Uganda.
We spent a total of two weeks in Uganda , with a lot of time travelling- Ive managed to get used to sleeping in the truck since we often leave at 6am and have driven for as long as twelve hours. The views have been impressive though- we went past lake victoria and then up to a place called lake bunyoni that looked how Id imagibne switzerland. while at Bunyoni we had a canoe race as a group and managed to sink two dugout canoes in the lake! We discovered that the going rate for a second hand dugout canoe is about twenty quid!
The campsites have been varying in quality and we thought the one at bunyoni wasnt great until we arrived at Kisoro which was a real s**thole! We had to spend two nights there to go see the gorillas as its near the forests but when we got there I discovered that they only had squat toilets and decided that the gorillas needed to be pretty good to merit not only the 200 odd quid but two nights without a toilet! Marks writing about the gorillas separately so all Ill say is that I did really enjoy it, although I still cant see that it was worth that much money, and I was more than happy to sit in the truck for twelve hours the next day to get to somewhere with a sit-down loo!
We went back to the capital Kampala briefly, staying in a campsite that seems to have a suspiciously high number of power cuts- I think they turn the electricity off every opther day to cut the bills and for some reason decided to turn the water off too the night we were there!
After all the travelling we went to Jinja, on the source of the Nile, where we settled in for four nights which was a relaxing break. For some reason they though that since we were doing grade five white water rafting the next day that it was a good time for drinking game the hundreds club where you have to drink a film canister of beer every minute for 100 minutes. I had the sense to stop straight after this, and was relatively okay although bitten to death by mosquitos which swelled up and made me want to crawl out of my skin for days,. Mark however went to the bar straight after to keep drinking and was the cause of much hilarity,having fallen asleep in the washing up and turned our tent upside down(I got out of the way and slept in the truck, hence the mossies)
Surprisingly enough noone really felt well enough for the rafting so we had to postpone it a day, and mark went paintballing instead= I though he was mad as it was so hot and I didtn want to put the suiton let alone run around in the woods.
The rafting started out well- it was baking hot, mark went in Milo (the driver)s boat as he promised to flip at every rapid. I went in the other one as I wasnt feeling quite so gungho. It was really enjoyable, at least until the boat flipped on one of the grade five rapids and I got caught under the boat being turned over and over by the water until the rapids ended. I seriously thought I was going to drown by about the fourth time I popped up and banged my head on the boat and found no air, but clearly I survived, although the pressure pain in my ear after I came out was agony and it really shook me up. So I spent some time in the safety boat which is less likel;y to flip, and then decided to brave my boat again, until he said we would definitely flip on the next one and I freaked out and had to miss the last two- well I didnt really miss out as they did flip both times and I really couldnt face being stuck under the boat again. Mark stayed in his the whole time and s\didnt wuss out like me (although I should sayI did do most of the rapids and if I hadnt got caught under I probably would have kept enjoying it.) As it happened, Marks boat onyl flipped twice- once when they deliberately tried to and the Bad Place at the end where its impossible not to, so I probably would have been better with all the big talkers.
Anyway, we did enjoy it, him more than me although I keep having nightmares now! From there we went to Sipi falls and went for a long exhausting walk up the waterfalls which was more like mountain climbing, and yesterday we crossed back into Kenya. Were now headed into Lake Nakuru National Park for a safari tomorrow which should provide much wildlife.
Love to everyone, hope all are well
Jenny, 10 December
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