One of the most interesting safaris we have ever made in Africa was that in which we traveled to the four East African countries. But in the meantime, we had no car that we could use to reach all the four destinations easily and not until our friend Bruce who has ever made such a tour in Africa and used the same company recommended to us 4×4 Car Hire Uganda website under Nature Adventure Africa Safaris Limited which offered us a very competitive car rental rate and we took Self Drive in Uganda Rwanda, Kenya & Tanzania holidays.
Their website displays a number of cars with the rate for each and per day and these included Super Customs, Toyota Land Cruiser, Toyota Rav4, Premio, Safari Van, Toyota VX among others as exhibited on the website. Since we were 2 of us decided to take up a Prado Land Cruiser petrol usage that was fit for our long journey which was hired at $70 USD in Uganda and $ 90 USD outside Uganda. But due to the fact that we were to spend with it for almost 2 months, we were given a discounted rate of $5 off the original price.
In this case we wanted to drive ourselves since our budget was narrow to support the driver though they were/are not expensive and we wanted flexibility in our travel. We arrived at the Entebbe International Airport since the company head offices are located in Uganda, Najjanankumbi along Entebbe Road; with offices at Najja Shopping Center from where we had to finish up company car rental contract agreement with the company.
On reaching Uganda at the Entebbe International Airport we were waited by the company sales representative (Jackson) and after signing the terms and conditions, and being oriented about the car and our safari route we were given our car with all the tools including the GP Navigator, travel maps and spare tyres, mobile phone with local Sim card, gorilla trekking permits and all the camping items that we rented from this company.
Our tour started in Uganda where we tracked the endangered mountain gorillas from Bwindi impenetrable national park which is located in the south western Uganda in Kabale. We tracked the Ruhija side visiting the Bitukura gorilla group, But before this journey, I made arrangements with Moses a tour consultant who booked for us the permits and also made for us some lodge reservations where we slept in all the four countries we traveled too.
The following day we drove our car and crossed the boarders at Cyanika and traveled to Rwanda. On reaching Rwanda, we went straight to Great Seasons Hotel where we based the next day to go to Nyungwe National Park where I performed a canopy walk high over the tree. From here monkey were wondering how we got experience of walking up like them. This gave me a nice frontal view of the primates such as chimpanzees through the Igishigishigi trail and this costed $60 only per person.
Next day we drove back to Great Seasons Hotel where we slept and early in the morning we started our journey to Tanzania through the Rusumo boarder. This was a tiresome journey but the best in all was enjoying our tour via the various ridges and valleys all over the countries. We drove up to Dodoma and here we slept at Kitemba Hotel and early in the morning after taking a heavy breakfast, we drove up to Dar es Salaam and here I slept at Hotel Nikko Tower.
The following day morning, we toured the Bagamoyo which was famously used by the Arabs to export slaves from the east African coasts. Ruins of the Coral mosque at Kaole and the ancients 13th century graves plus the old ferry in the same area, after a nice exposure to the different historical archives and features along the coast, we drove back to Hotel Nikko Tower where we spent my night as we were making arrangements online for my next journey to Kenya using water transport at the Dar es salaam port using a ship.
The next day we drove our car to up to the port and we shipped our vehicle and the captain sailed the ship up to Mombasa port in Kenya, since we reached a beat late, we slept in Mombasa at Hotel English Point. The next day in the morning, we drove towards Nairobi the capital city of Kenya but along the way we had to first tour the Amboseli National Park which is south of Nairobi.
From this park we spotted some of Africa’s most celebrated animals including lions, giraffes, zebras, buffaloes, and wildebeest and a myriad of bird life.
As we were leaving the park, we got our last glimpses of the great African beasts before a convenient transfer back to the Nairobi city where we were heading. While in Nairobi we slept at Dacasa Hotel which gave us an opportunity to observe and witness the sparkling Nairobi city at night with its busy streets and social amenity halls and we enjoyed this town in the 7 days we spent in this city.
The adjacent day we drove back to Uganda using the Busia border and this took us a full day to Mbale where we had to make stop over to the Mount Elgon National Park for the hike to the top enjoying the bird watching and the Sipi falls. Mbale is known for the cultural dance of the Bagishu which is done every even year to circumcise the men’s and we took cultural tour in this area visiting the coffee farmers.
From here we came to Jinja where we spent almost 4 days visiting and taking activities all that this city offers along River Nile like the white water rafting, bungee jumping, former Bujagali site, quad biking and on the last day we visited the Samuka Islands and this is nice island to relax especially for honey moon travelers in Jinja. Thereafter we transferred back to Kampala staying at Kampala cottages with perfect environs for vacation and on the last day we took the Kampala city tour visiting the Kasubi tombs the biggest grass hatched house in the world, Baha’i temple, Kings Lake, Namugongo shrine, Uganda museum, Uganda National Theatre, among other cultural villages.
Lastly I want to recommend this company services to everyone willing to take self drive in Africa and we enjoyed our travel but surprisingly, for all that time we spent with the car we didn’t not face any challenge culminating from the car since it was in good conditions. After we handed over the car in the morning at the airport as we were waiting for our mid-morning flight departure, what I can conclude is that self-drive is the way to go for everybody who wishes to explore African countries in partnership with Nature Adventure Africa Safaris.
