Jinja to Lake Baringo: White Water, White Knuckles and The Big White Light.

After Entebbe and the Shoebill tracking/watching/photographing we headed off to Jinja, the self proclaimed adrenaline capital of East Africa. There was one reason we were here, to conquer the Nile River by Raft. But before I go on, I have to mention the absolutely awesome driving display that Ang put on to get us through Kampala traffic unscathed and relatively relaxed.

It only took a few pictures of previous white water rafting trips to convince us that we were going to do the full day rafting trip with Nile River Explorers. It would involve running 12 rapids many of them Grade 5 and big! That night we both drifted to sleep wondering whether the next mornings sunrise would be our last. We woke had a cup of coffee to ease the nerves and then we were trucked, along with other nervous Mzungus, down to the river. Once on the shore of the Nile, our lead guide did his best to scare us further by telling us that we were going to flip and that a swim was on the cards.

We then got into our rafts and practised the afore mentioned flip. It was at this point that we learnt that one of our crew could not swim. Probably not the wisest decision she has ever made, but, Mavis was determined, as we were, to beat the Nile.

With the practising done it was time for the real thing. The first rapid was probably the biggest of the lot and involved going down an 15 ft waterfall (our raft was only 14 ft, yes please). We managed to stay upright and it did a lot to calm the nerves.

Notice how the lady at the back is trying her best to fold herself in half. The expressions on our faces in most of the pictures are priceless.

The next rapid taught us a proper lesson and flipped our raft with ease, scattering us in differrent directions. Oars and bodies colliding as we fought our way to the surface to hold onto the raft. We managed to flip another 2 times, one involving a rather long swim, but, it was an awesome day on the river. At the end of it all we were treated to some hot food and cold beers. Feeling very proud of ourselves we waxed lyrically about the days adventures. Another highlight of our highlight-filled trip.

1, 2, 3 flip. It was at these times that the Big White Light came rather close.

That night we chilled, watching the sun set over the mighty Nile River, wondering how long the water we were looking at would take to reach Egypt. Another tough day in Africa. The next day the tent was packed away and we left Jinja and Uganda as it was Kenyas turn to impress us. We must say that Uganda exceeded all our expectations and proved itself to be an awesome country to travel in. Friendly (English speaking) people, bushveld, mountains and rivers. What else could one want. We will definately be back.

We crossed the border into Kenya and relised that border crossings have become a rather mundane affair as we got the right people to stamp the right pieces of paper and with little effort and fuss, we were in Kenya! We were greeted with some pretty average roads which soon deteriorated into just plain ridiculous pot-holed roads. Our first stop was Kitale and here we realised that visits to any National Park was going to be an expensive affair.

The next morning we embarked on a quest of sorts. To find the Kiptagot Forestry Station and photograph it for a friend from church, John Whittall, who had worked there in his earlier years. We knew it was near Mt Elgon and so headed in that direction. After a few chats to Locals and the Kenyan Wildlife Services, we found it. We met the new forester and he showed us around trying to picture it as it was when John was there. It was really cool to have found the station and in so doing we reached our most northerly point of the whole trip.

After completing the quest we headed east towards the rift valley and to our next destination, Lake Baringo (we have already spoken to them about the spelling, and the fact that they got it wrong, there are already plans to change the name to Lake Beringo in our honour). The views as we decended into the Rift Valley were truly amazing and another one of those humbling occasions in our trip. As we stood, speechless, we realised how small we are on this huge planet and also how blessed we are to have got this far and to experience this.

Lake Baringo is one of the few fresh water lakes in the rift valley and was totally different to any of the other lakes we have experienced on this trip. Instead of clear water and white beaches we were greeted by thick acacia veld and muddy hippo-filled waters. It felt like Africa-proper.

At the lake we set-up camp and hit the tent early as we were knackered after the long drive. Our slumber was short lived as we were woken by unearthly noises coming from the reeds. Then they appeared. Two HUGE hippos, apprently quite interested in our car. They slowly approached the car (i know all this as i was surveying their every move through the small mesh window of our tent), until they were so close i could not see them anymore. Then we felt a bump on the ladder of the rooftop tent, then again and then some more snorts and grunts. I was almost certain they were going to count to three and push the Land Cruiser over. Luckily it did not come to that as the security guards persuaded them to move on. Needless to say it took us a while to get back to sleep.

The last few days have been spent chiling and doing some washing of clothes. I have also done a fair bit of birdwatching and the trip life-list has shot to 85 (also managed to get some cool shots of the birds too). We also got some pool time in, and treated ourselves to burgers.

Tomorrow my folks fly into Nairobi and then we are off to the Masai Mara to get a bit of a bush fix before we hit the beaches south of Mombasa. We are so excited to have them join us for the next two weeks and for them to get a little taste of overlanding.

Things Grant has learnt:

1. Calling other white people Mzungus from the car is highly satisfying and makes a nice change.

2. Hippos are pretty clumsy beasts outside of the water

3. Potholed tar roads have far superior bone-jarring qualities that potholed dirt roads

Things Ange has learnt:

1. Kenya is everything Out Of Africa and The Flame Trees of Thika portray it to be- hot, dry, dusty, acacia-filled savannah beauty.

2. As South Africans we are really spoilt with all the amazing national parks that we hardly have to pay anything for.

3. White Water Rafting was the scariest experience of my life.

Uganda: The Dark Horse

We said 'good-bye' to a very clean non-English-speaking Rwanda and 'hello' to a very chaotic English-speaking Uganda. We weren't complaining. We headed to Lake Bunyonyi just a couple of km's from the border and booked ourselves in at Bunyonyi Overlander's Resort, the only place that could accommodate roof-top tent campers. We were very happy to be back in our camping mode, cooking our own food and spreading ourselves out around Michael. The first day there we did a major spring clean; had laundry done, swept out the floors, seats and tent of dust, mud, etc. The rest of our time there was spent chilling and enjoying the views of the Lake and the cultivated hills surrounding us.

On our way out of Lake Bunyonyi, heading towards Queen Elizabeth Park, we met up with Steve D and his travel companions for breakfast. It was so cool to see a familiar face and catch-up on travel-news, life and all things meaningful :-)

After that, we did some much-needed shopping in the market and then hit the road!

Our plan had been to spend the night just outside of the Queen Elizabeth National Park and then drive through the park on the main road the next day (the no-pay option). But when we arrived at the Kingfisher Lodge overlooking expansive African plains we couldn't resist and decided then and there that we would drive into the park and camp there the next night. We are so glad we made that decision- the park itself and the views across picture-perfect Africa were phenomenal and we spent the day soaking up the views and the realisation of where we were. After a night filled with hippo grunts, hyeana cackles and lion roars, we drove towards the Rwenzori Mountains National Park. En route we crossed another imaginary line that holds some sort of appeal. The Equator!

We popped into a quaint little town called Kilembe surrounded by huge cloud-covered mountains and had a cup of coffee at the backpackers. We met another South African couple there and had a good chat before we decided to drive on to our destination a little deeper into the Rwenzori mountains, the Ruboni Community Campsite. What a gem! This spot is divided into the Lower and the Upper camps, the lower for roof-top tent campers and the Upper camp for ground tents and anyone staying in their bandas. We were blown away by this place and it lists as one of our highlights of the trip so far. It was truly community-run and we were treated with such friendliness and hospitality. Here we decided to try our first Rolex, a Ugandan speciality comprising a chapatti and omelette rolled up together- delicious! After lunch Grant worked on the car and managed to get rid of two nasty sounding rattles! We then decided to go up to the Upper camp and have a drink there. The views from up there were amazing! We had an emergency planning meeting and promptly booked ourselves a guided hike up one of the foothills the following day as well as accommodation in one of the Upper Camps bandas for the next night.

This little spot doesn't get much business and we really can't recommend it enough. The food was so delicious and cheap, we got an authentic community feel and left feeling that we had truly experienced the beauty and character of the Rwenzori mountains and it's people.

We left much fattened after many Rolexes and headed across the country to Entebbe: home of the Shoe-bill Stork. (First we had to negotiate a bit of Kampala's peak hour traffic. Johannesberg has nothing on it. It was hectic, three lanes were created that would usually only accomodate one and offensive driving takes on a completely different meaning.)

We set-up camp in the garden of Entebbe Backpackers and made a quick phonecall to a bird guide and arranged to be picked up at 6:30 the following morning to be taken to the Mabamba Swamp, a 90 minute drive from Entebbe. After driving through many dusty villages, we arrived at a narrow piece of shore with a few simple fishing boats, a couple of boda-bodas (motorbikes) and some fishermen. Feeling like we were part of an Entebbe underground secret, we were piled into a fishing boat and glided into a maze of narrow waterways walled by green reeds. After an hour our guide told us to stand-up and look a couple of hundred metres ahead at a purplish blob- the Shoe-bill! We headed deeper into the lily-covered waters and after another hour we were close enough to get a really good sighting of this funny cartoon-like bird! Amazing!

(Grant: "Tracking" a Shoe-Bill Stork was one of the many things I wanted to do during our trip. For a birder it is one of the most sought after species. Gliding through the reeds in search of this pre-historic looking bird was awesome. )

A Rolex in-the-making! Ush500 a pop=R1.50!

We arrived back to Entebbe just after lunch time and decided to stay on another night here in Entebbe and catch-up on blogging, emailing etc. (This evening we spoilt ourselves with a pizza getting to the restuarant on the local means of transport, a Boda-boda (motorbike taxi). So Ang and I squashed onto the seat (3 on a bike is nothing, we have witnessed 4) and paid only USh 3000 (R9) for a rollercoaster ride through Entebbe. Very cool.)

 Tomorrow we head to Jinga to hopefully do some whitewater rafting!

P.S. We have heard that some of you can't see the pictures as they are too big. Let us know if you are having this problem too and we will make a plan.