The Pearl of Africa - July-August 2026 (page 2 of 4)

Hello,

And so many lions (despite Paul’s best efforts ++, we hadn’t seen a single one the whole trip 🏴‍☠️)

As I often say, game drives also take a big dose of luck. Catch you later—this isn’t over yet!!!

Hi Pascale, Yeah, it’s a budget, but Uganda really lives up to its nickname as the Pearl of Africa. See you!

Day 9: QEP

Another early wake-up and departure before dawn. Honestly, we still haven’t seen the lodge yet!!! After our "Lion King" session yesterday, we’d love to see the "Leopard Prince" show, but nature’s what it is. So Paul takes us into the tree area instead. Besides our usual buffaloes, warthogs, hippos, and various antelopes, we search, watch, scan, think we’ve seen something—but nothing, absolutely nothing.



Buffalo bath

A romantic scene between two kobs (seriously, it’s like we’ve got a subscription to Max Dorcel’s site), an elephant having fun scaring Paul. At one point, I hear the girls complaining, and it’s true—this’ll be a small issue throughout the trip: bathroom breaks. (A topic already discussed on the forum.) Besides the fact that it’s forbidden to step out of the 4x4 in a park, it seems Paul wants bathroom stops to be in a clean spot. We tried explaining that our wives aren’t fussy about bathroom breaks—in Zambia, we’d stop as soon as the need arose. Plus, we spend 3 hours looking for predators; if we pick a spot with great visibility, there’s little risk of flashing a big cat. At one point, they’re doubled over in pain, so we stop for 5 minutes to relieve all bladders. We set off again, and 1 km later, on the track surrounded by tall grass on both sides, a leopardess and her cub. What luck—5 minutes earlier, and we’d have missed them. Some kobs are nearby, and all their eyes are fixed on the two felines. But instead of heading straight for them, the leopards walk along the track toward us!! Weird! Was it luck for us, or did they want to signal that the kobs were theirs, not ours? Either way, they turn right in front of our vehicle and start approaching their potential meal.

Spot them!!

We can easily make them out despite the tall grass. It lasts a few minutes, but in the end, the kobs move away, and our two leopards climb a tree. Just then, more 4x4s arrive because Paul—it’s the game, my dear Lucette—had alerted his network about the predators. This scene sums up, in my opinion, what a game drive is. A guide has a knack for spotting distant animals, but sometimes you need sheer luck to see predators up close. No bathroom break, no leopards—it’s obvious! We would’ve driven right past them without seeing them. Thrilled with our morning, we head back to the lodge to finally see it and enjoy a relaxed afternoon. The lodge’s location is absolutely stunning, overlooking a crater lake. After lunch, a short digestive walk to see another lake, and the rest of the day passes peacefully.

By the lake

Drinks + dinner + bedtime—the classic way to end the day.

The +: The leopards, of course The -: I’m racking my brain but can’t think of anything

I made sure to use the restroom before boarding for the safari.

I’m not drinking a drop of water until the end of the trip!

I’ve also been thinking about Uganda for my 60th birthday. With the chimpanzees but without the gorillas.

Have you come across any self-drivers?

Why without the gorillas, if you don't mind me asking?

$800 per person for the gorillas. $300 per person for the chimpanzees.

$1,100 total if you want a chance to see both.

Hi Agnes, yes, we came across some, including a Spanish couple that Paul helped out because they were stuck on a track. We really hesitated between hiring a guide-driver or doing a self-drive like in Zambia. The tracks, unlike in Zambia, can get really slippery when it rains, and it *does* rain pretty much every day here. But yes, we did see a few! Cheers

looks wild like that 🤪 I think permit prices have skyrocketed in recent years. But it must be a truly unique experience

Hi,

800 USD per person for the gorillas. 300 USD per person for the chimpanzees.

1100 USD total if you want a chance to see both

Totally understandable—the price for gorillas is steep. Two other countries offer this experience: DRC, but you’ve got to really want to go there. Rwanda: it’s around $1,600 for the gorillas. Maybe after reading my gorilla experience, you’ll see things differently? However, at the place where we stayed, not a single guest had missed seeing the gorillas since the lodge opened.

Thanks for reading this travel journal—it’s great to know we’re helping other travelers a bit!

Day 10: QEP – Buhoma

Hotel: Dave the Cave Lodge. Apart from the issue on the first night with that room mix-up, everything else was great. Dave, the owner, is quite a character, ageless 😄. His staff is friendly, and the place (once you manage to find it) is stunning with a view of a crater lake. The meals are well-prepared. The only downside might be the distance to the park.

We woke up later this morning since we had a long day of driving (and rough roads) ahead. We knew it was going to be a long one. We continued our journey through breathtaking landscapes where tea, coffee, and bananas coexist. A midday stop at a restaurant, not at all the usual touristy style—meaning it wasn’t packed with tour groups. It was pretty basic, and they served us chicken with rice. It turned out to be an old hen, but hey, this is Africa. The road got worse and worse. We ventured deeper into the mountains and finally arrived at the lodge, which Paul didn’t know about. Once again, a warm welcome. The view was spectacular, overlooking the misty mountains across from us. It really felt like *Gorillas in the Mist*, a movie I love starring the amazing Sigourney Weaver (whom I had the chance to meet).

Morning view

We spotted Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, Uganda’s answer to Dian Fossey, having a drink at the lodge. In 1996, she became Uganda’s first wildlife veterinarian. In 2003, she founded a nonprofit called Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH) to improve interactions between humans and gorillas. Around 10,000 households near the national park have been educated by her organization—whether on health measures to reduce disease spread or safely guiding gorillas back into the forest when they wander onto community land. What an incredible person! We wrapped up the afternoon like that. Suddenly, some rangers who live near the lodge called us over. They’d just found a pangolin—the animal supposedly linked to the Covid outbreak. It had climbed a tree, but a ranger made it come down so we could get a better look. Turns out, they were going to capture it eventually to study it, but for now, they were taking photos and proudly showing it off to us.

Pangolins are tiny

Dinner and then bed—we’ll need to be in good shape tomorrow, as it’s likely to be another wild day.

The plus: The pangolin The minus: ... That hen 😄

Hello, We’re doing a self-drive trip with our 7- and 9-year-old kids, using roof tents. The roads are going pretty well, even if some tracks are a bit rough ("African massage" hard mode 😄). We’ve just arrived at QENP.

Not much time for a detailed report right now—I’ll try to do that when we get back—but we’ve more or less followed a similar route to yours, with an extra stop in the Rwenzori Mountains for some hiking. So far, the trip is amazing!!

No gorillas for us, but we found a place where kids under 12 could see chimpanzees for $50 per person.

Ellobo, could you tell me roughly where you saw the lions in QENP? Safe travels! !

Hi Gabriel, what luck to still be there! For the lions, it's hard to say since I wasn’t driving and just went with the flow without checking the map. From where I am now (in front of my computer), with Google Maps open, it looks like it’s around the spot Google Maps calls Lions Area (you can’t make that up!), so maybe on the track starting from Main Gate UWA Kasenyi. But I don’t have the lions’ exact address 😉 Have a great trip! See you,

Day 11: Gorillas in the Mist

The big day for me (even though the others have been amazing too). When we planned this trip, my wife, being very practical, immediately decided not to come. Several reasons: she’s really afraid of the humid heat, she doesn’t feel like meeting our cousins because she feels awkward and uneasy about how much they resemble humans, she hates getting dirty, and all that combined with a pretty high price made her pass on the experience. Meanwhile, with our friends, it’s the opposite—her big, strong husband is quite wary when it comes to doing something a bit extraordinary with animals. So, « he’ll play the hero 😄 » and stay with my wife, while my friend and I go tracking the primates. While my wife won’t regret anything, I think he’ll have a little « if only I’d known » moment. So, Paul takes the two of us to the excursion departure center. Paperwork, songs performed by locals, a presentation of local projects, and finally, a manager takes the floor. His first words are to thank us for being there, because thanks to the money brought in by tourists, a village of 500 people can live, and above all, the gorillas have been protected since the huge work of Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, who managed to convince the population that it was better (more profitable) to protect the gorillas than to poach them. Then he divides the people into groups of 8 with a guide, two « rifles » (rangers), and 3 trackers we won’t see until the end, as they left two hours earlier to find our family, named Muyambi (which means « peacemaker »). Paul apparently asked for us to be assigned a family not too far away, given my ankle and my friend’s not-so-great physical condition. We’re with a young Spanish couple, a slightly older Czech couple, and an English couple our age. Everyone hires a porter except us. So, our group consists of 8 tourists, 6 guides, and 3 trackers who’ve already left. This little group sets off in a 4x4 for a 25-minute ride through the mountains on a very bumpy track. Of course, Paul drives us and will wait for us afterward. Once we reach the top of a village, we start the hike (expedition?). First, a steep descent through tea plantations. This plantation is one of the results of Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka’s work with the local communities. Gorillas don’t eat tea, so by planting these around the villages, even if they can cross through, it acts as a natural barrier. At the bottom, our guide tells us the trackers haven’t found the nest where the Muyambi family spent the night yet. So, we tackle a hellish climb, still on a trail. The guide sets a very slow pace, stopping often to give us explanations about the jungle. Personally, I’m fine—I’m more worried about the descents. After the climb, of course, comes the descent, shorter than the climb since overall, we’ll be going up a lot. Again, the guide tells us the trackers still haven’t found anything. So, we start a very long climb, less steep than the previous one, since that’s the direction they were last seen yesterday. At one point, the guide tells us they’ve finally found the nest and are now looking for which direction the gorillas went. We keep climbing… After a break and a final phone call, the guide stops (we were almost at the summit), leaves the trail, and heads straight down a steep slope, cutting through the path with a machete. We’ll learn later that the gorillas, instead of continuing uphill, changed their usual habits and decided to go down. Basically, we climbed for nothing! The descent is quite the spectacle. Almost everyone took a tumble—it’s slippery, and we try to hold onto branches (hence the need for gloves). Plus, the phone doesn’t work, so the guide imitates animal sounds to contact the trackers. Finally, we meet one of the three trackers. It smells like we’re close!! We continue our descent, cross a stream (wet feet), and after a small climb in the forest (it lives up to its name: the impenetrable Bwindi), we’re asked to leave our walking sticks (essential), our bags, put on masks, and keep only our cameras and video equipment. The gorillas can’t be far. Yeah, right, Charles—there’s one above us climbing a tree, and two meters higher, the dominant male, the silverback, is lying down for a nap. The nap doesn’t last long because he decides to move on. We follow the whole troop, and it’s a good thing—he stops on a flat, open spot, and that’s when the magic happens! What an emotion! The family consists of the silverback, three females (one of whom is more like the grandmother—he doesn’t mate with her anymore), two teenagers, and a 4-week-old baby.





We spend an hour weaving between each member of the family. Personally, I sit for 10 minutes next to the dominant male, less than 1.5 meters away. One of the trackers suggested I stay in that spot, completely safe.







Wow! In my life, I never imagined I’d do this—have a conversation with a gorilla. Meanwhile, the baby tries to get closer to my friend. The guide keeps telling her to step back, which she does, because it could be problematic. But the baby keeps insisting on approaching.



At one point, the male lets out a clear grunt, and one of the females goes to grab the baby and hold it. End of sequence! The hour flies by because with the two teenagers, there’s always something happening. They weave between us without paying us any attention. It’s time to leave them.



After one last look, we continue the descent and quickly find a trail that takes us almost to the bottom of the first tea plantation. In the end, we did two huge climbs, almost for nothing because they weren’t that far. But nature decides!



The last climb is tough on many of us. Even the guide right in front of me is really out of breath. We finally reach the village. There are benches where we have a snack, then return by 4x4 to the center for the traditional certificate ceremony. We get back to the lodge at 4 PM. My dear wife was super worried because someone at the lodge told her we’d be back around 1 PM!! We’re all dirty (yes, falling in the humid forest), so we quickly go take a shower. Since we’re staying at the CTPH lodge (see Day 10), the holy grail of gorilla protection (that’s why rangers sleep here), an employee offers to show us the labs created by Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka. He’s very proud of their work, which mostly involves collecting gorilla poop and analyzing it. We learn a lot about gorillas and the work of this organization. Another part of their mission is to raise awareness among the local population about hygiene, contraception, healthcare, and respect for animals. He shows us everything they do, and it’s really impressive what’s happening in this remote forest. It’s time to head back to the lodge, have a great aperitif before dinner, and go to bed with our heads full of dreams.

The +++: The hour spent with the gorillas The ++: The visit to the CTPH The -: ....

1100 so if you want a chance to see both

It’s definitely a budget stretch :/ ... (but 60 years deserves a celebration ;)) It’s a near 100% chance of success. For me, encountering the gorillas was one of the most profound travel experiences I’ve ever had. Self-drivers, yes, there are some (JF aka Max68, for example). The challenge was finding a vehicle in good condition (that might have changed). The roads seem to have improved a lot since my trip (2018), though not everywhere...

The roads seem to have improved a lot since my trip (2018), well, not everywhere...

Yeah, I was really surprised by the road quality. The only downside is that there are big speed bumps in front of every village, which really brings down the average speed since there are so many villages along the way. But 70% of the time, we were driving on roads with a great surface. Cheers

That encounter was amazing! Those moments with that gorilla family were totally worth the effort. Did your friend and you recover okay from the trek?

Thanks for sharing, anyway.

Hi Sylvie,

You and your friend didn’t have too much trouble recovering from that expedition?

Once you're in front of the family, you forget everything! Even though my friend isn’t very sporty (she really struggled during the last climb, just like the guide, actually), all the images we had in our heads and the lovely aperitif that followed that evening reminded us why we made the trip. Personally, since I’m pretty active and did some stretches after the hike (I was the only one who did), no problem at all. See you soon,

Hi Jean-Pascal,

Once again, we have things in common. I went alone to meet the gorillas, as my wife was unwell and couldn’t come. The difference was that the gorilla family we were assigned was very close to the starting point (30-45 minutes). It was very easy and required little effort to find them. Thank you for letting me relive those special moments with our close cousins from two years ago. I continue to follow your adventures with great interest. As for us, we’re starting our 4th trip to Namibia next week!!!!!!!!!! Loïc

Hello! No particular difficulty traveling in Uganda by self-drive, especially if you're used to rough roads. Compared to many countries, I find them pretty good in Uganda. You can also visit the parks by self-drive with or without a ranger, depending on what you prefer. Obviously, you have a better chance of seeing things with a ranger, but it’s not exactly the same experience either. You’re less alone.

When it comes to gorillas and chimpanzees, in my opinion, seeing one of the two is already great. And to be honest—and maybe just to offer a slightly different perspective—I didn’t feel much during my visit to our gorilla cousins. It was in the DRC, in South Kivu, not Rwanda or Uganda. Conditions were excellent, everything was perfect, but emotionally, I didn’t feel more than when crossing paths with and spending time observing any other animal. The fact that the encounter is guaranteed, that you’re in a group, even a small one, isn’t really my thing. If I had to do it again, I would, because you can’t know in advance how you’ll feel. But I prefer the uncertainty and less structured encounters with animals.

But everyone should make up their own mind—like I’ve said many times, Uganda has plenty to do and see. It’s stunning, and don’t forget the Karamoja region, which in my view is the most beautiful part of Uganda and certainly the most exotic.

Hi Loïc,

As for us, we’re starting our 4th trip to Namibia next week!!!!!!!!!!

Lucky you! Personally, I’m waiting for retirement to change my pace 😉

I continue to follow your adventures with great interest.

Thanks, that means a lot!