It was indeed my first time to be in the air (apart from the few times I have ever tried high jump). The whole excitement was all over me and could hardly wait to get to the airport for the journey. Huh, well I had to make sure that all was in place and I have all I need for the two days’ journey and I is hard to explain to you how I was feeling excited, scared, all imagining how it feels to be above the clouds. All I need now is to get to the airport for the first day of the trip to Bwindi, Uganda.
‘This is the bording call’ were the words from the person announcing and since I was already waiting in the lounge, I had to hurry to the exit for the flight. And heading to the plane was the Enhas van wasting for us. “Welcome to Aerolink…we are flying to Kihihi in about 1 hour at the 11,000ft, please, tighten your seatbelts……” the pilot said (and smiles) and in the next few minutes, we were in the air heading for our long awaited destination.
It was a journey to remember, all I can remember is that I felt that my intestines were moving and tilting from their positions, the turbulent were too much and could not get anything to hold onto apart from my own seatbelt. I had carried a camera to take all the scenes in the air including the clouds….and maybe other planets…..hmmmm hoping that they could be seen from up there in the sky.
“Welcome to Kihihi” the pilot said again and we are out of the plane. I almost forgot, Aerolink is a company (airline) operating flights locally within Uganda especially the National Parks like Bwindi and Queen Elizabeth national Park. Immediately, we were out, the cars were already paraded there for us to take us to Mahogany springs. This took us a period of about I hour on a rough, dusty marrum road. Since we were heading for adventure, this was a good experience and part of the enjoyment. (My recommendation, go for a 4 wheel drive)
It was hard to imagine that we were to go through the same ‘hell’ that we had gone through on the first leg of the journey. All scared to death to we had to ask the pilots what was happening and why it was happening and whether it always happen like that. Seriously, they were many questions especially from some of us who were traveling by air for the first time. She revealed to us that we were just unlucky that all our flights were in the afternoon and on the ‘bad’ route with small aircrafts. This was for 12 seats only.
Now, this was my experience, if you have ever flown with a small jet, then you might probably understand what I am talking about when there are turbulent in the air….anyway that was my experience.
E Mwesiga
