31st of May
Today is one of the flying highlights of the entire journey.
There are a few drops of rain when we go for breakfast – actually the first ones on the entire trip! We take-off on time and reach mainland africa after half an hour. Scattered clouds and from far we see the mighty kilimanjaro. At 5896m, mt. Kilimanjaro is the highest peak in africa and one of the continent0s most magnificent sights. We approach very quickly and circle around the peak several times. This is what tom was dreaming about for one year; a captain‘s dream comes true.
It is amazing to see from a plane where i was climbing 8 years ago. Then we just were able to spend 45 minutes on top of kili. Now we are just flying over it effortless. But it is still impressive and and we can‘t get enough of it! Below we see the base camp on 5‘000m. From there on we had 5 hours for the last 1‘000m to climb; now we fly it in a few seconds!
Shortly after we land at kilimanjaro international airport and refueling is vera efficient. We fly now over very fertile land, hilly at times with many typical massai settlements. Soon we reach the plains of serengeti, flying low to look for the migrating herds of animals. We see elephants, hippos, buffalos but not too many. It looks like the big moves of animals is happening later.
Soon we reach the shores of lake victoria. With more than 60‘000 sq. Km, it is the second largest lake in the world; 1 1/2 times the size of switzerland. Entebbe airport is really busy with loads of un cargo planes standing around. We learn that this is the un headquarters for all the relief efforts in sudan, somalia and kongo. We get parked next to an old antonov 26 and wait quite some time for fuel.
The drive to the wonderful kampala serena hotel is a nightmare; one of the worst traffic i have ever seen. Makes manhattan look civilized!! So we arrive there at around 18.00h and there is a big international conference going on. Much security and check points; but not because of us.
And now the bad news folks: we will go out to the bwindi national park for some gorilla tracking. There is not internet connection there – so you will have to bare with us until friday. Hopefully we can get back on friday in addis ababa the latest.
1st of June
The kampala serena hotel is by far the best hotel we stayed in on our journey so far. It‘s just perfect and up to european 5 star standards. I am told by one of the bell boys that it is actually owned by aga khan, which explains a lot.
Our driver is picking us up again and we fight our way through kampala traffic to the local airfield. The road leads through a less prosperous area but people here are still clean and friendly. After security check, we fly on a cessna for almost two hours south east. We land at a small airstrip in a tea plantation. Howard, a 65 year old pilot from houston, flies low over the runway to make people aware of his coming and to abandon the airstrip. Smooth landing and moses, with another land rover picks us up to bring us to the volcanos bwindi lodge right at the park entrance.
The bandas are very nice and comfortable and it is ecotourism here. According to the lodge‘s brochure, the three central principles are: „first we believe ecotourism is essential to the survival of the great apes but needs to be carefully controlled. Second, local people need to earn a livelihood if they are to appreciate the importance of protecting both man‘s nearest cousins and their habitats. Third, tourism income should also help conservation of the apes and their habitats.“
Volcanoes believes ecotourism in these remote areas needs to respect the culture of local communities, their modest economic means and the fragility of the environment. Providing western standards of comfort needs to be balanced with the pressure local people face in obtaining food and clean water; minimizing the environmental impact of rich travelers on poor countries.
For us this means eco-san dry toilets that do not require water. Solid an liquid waste are separated and by using wood ash, the wast is reduced to dry powder. Bush showers have buckets and are filled with water heated by using solar power. Lighting is generated also by solar panels. And the lodges are built by african builders using local materials.
After a good local lunch, we go on a bush walk following the river. The rain forest is impressing and we see many small animals; birds, butterflies, tons of ants, etc. Back in the lodge, we walk up to the village to buy some local souvenirs. We stop at a shop that sells gorillas carved out of local wood; and are hoping the families will like them too. It starts to downpour and we are in the midst of a tropical rain. We wait in the shop for half an hour, go back to the lodge and get ready to visit the local hospital.
The bwindi community health centre was set up in 2003 by dr. Kellermann and his wife from california. It grew from nothing into today‘s local hospital with 60 beds, providing 60‘000 people with health facilities. We get a guided tour and start at the children‘s ward. It is very simple but one can see the people are happy here to get treatment. We walk by the x-ray station which was sponsored by a california organization, shipped in a container where it still stands like that. It if the most efficient and best protected. Next to it is the waiting mothers hostel where women can stay till the give birth. The problem is that many of them live 20 – 30 km away and usually start walking to the hospital when they are already in labour. Or they get a ride on the back of a pick-up truck; if they are lucky. So many of them died on the way to the hospital and so did most of the babies that were born on the way. With these facilities, the mothers to be can stay here a week before giving birth.
Next to it is the maternity ward where expecting mothers give birth. On average, there are 100 births a month; in april it was 130. This number will increase in the future since still 50% of local babies are born at home.
The hiv and tuberculosis ward is also impressive. We meet a man who is hiv positive and does community work. He goes out to the villages and talks to people about the illness. It obviously has a big impact since people here don‘t talk about being hiv positive. Tb is another big problem and mostly hiv positive patients have it. Malaria is the biggest problem of it all. The hospital does also a lot of prevention work here and mosquito nets are sold at a low, subsidized price. Experience showed that giving them away for free is wrong; people don‘t appreciate it and don‘t use them!
Another big problem of the hospital is money. It depends on donations (i.e. It is supported by the elton john aids foundation). If you want to know more, have a look at www.bwindihospital.com.
Back in the lodge is is much cooler and we are getting spoiled with a massage. We have to be in shape since it will not be a picnic tomorrow: trekking the gorillas!!
