The visit to Mabira Forest.
We organized to visit Mabira Forest in Uganda with my Australian friend Mike Doepel who is a geologist, visiting old geological sites which was used by the British in the colonial days. we got some boys living near the forest who know every corner of the forest. they told us it will takes us like one hour to the point of interest.
We walked for three hours in the thick forest with no clear paths, in fact we were just creating new paths in some areas. being a rainy forest, it started raining heavily and we had no any rain gear because we were told it will be few minutes to the point and we don't need all that. we all got socked.
What i did not know was that when it rains, all the puff adders come close to the small trails to trap rats and other pray which come on surface when it rains. they were well camouflaged, when you are not a forest expert, you cannot see them. they will strike and within few minutes you will be dead, a very poisonous snake.
We got four big puff adders on the way. but we were lucky to be with someone very experienced with the forest who saved us from the dangerous serpent. They wanted to kill them, then i told them just put then away and give them a chance to live. they were not happy with me. they did not know that am in tourism and conservation in my priority in tourism. so i saved their lives and we were lucky that no one of our team was beaten. When we got out of the forest, i told my friend that i will never enter that forest again without proper gears.
The trip was not successful because my friend did not get what he expected. The geological survey in Entebbe need to update their data for mineralization in Uganda. most of the coordinates given were plotted 70 years old. so style up.