Home at last

I have finally gotten back home from a most glorious weekend. I think I'll blog about my trip in three parts because there is just too much to tell at one sitting.

The group I went to Murchison Falls with was called Red Chilli Hideaway, a most adorable backpackers camp recommended by a colleague. I had a most multicultural travel group. There were the French army brats, Alex and Ben. Alex is a most brilliant journalism major who is interning in Kampala while her father is stationed here. Her brother Ben lives in Paris and is an avid skateboarder who just about had a heart attack when I told him I was friends with one of his skating heros. Next was Sophie, a recent British graduate who was volunteering in Rwanda. Then there was Nicholas, a professional photographer in Poland, and his 18 year old son. Basically they looked like Harry Potter junior and senior. There also a Korean girl studying in England who had come to work with an NGO for internally displace peoples. Lastly was Robert from Amsterdam, who was a computer programmer working in Kampala for a month, and who is also the spitting image of Casper Van Dien, only a 6'6" version of him.

There is one main road north out of Kampala. It was in pretty good shape except for the occasional construction crew. The country just outside of Kampla is stunning-- it is lush and green and mountainous, and dotted with tiny villages of clay brick and straw huts. After about a four hour journey we stopped in a town called Masindi, which is the biggest town on the way. All two streets of it. We relaxed and lunched there, then headed to the Murchison Falls National Park. The park was only 21 km away, but the trip took an additional two hours to get the campsite. This place is massive-- it just goes on and on. The jounery was rough becuase the roads were unpaved and rocky, and I'm fairly certain these minibuses lack shock absorbers. Talk about needed a massage.

The Red Chilli Rest Camp was really quaint, but certainly lacked modern amenities. Sophie and I chose to sleep in the same tent. Power goes off early, so you have to carry around stinky gas lanterns. And there is no hot water, so you need to take showers at night while the water is still "warm" from the sun. And by warm, I mean only slightly about freezing. Basically, you just reside yourself to being filthy for the entire weekend. And it is much hotter and more humid up there than in Kampala. A group of warthogs has taken up residence near the campsite. They mostly mind their own business, unless you have food and then they will ransack your tent. Sophie and I could barely make it to our tent, and you'll see from the pictures below.

Before dinner a few of us waled down to the Nile which was about 600 meters from the camp. It was just getting dusk when we arrived, and the hippos were preparing to exit the water for their evening feast. The primarily eat at night ans stay in the water and sleep all day because they sunburn quite easily. There are small, male-dominated pods all up and down the river. One male will announce that it is feeding time, then the announcement passes from pod to pod down the river. They make the most brilliant and obnoxious sounds.

After dinner we all hung around and drank some Ugandan beer called Bell, which is actually incredibly good. I got shit on by a bat, which might have been that amusing had I not been so incredibly fond of those animals. We had to be down by the river at 6:30, so we all went to bed fairly early.

Now picture time. These are some photos of the campsite. Also the forest photograph is just a tiny portion of the national park. There is also a gorgeous picture of the Nile-- the foam is from the waterfalls which were just down stream. Last is a picture of me at the falls from Sunday, I just through I would throw it in early because I took so incredibly many pictures.