Hi guys…..

Well if anyone has managed to get to the end of the last post, you will be glad to know this one will be somewhat shorter!

25^th October

Early start, as usual, and we go off for a game drive round Murchison national park.  We manage to see lots of different types of antelope, elephants and loads of different birds…..  that’s right, we are become a couple of twitchers!   Joseph, our guide, is really into his birds and can name all of them from a distance of 1000 yards.

Back to the hotel to finish the last installment of the blog then a river boat cruise up the Nile to check out Murchison falls from the bottom.  On the way, we get really close to hippo and some very large crocs.

The boat is apparently a backup, as the one they normal use has an engine problem.  This one is about 3.5ft wide and 25ft long and amusingly, has 4 large pieces of lorry engine as ballast in the bottom of the boat.  The only scary bit is that if ONE person moves to one side, it leans over quite a lot.  A problem when its full of Italian tourists, all wanting to get that shot of the hippo and all move over to the left to catch a look.  Myself and the guide are left leaning over the other side trying to stop us from capsizing….  into crocodile infested waters!!!  Good fun all round, but the view of Murchison falls was a little disappointing as ……  it’s about 1km away from where we stop!....  never mind, we saw it from the top, that was impressive!

26^th October

Today we have a long drive to Kibale national park where we intend to go chimpanzee trekking tomorrow.  The roads leave something to be desired as it is the beginning of the rainy season (hum didn’t research that bit very well!...) and the only roads between places are made of soil….  Now slippery mud slides of death!   Our expert driver careers down the road without so much as a change of expression, as he nonchalantly leans back in the driving seat, steering with one hand chewing his chewing gum.

Almost every vehicle we come across has jack knifed across the road leading to “TOTAL GRIDLOCK!” (in a Jamaican accent!)….  Without even slowing down, Joseph drives up the embankment, around a queue of waiting cars and skids down the hills (mostly sideways…..  properly sideways…..  in this photo, we are doing 20kph….  Straight down, we aren’t turning right!...)   We head toward a gap, no bigger than the car, people diving out of the way, grabbing their belongings from our intended route and shouting as we pass.  Some pretty special driving, the way Joseph uses the embankment like the edge of a water slide,  was a technique I wasn’t expecting, nor was the complete lack of any damage to the entire side of the car after using this technique.   We congratulate him on such an astounding maneuver and move onto the next obstacle…. Apparently, people can stay there for days as lorries are moved slowly up the hill…. And we don’t have time for that!

On the way we stop at a couple of villages, check out some local cuisine and a local butcher….  Probably best you can’t see the flies!....  the meat kebab was nice though!

We arrive at our hotel at bout 4pm and nip into town on a “border border”, a taxi motorbike, named because they were originally  used to transport people from “border to border” posts in the south.  In no time they have moved into every corner of the country, but have kept their name.  We check out the town’s market, full of anything you might need, from food to nails!

by the way, In the UK, if you are afamily of 5, you buy an smax or similar people carrier....  in Uganda........

27^th October

Today we have our first lie in a month!..  we still get out of bed for 7:30.  We nip back into town on one of the border borders…. That’s right… one!….  our driver drops us both off at the market.  We have decided that we need another bag for all the junk…. Sorry…. The souvenirs we have bought.  Hopefully we can ditch it with someone, when we return for the night in London in a couple of days!

Anyway, today we are going chimpanzee trekking.  We meet our guide and he takes us into a subtropical forest to find the chimps.  After 20mins of hiking, we hear that familiar sound of some chimps in the canopy to our left.  Immediately our guide turns off the trail and starts walking through the dense undergrowth at quite a pace.  We can barely keep up as we jump over logs, and go through muddy streams and push the thick bush to one side.  In no time at all, we look like we have been in a mud fight whilst being dragged through a hedge backwards.  Our guide, who incidentally is still wearing a pristinely clean and ironed green uniform, without so much as a smudge upon it, stops and points up.

A number of chimps are making their way down a large tree.  We stop and watch for about an hour, as they get themselves comfortable on a small tree in front of us, eating and calling to each other.  We think we can see about 10 altogether, including some younger ones!

We carry on our journey to “Queen Elizabeth national park” where we are due to stay for the next couple of nights.

28^th October

Up first thing for a game drive.  In no time we find 3 lions eating the very last bit of a warthog….. tasty!

After lunch we jump on a boat for a ride up the river.   We make our way to the opposite bank because there are some hippos fighting!  Boys will be boys, squabbling over a woman no doubt!  They have such a battle, for about 10 minutes.   Eventually one concedes and swims under the boat, pursued by the victory whilst the on looking female hippos give a rapturous applause for the show.

Over the next 3 days we should have seen the Mountain gorillas, can’t wait for that!!!

Smiles

Will and Loz