Back to Uganda

This adventure took place on October 3, 2008

While in Uganda I became friends with Amos, the owner of Great Lakes Safari. I had used his company for my gorilla trekking expedition because it was highly recommend in Lonely Planet. GLS certainly lived up to their reputation. Amos invited me to come back to Uganda to discuss a business opportunity. He had meetings scheduled and wanted to introduce me to a few people… the Minister of Tourism, the President of Uganda’s daughter, members of the board of the Uganda Tourism Association in which he is the president. He also wanted to show me Murchison Falls National Park. Unfortunately, this is a site I missed my first time in Uganda. As you all know from my previous blog entries, I fell absolutely in love with Uganda and it certainly didn’t take him long to convince me to return. The business opportunity I will discuss at a later time, but I do want to share with you my visit to Murchison Falls. How did I let this slip off my itinerary during my first visit?! Amos had arranged for me to stay at this fantastic Lodge situated right in the park. When I stepped out of the Land Rover my mouth literally fell open it was so beautiful. My cabin was build on the side of a cliff overlooking the Nile. The sun was just beginning to set. On the other side of the bank were elephants drinking along the waters edge, hippos were honking as if to welcome me. The cabin walls were floor to ceiling screen with the bed in the center of the room. I could lie in bed and look straight out at the Nile. I was surrounded by forest on either side and monkeys would scamper from tree to tree, occasionally jumping on my roof top. I have to admit, it felt good to be back. The next morning we headed out early to beginning our safari. Our drive began with an open field dotted with thousands of palm trees. This was something I was not use to seeing on safari. Noel, my guide, explained that elephants bump up against the palms to knock down the fruits so they can eat them. Elephant pooh does not digest so the fruit seeds in the pooh are fertilized and planted and grow into palm trees. The Serengeti and the parks in Zimbabwe and Botswana don’t have this echo system. It’s very unique to Uganda… and beautiful! Throughout our drive we spotted many animals… zebra, buffalo, heart a beast, water buck, elephant, and wart hogs. But my favorite memory was the spotting of the Rothschild giraffe. We came across around eight of them on a hill top. They were glazing out over the Nile as if they appreciated their home and the view.
I was now scheduled to take a boat safari up the Nile. The original plan was for me to join a party of 12 on a large boat. Well, my “party” got on the wrong boat leaving me behind. My guide explained that it didn’t make much sense to use the big boat for just the two of us. I agreed. This was before I knew we were going to cruise the crocodile infested Nile in boat the size of a tin can! Seriously, it was half the size of any hippo swimming along the banks. All I can imagining was how easy it would be for a hippo to flip this tin can and the crocs to eat us for lunch. The guide assured me that using this boat was a special treat as it would allow us to closer to wildlife and the falls. I was still trying to decide if this was something I should be excited about.

My safari down the Nile in the tin can was exhilarating! We were basically eye level with the hippos, which didn’t seem to mind our intrusion. Except for one. We were admiring a mama hippo and her adorable calf. Well, papa apparently thought we were a bit too close for comfort. He took a leaping plunge into the water, which is a sign of irritation and aggression. I tried to capture a photo of his acrobatics but missed the shot. What I managed to capture was the photo of him reappear from the surface of the water only a few meters from the boat ready to attack! The “Captain” kicked the S.S. Tin Can in full throttle and we managed to escape from Big Daddy. But I got the shot!

We also got frightenly close to the crocs. There were hundreds of crocs all along the banks of the Nile. Every one of them had their mouths wide open ready to snap. When we would pull up to the bank they would all scurry into the water. At one point there were so many around the boat the “Captain” turn on the motor to insure they would try to climb in the boat.
After our “to close for comfort” encounter with the crocs we headed to Murchison Falls… the Grand Finale. There was the much larger safari boat packed with tourist. My guide explained to me that because of the size of the boat, it could not get any closer to the falls. Meanwhile, the S.S. Tin Can zipped on by way past the large boat. We were so close to the falls the only thing from keeping us from getting closer was the force from the falls itself. I leaned back and enjoyed the cool mist hitting my face. Once again, the travel Gods were looking after me as they have been this entire journey.