As they did back in March, Rob and Emma invited us up in Rob’s plane for another weekend away. This time we selected Chobe in the East of Murchison Falls Park as the destination for a short celebratory trip for Rob and Helen’s birthdays. We arrived at Kajjansi Airstrip on Saturday morning just in time for a swift cup of tea and an egg sandwich before I jumped into the ‘1st officers’ seat and plugged my headset into the radio. After the Ugandan Civil Aviation Authority failed their International Licence check back in 2012 I was stopped from continuing my lessons so they could plaster over the cracks. After a nine month wait, my student pilot’s licence along with my written exams expired and with them my passion for flying seemed to fade. Getting back into the air though it all seemed to start coming back. After take-off we slowly ascended over the hills of Kampala and reaching our cruising altitude we were able to see the Kampala-Entebbe Expressway under construction below us. This is set to be the first ‘real’ road in Uganda and so marks a big step in the transition from its perceived simple 3rd World country towards the rapidly growing modernised society it is becoming.
As we flew north I took control from
Captain Rob and steered us over the plains and villages below. After less than an hour in the air we had
reached the park boundary and crossing the now silvery Nile River the dirt
airstrip came into view below us peeping out from amongst the trees. A carefully corrected final approach later
and we were down on the hard orange deck and taxing past the on looking giraffe
in search of a safe – animal friendly – place to park for the night. Usually the same trip in Stanley The Landy
would take us across the Karuma Falls but last 4 hot hours. On this occasion the falls, which are
scheduled to be dammed soon in search of electricity, had to be avoided for
security reasons, and the journey had taken just over 45 minutes.
Piling out of the plane we set up camp in
our private and very large static tents overlooking the Nile. As the sun blazed is path across the large
African sky we relaxed by the pool with well-earned ice cold beers (pombe baridi) and African Gin (warragi), carefully soaking up some rays
and watching the Hippos wallowing in the adjacent river. Sunday being the day of rest followed a
fairly similar pattern and a massage (me) and manicure (Hel’s) later we were
ready for our departure. However weather
being what it is lunch had to be extended.
So with a full stomach we sat and waited for the huge storm cloud (cumulonimbus) to pass before once again
jumping into the little plane. Once those pesky giraffe had been removed from
the runway and with the all clear from the baboons, we climbed out from Chobe
into the rain leaden sky and made our way southwards towards the hustle and
bustle of Kampala. As Hemmingay found
out, albeit painfully, flying is definitely the best way to see the African
continent and maybe the passion for my to complete my license is back.
