East to Uganda

I finally arranged to ride into Uganda with a truck that was going to Queen Elizabeth National Park. So I left Goma for the third time. I was hoping I would not have to flee back to Goma yet again. The ride to the National Park was beautiful. We climbed over the mountains and down the other side. The scenery was fantastic very green and quite a few farms and small villages along the road. The road was also in better shape than the roads had been in Zaire. I was dropped off in a parking lot near the main lodge for the national park. I had no intention of staying in the lodge. I walked away from the parking lot and found a nice grassy area on a hill with a gorgeous view of the sunset overlooking the lake about a mile off in the distance.

I put up my tent, just as the sun set, with the front flap tied up to a large tree with overhanging branches and made myself some tea and dinner then kicked back in my tent reading my book by candlelight inside the tent with the mosquito net zipped up. I was enjoying reading for a few hours when I started to hear lions roaring. I sat up quickly and started to worry a bit about my safety out here without a gun for protection from the big cats. I listened and could hear them make a kill not too far off in the distance. There were other howls and growls that I wasn't sure what animals were making. Some of the sounds were really close. I relaxed after a while and went back to reading.

I was startled out of my reading by the loudest farting noises I had ever heard and then my tent started to shake violently. What the hell? I cautiously peered out the tent flap without unzipping the netting. Outside all around my tent were what looked like a couple of hundred gigantic hippos calmly munching on grass, farting and making gurgling, grunting noises. The reason my tent was shaking was because one of the giants was scratching his back on the tree trunk that my tent was tied to. I froze. I had heard that hippos kill far more people than any other animal or reptile in all of Africa. If I scared the herd they would turn and stampede back to the water trampling me in my tent. For the next couple of hours I watched them wandering in the moonlight eating the grass in the clearing I had put my tent up in. They walked right next to my tent and carefully stepped over the guy ropes I had tied to hold my tent down in case it got windy. Whenever one scratched against the tree I was worried that my shaking tent would collapse and scare them but it never did and eventually the entire herd slowly meandered off until I was again alone in my tent.

It took me a couple of hours to relax from the trauma of having such noisy gigantic creatures crawling around so close to me. I wanted animals and had dreamed about seeing them and experiencing the Africa that I had read so much about and seen so many times on television. The reality of being alone with large dangerous wild animals around that would happily eat me was a bit unnerving. Eventually I got a bit of nervous sleep in.

I was up and making my tea before the sun came up in the morning. I packed my tent up and hiked through the piles of hippo manure down to the lake. In the water all along the lake shore the hippos that had scared the crap out of me the night before were bobbing around peacefully. I was watching them swimming around when a tour bus pulled up and the tourists climbed out and started shooting pics like crazy with their fancy cameras with really long lenses on them. The guide saw me standing there alone and came over to tell me that it wasn't safe to be in the park without a vehicle to retreat into in case of attack from animals. I laughed and told him that I had camped in the park the night before. When I told him about the hippos all around my tent and the lions roaring and making a kill nearby he got agitated and started to scream at me for being stupid. I had been camping out in the wilds of Africa for about a year already and his park didn't seem any different to me than the jungles of Zaire had been. He called over the driver and they insisted that I get on the bus with them. They drove me over to the park ranger station near the lodge and dropped me off with the park rangers. We argued about my being in the park alone for a while and they did not believe me when I told them how I got there or that I had slept in the park the night before. However I did not have a receipt for the Park entrance fee. They charged me the entry fee and then put me in their Landrover and drove me to the Park entrance where they dropped me off on foot and told me to leave.

I was kind of glad they gave me a ride to the exit because I was heading that way anyhow and they saved me a long walk. I took off walking down the road heading in the direction of Kampala the capital city of Uganda. I was hoping to find some mail there for me when I arrived. I walked all afternoon along the road. I was wearing my hiking boots and short cut off jeans and did not have a shirt on. I was very tan after walking around every day like this for so long in the tropical sun. I came to a crossroad and there was a little stall there selling food and beer. I bought a couple liters of beer and some roasted peanuts and corn to munch on as I walked along the road.

I was looking for a place to set up my tent for the night because it was already dark and the road was kind of devoid of humanity. I wanted a place that was near some other humans and safer than my night in Queen Elizabeth Park had been. Then I heard a train coming. The tracks were running right next to the road. I heard the train about ten minutes before I saw it coming very slowly toward me going in my direction. I had a thought as I guzzled down my second liter of beer. Jump on the train as it goes by and ride to Kampala tonight instead of putting up my tent and walking there over the next few days. I did not want to be seen by the engineer driving the train so I hid behind some bushes as the engine went past then I darted out and easily grabbed on to the train and nervously stepped up into the passenger car that I had caught watching carefully for any conductors or other train employees. Did I ever get a big surprise!!!!