Day 157: QENP to Buhoma, Bwindi

In the middle of the night nature called Caro, who then climb out of the tent. Hugo heard a loud scream and then the car started to shake. Caro stepped on what felt like scorpion stings and then jump on the bonnet of the Hilux. When Hugo shined the light outside the ground was moving. Millions of Safari ants were crawling all over the place, not in neat columns or anything, just walking in random directions.

Caro climbed back into the tent by going from the bonnet onto the front roof rack and then through the side window of the tent. In the morning all the ants were gone, but the ground was covered in little holes every few centimeters.

We left at 11:00, yet again. There are two roads going to Kuhihi, but we chose the western one which goes through the last bit of the National Park instead of villages. We saw some more of the same animals.

We almost reached Kuhihi when Hugo realised he forgot his cellphone in the shower at the campground. Instead of turning around we continued to the Eastern road and headed back to the lodge. The road was much narrower and had more humps, but was nicer to drive on because there were no corrugation or small stones.

Hugo found the phone where he left it at the top of the door frame. We left for the second time at 12:46.

We took the small road for the second time. School just came out so the road was filled with children. It felt like the school clothes of the children changed every kilometer as we passed children from different schools. We only got to Kuhihi at 13:23. We found a market where Caro and Daniel went to buy some vegetables, while Hugo and Sekar found some Chapati which they ate with honey.

Caro also bought large avocados for R1.80 per avocado (a crime against avocados, according to her) and bananas tasting like custard. We also found a Stanbic ATM which Daniel used, before heading to Buhoma. We passed equal amounts of coffee and tea plantations before finally arriving at Buhoma at 15:00.

The community campsite’s camp ground is accessible by vehicle so while the others went to look at the Gorilla Mist Campsite Hugo went to the headquarters of Bwindi to ask whether there are any cancellations for Gorilla Trekking. We have been indecisive about the Gorilla Trekking for the past three months and decided to leave it to fate, by coming to Buhoma without booking anything (in the high season). They had one cancellation for Thursday (in two days), but there would only be a $100 discount. For tomorrow they also had only one space available. Hugo gave the lady his number and also asked her to check for availability at Ruhija for the next two days.

Back at the community campsite, the others decided to just stay there as the campsite for ground tents was quite nice. Camping usually costs $12, but almost everyone negotiates to just pay $10. We carried the table and chairs, food and cooker to the grassy campsite between hedges and started making dinner.

The lady from the office called to say that she spoke to her supervisor and they would allow us both to trek tomorrow for the full price of $600 per person. The Two Monkeys talked about it for a while and asked the advice of Hugo’s family. His parents and brother immediately replied to say that we should do it without a doubt. We thus walked back to the office to register but were told that we can just pitch up in the morning, they didn’t even take our names or anything.

We had spaghetti and vegetables for dinner and then chatted over hot chocolate for a while. We tried to go to bed early but still had to setup our tent on the parking lot in the darkness.