I still get promotional stuff from Naturetrek, the company we went tiger hunting in India with last year, and, among the 100s of trips I'd love to do, a photography trip to Uganda stood out. To use that extremely annoying phrase "it ticked a lot of boxes"; new country, new species, photography, small group (5) and something a little different.
The trip looked pretty full on covering several national parks each of which had their own specialisms; Gorilla, Chimpanzee and the elusive, prehistoric looking, Shoebill. Otherwise it would be general wildlife and birding, both on foot and from the vehicle.
Fortunately British Airways now have a codeshare agreement with Kenya Airways so I was able to book us Premium Economy flights to Nairobi and then it was just a short 1 1/2 hour flight on to Entebbe. The only downside was the 4-5 hour layovers each way but as we had lounge access we could happily sit out the wait. As we weren't due to arrive in Entebbe until 0330 hours we decided to go a couple of days early so we'd have time to relax instead of starting the tour immediately after 18+ hours travelling. I contacted 2 Friends Beach Hotel, where the whole group would be staying the first night, and booked two extra nights so we had a bed to crash in and a day to recover. The bonus was they offered a free airport pick up even at our very unsociable 0300 arrival time.
About 6 weeks before we were due to leave (mid September) we had a message from Naturetrek to say that the itinerary would need rearranging as the FCO had a ban on visiting Queen Elizabeth National Park (Day 8/10). It turned out that it had been a "no go" area following the murder of a couple of tourists by terrorists from neighbouring DRC in September 2023. I was pretty annoyed that we hadn't been informed prior to booking, particularly as we'd booked our own flights which would have been wasted if the whole trip got pulled, but after a few anxious days we were provided with a revised itinerary which we were assured would provide similar game watching possibilities and experiences, albeit involving a longer drive north to include Murchison Falls National Park instead of QENP.
There have been constant roadworks on the M25 for several months around J10 A3 and now these have extended to M26 and other M25 areas where they are retro installing safety areas, causing the most horrendous traffic delays. Although our flight was a Sunday morning and in theory light traffic we decided we'd spend the night before somewhere near Heathrow "just in case". We found a very reasonably priced Travelodge only about 15 mins drive from T5 and went to a nearby Indian restaurant for an okay-ish meal on the Saturday night (first time we'd ever been to a dry restaurant).
We both had a good night's sleep for a change and having dropped the car off at Purple Parking and sat on their transfer bus forever, we duly checked in. The check-in guy was really interested in our destination and being of a similar age to us, just associated Entebbe with the 1976 film "Raid on Entebbe" about a terrorist hijack of a plane and Uganda in general with the despot Idi Amin.
I'd dearly love to say that BA was back to its former glory but although the lounge was perfectly fine, the flight crew, in our cabin at least, was somewhat lacking. The FA on our side was less than personable and although she eventually dealt with everything we asked for, it was all a bit of an effort for her (providing me with the meal I wanted and rebooting the IFE). We arrived in Nairobi around 2030 and having had our bags checked through to Entebbe made our way to another section of the airport which involved baggage scanning once again so we lost the small bottles of wine Ian had been given on the flight over. We then presented ourselves at the Premium Plaza lounge only to be refused entry as our next flight was with Kenya Airlines - but we could pay for access at US$40pp. So we set off to the Kenya Airlines lounge where we were also refused entry as we were only Silver status and not Gold. We then walked the length of the terminal several times, being sent from place to place as each lounge said go to another one and in the end gave up and went back to Premium Plaza where Stephanie manning the reception took pity on us and only charged us 1 x entry. She also confirmed that on our return we would most certainly have access as we were boarding a BA flight.
By this time it was around 2300 and the lounge was pretty empty but we were able to get a bite to eat (lovely potato wedges) and a couple of glasses of wine, but most importantly have a sit down in an air conditioned room and just relax. Having passed all gates on our quest for lounge entry we at least knew which one we needed for the Entebbe flight and made our way there in good time for the 0130 take off. The flight was uneventful, immigration and customs a doddle and we were soon out of the airport where there was a lovely guy holding up a board with our name on it.