Kabale to Buhoma

Buhoma is the village at the gate of Bwindi national park. Public transport from Kabale to there only goes tuesday and friday. It's friday now and time to go to the park. Bruno, the do it all guy at my hotel says he is friends with the pickup driver. We talk to him, Abraham, at 8am and he says he will be leaving at 11am. I reserved the front seat. I ate breakfast and packed up my things. I decided to go minimalist to Bwindi and leave most of my stuff at the hotel. I did this because I wouldn't be saving any $ if I camped in Buhoma and it would be much easier and hassle free if I didn't have my large rucksack to worry about. Sure, I prefer the atmosphere of camping but I figured for a few days it would be ok. Abraham came and got me on time and we left Kabale shortly after 11.
The small Nissan pickup was loaded to the brim with passengers and their goods in the back. I shared the front bench with a fat woman and Abraham, so it was mostly comfortable. We followed a mountain road all the way to Buhoma. Near Kabale the road was being worked on extensively. It was kind of strange to be driving very close to all these huge road constructing vehicles. This would never happen in Canada. It seemed like we stopped a million times on the way to pick up even more people and drop some off. What should have taken 4 hours took almost 6 hours. After 4 hours though we entered the park and drove through nice forest for the rest of the drive. The pickup only went as far Butogota. From there I had to hire a boda boda for the last 17km to Buhoma. This was another reason I left my large pack. It's difficult to travel on a boda with all my stuff. I have done it and will probably do it again but this time I would give myself a rest.
Once I arrived in Buhoma I went to the supposedly cheap options. There were 2 places. One of them had a room for $20 and the other a dorm bed for $13. I didn't like either of these options and kept looking. I asked a local and was lead to the Nature Access Lodge. This is where the drivers and guides sleep. Adrone, the friendly owner at first suggested $10 for the non self contained room but when I told him I had a self contained room in Kabale for $6, we negotiated the price down to a reasonable $5. Now I had to find cheap food. This also wasn't easy. I looked around and only found one place, tiny with no sign and a curtain in the doorway but even there the prices were double what they should be. This was until I learned I could get half portion which was still more than enough food for me. I met Laszlo at the cheap eaterie, a backpacker from Hungary. We got to talking and he had a friend who saw gorillas just out on a nature trail in the park and convinced me to join him trying this trail. If I saw gorillas there it would save me a lot of $. I had originally planned to stay a few days at the park exploring its trails before but wasn't sure before I left. Upon hearing this new news I decided to go with my original plan and try out the park trails before I do the gorilla tracking.
Besides, permits for gorilla tracking are suppose to be bought before hand in Kampala. I didn't have a permit because I didn't want to be tied down to a certain date and I heard that you could just show up at the park and get a permit most days. Tour companies buy up permits months in advance but often have cancellations, making an on the spot permit available most days. This is what I was hoping for.

Bwindi is a mountainous rainforest park and I thought it would be overcast and raining but my first night there, the sky was crystal clear and the stars were amazing.