My first flight was one I didn't originally plan have to take - a flight to Entebbe, just so I could catch my flight back to Nairobi. When I bought my flights to Africa, I wasn't sure whether I was going to Uganda before Kenya, or the other way around. The flights to Entebbe and Nairobi were the same price, so I bought return tickets to Entebbe with a stop over in Nairobi. When I tried to cancel the Entebbe to Nairobi portion of the flight, the airline wanted to charge me over $900 to NOT take a flight! The flight from Nairobi to Entebbe was around $250 ... guess which option I took!
When I checked in for the flight, I asked if they could check me and my bags all the way through to Canada, but I guess because of the connection in Nairobi the system got confused and wouldn't allow it, so was told that I had to check in again in Entebbe. I had about a 4 hour stopover in Entebbe, so plenty of time to collect my bags, go through customs (if I had to), and check-in for the rest of my flight.
Getting to Entebbe, I found the transfer office (before customs, so I could avoid the US$50 visa). The guy working there looked at my flight information, grabbed my passport, and asked if I wanted to go back to Nairobi on the plane I just came in on. I told him I'd do whatever was easiest for him, and he decided to send me back on the next flight. Since the flight was already boarding I had my doubts about getting on, but, ok! He took me around all the immigration desks and sat me down at the lost luggage desk while he filled-in some papers. I could see my bag going around and told him, so he took me over there and told me to grab my bag and then stay and wait for him while he ran off with my passport and flight info. He came back with another guy who ripped the old label off my bag and took the bag without attaching a new label (hence the "will my luggage ever be seen again?" feeling). We went back past immigration, up some back stairs, and back into the terminal. He left me sitting in a restaurant and off he went (still with my passport) to go and see if he could get me on the flight. After 10 minutes sitting there, he reappeared, handed me back all my papers, passport, and boarding passes all the way to Toronto! As I went through the gate, I was told that everyone was waiting for me, so I RAN down the stairs and across the ramp and into the plane ... where everyone was still slowly putting bags up and other passengers still got in after me!
So, it was back to Nairobi where I got to spend 6 hours sweating in a hot, stuffy terminal, then on to Amsterdam.
After lunch, T and I went to the botanical gardens. It's a really beautiful and relaxing place to spend a few hours. We walked most of the paths, sat and looked at Lake Victoria, had our snack (bananas), and got chased away by the monkey who wanted our banana peels (we let him keep them).
We arrived back at G's around 5:50, then went out for supper at the Golf Nest.
We managed to see a few colobus monkeys and hippo trails and the hike was great. Our guide was super friendly (I don't think we ever met a Ugandan who wasn't friendly) and the kids loved to walk along side him. Of course, they always seemed to go for the gun side, but he gently moved them over to his other side ... so they didn't have a rifle pointed at their heads!
G also spotted the bones of a hippo which we then reassembled. Probably not the smartest thing to do in a game park, but an interesting experience!
It got dark by the time we left the park, and getting onto the highway we almost ran over a bush pig! (Our final bit of wildlife for the day) Back at the lodge, we ordered food, took showers, then STILL had to wait for our food to come! Who knew that it took 1 1/2 hours to make spaghetti?
Soon after this, a guy on a motorbike and wearing a suit drove up behind us and asked up where we were going. We told him how we were just looking for animals and he invited us to come visit his village which was where the road led. We drove through the village, down a hill with lots of waterbuffalo, and down to the water where all the boats had just come in from fishing. One of the men gave us a tour and at the end, pointed to the hippos that live in the channel just past the fishing village! Waterbuffalo and hippos are two of the most dangerous animals in Africa, and here they are, living right along side people! Before leaving, we bought some bananas (the small, super sweet kind) and mendazi (fried dough balls) ... enough to feed 5 of us for about $1!
We drove back to the highway, stopping every few minutes to look at wildlife, and near the south end of the park saw a sign for what looked like a fancy lodge, complete with restaurant! We were all hot, tired, and in need of a cool drink, so started following the signs. The signs didn't lead to anything, though ... the dirt road became a dirt track which became a dirt path. We didn't see anything that could possibly be considered a lodge, so turned around and drove back to our own lodge.
It was a very successful game viewing day - besides the elephants (we saw another group of 5 later in the day), hippos, and waterbuffalo, we also saw LOTS of kob, defassa waterbuck, a red-tail monkey, baboons, warthogs (though only a few and they were far away), and hartebeest. After a swim, shower, and supper, we looked through all the pictures we had taken that day, then went off to sleep.
For lunch, we stopped at a roadside takeaway place, now forever referred to as the "fart" food place, for samosas.
We spent a few minutes at the equator, taking a few pictures and looking through the souvenir shops, before continuing west through the matoke (similar to plantain) fields.
The flight to 