Uganda! Germany! Belgium! What a Summer!!!

(Drum roll….) … it’s time to dust off this old expat/travel blog now that the pandemic has officially ended (ha!) the world has opened up a bit again (hallelujah!) so sit back, grab a beverage, and read on about our latest travel adventures! 

Last January, in the midst of the Omicron variant coming into our lives (just when we celebrated everyone in our family being fully vaccinated), we booked a trip (with travel insurance, this is the new way to travel) to visit our amazing travel buddy, Anne, who had moved to Uganda (yes, Uganda!) and stop in Europe on the way back home. 

Yes, we were ready to explore the 6th continent (or at least a very small part of it since Africa is SO huge) so other than Covid, we also added yellow fever, malaria, and various covid testing and lockdown scenarios to our ever-growing “things to be prepared for” list.

Throw in airport and flight chaos that arose just before we headed out as well as the expectation that our bags would not make it through a short transfer in Brussels (note to self; avoid the Brussels airport for any future transits), we packed carry-on suitcases to last us through the Uganda part of the trip which kept packing logistics exciting (“should we pack extra underwear or extra covid tests/medicine?” that may or may not have come in handy…). 

Shockingly, everything (all of the bags!) and everyone (including Opa who joined us in the chaos that is know as the Brussels airport) arrived in Uganda after a few hours of panic at the airport since Luca apparently had a ticket but no seat assignment and United/Brussels Airways could not assure he would be flying with us since the flight was oversold. So what if the flight was delayed by several hours – at least that gave the staff ample opportunity to sort out how to get us all on the flight.

We arrived late in the night  early morning and were met by Anne to shuttle us to her home in Kampala. After a much-needed sleep and rest day, we headed out for an epic 8-day safari around Uganda to take in the country, animals, village life, and beauty. Why, yes, we spent countless hours in the car which left us exhausted even though all we did was sit, chat, and look out the window or stop to eat but the many impressions we experienced of Uganda will for sure remain close to our hearts.

First stop: Queen Elizabeth National Park; our first experience of seeing animals up close by car and boat! 

The absolute highlights? Lions blending into the savanna landscape; herds and herds of elephants with so many little ones (yes, it got to a point where the excitement waned as we saw, yet again, another elephant…..oh the “hardships” of safari travel!!); watching warthogs run (the funniest thing!), hippos following our boat, and just being so close to nature. It was unreal.

After two nights in the beautiful Marafiki lodge (that came with the free nightly entertainment of bats and mice in our cottage – I did mention we were up close with nature on this trip, right?), we drove South to hopefully get a glance at the tree-climbing lions. While we sadly did not see them, we had plenty of baboons as well as one elephant within a few feet of us at the wonderful Ishasha Jungle Lodge. 

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The following day, we headed further South stopping at Lake Bunyonyi for lunch before checking in to the most wonderful lodge of all – Ichumbi Gorilla Lodge – just a few minutes outside of the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, home of the mountain gorillas in Uganda.

This drive (again, a few hours in the car) was – by far – my favorite, driving by villages and beautiful landscapes and scenery. All of us were glued to the windows as we took in Ugandan rural life. 

This sparked many hour- and day-long conversations from the kids, especially Luca, about growing up poor in rural Uganda, what it’s like to live here for kids and adults, their opportunities for work and education, and international aid and development approaches. While our travels and lives abroad (well, actually just driving around Washington DC or any major US city) have, of course, exposed us to witnessing poverty first-hand but seeing people (including children) break up stones to make gravel using their hands or small hammers on the side of the road with the goal of filling up a truck to receive a small payment did, no doubt, have an effect on all of us. 

Thank goodness for Tante Anne and her endless patience to answer each and every question the kids had and for sharing her immense knowledge and experience of having lived on the African continent most of her professional career.

Friday morning, Anne and I set out for what would become an absolute highlight of this trip – to trek with the mountain gorillas. The adults split into two groups since the kids didn’t meet the age requirement; apparently gorillas sometimes mock charge at people (they are wild animals after all) and if that were to happen, you would need to squat down, avoid any eye contact, and remain absolutely still (yeah, I am not sure I would react this way even at my age but I certainly didn’t want to put our kids into that situation! There was a mock charge by a gorilla towards a tourist who was staying at our lodge the day before we trekked so I was perhaps a little nervous about this possibility but fortunately, gorillas and humans peacefully coexisted on our outing). 

After a record short uphill hike (all of 12 minutes!), the trackers led us to a family of gorillas hanging out in the trees; and just as we were thinking this was all too anticlimactic (“are we in a zoo or in the wild?”), the trackers alerted us that the rest of the family was on its way down the overgrown jungle mountains coming directly towards us. So we squatted down, looked down (hearts beating fast) and listened to the rustling of the grass in anticipation. A few seconds (minutes? Hours? I don’t know!) later, a few more gorillas hopped onto the path literally right in front of us to everyone’s sheer delight.

We then followed the gorillas down the mountain while the guides cleared the bush (fun new word of the day “bush whacking”) and we were carefully stepping on uncertain terrain that challenged our sense of balance while trying to get the best picture of these beautiful creatures (I may or may not have wiped out a few times…).

Opa and John enjoyed a nature walk around the Batwa village with the kids (sorry, they are correcting me they are NO LONGER KIDS, Mom!!! [yes, delivered with the eye roll!]) while we trekked and headed out for their own gorilla adventures the following day.

Anne and I opted for the path very much less traveled and visited the coffee farmer whose coffee we had been enjoying at the lodge. When we asked the lodge staff if the coffee was local, one thing led to another, and we found ourselves in the car with our fabulous driver, Morris, as well as with David, one of the lodge’s employees, who led the way for us to visit the coffee farmer. What we thought of as a short trip “down the road” resulted into yet again another amazing drive up and down hills along villages and after far, far more than the few minutes we expected to be on the road, Morris stopped the vehicle and sent us walking on foot since he was afraid the jeep couldn’t make it back up the hill on the return. So we trekked again (more than 12 minutes this time!) to the coffee farmer’s hut where we were soon immersed in the full experience of hulling, roasting, grinding, and packing coffee – all by hand. It was a truly wonderful experience!

While we were still enjoying rural life, Opa and John were finishing up their gorilla trek but our driver was still with us (across a few other mountains) and could not pick them up. Morris, wonderful driver and guide who seemed to know everything and everyone, did not miss a beat and got on the phone to arrange a ride for the boys back to the lodge. Problem solved, we naively thought but sure enough, Opa appeared a bit nervous about having been asked to get into a car with people he did not know after not finding Morris in very remote part of Uganda (bordering DRC) and oh yeah, those people were openly carrying (not small) guns (all the guides and tourist police carry weapons; yes, there is tourist police to protect tourists from the 2-legged guerrillas…. yes, it was good I was so oblivious to all of this!). 

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After a few amazing nights at Bwindi, it was time to hit the road again and make our way slowly back to Kampala. We stopped at Lake Mburo to see zebras, giraffes, and more hippos at the most “rustic” lodges that came with our very own snake.

As we were just about to open the door to our cottage, I noticed what I thought was a long worm above the doorway – an odd worm because it was green and slithering in a serpentine movement but I had never seen a snake on a wall before so I was a bit confused. By the time I pointed out this fascinating and very green and beautiful “worm,” we had already lost at least one kid young person to the idea of even being anywhere close to this cottage. Curious about this snake, I asked Morris what kind it was. Were we in for some surprises ahead if this was a venomous friend? Was it a mamba? Was it just a long and weird worm? I was very much hoping Morris would clear this mystery up for us. And oddly enough, for someone who doesn’t like snakes, I was not afraid of it but rather fascinated by its seamless movements and beautiful green color. 

Morris paused for a while, glanced at the snake as it was slowly and elegantly slithering across the wall (without falling – who knew snakes can slither on walls?!), looked at me, paused, and then glanced back at the snake in deep thought, and after a minute or so said quietly and very seriously: “Nicole, this is a ….. green snake.” 

Yes, it turns out (after consulting the internet and a book at a local shop) that there are countless “green” snakes throughout Eastern African that are, in fact, called…. “green snake.” Are they venomous? Not sure. For all future discussions though we will just be calling this our close encounter with a real life green mamba (snake?)!

The final morning on our safari started early (well, all mornings started way before sunrise so I guess this was just another regular morning start) and after the impala that was hanging out in front of our cottage door allowed me to make my way past it, I met up with Opa, John, and Juliana for a guided walk around the park. The day before we had seen countless zebras among a number of giraffes (my favorite!) and been told that this park has no predators allowing us to walk around easily. We walked among what seemed like hundreds of zebras, wart hogs, elands, impalas and at one point we were wondering how the park can manage population control of all these animals since there are no predators. When we asked our guide about this, she nonchalantly said “oh nature takes care of that; there a lot of leopards here and at least one lion.“ Yeah, I was ready to go back inside a vehicle or cottage at that point! 

On the way back to Kampala, we stopped on the equator and some of us learned (for the first time!) that water drains differently in the North, South, and on the actual equator line (how cool is that?!). 

Not quite ready to stop spending time in the car (!), we spent a morning at the Ziwa rhinoceros sanctuary  where Luca officially met his spirit animal (I have never seen him so excited and full of questions about animals other than red pandas – those are a bit harder to find in Africa!) and then Anne had a surprise for us all in store – a behind the scene tour at the Kampala zoo! 

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Not only did we have a personal guide to show us around and answer all of our questions but we also got to be up close and very personal with the animals – yes, we petted shoebill birds, a lion (through the bars), rhinos, and – my all time favorite thing ever – fed giraffes! I was wiping giraffe slobber off my pants for at least a day after the guide put a few bananas into my pocket and the giraffe had no hesitation about getting them out of there. Also, let me just tell you how amazingly tall giraffes are when you’re standing right next to them!

And just when we finished packing our suitcases (with room for shopping we had planned for our last morning), we realized our travel agency canceled our airplane tickets (why? Not a clue!). Fortunately we all remained calm(ish) and sorted it all out after only a few short hours (!) on the phone. 

While our amazing Uganda adventure came to and end, we could not part ways with Tante Anne without making plans for our next trip…stay tuned, world!

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Opa and the four of us then embarked onto the next adventure – Germany! 

It had been almost 10 years since I had been “home” and the kids were way too young to remember anything or anyone so we spent very busy days making up for lost time and eating ALL the Bretzeln, Spaghettieis, and chocolate we could find. I mean, there was culture to be re-introduced! 

Our family and friends were full of surprises and filled our bellies with even more food and chocolate which came in handy to solve “all the suffering” traveling meant for pre-teens and teenagers.

I mean, there was SO MUCH suffering on this trip for one of them and then the other one got stung by a wasp (eating outside in Germany was nearly impossible since all the wasps in the world suddenly united and made an appearance) so it was only fair that we stuffed our children full of Duplo chocolate bars (thank you, Thomas) to make the suffering go away. 

A big thank you to our friends and family for hosting and feeding us and for showing us around my old stomping grounds! 

And just when the kids started to understand German and take an initiative in speaking again, we were on the road (again!) – this time onto Ghent, Belgium for our final stop.

In Belgium, we feasted on mussels, waffles, and beer. We discovered castles, sang our hearts out to “Waterloo” at the Waterloo battlefield, and strolled around Bruges and Dinant. Juliana fought revolving doors (3 times but who’s counting – she managed to actually NOT get stuck in one although there were at least 3 very close calls) and discovered a love for Sweden so she can visit Nessie (it turns out that Scotland and Sweden are not the same) while Luca relived all that suffering again (!) by being dragged into yet again another old castle. 

After more than 3 weeks on the road, we were ready to head back home although with a sad heart as Juliana’s beloved hamster, Pip, passed away while we were traveling. Major kudos to our friends who were pet-sitting and not only had to share the sad news with us but also console their own kids.

And that’s a wrap for one of the best vacations ever.