Safari Adventures

Well I’m back safe and sound in Mbale after almost a week out to go on safari and see Kampala at last. I’m not sure if it made the news in Australia, but there were some riots the week before both in Kampala and Mbale against the government and their unnecessarily violent arrest of the opposition leader (as well as corruption/high fuel prices/general discontent etc). The “rioters” were unarmed but dispelled with tear gas and rubber bullets. Thankfully, we weren’t in the office on the morning it happened, so we weren’t anywhere near the commotion! The President is being sworn in on Thursday for his next term in power, and they are expecting there to be a response in Kampala, if not other cities too. We are all taking the day off just in case! I certainly don’t feel unsafe here at all, so please don’t worry but do pray that things won’t get out of hand as we have seen in northern parts of the continent in recent months.

So back to safari. Well, in short, it was amazing! We saw four out of “the big five” - lions, elephants, water buffalo, hippos & leopards – didn’t see the latter but did manage to see a spotted hyena which was odd because the driver said they are normally nocturnal. Very cool. I always thought giraffes were interesting animals, but seeing them in the wild was just incredible. They are such strange and beautiful creatures. I think I would like to have my own pet giraffe one day. Here is a more detailed account of the week:

We headed to Kampala on Tuesday in a private car and went to the main shopping centre where we had lunch, drank diet coke (you can’t get it anywhere else!) and got an amazing pedicure while the boys saw a movie. Spent the night at a great backpackers called Red Chilli, who organise their own safari tours. Left on Wednesday morning around 8am in our van, filled with the four of us Jenga volunteers, 2 Belgian girls (Bieke and Tamara), Sabrina, a German girl, Jessica, an English med student on placement in Kampala, our driver, Jimmy, and another guy training to be a tour guide. Headed to Murchison Falls and had a short-ish but hot walk down a track to see the falls from the bottom, before heading back up to see them from the top. Very beautiful place and it was nice to get out of the van and stretch our legs! Headed to the Red Chilli camp near the falls, where we would stay in tents for the next two nights. Arrived in the late arvo and chilled out and had dinner and chatted to our fellow van friends. Thursday morning we had a nice early start to go on our game drive and I got some great pics of the sun rising over the river while we waited for our ferry crossing. Got to the other side, gliding past a few hippos on the way, and began our journey to spot the big five. If you haven’t already checked out the pics on Facebook, then do it now:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150179148856976.305211.506806975&l=f185494b4e

The giraffes were very cool, as I have already mentioned, but I think the single highlight was seeing a male lion (albeit a 3-legged one!) walk about 10 metres in front of our stationary van. You normally see female lions, but the male ones are more rare in the park so we were very lucky (or blessed – I had prayed for a male lion up close!) to see one. Awesome. The landscape was really beautiful and quite green as you can see from the pics. We stopped by a lake full of hippos to eat our packed breakfasts and take some photos, before continuing through the park and admiring all the wildlife along the way. Arrived back at the river to cross back over and there were a family of elephants grazing nearby! We had only briefly spotted one from quite a distance in the park, so we were very happy to see them up close. Returned to the camp for a nap and lunch before heading off on a boat cruise to the bottom of Murchison Falls. Saw lots more hippos, elephants, colourful birds and crocs! Crikey. They’re not so scary when you’re on the roof of a large boat :P Had some photo opportunities before making the boat journey back towards camp. The sun was scorching, but the breeze was beautiful and the covered lower level provided the perfect viewing spot and a good opportunity to chat with the other people doing safari in the other two vans. Met four med students from England who were on placement in Kampala and had all received texts from home while on the boat tour that they all passed their fourth year exams. Smart cookies.

Returned to camp for chilling out, dinner, cards and sleep before heading off the next morning to the rhino sanctuary. To be honest, it was a bit disappointing. You drive into the sanctuary, then head off on foot to find the rhinos, of which we found two, but they were both sleeping under a tree and you can’t go closer than about 30 metres away. What I wouldn’t give for a decent zoom on my camera. Had lunch at the sanctuary before heading back to Kampala, where we arrived around 5pm. Went to Nandos for dinner with the med students before heading to an Irish pub that was full of white people. Actually felt quite weird to be the racial majority! Almost exploded with happiness when I saw they had Bulmers on tap, only to be disappointed by the bartender who told me it wasn’t running. They had an African cider which tasted okay but it wasn’t quite what I had been hoping for. Oh well. Saturday we headed into Kampala city and checked out an African market which was full of very cool things – lots of souvenirs, jewellery, sandles, drums, clothes, trinkets etc. Walked through the city back to the shopping mall, had a huge salad at a place called New York Kitchen that does American style pizzas and milkshakes etc. And diet coke. Oh salad and diet coke, what a wonderful pair you make. Went to the movies and saw The Dilemma which was actually better than I had anticipated. Ate Cadbury chocolate, looked in the shops, bought some things from the supermarket and headed back to camp. Sunday morning, Duncan and I visited Watoto church, which is a HUGE church in Kampala where the famous children’s choir comes from. They song a lot of Hillsong songs, which was kind of surreal! It has been some time since I was last in a “mega church”, but I liked what they were about.

We took the coach back to Mbale which takes about 4 hours and I spent the trip squished between a sleeping Duncan and an African woman with wide hips. Who needs personal space anyway? Watched the match between Manchester United and Chelsea  (Man U won 2-1) at the Palestinian family’s house before going to bed exhausted. Phew! 

This week I am back in the office and typing up random bits of things for different projects. The farming training last week went really well and people were really excited about the things they had seen and learnt during the program and have already begun to start implementing the principles in their gardens at home. The organisation has recently changed its name, so if you want to see what they do, go to www.foundationsforfarming.org. The guy who ran it was a really great teacher and despite being a Canadian, spoke fluent Lugandan. Very impressive! I’m not entirely sure what is on the horizon for Jenga at the moment, apart from Robby’s 40^th birthday party this Friday night – woop woop! I will let you know more about work matters when I know myself.

So that’s about it, folks. Thanks for your time and don’t forget we have a post box here if you should ever want to send me mail – cough cough (address is at very bottom of this page). Au revoir!

Lou J