Last lap of the trip to Murchison Falls National Park and today it was poor Drew’s turn to feel unwell. Once again we rattled along terracotta red dusty roads until we reached the park gates. Usual reams of paperwork to complete and then off to see the falls. There is a massive road construction project taking place in the park, and as you bounce along part made roads you have to negotiate your way round huge industrial machines. It is financed by China and straw- hatted Chinese work alongside their Ugandan counterparts in hard hats. The roads they are building seem much bigger than the needs of the park, several billion gallons of oil have been discovered under the lake, big roads equals oil extraction I think.
The falls themselves were quite something, believed to be the strongest in the world (not sure how you measure that but it sounds dramatic so I’m sticking with it). We managed a few pictures then hordes of school children on a day trip appeared and we became the celebrities. The official teacher/photographer set us up with endless groups of kids some more willing than others. One poor small child screamed in terror at the thought of sitting close to us. Suddenly it began to rain very heavily, we dashed back to the car as the paths and roads turned into rivers. A hair raising drive followed as we slid and skidded along the road. We caught up with the kids, who were walking up the hill as the bus couldn’t make it fully loaded. At the top of the hill the bus had clearly slid in the mud and was stuck.
The drive to our spot for tonight involved more slipping and sliding as it continued to rain. Geoff said afterwards that he had throughly enjoyed himself, I am struggling to get my head round that. We arrived at Murchison River Lodge very bedraggled. It’s a mixture of ensuite tents, bandas and more basic tents (still have beds tho). At night there are wandering hippos and they recommend you walk back to the tent with a member of staff to avoid unexpected hippo encounters. We let Drew and Cara have the tent with ensuite as Drew was still feeling poorly and we went for the more basic version near the river.
Needless to say I was a wee bit scared about walking to the shower but there didn’t seem to be any hippos lurking so all was good. However after a few hours of blissful sleep I woke up to the sound of loud munching and squelching round my tent. The hippos were out in force, I drifted in and out of nightmares about hippo attacks and then woke up when I heard something pushing against our bags which were propped up on the edge of the tent. A torch check didn’t reveal the source but I gave up on sleep at that point and just lay listening to the night sounds. The girls said that the hippos appeared outside their tent not long after they went to bed and they took a very funny video of themselves screeching and laughing in a slightly terrifed manner in the dark as the hippos crashed around outside. See the video link below:-
Pirate Travels 