Day 155: Fort Portal to Queen Elizabeth National Park

We got up passed 08:00 to find that the overlanders have already left. We took our time to have breakfast and to pack up. D&S even went for a walk in the forest again and showered.

At 11:00 we set off towards QENP on a proper tar road, with just some potholes here and there. We stopped in Kasese to buy some drinking water, but it cost double as much as in Jinja. We also tried various supermarkets just to buy some snacks. We realised that it is already lunch and stopped at the Sandton Hotel in Kasese to try out their restaurant. They had a huge selection of meals with separate pages for Indian food, Chinese, Italian and Local. The meals were reasonably priced and big portions. We all ordered Indian food. The chicken biryani would have almost been enough for three people.

The hotel also looked quite nice to stay in, their double rooms cost 155 000 UGX and they have safe parking and everything. When we left the hotel a strong wind was blowing and it almost looked like a dust storm in the town.

A few kilometers out of town heavy rains started pouring down. We turned in at Lake George, but it was raining so hard we could barely take a photo.

We then crossed the Equator again, potentially for the last time on this trip and stopped for another photo. There were some locals also taking photos and we couldn’t get the one guy to move out of our photo.

The road got worse and worse the closer we got to QENP until there were only bits and pieces of tar left on an otherwise gravel road. Our plan was to go to the Queen Elizabeth Safari Camp, but for the first time in Africa we were told that they are fully booked for the evening. The campsite had an amazing view over QENP which from the top almost looks like the Masai Mara or the Serengeti. We could probably have begged to just take a small space somewhere, but they only have one toilet and shower per gender so it would probably not have been good for us either.

We then drove further to the Craters campsite which has been under construction for four years. We had to hoot at the gate again and it took some time for someone to arrive and to direct us to the campsite past building rubble. The setup is rather strange and costs $10 per person, but there is a kitchen for campers with electricity, lights and water. They also had beer so we would survive.

We put up camp and took all kitchen related things including the fridge to the kitchen building. D&S made smash with soya pieces resembling chicken strips. With Nandos Peri-Peri sauce it almost tasted like real Nandos. Hugo also made jelly and custard for dessert.

The Two Monkeys worked a bit on the blog before going to bed at 23:00.