"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but having new eyes."
Uganda
Uganda is one of the most beautiful countries in Africa, with fantastic natural scenery, half the world's remaining gorilla population and some of the friendliest people you could hope to meet. Although Uganda has had a troubled political past, stability has returned to most parts of the country. Kampala, the capital, has returned to normal and is now a modern bustling city with one of the fastest growing economies on the continent.
After arriving in Kampala we decided to go to a chimpanzee sanctuary......
The next day we head for northern Uganda to visit.........
Murchinson Falls became Uganda's first national park in 1952. At the actual Murchinson Falls, the mighty Nile River squeezes through a 6 metre wide gorge and plunges with a thunderous roar into the "Devil's Cauldron" 45 metres below, making this the greatest natural surge of water on the planet.
After Murchinson Falls trip we returned to the Nile River to do some whitewater rafting.....
The next day we return to Kenya.
Cheers.....
DIARY ENTRY: Wednesday February 20, 2002 9:07PM: Well here I am i Kampala, Uganda, at an hotel that's costing $20cdn with no electricity, no sink and no toilet seat ant it's god-knows-where in the city.
We spent 3 days in Nairobi and the place was really starting to get to me. Frank was robbed of his watch - they ripped the watch right off of his arm while we were walking to our hotel.....we were less than a minute from the entrance. So we made a decision to get out of Nairobbery and go to Uganda for five days.
The bus ride to Uganda was a long 12 hours and I'm tired, hot and hungry and this is not the hotel I want to stay in.....pissed off. I can't even brush my teeth.
DIARY ENTRY: Thursday February 21, 2002 8:32PM: Finally we're in L'Hotel Financee in Kampala proper....much better than the last place.
This city is very vibrant and alive. It reminds me immensely of Kathmandu in Nepal. One large market and thousands and thousands of people in the streets - all either buying or selling something, anything .....and I mean anything. I like Kampala, it's a clean city and while we were out walking around not one (and I mean not one) street hawker or beggar approached us.
Today we went to an island on Lake Victoria to see rehabitated chimpanzees. This was my first disappointment this entire trip. I paid a lot of money and didn't get what I thought I was getting. But alas such is life.
Tonight we're going out for Chinese food. We both agree that we need more vegetables in our diet.
DIARY ENTRY: Saturday February 23, 2002 8:53AM: We are here at the Paraa Safari Lodge, a five star resort that have hosted the likes of Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway and the Queen Mother. We bought this trip to Murchinson Falls on the Nile River and this is the resort they put us in!!! All we have to do is pay for our beer, and at $2.50cdn, it's a good deal.
Frank got up early and went on a game safari but I've seen them all by now so I decided to stay stick around the pool and do some reading! It's extremely hot in this region of Uganda and the thought of spending three hours in a jeep looking at more elephants just didn't appeal to me. Besides, it gives me a chance to rest and relax for a couple of hours. The actual ride to get here was quite long (about 7 hours) and I hardly slept from the heat so this is good.
DIARY ENTRY: Sunday February 24, 2002 6:20PM: Well I've just received my initiation into East Africa - I was pick-pocketed as soon as I got out of the van. Lost about $25cdn, the little fawkers. We were just getting back from Murchinson Falls and we were the last people to be dropped off. Three young punks crowded around me and when I got back to my hotel my money was missing.....damn I hate that.
Saturday (02/23/02) afternoon we took a boat ride up the Nile to Murchinson Falls. the ride was quite enjoyable with lot's of crocodiles and hippos. As well, we got pretty close to the Falls. In total the trip took about three hours. When we got back everyone went out for a swim in the Lodge's swimming pool.
Today everyone was up early and we hit the road at 7:00AM. We drove up to the top of Murchinson Falls and got a few pics and then we went to do the chimpanzee tracking. This took about 2 hours and we did come across a family group of chimps. It was quite spectacular to see these creatures in the wild. They are very human-like in a lot of ways.
DIARY ENTRY: Monday February 25, 2002 9:07PM: Just got back from an excruciating day of white-water rafting on the Nile River near Jinja. There were five boats with 6 people in each boat. I was in a boat with four young English girls and a Scottish guy named Chris. It was a full day of fun and frolicking.
We started, as all white-water rafting excursions do, with minor safety lessons and some practical skills. After launching we quickly entered the world of big water.....and I mean BIG water. Four class 5 rapids and several class 3 and one class 4. We flipped twice in two of the class 5 rapids but it was pure fun. the second class 5 rapid tossed me into a downward vortex and when I fanlly surfaced (it seem like forever) I actually came up on the wrong side of the river....the dangerous side....the crocodile and hippo side.....but alas I survived. Towards the end we all did some body surfing and after the rafting company supplied a BBQ and beer. So my last day in Uganda went out with a blast.
Marcel Proust.
This is the continuing account of my 2002 trip to the East African countries of Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda with my friend, Frank Carone. We had already spent 2 weeks in Tanzania and 2 weeks in Kenya (see my previous posts in this series) and now we continue with our journey in Uganda.
After 3 day rest up in Nairobi, we head for the East African country of......
***Please note the image quality is limited as these pictures were not digitally captured but rather are prints that have been scanned.***
After 3 day rest up in Nairobi, we head for the East African country of......
Uganda
Uganda is one of the most beautiful countries in Africa, with fantastic natural scenery, half the world's remaining gorilla population and some of the friendliest people you could hope to meet. Although Uganda has had a troubled political past, stability has returned to most parts of the country. Kampala, the capital, has returned to normal and is now a modern bustling city with one of the fastest growing economies on the continent.
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| Uganda is much more underdeveloped than Kenya and Tanzania. For instance, here the main transportation for locals consist of the bike-taxi. The red seated bikes ply the streets looking for customers to whiz from one place to another. |
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| If you want a guaranteed sighting of chimpanzees, the sanctuary on Ngamba Island, Lake Victoria is the place to go as the chimps live in a semi-tame, protected environment. |
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| I kinda thought the island was a disappointment. We were told we would go hiking in pursuit of the chimps, but they just came out of the woods and sat there and stared us down. |
Murchinson Falls
Murchinson Falls became Uganda's first national park in 1952. At the actual Murchinson Falls, the mighty Nile River squeezes through a 6 metre wide gorge and plunges with a thunderous roar into the "Devil's Cauldron" 45 metres below, making this the greatest natural surge of water on the planet.
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| The Paraa Lodge, a five-star resort, is situated right on the Nile River. In the past, the Lodge has been bombed, burnt, looted and Ernest Hemmingway even crashed his plane into it! However, given it's superb location, just above a loud hippo pool, and it's excellent facilities (including cold beer and a large swimming pool) the resort has attracted some pretty impressive guest: Ernest Hemmingway, Winston Churchill, Frank Carone, Humphrey Bogart, Brian MacPhee, Katherine Hepburn and even the Queen Mother! |
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| The groundskeeper told us that at times the hippos will actually wander onto the Resort grounds and every now and then one will go into the pool. We didn't see any hippos doing that but this critter was a common site. |
We take a 3 hour boat ride from the lodge to the base of Murchinson Falls....
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| Nearly camouflage on the bank of the Nile is a huge crocodile! |
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| Beautiful landscape as we cruise on the world's longest river. The Nile River starts in Lake Victoria, Africa's largest lake, and travels 6853 kilometres to the sea. |
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| Murchinson Falls in the background. Our boat glided right up to a large boulder in the middle of the river and a few foolish souls (including moi) jumped out onto the rock for that optimum photo! |
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| Up close and personal with the Falls. They are described as the most spectacular thing to happen to the Nile River along it's 6853km journey. |
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| From atop of the Falls! |
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| The narrowest point that the Nile is....right here! |
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| The amazing thing about this is the Nile River is on average is 2.4km wide and this gorge is only 6 metres wide. A Olympic jumper could jump this without working up much of a sweat. the amount of water that is squeezed into this gorge is baffling. |
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| Sunset on the Nile. |
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| I no longer know any of these people's names, but for 6 hours we had a once-in-the-lifetime blast on the Victorian Nile, one of the most spectacular white-water rafting destinations in the world. If you like BIG water, than this is the place with monster grade 5 rapids including the Itanda (Bad Place Rapid) where I got thrown from the raft and sucked into a downward vortex, only to be spitted out on the wrong side of the river (the crocodile and hippo side). |
The next day we return to Kenya.
Cheers.....
DIARY ENTRY: Wednesday February 20, 2002 9:07PM: Well here I am i Kampala, Uganda, at an hotel that's costing $20cdn with no electricity, no sink and no toilet seat ant it's god-knows-where in the city.
We spent 3 days in Nairobi and the place was really starting to get to me. Frank was robbed of his watch - they ripped the watch right off of his arm while we were walking to our hotel.....we were less than a minute from the entrance. So we made a decision to get out of Nairobbery and go to Uganda for five days.
The bus ride to Uganda was a long 12 hours and I'm tired, hot and hungry and this is not the hotel I want to stay in.....pissed off. I can't even brush my teeth.
DIARY ENTRY: Thursday February 21, 2002 8:32PM: Finally we're in L'Hotel Financee in Kampala proper....much better than the last place.
This city is very vibrant and alive. It reminds me immensely of Kathmandu in Nepal. One large market and thousands and thousands of people in the streets - all either buying or selling something, anything .....and I mean anything. I like Kampala, it's a clean city and while we were out walking around not one (and I mean not one) street hawker or beggar approached us.
Today we went to an island on Lake Victoria to see rehabitated chimpanzees. This was my first disappointment this entire trip. I paid a lot of money and didn't get what I thought I was getting. But alas such is life.
Tonight we're going out for Chinese food. We both agree that we need more vegetables in our diet.
DIARY ENTRY: Saturday February 23, 2002 8:53AM: We are here at the Paraa Safari Lodge, a five star resort that have hosted the likes of Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway and the Queen Mother. We bought this trip to Murchinson Falls on the Nile River and this is the resort they put us in!!! All we have to do is pay for our beer, and at $2.50cdn, it's a good deal.
Frank got up early and went on a game safari but I've seen them all by now so I decided to stay stick around the pool and do some reading! It's extremely hot in this region of Uganda and the thought of spending three hours in a jeep looking at more elephants just didn't appeal to me. Besides, it gives me a chance to rest and relax for a couple of hours. The actual ride to get here was quite long (about 7 hours) and I hardly slept from the heat so this is good.
DIARY ENTRY: Sunday February 24, 2002 6:20PM: Well I've just received my initiation into East Africa - I was pick-pocketed as soon as I got out of the van. Lost about $25cdn, the little fawkers. We were just getting back from Murchinson Falls and we were the last people to be dropped off. Three young punks crowded around me and when I got back to my hotel my money was missing.....damn I hate that.
Saturday (02/23/02) afternoon we took a boat ride up the Nile to Murchinson Falls. the ride was quite enjoyable with lot's of crocodiles and hippos. As well, we got pretty close to the Falls. In total the trip took about three hours. When we got back everyone went out for a swim in the Lodge's swimming pool.
Today everyone was up early and we hit the road at 7:00AM. We drove up to the top of Murchinson Falls and got a few pics and then we went to do the chimpanzee tracking. This took about 2 hours and we did come across a family group of chimps. It was quite spectacular to see these creatures in the wild. They are very human-like in a lot of ways.
DIARY ENTRY: Monday February 25, 2002 9:07PM: Just got back from an excruciating day of white-water rafting on the Nile River near Jinja. There were five boats with 6 people in each boat. I was in a boat with four young English girls and a Scottish guy named Chris. It was a full day of fun and frolicking.
We started, as all white-water rafting excursions do, with minor safety lessons and some practical skills. After launching we quickly entered the world of big water.....and I mean BIG water. Four class 5 rapids and several class 3 and one class 4. We flipped twice in two of the class 5 rapids but it was pure fun. the second class 5 rapid tossed me into a downward vortex and when I fanlly surfaced (it seem like forever) I actually came up on the wrong side of the river....the dangerous side....the crocodile and hippo side.....but alas I survived. Towards the end we all did some body surfing and after the rafting company supplied a BBQ and beer. So my last day in Uganda went out with a blast.
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