Seeing the Stars at the Mountains of the Moon

by Lucy Young (United Kingdom (Great Britain))

Making a local connection Uganda

Last week I returned home from a two-month trip to Uganda, where I was working at an NGO. On my last weekend some of the friends I had made whilst living in the capital city, Kampala, and I decided to take a road trip to see all the remaining sites we had on our bucket lists. At 10am we herded into the car and set off for the Rwenzori Mountains, located on the border of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Our accommodation was halfway up one of the mountains, in the Mburu region, which we were told was on accessible by motorbike. Very reluctantly I agreed and what followed was possibly the scariest twenty-minutes of my life, riding up a steep, narrow and bumpy road, where a sharp drop was never more than a few metres away. Eventually, we reached our home for the next two nights, two mud huts with straw thatched rooves and no furniture other than our beds. We arrived after sunset, in pitch black darkness. There was no electricity and no running water, other than one shower which had to be filled up from a tank, so the first evening consisted of torches, a lot of hand-sanitiser and me spitting my toothpaste off the side of a mountain. The following morning, we awoke at sunrise and could finally see the beauty of the mountains. The mountains completely enclosed you. In every direction I looked all I could see was miles of mountainous peaks in various shades of blue and grey and purple. After our breakfast of Katogo, a traditional dish which literally means ‘a combination’ and includes potatoes, plantain, matoke and a variety of vegetables we began our nine hour long hike up the mountain. Several falls, steep inclines through rainforests, some encounters with red ants and some mesmerising views later we finished our trip and were rewarded with dinner and a roaring campfire. After our meal, the locals of Mburu passed round Tonto, a locally brewed (and extremely strong) banana beer which we drank while we heard their traditional stories and songs. It also became clear that night why the Rwenzori Mountains are sometimes favourably referred to as the Mountains of the Moon. It is the clearest and largest I have ever seen the moon and stars. Perhaps given the proximity to the Equator and the lack of any light pollution, I could finally see each constellation of stars clearly. After two nights in the Rwenzori Mountains, we travelled to Queen Elizabeth National Park, where we were absolutely stunned to find ourselves living like Ugandan Royalty, with access to warm water, indoor toilets, electricity and even WiFi! That evening we embarked on a night-time safari, setting off just before sunset. The road flows naturally into the national park with no real gates or fences, meaning before we even got past the main road, we were confronted with an elephant standing just metres from where we were staying. The rest of the safari also did not disappoint. Just a few minutes in, we began to drive off-road and found a small lion which our guide told us had become separated from it’s pack. Whilst we watched this lion, we noticed it was looking at something in the grass behind us. That’s when we also spotted a leopard and found ourselves caught in the middle of an African cat stand-off. Eventually, as the lion was not accompanied by the rest of its herd, it walked off, leaving the leopard in peace. The trip finished the next morning with a 5am start and a trek through nearby Kalinzu Forest, where we followed a group of chimpanzees as they went about their morning routines. The highlight being spotting a new-born chimp and its mother far up in the treetops. Just like with every trip in Uganda I found myself feeling very unwilling to return to the hustle and bustle of Kampala and the pull of work. We drove the six hours back to our Kampala home with the windows rolled completely down, eating chapatis and taking in the fresh Ugandan air.