Africa: Uganda

Heavy sigh, heavy heavy sigh. Uganda disappointed in the extreme.

Let us start at the beginning.

The Drive From The Airport And The Hotel

Getting off the airplane was like being smothered with a hot, wet blanket. Outside the airport, there were fuzzy things a floating around everywhere. No wait! It was millions of huge white flies!
There is a one lane road from Entebbe to Kampala. It was completely jammed. Completely.
In order to expedite the process, my driver drove down the shoulder and down the middle of the road into oncoming traffic (at an insane speed) and then cut people off to get back into the correct lane. No street lights. Often no headlights. Two hours of this. I was pretty wound up by the time we got to the hotel. The speedometer didn't budge from zero.
Hotel - grotty little converted plantation house. Room was very damp (ie. the sheets felt damp). Some kind of leak in the washroom, which I found by stepping in whatever it was.

The Kibale Forest and Bigodi Swamp

It was a 7 hour drive from Kampala to Kibale. Same driver. You can imagine how the drive went. My hand hurt from gripping the door handle. Also, we stopped for a short call (pee break) and I think his poor little pecker wasn't the same after that, the way he tormented it so.
Stayed at a nice enough tented camp, very private rooms. About 7.5 minutes of walking through the jungle to get to the main house. I'd talk more about the food, but unless I eat at a restaurant all of the places serve very western type food, so it's tastey but not really interesting.
The washroom was not part of the tent, but was attached in the back. One night, I turned on the outdoor light and ran the shower to get hot water. Waited inside the tent. After a few minutes, heard this loud 'thwap thwap' against the tent. Poked my little eyeball out the tent flap. Holy crap! It was a black moth the size of my palm! Got brave enough to reach my hand out to turn off the light and left the water running until I was sure the moth was gone. Scurried out to turn the water off and ran back inside the tent. No shower that night! That was awesome, especially after a day of humidity and fear sweat.
The following day, in the Kibale forest - After four hours of tramping up and down Ugandan hills and through jungle to see chimps, I kind of wonder what I was thinking. That was a serious amount of sweating (ie. I drank 3L of liquid during the day with no tire checks) to see an animal that I find disgusting. Not fun.
The walk around the Bigodi swamp was literally around the circumference of the swamp. Saw a few monkeys. Saw many many plantations and small farms. That was about it. The guide picked his nose while talking to me, and not just scratching an itch either. Also, in order to show me the direction of the monkeys, instead of pointing, he grabbed me under my arm. All I can say is, at that point my armpit didn't even want to be in my armpit, so I'm not sure why his hand needed to be there.

Queen Elizabeth Park

Stayed at a lodge with some nice cottages. The area is a little hotter and drier than the Kibale Forest. Not much for game.
One night, driving back to the lodge, my driver put on his hazards and drove at least 130km/hr on a single lane highway. Fast enough that he couldn't make the corners without going into the other lane. In the dark. With adults, children, livestock and wild animals on the shoulders. No headlights for us. No headlights on the oncoming vehicles.
The next day I told him he needed to moderate his driving and he ignored me.