Murchison Falls

Well, we have a lot of catching up to do again! We have had a very eventful weekend!

We spent a good day in Kampala on Thursday, ate well (we found an amazing steak place!) and spent some time relaxing and reading our books in a park in the middle of the city.



Brian and I planned to head to Murchison Falls on Friday and last minute joined a tour group from our hostel. Our itinerary included a "game drive", a boat cruise, and chimp tracking. We had a great time!

The Game Drive

On Saturday morning we set out on our first "African Safari", with hopes that we might see at least a few animals. We weren't disappointed.

The first animals we saw (giraffes, and elephants) were quite a distance from us and hard to see....there were rumours of a lion as well but we can't claim that we actually saw it. After losing hope a little bit and seeing TONS of warthogs and bush bucks (antelope type animals) we actually saw a lion. We even have a picture to prove it (although it's a little far away).

We watched the lion creep up on some bushbucks and make an attempt at catching one. I thought it gave up pretty easily, but maybe that's because we were watching. Anyway, it was a good intro to the animal world in Africa.

The Boat Cruise

After our busy morning we sat down aboard an old boat with about 30 other mzungus and set off down the Nile River towards Murchison Falls.

It was a great boat ride. We cruised past hundreds of hippos and dozens of crocodiles all keeping cool in the water or basking in the sun along the shore. (Kaley I think you wanted to see some hippo pictures. We've got lots more to show when we get home!)

There was some great bird life as well! The climax of the trip was actually seeing the falls though. It is one of the most powerful surges of water in the world. The water of the Nile all spills down through a small 6 metre opening.

The force of the water traveling through here was incredible. When we reached the falls we got out of the boat and hiked along a trail to the top of the falls. It was great!

Chimp Tracking

We were up early this morning (at 5 am) to pack up our stuff and head to the jungle to find some chimpanzees. When Brian wasn't too busy swinging from branches like Tarzan,

we followed our guide who led us to find the chimps up in the trees. Although we couldn't get very close to them (as they were busying eating leaves way up in the tops of the trees) we caught some good looks at them swinging through tht branches, climbing the trees and running away from us on the ground. The noises they made were probably the best part! The were whooping and hollering like crazy!

All in all it was a really great time. We got to know 2 Australian couples that we spent the weekend with. They were very nice but I would definitely classify them in the interesting people category!

The plan now is to spend one more day in Kampala before beginning our trek down to Tanzania. It will be a long trip as we plan to take buses, trains and boats before we arrive in Zambia. But we are actually planning to head back to Kigoma (our beach paradise in Tanzania) on our way down to Zambia to catch some relaxing in between our busy travels.

We'll keep the adventures rolling!