{"id":1361,"date":"2020-01-30T10:24:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-30T10:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zoa.com\/2020\/?p=1361"},"modified":"2020-01-31T09:51:29","modified_gmt":"2020-01-31T09:51:29","slug":"uganda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zoa.com\/2020\/travel\/uganda\/","title":{"rendered":"Uganda — A classic movie location"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Described as the world’s most powerful waterfall, Murchison Falls is where the Nile crashes through a 6 meter rocky gorge as it falls 45 meters. You may have seen this waterfall before as Rose and Charlie struggle to keep The African Queen<\/a><\/em> from capsizing in raging whitewater. This is the most spectacular thing to happen to the Nile along its 6700km length, I had to see this waterfall in person. En route, I enjoyed a couple of Niles<\/a> at the historic Masindi Hotel<\/a> where Bogart, Hepburn and the film crew rested and recovered after their arduous days of filming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uganda and its national parks are also known for the animals. During the Ugandan Bush War<\/a> (1981-86), poachers and soldiers decimated Uganda’s wildlife, especially the rhino populations. Since peace has returned, you can once again see elephants, giraffes, lions, antelopes, waterbucks, buffaloes, hippos, crocodiles, chimpanzees and baboons everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Game drives are the common way that most tourists view African wildlife. I took a game cruise<\/em> on the Kazinga Channel<\/a>. This was more pleasant than the usual dusty, bumpy ride in a Land Cruiser. On a hot day, it was the perfect way to watch hippos, water buffaloes and elephants play in the water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Look carefully in the photo above. You’ll see an adorable baby hippo<\/a> standing on the shore. At about 3 months old, she’s already more than 100 kgs and quite frisky as she played with the other females resting the water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Not exactly wildlife, but interesting nevertheless, are Uganda’s indigenous Ankole Cattle<\/a>. They have gigantic horns, sometimes as wide as two meters from tip to tip. They’re the main source of beef in western Uganda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This isn’t my first visit to Uganda<\/a>. I came here in 2017. As a tourist, I toured Idi Amin’s execution chambers, visited the big markets in Kampala, and tracked the gorillas in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park<\/a>. This time around, I traveled as a local by joining up with friends I made three years ago: Ivan, Stella, Patrick and Rasta in the photo above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When you travel with locals, you eat the healthy food that tourists don’t see at their high-end resorts. For about $1, I had filling and tasty meals. The roadside barbecue was fabulous, too. Click here <\/a>to learn more about Ugandan food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all, we took a six-day road trip of about 1000 kms. We visited cultural sites that were off the beaten path, like the palace of the King of Tooro — one of Uganda’s ceremonial kingdoms. We were also treated to evenings of dancing, at the Koi Koi Cultural Center<\/a> in Fort Portal. Click on the videos below to see the high energy dancing and the drums beating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n