After a night at the best campsite ever in El Doret with a proper Indian curry buffet, we set off over the border into Uganda where we spent our first night in the capital, Kampala. We didn't see anything of the city but again had a great campsite, except for the roosters waking us up at 3am, the giant pig roaming around and the other various giant farmyard animals.

We finally arrived at the Kibale Forest National Park where we were super excited about seeing the chimps that reside there. There was a cock-up with the permits so I opted to wait around for another group. In the end, there were no other people and just Olly and I went with a guide and had an awesome time. There are hundreds and hundreds of chimps in the park and we saw about 15 in total. We were s lucky as they were all on the ground (the other groups saw them in the trees so they were hard to see and photograph). They kept making a real screeching noise which was daunting and at one point we were virtually surrounded by them. They tend to keep themselves to themselves but you never quite know what's going on in their heads - they are still wild and territorial animals after all. It was a great experience though and beautiful to see them so close up and look you in the eyes.

In the afternoon a group of us went on a guided walk of the tea plantations and the local village. The tea pickers earn 70 Ugandan shillings per kilo of tea that they pick. They all aim for 100kg per day (whic is a huge amount) and that earns them just about USD3 a day!!! Our guide said he did it ojce for a few months and at first he could only pick 18kg a day. By the time he quit he was up to 48kg a day - that earned him less than USD1.50 a day!!! We then spent some time in the village talking (or at least trying since none of us spoke the same language!) with the local kids which was fun. I fell in love with another dog at our campsite (which was yet again stunning) - he was a black lab with the most placid and lovely personality. He craved affection but never begged when we were eating or anything like that - the perfect canine companion - in fact, I was hoping to try and dognap him but no such luck.

Our next stop was the Queen Elizabeth National Park which supposedly has the greatest concentration f animals in Uganda. Again, most of us were not expecting much but it was great. We went for a drink in a fancy resort while waiting for a boat and then went on a 2-hour boat cruise which was brilliant. We saw hoards and hoards of hippo, buffalo, elephants, kobs, birds etc. Then the heavens opened and it rained. Liz and I knew we hadn't put up the fly sheet on our tent and I had laid all of my sleeping bag etc out. Marcus tried to call Patrick (our cook) but there was no reception on the lake - disaster! I should have had more faith and credited Patrick with more initiative as he had gone around, pegged out all of the fly sheets and even brought my laundry in - phew!!

Our final stop (for now) in Uganda was Kabale and Lake Bunyonyi - once again a fab campsite right on the banks of a stunning lake surrounded by terraced fields, stunning lush countryside and the lake had hidden bays and islands. Beautiful.

My first impressions of Uganda were really positive - it's very lush and green, with beautiful hilly countryside and the people seem lovely. The kids run towards the truck and wave, something we haven't really seen with as much enthusiasm since Botswana.