Adventures in Africa

I’m back from Uganda! And it was wonderful. A much needed vacation. We saw and did so many things!

I went with five of my coworkers/new friends, and we stayed with a couple that used to work at our school. We didn’t talk shop until the end of the week. It was fantastic! Uganda is beautiful. It is so green! I hadn’t realized how much I missed the color green from my home state of Oregon. The air was warm and moist but not too hot or muggy. The house we stayed at was fantastic- they even have a big pool and a view of Lake Victoria! And most of us got brave (thanks to Luke who started it) and jumped into the pool from the balcony of the guest house. Terrifying but fun! We also ate dinner on the roof of the guest house, with Lake Victoria as the backdrop. Lovely. OUr hosts were wonderful and made great food for us and even goodie bags for our arrival.

In Kampala, we shopped at craft markets, went out for brunch at an outdoor restaurant called Prunes, and went to an outdoor jazz restaurant called Jazzville for a concert by a cover band (they weren’t amazing but did a decent job of a couple Abba songs). So much fun! We also went to the grocery store by bodaboda (motorcycle taxi). It was a little harrowing, especially with no helmets, but most of all when we rode through a herd of cattle with really long horns!

The most adventurous part of the trip was definitely the safari. We went on a three day camping trip into Murchison Falls National Park, the largest national park in Uganda. A-maz-ing. After staying a night at the main lodge of the company in Kampala (with a lovely sunrise in the morning), we rode in a safari van with our driver Sam for several hours to get to the park. When we neared the park, we saw babooons and various birds as we drove through tropical rainforest. And fought with a vengeance to keep the tsetse flies out of the van since they bite hard. After a short hike, we saw fantastic views of Murchison Falls in tandem with Uhuru Falls, both of which were powerful and beautiful. Then the hike led to the top of Murchison Falls. One of the guides told me that Uhuru Falls was named for the independence from Britain, because Uhuru means “freedom.” Then we rode to the base camp, where we camped in canvas tents (which was a little nerve racking with hippos and warthogs roaming the camp; not for the faint of heart!) and ate meals in a giant thatched roof open air hut. The campfire overlooked the Victoria Nile. And that next morning had a breathtaking sunrise, as well.

We set out early in the morning for the first of two morning game drives through the savannah. For this drive, we had a guide employed by the park named Martha. We drove toward Lake Albert, and saw giraffes, antelope, buffalo and all kinds of animals on the way. However, we never made it there, since we got stuck in a giant mud puddle for well over an hour. We blocked the way of some of the other safari vehicles with European tourists. Many of them, along with Sam and Martha, tried to help us get our van out of the mud, but to no avail, even when “Uganda Jones” drove up in his jeep and his apparent awesomeness. His rope was wimpy though and broke, and he finally gave up and ditched us. At last, all the guides decided to split us up and have us ride with the Europeans in their various vehicles. Katie and I were assigned to a van and were about to leave after everyone else had, when the real “Uganda Jones” (or I called him Crocodile Dundee) drove up in his bigger jeep with giant horns on the front, and a strong chain. Katie and I and other tourists and guides got back in the knee deep puddle and pushed while he pulled from behind in his jeep, and we finally got out! And then Katie fell in… so funny. So Katie and I got to ride by ourselves in our van for quite a while until we picked up two others from the van they’d been assigned to, and Sam let us ride on top up front. We got some epic video of the ride. And saw some giraffes “necking” (according to Sam, but we’ve been told they were actually fighting). Sam drove fast to get us back to the ferry over the Nile in time, and when we got there, a baboon stole a jar of nuts out of someone’s van. He then got chased by other baboons and went around and around the trees. Hilarious!

That afternoon, we took a river cruise down the Victoria Nile and saw lots of hippos, crocodiles, and up close views of elephants, as well as skunk-colored monkeys and all kinds of birds on the way to and from a view of Murchison Falls from below. The next morning, we went on one more game drive as we drove out of the park a different way. This one was less commonly used, so we saw lots more animals close up. An elephant freaked us out by walking toward us on the road. Later, another one was right by the road. We drove out to hike to yet another powerful jungle waterfall. This one won’t last much longer though, as there is a dam slated to be built upstream. Lovely views. We passed by many small villages of huts as we drove home. Beautiful, but sometimes I wondered what effect tourism has had on the country as children shouted “Musungu!” (foreigner) and waved as we passed.

We didn’t rest a lot on the trip with all our adventures, but it was all so refreshing. The clear blue and cloud-dotted African skies, the jungle green of the rain and savannah forests, the savannah green of the grasslands, and the fun times with new and old friends all helped to restore our souls. Now back to the craziness of teaching. Bring on school!

Drive through the jungle

Uhuru Falls and Murchison (Kabarega) Falls on the Victoria Nile

The Victoria Nile

Sunrise over the Victoria Nile, seen from our campgrounds

Trees in the Savannah

Introvert Giraffe (became an inside joke for our group)

Baboon steals a snack

Dramatic cliffs along the Victoria Nile

Oliphaunt! We got really close to a few elephants.

Karuma Falls, which won’t be there much longer due to a planned hydroelectric dam