Kody and I headed to Fort Portal, about 3.5 hours east of Kampala, for the Labor Day holiday. Our first night, we stayed at a nice little community campsite which has its own crater lake. In the morning we headed off to Kibale Forest to do some chimpanzee tracking.

At first I thought we might not see too many – initially, we only saw a lone chimp high up in a tree. The guide took our group across the forest at a fast clip and eventually we found a big group. We saw quite a bit of action – the group hunting colubus monkeys together, fights over honey, mating, and power plays between the males. Scarier – and more exciting – than I’d thought it would be!
Eating honey stolen from the bees

Hunting colobus monkeys - these guys are the gorund team, waiting to catch any colobus that their friends manage to shake out of the trees
















Our second night, we treated ourselves to a bit of luxury at Ndali Lodge, perched on a hill top between two crater lakes (one of which you can reach via a steep staircase from the lodge).

The crater lake below Ndali







Boys fishing in the lake















We got caught in an afternoon rainshower during our walk around the crater's rim. Hiding in the grasses wasn’t much cover.

We rushed back from Fort Portal to attend the wedding reception for my colleague Paul, who was marrying Rose. Rose and Paul met at IAVI – our first IAVI marriage!


Kody's first taste of Ugandan wedding cake




From forest to ballroom in 4 hours