Birds, Bananas And Boda bodas

Cape Town photographer Gerhard Pretorius recently realised his lifelong dream of going gorilla trekking in Uganda. While coming face to face with the country’s big apes was the highlight of his trip, he couldn’t resist capturing the natural beauty and nuances of life in Uganda.

While gorilla trekking is undoubtedly enough of a reason to visit Uganda, my family and I wanted to make the most of our trip to East Africa. So, with the help of our travel agency, we opted for a 16-day itinerary that included several extra bucket-list items and birding lifers.

READY, SET, GO!

In just 16 days, we covered almost 4 000 kilometres by land. We went wading through the waters of the Mabamba Swamp in search of the prehistoric shoebill stork, and ticked off about 400 of Uganda’s nearly 1 100 bird species. We visited countless towns and navigated the crow’s nest that is Uganda’s capital, Kampala, absorbing the people, the country and the culture. 

We stayed on the banks of the River Nile, and stood in awe of the world’s most powerful waterfall – Murchison Falls – where the White Nile plummets 45 metres, funnelled through a seven metre wide chasm at a rate of 300 000 litres a second.

We crossed the equator. Twice. We visited five national parks, and were devastated to see how the country’s past political unrest has contributed to a decrease in game numbers. With the diminished animal population, Uganda is not a prime destination for general game viewing compared to Kruger, the Okavango or Etosha. It is, however, a unique destination for combinations of species that won’t be found anywhere else.