Patworld

So on Monday morning I get up early planning on getting to the UWA office at their opening time of 8am to try my luck at getting gorilla trekking permits. I'd scoped the place out, so I knew exactly where it was (about a 30 minute walk from where we were staying), and I was actually really confident that all would be well and I'd get everything organised and be back at the country club in time for a late breakfast and a leisurely swim before checking out at midday.

So I gets to the place just after 8am and I'm the only tourist there. I sit down and casually ask the ranger guy what the chances were of getting a permit to trek the mountain gorillas, preferably for that Thursday as that would give us plenty of time to get down to that part of the country. The ranger guy kinda looks at me funny and then laughs, reaches across his desk for an envelope and says that I'm a very lucky guy. He'd just happened to have received two permits, which were originally for two Swedes, but that they had had to cancel. Otherwise he said I'd have had to wait until September for permits, as they are always booked out for months in advance.

He said I could have them if I wanted - and of course they just happened to be for that Thursday. They were also for the best park for trekking (Bwindi), and also the best (or at least his personal favorite) group of gorillas (there are 4 Ugandan gorilla groups that you can visit). Apparently this group had two mature males (the silverbacks) and a number of cute and playful juveniles, and they were very peaceful and enjoyed the presence of humans (other groups tend to scatter or hide in undergrowth). Also our trekking date happened to be June 28th, and on July 1st the price of a permit went up from $375 to $500, so I had just saved $250 by getting the cancellations too.

Naturally I was delighted, and quite excited, and whipped out my credit card to pay when the ranger starts shaking his head and saying 'nope, cash only I'm afraid'. Whoops - I hadn't checked that part - I'd assumed because the permits were so expensive that they'd have to take credit cards, but I was wrong. So this meant I'd have to get to a bank to try and withdraw the cash for the permits. The ranger guy is really nice (or course, as is everyone we've met, except that pirate Captain Ali of course), and says no problem, the banks open at 9am and he'll hold the permits for me.

Of course, I'm now worried about the prospect of having to try and get all this cash but head off towards the bank. I only have to wait a few minutes at foreign exchange but then the cashier guy tells me there is a credit card withdrawal limit of 1.2M Ugandan schillings. I need 1.275M for the permits, but it just so happened that that morning I'd put about 90,000 schillings into my wallet from the room safe. I really don't know why I took that much, but it's all a bit uncanny how the combined total was just enough to cover the cost of the permits.

Also I had intended to take my passport as ID, but I'd forgotten it. While waiting at the bank I was worried that it would be necessary to make such a big withdrawal, and I was right. The cashier does indeed ask for my passport. I have panicky visions of having to dash back to the hotel and get my passport and back, etc. when I remembered a top-tip from Emmet about traveling in Africa.

He'd told me to always carry a photocopy of my passport, and if I was ever stopped by a policeman and asked for my passport to only give him the photocopy. If he insisted on the original, then calmly tell him you would give it to him, but only back at the police station. This is to prevent corrupt coppers (or guys pretending to be coppers) from taking your passport and refusing to give it back unless you give them a 'fee'. Anyway, I tell the cashier guy in the bank that all I have is a photocopy of my passport and he says 'yeah, no problem' - phew!

So I grab the huge bundle of notes and grab a motorcycle-taxi right outside the bank. He takes me back to the UWA office, were he waits outside as I run in and pay for the permits, thank the ranger guy profusely (as he reiterates just how lucky I am), hop back on the taxi and back to the country club with about 25 minutes to spare for brekkie. Needless to say I had a great breakfast followed by a really relaxed and relieved swim and steam room before casually checking out at noon. We then had the rest of that day at our leisure really - all I had to organise was the transport down to the national park where the gorillas live, which was pretty straightforward.