at 9am & checked out at 10. We wanted to pay
by credit card but the power was off so the machines wouldn’t work. We
needed to keep our US$ for border posts so we went into town to withdraw
more local currency from the ATM & returned to pay our bill.
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| Fort Portal |
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We
had coffee in town afterwards and then plotted today’s mission. We knew
we had to finish up in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park but that
would take 2 days drive, so we set off for the Queen Elizabeth
National Park, not knowing exactly where we’d stay. That’s not too
surprising anyway because we do that most of the time. After about 4
hours, we saw a sign for the Queen Elizabeth Nature Lodge, just after we
crossed the Kazinga Channel, which links Lake George & Lake
Edward, outside the town of Katunguru.
We drove 3 kms down a dirt track
to it & discovered it was situated overlooking the river in a
beautiful setting. It had in fact only opened 4 days earlier so the
person who was there had to call the owner, who had gone into town to
buy a spark plug for his generator, to get the price. A much higher price
was hinted at before the call & I said it was too much,
considering what we paid the night before in a 5 star hotel. We settled
on an excellent rate for dinner, bed & breakfast and as we’d
already had a look at the lovely cabins, we were very happy. There is
definite bargaining when you want multiple rooms.
Reuben, the owner,
arrived shortly after & he was most charming and welcoming. Of
Belgian parentage, he grew up in Burundi, worked in Kenya & has
now launched a few lodges in Uganda with the emphasis on affordable
accommodation. It looks a winner as far as we are concerned and we hope
to stay in his other lodge on Lake Bunyonyi, below Bwindi, on Sunday
night. We had cold beer for sun downers and a delicious 4 course meal. We
sat around the camp fire for a few hours and John & I managed
to force a few more cold beers down. A good sleep in our cabins soon
followed, with the very loud snorting of the Hippos down at the river,
or maybe wandering through the camp.
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