Well it certainly is not for the faint of heart to travel all the way here!

From Montreal it has taken us 4 flights and one short stay at a hotel to finally get to Uganda!

For this leg of the trip which is a Gorilla safari- Johanne and I will be experiencing this alone.. later on in Kenya,Paulinda and Barbara will join us.

First we had to catch a flight on August 20th from Montreal to London.

The airport in London is huge but old with low ceilings. Drab drab drab!

Next, we flew on British Airways, business class on Boeing 747 with seats opposite each other to Nairobi, Kenya. Very strange arrangement! On that 8.5 hour flight we mostly slept as we stayed up flying the night before.

We woke up in time to have tea and crumpets.

We landed on the evening of August 21st in Nairobi, Kenya. The security here is intense, there are guards with machine guns as you exit the airport.

Hotel Kempiski

We spent a very short night at Villa Rosa Kempiski, about 30 minutes from the airport. Our driver and a guide picked us up from the hotel and told us a bit about the points of interests in Nairobi, which we may not have time to see.

At the hotel, we are greeted by security guards and dogs, which are trained to detect any types of arms and drugs!

The concierge checks us in for our early morning flight. So we can sleep one more hour!

Everyone here so far has been very gracious!

It is now the 22nd of August!

At 5am we get coffee and embark in our limousine back to the airport.

I thought the security in China was pretty intense, well this beats it! before entering the airport , cars are stopped and people and luggages are checked. Of course there is a lot of security inside the airport too. It should like this at home!! you can travel here with some peace of mind!

Apparently security is number 1 here in Kenya!

We board Kenya Airlines for Entebbe, Uganda. This a very small airport with only one luggage carrier.

The kids in Entebbe visiting the Airport!

We have to wait 4 hours for our next flight and hanging out at the only restaurant overlooking some type of lake. Entebbe is located at the top of that lake and it happens to be the largest lake in all of Africa, lake VICTORIA!,

WE board Interlink airlines – an 11 passenger propeller airplane in direction of Kihihi airport which at the southwest border of Uganda.

We fly quite low and see tons of tiny villages dotting a topography filled with hills and valleys, streams. The light reflects above from the shiny metal rooftops!

Finally landing on a short dirt strip of land at a

A one building airport right out of ” out of Africa!”

Johanne walking out of the plane

At the Kihihi Airport in Uganda

After one hour and half of driving on dirt road going through many villages

with Anglican or Christian churches sprinkled everywhere, mounds of dirts which houses termites ( a unusual site for us). Women’s carrying tools or food on top of their head walking on the side of the road,

small children playing in the street; all, barefoot! Got to find a way to get them shoes! There are very few cars or trucks here, For these dirt roads, you need hard core trucks!

The Gorilla Sanctuary lodge is where we will spend the next 3 nights, right in the Bwindi impenetrable forest.

The open air main lodge

Only 16 people can stay here at a time. And all

rooms are high end tents, beds covered in nets.

Our tent!

A very decent large bathroom covered by a thatched roof with screens so you can see the forest. We are greeted by our guide to greet us for tomorrow’s expedition. Then we go to the room, unwind a bit. Johanne takes a shower in one room,

I take a bath in the enclosed room with candles looking at the forest, hearing the birds, bugs and the sound of the rainfall.. Enchanting and different!

The dinner is served al fresco under a roof. It’s satisfying. We toast our arrival; finally after two days… We went to bed at 10.