Friday, January 4, 2008

Gulu and Entebbe Uganda

Earlier in December, Hardy and I had a three day trip down to Uganda. It was a fascinating trip, as we got to stay in a hotel right next to Lake Victoria, which is the second largest lake in all of Africa, and is also the head waters for the mighty Nile River.

Our first stop on this trip was airport at Entebbe. Entebbe, if you remember your history, was the location of the famous Israeli raid to free a hijacked airliner from terrorists working for the Ugandan dictator at the time, Idi Amin. This raid took place in the summer of 1977-and was remarkable for the speed and accuracy with which the Israeli commandos accomplished their mission. The commandos flew non-stop from Israel in C-130’s and executed an assault on the airfield that resulted in none of the hostages at the airfield being killed. The Israeli’s managed to kill all the terrorists (always a good thing in my book) while they themselves sustained only one casualty, the man who lead the raid. Sadly, (and in true to their cowardly nature) the terrorists murdered the only hostage that was not at the airport at the time. This man was in a Ugandan Hospital and Idi Amin ordered him killed after the success of the raid.

The old control tower is still there, and you can still see the bullet holes left by the Israeli heavy weapons during the assault. The Ugandans have erected a plaque there to honor those killed in the raid, and to condemn the rule of Idi Amin.

Later in the same trip, we got to play the part of true African Bush Pilots. We had to drop some passengers to a remote airfield to the north of Entebbe called Gulu. It’s a nice, long runway, and it’s even paved (although the surface is somewhat questionable) but it’s truly out in the bush. No runway lights, no instrument approaches, no control tower. The airfield information said to beware of animals on the runway. So when we made approach into Gulu, we left the gear up and did a low level pass over the runway at about 300 feet above ground level. We didn’t see any animals, but we sure did scare the heck out of a local who was riding down the runway on a moped for some reason. As it turns out, this fellow was just doing his job ensuring that the runway was clear of animals for our arrival. We sure got his attention with the low pass though.

Gulu is what I always imagined that the African Bush would look like. It is a lush green place, located on a high flat plain, surrounded by tall grass and trees. To the east of the runway, right outside the fence was a thatched hut village. Upon landing we got a very friendly welcome from the folks there, and had a lot of fun passing sodas to the kids just outside the fence line. They congregated quickly after our arrival, hamming it up for the camera and generally having a great time just like kids anywhere else. I am guessing that they probably had not ever seen a Metroliner before.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What do you want to be when you grow up? I want to clear runways of animals:)

I feel sorry for that person on the moped. If it was me and you flew low over me I probably would have had a heart attack.