ROUTES

Sales & Ticketing Offices

Kampala: Victoria University Towers, Jinja Road, Kampala - Uganda | Tel: +256 (0)200 406 400 | Email: reservations@ ugandairlines.com

Entebbe Town: Victoria Mall, Shop G.09, Ground Floor, Berkeley Road Entebbe | Tel: +256 (0)200 406 421 / +256 707110416 | Email: ebb.sales@ugandairlines.com

Entebbe International Airport: 2nd Floor, Passenger Terminal Building | Tel: +256 (0) 200406420

Nairobi City: 12th floor Lonrho House, Standard Street | Tel: +254 707 900777 / +254 100 900777 | Email: nbo.reservations@ ugandairlines.com

Nairobi Airport: Terminal 2, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport | Tel: +254 101 090 644 | Email: nbo.reservations@ ugandairlines.com

Dar es Salaam: Viva Towers, G09/10, Ali Hassan Mwinyi Road, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania | Tel: +255 764 111983 | +255 765 426554 | Email: dar.reservations@ugandairlines.com

Juba: SADECO Building, Airport Road | Tel: +211 (0)928900500, +211 (0)917747159 | Email: juba.sales@ugandairlines.com

Bujumbura: Ground Floor, Jubilee Centre Building | Chausee prince Louis Rwagasore | Tel: +257 22 280844 | Email: sales. bujumbura@ugandairlines.com

Mogadishu: Aden Adde International Airport, Mogadishu | Tel: +252 (0)615550020 | +252 (0)615141315 | Email: reservations@ ugandairlines.com

Kinshasa: Avenue du Col. Lukusa No 32 BIS | Tel: +243 817 860 333 | Email: sales.kinshasa@ugandairlines.com

Mombasa: Nyali Center, Ground floor | Tel: +254 100 396810 / +256 100 396811 | Email: rmba.reservations@ugandairlines.com

Arusha / Kilimanjaro: 2nd floor, Ngorongoro Conversation Building | Tel: +255 652 682 851 / +255 713 414 777 | Email: jro. airport@ugandairlines.com

Cargo, Mail and Parcels: Entebbe International Airport | Cargo Terminal Room 29 | Cell: +256 (0) 758 380065 | Mail: cargo@ ugandairlines.com

HEAD OFFICES: Uganda National Airlines Company Limited dba Uganda Airlines | EagleAir Hangar Complex | Entebbe International Airport - Old Airport | P.O. Box 431, Entebbe, Uganda | Tel: +(256)200 406 400 | Email: info@ugandairlines.com

JANUARY - MARCH 2020

www.ngaaliinflightmag.com YoUR fRee CopY JANUARY- MARCH 2020

ROOM WITH A VIEW

Mahogany Springs Lodge

BWINDI IMPENETRABLE NATIONAL PARK

Mahogany Springs is situated in one of the most intimate, secluded, beautiful, and most importantly, natural settings in the world – Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda. The mist covered hillsides of Bwindi are blanketed by one of Uganda’s oldest and most biologically diverse rainforests, a habitat for over 450 mountain gorillas, roughly half of the world’s population, including several habituated groups which can be tracked. Surrounded by over 300 sq. km of tropical rainforest, Mahogany Springs makes the most of its location, offering guests privacy and serenity in a spectacular setting.

All 11 huge luxurious suites have their own exquisitely designed terrace with magnificent panoramic views over the forest, lodge gardens and Munyanga River, giving a feeling of total immersion in this lush rainforest.

Being in the middle of the forest means gorilla families in the surrounding area often pay a visit to the lodge gardens, giving a surprise gorilla experience for guests.

Spend the day tracking gorillas through the forest, engaging with the local community and tribes, or sitting on the terrace of your room listening to the sounds of the forest, and maybe the odd primate visitor as time slowly passes by.

Mahogany Springs is open year-round and offers luxurious suites from $240 per person per night sharing, including all meals.

Find out more at www.mahoganysprings.com ROOM WITH A VIEW

Bugisu’s Imbalu

A teenager’s bittersweet rite of passage

The African Kanga

A traditional form of African twitter

Trekking The Magnificent RWENZORI MOUNTAINS

NAIRoBI • MoMBASA • MoGADISHU • JUBA • DAR eS SALAAM • KILIMANJARo • BUJUMBURA • ZANZIBAR

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NG'AALI JANUARY - MARCH 2020

DESTINATION KENYA

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DESTINATION KENYA

Lunatic Express Crazy times on the

The plan to build a thousand-kilometre railway track from the Indian Ocean into the heart of Africa was considered by many to be utterly insane. Mark Eveleigh boards the train that, a century later, is still called The Lunatic Express.

Words and photos by Mark Eveleigh W ith the blast of a horn, like a wounded bull elephant, the old train rumbled into Nairobi Station. There was a flurry of activity as passengers hauled luggage to the edge of the platform. To the Swahili travellers, this train is known as gari la moshi (the car that smokes), but most tourists know it as The Lunatic Express.

There have been accusations of lunacy ever since the idea was conceived to build a railway line from the Indian Ocean over a thousand kilometres to Kampala, in the heart of Africa. Now, more than a hundred years after the project was started, friends in Nairobi looked at me like I was equally crazy when I told them that my girlfriend Nina and I planned to take the train to Mombasa.

“But the plane is so much faster,” a bush-pilot friend exclaimed. “Even the matatu minibuses are quicker and cheaper and probably more comfortable too,” a park ranger told me. “You are crazy to go by train,” they all seemed to agree.

Just as I was on the verge of being convinced, an old friend who is an experienced East Africa correspondent weighed in on the side of lunacy: “The building of that railway line was one of the crazy things that could really only happen in Africa. Everybody should experience the Lunatic Express while they’re in Kenya,” he said. “I’ve done it three times.”

Reassured by his enthusiasm, I booked two tickets and by mid-afternoon the next day, we were already dragging our bags into a surprisingly crowded Rift Valley Railway carriage. “Either there are a lot of crazy people in Nairobi, or there are a few good reasons for taking the Lunatic Express after all,” Nina pointed out.

Within a few minutes, we were already convinced that our decision had been the right one. The tracks slithered quickly away from the grumbling traffic on Mombasa Road and further ahead, we passed within a few metres of the

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