After the Murchison Falls National Park we drove south. On the way we stopped at a farm because the car stopped working. There were lots of lights flashing on the dashboard and we couldn’t make it up a hill. Daddy had to put the Taniwha in low range. The farm had a really nice garden. and lots of banana trees. Genevieve and I made horses. Daddy fixed the problem too.

Then we headed to the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. On the way we stopped at a place where they make sculptures out of bronze. We had a drink, but it was very ‘pole pole’. That means slowly, slowly in Swahili. The guy explained how they made the sculptures. First they carve the shape out of wood or clay. Then they  cover it with wax. Then the cover the wax with ceramics and fire it. That melts the wax leaving a hollow which they pour the bronze in. My favourite sculpture was a squirrel. It was part of a set of clan totems. He told us that there were about 57 different clans. When you were in a clan you had to protect its totem, and you weren’t allowed to eat it. If you got married then you had to protect your wife or husbands’ totem too.

After that we drove to the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. Mummy really wanted to see the gorillas, but they didn’t have any spaces. Genevieve and I were too little.  Mummy said we would have to come back to Uganda one day!  We learnt about Gorilla’s at the information centre. Did you know:

• They are the strongest mammal.
• The senior males are called silverbacks.
• They live in a group called a troop.
• They eat mainly leaves, but sometimes ants,
• They don’t have tails, like monkeys.
• They build nests to sleep in.

Daddy did some more work on the car. Mummy, Genevieve and I went to meet some kids at an afterschool club. They sang some songs, did some drumming and some dancing. Then they showed us their art work. Some were really good. We bought a little picture of a gorilla.

The next day we drove through the Impenetrable Forest. It was very beautiful. We saw lots of colobus monkeys at the side of the road. It was a real jungle. But all around the park is farm land, even on really steep hills. We also saw a dusty gypsum mine and children were working, chipping away rocks. They didn’t have any masks to wear.

The last place we stayed was at Lake Mutanda. A man let us pull up his fishing net, and throw it back in the lake. Then he made us some fishing rods out of sticks and string. He put a little worm on the end for me. I didn’t catch anything though.  In the morning, the car had sunk into the soft ground, but it was no problem to get out.

The next day we went to Rwanda.