Awesome African Adventure. Day 5-April 13, 2025

Dubai to Entebbe

We leave today for Entebbe. Breaky at 6:30 and cab to Dubai airport at 7:00.

Mary and Phil got rejected at Smart Gate and redirected to Immigration control and then passport control.

I sailed through Smart Gate and through security to wait on the other side. A tad disconcerting when I lost sight of them and it was quite a few minutes wait.

Dubai airport are having an Autism month. All about inclusivity. This aligned with Hamza’s advice that Dubai is about inclusivity and respect.

We boarded no trouble, then sat and waited. We were 25 minutes late when the captain announced air traffic control was holding everyone for 30 minutes due to weather and our runway had changed. So we wait.

Due to depart at 9:55 we finally pushed back at 10:41 and left the ground at 11:04. Just over an hour late -bugger. 

Suzie’s flight attendant told her that our delay was due to a sandstorm which looking out the window looked fair. It’s pretty brown and murky. 

Watched Betterman, the Robbie Williams movie which I also missed at the cinemas. 

There was an Aussie flight attendant who served us lunch. She seemed genuinely excited to speak to some fellow Aussies. 

Made up some time in flight, landing in Entebbe at 2:50 local time – only 20 minutes late. Good flight. 

We got a bit of a surprise once landed, we were packing our bits and pieces when a lovely flight attendant came and asked if we were travelling with a passenger in first class. Of course we were, so she escorted us off the plane from row 33 – it was a bit of a rush and we felt bad pushing past people, but we did catch up to Suzie before immigration. 

Visas shown and stuck into passport and through to the chaos of Ugandan baggage carousel. So many boxes of stuff and huge bags and cases filled with stuff/goods/purchases. Suzie and I had a good possie to scan the belt, but not for long. Blokes started coming in with trolleys and parked them right up on the belt. 

Once we had secured our luggage our next challenge was security which was very agricultural. We manhandled all our luggage and bags onto the xray belt while battling others putting boxes and cases and little handbags through. And then it all just piled off the other end. 

Then we walked a little way to find Wilson- our guide for Uganda. A big tall strong black man. 

Out to our vehicle – a Troopy and a short 10 minute trip to our hotel. 

We passed the old airport where the Israelis came to free the hostages in 1976.  

We also saw their giant Marabou stork on a light pole. 

The Hotel Boma is a number of pink old stucco buildings, in a tropical garden. 

We had our introduction to

Hotel and welcome drink in reception before settling into our rooms. 

We met Wilson for a bit of a chat and a briefing for tomorrow.

He is awesome. He has already suggested that we swap our Botanical Garden morning for a trip to Kampala. I feel really confident he is going to show us good stuff. 

He shared that in Uganda things are polepole (poorly-Poorly) meaning taken slowly/ easily/ no rush/ expect things to take time. 

Wilson left us and then Joel came to offer drinks. Mary and I selected Ugandan Waragi Gin for our G&T, Suzie went Bombay and Phil had an Ugandan 🇺🇬 Nile beer. 

We sat around the pool area and connected back to phones. 

There is lots of bird life in the pool area so cameras will be out tomorrow, also some lizards and giant snails.