Africa with the parentals - PART ONE!!

The day finally arrived when my parents came to Uganda. They seemed to be the last people off the plane and I had started to wonder whether they had chickened out of coming to Uganda and just stayed in Amsterdam for the holidays where they connected. Eventually they did turn up though, complete with many-pocketed trousers and the matching hats I had heard much about.

We spent the first couple of days settling into Kampala, getting them used to the heat, the mozzies, the currency, the potholes and Kampala traffic. Mum enjoyed bartering for a few bargains in the craft market, while Dad attempted to buy some very embarrassing shirts, but eventually settled for a Muzungu t-shirt.

After the weekend we set off on the big journey to Queen Elizabeth Park. I managed to bagsy the smoothest roads, leaving Dad the Raleigh driving experience between Masaka and Mbarara (I already knew the state of that road from the trip to Rwanda at half term). We stopped at the Equator for some piccies, then carried on with the driving. We made it in one piece in spite of the numerous trucks and buses hurtling down the middle of the roads and avoided being ramrailed off the road completely.

Arriving at Katara Lodge was unbelievable. the view across the plains is enough to fulfill the dreams of any filmaker or artist. The rooms were also fantastic, with a bath with a view over the plains and lovely fluffy white towels and white bedlinen, all immaculately presented in the wooden cabin. I have to say that I was very impressed with Alex's recommendation.

Over the next few days we went out on game drives, coming within a few metres of elephants, lions, cobs, buffalo, various types of antelopes and so on. I never imagined that I would be able to drive so close to all these animals. We had a very experienced and interesting guide who managed to find all of the animals for us, so we were very happy with ourselves for that.

On the other hand, we did have a truly African experience one afternoon, whilst taking the 'community walk'. I had an idea that this was going to be interesting the moment I asked the guide if we needed to take anything particular on the walk with us (thinking of insect repellent, sun screen and the like) only to be told to make sure that I had a notebook and pen. So we set off to the local village for a short tour. He explained the histories of all the Ugandan tribes explicit details and expected us to write it all down for later. I tried to explain that we wouldn't know how to begin to spell the words in Lugandan. In the end, Dad and I dropped back and let Mum get on with it. Every so often he would ask if 'Madam Margaret' was listening carefully. On we went and I giggled to myself, letting the rest of them get on with it, as Dad huffed and puffed his way up the massive hill in the tropical heat that they were given no warning of and we were shown such exotic crops as carrots and potatoes - astounding. Patience would only last so long and by the end of the day Dad had given him a full training course on how to be a good tour guide!

Now perhaps the most dramatic event of the holiday would be the fire. As I already mentioned, the lodge was built entirely out of natural materials and borders straight onto the national park. So on our second evening, as we sat eating our dinner in the restaurant at the top of the hill, we spotted some small 'burn off' fires in the distance. the only problem was that after a while it was not so distant anymore. I popped down the stairs to get my car keys and passport in case of emergency and spotted that they were getting closer. We suggested they call the fire brigade ... except that there is no fire brigade in the middle of nowhere in Uganda - only the local men with buckets of water. As the fires burned brighter and stronger emotions started to run high. I became a little hysterical, claiming that I did not bring my parents to Africa in order to burn them alive. Mum was getting a little agitated by the fact that the room was by now, filled with smoke, and insisted that we all packed our bags and brought them back up the hill. I decided it was more crucial to make sure my clothes were OK, since I have to travel several hours by plane in order to get to a decent clothes shop. The staff continued to troop up and down the hill with buckets of water and eventually put them out. Mum was still a little concerned though as the room was filled with smoke. We were offered staff accommodation (which was probably THE NICEST staff accommodation in the whole of Africa) but declined it as there wasn't an en-suite bathroom and decided she would risk being burnt alive in her sleep after all. So we went to bed in the room that was now cleared of the smoke and I slept very soundly until the door started banging first thing in the morning and mum leapt out of bed and declared that the fires had started again. So we repacked again and dragged the suitcases up the hundreds of steps up the very steep hill yet again, to have an early breakfast and head off in search of tree climbing lions.

I have to say that the tree climbing lions are quite possibly the cutest things I have ever seen. Sleeping peacefully in the trees, they looked like cuddly over sized teddy bears.Nobody could ever suspect that these gorgeous looking creatures could harm anybody. This did not stop Mum from grinding her teeth as I leaned out of the window to get a closer look though - but it was so worth it for the photos. Sadly the quest to find the tree climbing lions was not so easy - an 80km drive over a dirt road, followed by many hours driving round numerous feckin fig trees was exhausting and I was about to give up and drive back, but am glad we persisted.

On the final day in the park I set off to track chimpanzees while Mum and Dad had a lazy morning. Again, I was very lucky as we saw many of them only a few metres away. There were loads in the trees and some were very close to us on the ground and they were only distracted by the sound of my phone going off when the typically disorganised school was ringing me to ask where i wanted my salary to go that month - grrrrrr.

On the way back we stopped in Fortportal. It's a very different landscape there, in the foothills of the Rwenzori mountains and was good to show my parents a different aspect of Uganda. We went on a tour of some caves and saw some beautiful crater lakes. We stayed in a very nice hotel with very slow service, but TIA. Then the trip back was sooooo much smoother, with lovely tarmacked roads.