Bushmemories Safaris

Ken showed up drunk twice during our safari

Although Uganda was lovely and a highly recommended destination, unfortunately we finished our safari with Bushmemories with a feeling of a relief. During our 10-day tour, Ken showed up completely drunk on two mornings, putting us in an uncomfortable position as the trip was already fully paid and we depended on him. Moreover, his organization was already a bit erratic before and during the trip, and overall we did not feel we got a great value for the money we paid.

The first situation took place in Fort Portal, his hometown, where Ken showed up 2 hours late for our morning departure, drunk and with a bleeding wound on his face. The second situation took place on the last day of our safari, when Ken showed up at 6:30am with a drink in his hand and barely able to stand straight, and without enough money to pay for our hotel, fully refuel the car or provide a lunch for us (although at this point we preferred anyway to arrive as soon as possible to our hotel in Entebbe and be free of him). He never apologized for his behavior, and we didn't feel secure enough to confront him. We were grateful that our driver Johnson was an extremely responsible and dependable person.

Before the trip, he did not give us a clear payment schedule, instead asking (with urgency) for different amounts at random moments. He changed the price relative to the original quote mentioning a change in the rate for gorilla permits, and tried to reuse this same excuse again later to increase the price further. On multiple occasions we started the day from driving around town to run Ken's errands that could have been easily taken care of the previous afternoon, as we usually finished our days early.

We requested a program that would not be too packed (also for budget reasons), but we were disappointed to realize that the last two days of the trip we were mostly confined to our hotels with no activities planned. Several items on our itinerary called "experiences" consisted of looking at something (tea plantation, long horn cows) from the car with some explanations from Ken. Having paid more than 200 USD per person per day, and having stayed mostly in budget accommodation we would have expected something more.

We did enjoy our holiday most of the time and loved what we saw in Uganda, but Ken's behavior was completely out of line and inexcusable leading us to leave the reviews to help other travelers make better choices in the future.