A Nile on the Nile

Hello All,

Last post I was in Kampala about to meet up with our tour with whom we would be spending the next 2 weeks. Saturday evening we met our group which consisted of 3 Canadians, 4 Brits (including me and Ben), 2 Germans and 2 people from Singapore. Out of the group me and Ben are the youngest by a fair amount. Sunday was spent driving to Queen Elizabeth National Park. We stopped off at the equator and did the usual tourist things like take pictures and do the water experiment (water flows down a plug in different directions depending on which side of the equator you are and goes straight down on the equator). Afterwards we continued on our way stopping for lunch. We arrived at QENP at around 5.30 and set up our tents. We then had dinner in a building than reminded me of an old scout hut before heading to bed.

Monday we were up at 5.40 and had a quick breakfast before heading on an early morning game drive. It was a fairly disappointing game drive as we didn't see much. Afterwards we had another breakfast and me, Ben and a few others went on a game walk, which was brilliant. Our guide seemed to know just about everything. He also proved to be very very good at spotting and identifying different bird species from a great distance away having only seen the bird for a split second. He showed us the various different species of birds (for instances the many different types of Weaver Bird) and showed us the subtle differences between them. How he could spot these differences considering that he bearly saw them for more than a second remains a mystery. We spent the afternoon in our tents hiding from the sun and in the evening went on a cruise along the river. We saw lots of different animals including Hippo, Elephant, Waterbuck, Kob, African Fish Eagle and more.

Tuesday was spent driving to Murchinson Falls. A fairly uneventful day with the only real highlight for me and Ben was passing through Kiziranfumbi and Hoima again. We arrived at our rest camp after dark and managed to spot some Hippos wandering through the camp.

Wednesday morning was spent on another game drive which proved to be a lot more successful than QENP. We saw many animals including our first Giraffe and Jackson's Hartebeast (not quite sure on the spelling there). On the way back our truck got stuck in the sand and we had to dig a track and lay cardboard down to get out. The afternoon was spent on another cruise down the Albert Nile down towards the falls themselves. On the way back me, Ben and a newly wed couple from London sat on the top of the boat with a Nile beer (Hence the post title). Evening was spent in the rest camp bar and packing.

Thursday was spent driving to Jinja with very little of interest happening. The exceptions being seeing the falls up close (we could understand why they are the most powerful in the world, the 50 metre wide Nile gets squeezed through a 3 metre gap) and our first hot shower in almost a week at the hotel in Jinja.

Friday was spent on the Nile. We went white water rafting with a fair amount of our group. It was a great deal of fun. Our guide (an international kayaker) was very funny and extremely good at what he did. Highlights included someone falling off on the very first rapid (the tamest one of the day), floating through a rapid out of the boat, being overturned and having to float down a rapid alone, the jokes told by our guide ("What do you call a black man flying a plane?" - "The pilot you racist"), seeing someone in the boat ahead of us getting catapulated a few feet in the air and the final rapid which was quite simply mad (no one stayed in the boat and Ben got thrown a few feet into the air) the only downside of the trip being the nasty sunburn many of us got. The rafting company also provided a BBQ and a few free drinks afterwards (all for $125). In the evening me, Ben, Tim and Amy (the newly weds) went to a "bar/casino" in Jinja. The casino was frankly crap but the bar was really funny. There was a live band playing and all the seats were arranged facing the bar instead of in clusters. The bar also had the best entrance policy ever. Instead of paying an entrance fee you had to buy a drink.

Today me and Ben went to the source of the Nile and will be Quad-biking this evening before leaving Uganda tomorrow to head to Kisumu in Kenya. Little sad to be leaving Uganda I've loved my time here but am looking forward to Kenya especially the Masi Mara game reserve.

Hope you are all well and till next time.