Kasongoire Forest

I woke up at 6.15am sunday morning. It was still dark and cool. I bought 4 chapathis from the small restuarant in front of my hotel and began to walk to the UWA office. Gift was there waiting for me on a motorcycle. He sad he was going to arrange for someone to take me but in the end decided to rent a motorcycle ( $1 for 1 hour) and take me himself. I liked that he decided to take me because he's a nice guy, not out to rip me off, speaks good English and knows the place. We put some gas in the tank and left the nice tarmac of Masindi for a rough dirt road, a 'crap road' as Gift put it. It was still early and this isn't a popular route so there was no traffic at all. We drove past the Kinyara sugarcane plantation office, the people behind the destruction of the chimps forest, and drove through sugarcane plantations till we hit a small town. Here we picked up our guide, Gerrad and the 3 of us drove towards a hill where the chimps were apparently now. Gerrad said ' It's not far' but it was 45 minutes till we got there. The 'road' turned into a small bumpy track hardly fit for a mountain bike.
We stopped at a clear patch of sugarcane that had been recently harvested and the chimps were supposed to be in the forest adjacent. We began walking toward the forest when we heard the hooting and hollering of chimps behind us, past a patch of sugarcane. We got back on the bike and drove towards. We again came to the border of the forest and the trail became hard to drive so Gerrad and I walked while Gift walked the bike. In a few minutes I could see black spots up on the trail and as we got closer my first chimps came into view. They were right on the border of the forest and sugarcane, at least the ones I could see. With my binoculars I could see them well but Gerrad was urging me forward. I wasn't sure how close we could get but we ketp going. The track between the forest and tall sugarcane was wide enough for a vehicle but then opened up to a patch that had been recently harvested and only sand and dead sugarcane littered the ground. As we got closer to this area, about 5 chimps fled right in front of us, some of them young ones. As soon as we got to the open patch, Gerrad insisted we move fast away from the edge so the chimps will come out of the forest and back to the sugarcane. We stopped at a distance of about 20m and waited. After a few minutes 2 chimps came out, one old with a silverback and grey beard and the other slightly younger. Even after only seeing a few individuals, I could tell them apart by their facial features. They looked healthy, their flawless black fur shined.

Chimpanzees are part of the ape family which includes the gibbon, orangutan, gorilla and bonobo. The gibbon is has the largest distribution of them all and the most species. It is found from northeast India to mainland southeast Asia and Borneo and Sumatra and is probably the least endangered of all the apes, though some gibbon species are very rare and they are all still threatened by habitat loss and hunting. The orangutan is found only in Borneo and Sumatra and only an estimated 30,000 survive in the wild. I feel lucky to have seen both the agile gibbon and orangutan in Borneo. My goal is to see all 5 great apes. The other 3 occur in Africa. The bonobo has the most limited distribution, only being found south of the congo river in the Democratic Republic of Congo and will be the most difficult to see because of that. They are the newest species of ape, before being thought they were a pygmy chimpanzee but have since gained their own species status. The gorilla is divided into 4 supspecies. The most abundant of these being the western lowland gorilla, found in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo, Central African Republic and DR Congo. I just read online this past August that evidence of more than 100,000 western lowland gorillas was found deep in the swampy rainforests of northern Congo. That's great news, when so much of the news we hear about our endangerd animals is usually of the negative kind. The cross river gorilla supspecies is a small isolated population occuring only in cross river area on the border with Nigeria and northwest Cameroon. The eastern lowland gorilla numbers about 5000 and is found in eastern DR Congo, not far from the border with Rwanda. The most endangered subspecies of gorilla is the mountain gorilla found only in the Virunga volcanoes which span DR Congo, Uganda and Rwanda. An isolated population of mountain gorillas occur in Bwindi National Park in Uganda, where I hope to see them in a month or so. Only 700 of these majestic beasts are left in the wild. More about gorillas after I visit them.
There are 3 subspecies of chimpanzee. The most endangered with only about 17,000 left is the western form being found in west Africa from southeast Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea to southwestern Mali but the population is fragmented. The eastern and central populations are more or less continuous. The central form is found in Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Central African Republic and Congo. The eastern is found in DR Congo, Uganda, Rwanda and on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in eastern Tanzania. Fewer than 200,000 remain in total. Male chimps can weigh up to 55kg and stand 1m tall. Chimps have the widest tolerance of the manlike apes. They can live in rainforest, savanna woodland and open savanna with access to small patches of forest in gorges or gullies. They can live at sea level or up to 3000m. Access to water and trees suitable for sleeping are the principal factors in their distribution. They live in communties of 15 up to 100. The group we saw was 45 individuals. They eat a variety of food plants and also invertebrates. A break through was made years ago that showed chimps are more human that we thought we is was discovered they actually hunted other monkeys for meat. It was thought they were purely vegetarian. They will also take young antelopes and small duikers. I haven't read too much about chimps but I what little I know is that they also have wars with neighbouring communities, mirroring ourselves in them. I believe there is a lot to know by looking at our closest relative, with which we share something like 98% of the same genes. I plan on reading more when I get home and will add more info later. I just wanted to give some basic information.

Gift, Gerrad and I got comfortable on some dead sugarcane and settled down to watch the chimps. Most of the group was in the forest and I could see young ones playing around in the trees but 2 chimps stayed for a while in the open, 20m from us. Most chimp tracking takes place in dense rainforest where glimpses of the chimps are had on the ground while they are 5m to 30m high in the canopy. I had a very special unobstructed view of them and I really liked that. The sun rose higher in the sky and the chimps eventually retreated to the shade of the forest. Gift wanted to go after only 15 minutes but I protested and we stayed almost 2 hours. I could still see chimps in the forest and was in no rush to go. I wanted to stay as long as I could see them. A mother and a young clinging to her belly was low in a tree and near the edge of the forest. I watched her for a while and took some photos. I zoomed in digitally 72x to get extreme close ups but made sure the camera was on my tripod to get clear photos. After a while they sun became very hot and most of the chimps were out of sight. I knew they were still there because sometimes they would begin to hoot and holler but it was finally time to go. We took a shortcut back and dropped Gerrad off. Gift is such a nice and polite guy whereas Gerrad was anything but. He didn't shake my hand, introduce himself or welcome me to the forest, which is pretty standard when ever I visit a 'tourist' area. I came right out and told him this at the end. He would hardly even look me in the eye, I don't like this at all. I paid 30$ to see the chimps but felt Gerrand didn't deserve any tip and I told him and Gift why. "He has a lot to learn about what tourists like." Said Gift on our return. It was dusty drive back to Masindi and I arrived around noon. I showered, ate beans and rice and took a siesta.
I have someone meeting me tonight to tell me about the details of visiting Kagaju forest where there are a lot of monkeys and sometimes chimps. I will only visit if he can 'guarantee' a chimp sighting because I have seen all the other types of monkey present and will spend my $ somewhere else if I'm 'just' going to see them again. I will see what happens. If it doens't work out my next destination is southwest to Fort Portal. Not sure where I'll be for the New Year but if you don't hear from me, I hope everyone has a good one.

Masindi

Masindi is a small provincial town in northwest Uganda. There's not much to see in town but it's a jumping off point for Murchison Falls national park and other places. My first stop here after checking into the Softie Guesthouse was the U.W.A. office. The ranger on duty was named Gift. He told me about the one place to view chimps inside Murchison Falls that we drove by on our way in and out. I knew about this place but the info in my guidebook is outdated and things change quickly here so I wanted to know all the facts before venturing there such as how much was the chimp tracking, is there food available and how do I get there. Gift gave me the info and also told me of another place that was once the cheapest place to track chimps in Africa but has since discontinued the chimp tracking. My guidebook was out of date on that info. While eating lunch at the Traveller's Rest I noticed an ad on their local bulletin board. It was promoting Kigaju Forest Reserve, only 10 minutes from Masindi with the forest containing chimps, black and white colobus, red tailed monkeys and others. I had never heard about this forest and it wasn't in my guidebook. I asked Gift about it and he didn't know a lot about it either but apparently it's kind of an 'illegal' site because they haven't registered with the U.W.A. of the forestry department. The ad stated that gratuities were appreciated but not necessary and I thought maybe they got around the redtape for becoming an official reserve by not charging people to visit. Gift the told me about another ' yet to be registered site' that was about 30km away. He spent 4 days there checking out the place. The name was something like Kisenguiro forest. The forest was much larger but had been shrinking due to encroaching sugar plantations. The forest has since become an island amongst sugar plantations and the chimps are more or less trapped in the forest. He says the chimps eat the sugar cane and are happy but they can't be happy about their home constantly shrinking. This sounds like the most inexpensive option for chimps and I returned to the office today after Gift got more information. He told me to be at the UWA office for 6.30am tomorrow ( sunday) and he would have a boda boda ready to take me there. I'm excited to see chimps and do something not in the guidebook.
Masindi is basically a one street town with some minor side streets but hardly any traffic at all. By all accounts I would think of it as a quiet town but Boxing day it was anything but. Even the Softie Guesthouse played their music fairly loudly all the time but there was a truck driving around with huge speakers promoting the Liquid Club, across the street from Softie. Another place down the road was blaring music from a local concert. Maybe it's just because it's the holiday season but the town was very loud and I couldn't escape, at least for tonight. I had a few beers to help me sleep and crashed at 10.30 with my earplugs in. I slept ok but the music was on again early at the Softie and I had to find another quieter place to stay. I told the manager, John, honestly why I was checking out and he understood, no problem, he said. I found an even cheaper room for $3 at the classy sounding Executive Hotel. I ate lunch of rice and beans there and have been hanging out most of the day at an internet cafe. An hour of online time only costs about 90 cents, the cheapest I 've seen so far.
I am going chimp tracking tomorrow at the place Gift told me about but also, Dan, from Kagaju forest is meeting me tonight to give me more information about that place so I might be going there as well the next day. Stay tuned for (hopefully) some good chimp adventures!

Murchison Falls Day 3

Today is our last day of the tour and after walking up to the a viewpoint above the falls, we would be driving back to Kampala. I would have liked a longer tour because 2 of the days were mostly spent on the road. We left the restcamp at 8am for an hour drive to the falls. Tsetse flies were a problem as we drove through certain sections of the park. These nasty flies, a bit bigger than a housefly, deliver a painful bite and some carry sleeping sickness. They can fly up to 40km an hour and actually chased our van. We could see many flying behind us and if we slowed down for a difficult section of road they were all beside us. We had to close the windows accordingly but it was very hot and some of the flies made it inside. It then became a challenge to kill these buggers. They are very tough and don't die on the first slap, or sometimes even the second! There were many around the van when we got to the parking lot where we would begin our hike to the top of the falls. None of us wanted to get out but when we didn't they weren't as bad as I thought they were going to be. I got a small bite in the van but that was it.
Rebecca wasn't feeling good and we suspected the culprit to be the pumpkin and carrot soup starter of our Christmas dinner last night as others were sick too. I actually finished the rest of Rebecca's soup after she announced she wouldn't be eating it all, but I felt fine. So Rebecca stayed behind and the rest of us began and uphill hike to get a panoramic view of the falls. It was nice to get a different view of the falls from this high vantage point but what I really wanted to see ( and the others in our group) was the blind spot of the falls not visible from a head on view. The falls wind through the gorge and the place of the most intense action wasn't visible until we descended the path on a different direction than we had come. We got to see the part of the falls that had been hidden and it was intense. The water is so powerful, it's almost frightening being this close. It had its own feeling. Rainbows were plentiful and I got some great photos. This is the dry season and the falls are spectacular, I can only imagine what they look like in the wet season. We were the last group to stay at the falls and reluctantly walked back to our van. We had an hour and a half drive back to Masindi and the occasional battle with an univited tsetse fly into our van. The road to the park had very little traffic and drivers often speed. We saw an overturned white pickup on the side of the road we didn't see 2 days ago on our drive in. It looked pretty nasty.
We arrived in Masindi to the Travellers Rest for lunch. Surprisingly and unfortunately they were out of most of the food that we ordered. No rice or tilapia. Most of us settled for samosas or chips and chicken. The van would be taking the group back to Kampala but I would be staying in Masindi. There are parks with chimpanzees in the area and I want to stay to explore them and then take the back route to Fort Portal, my next destination. I said my goodbyes to everyone and exchanged emails. I took a very cheap room at the Softie Guesthouse and went to the Ugandan Wildlife Office (U.W.A) for information.

Murchison Falls Day 2

Christmas Day

We're up and ready to go at 6.30. We have to be at the ferry jetty to make sure we get a spot on the 7am ferry or else we have to wait another hour. We park behind a few other minivans. There are many foreigners here and a bus with a dozen Indian tourists. I eat my oatmeal while we wait for the ferry. We cross the river on time and began our game drive. Within 10 minutes a small herd of 3 elephants come out of the bush just as we drive by. We stop and they cross the road behind us. Apparently elephants aren't seen much in this part of the park and we are told by our ranger/guide that we are very lucky. The terrain of the park is hilly savanna but has taken on an otherworldly appearance due to the annual fires that have burnt all the parks grass. I'd say as much of 80% of the park that we saw has been burnt. Sometimes the road proved a formidable border for the fire and provided a stark contrast from one side of the road to the other. There were many kobs, Jackson's hartebeest, some giraffe in the distance and oribis. Oribi are the largest of the 'small antelopes' and it's my first time seeing these cute animals. In the not so far distance is the largest herd of buffalo any of us have ever seen. There must be hundreds of them. We stop for a look and most of them look our way, pondering our next move. They blend in perfectly with the burnt background. Further on we come to a gathering of vans, tipped off that there were lions around. We join the group and look in the direction everyone appears to be looking in but see nothing. Our guide points our where the lions are and it takes me a few minutes to even see where they are. There is a lion and 2 lioness on the hill opposite us but very far away. Even with binoculars they are hard to see. It's always cool to see lions but I hope we get to see them a little closer. This is Catherine's first safari ever, so I feel excited for her and hope we have some closer sightings.
Our 'destination' for the game drive is the delta where Lake Albert meets the Victoria Nile and becomes the Albert Nile. This area is supposed to be good for lions. The problem is the area is 35km away and we can't stop as much or as long as we would have liked to on the way there to photograph some of the animals. We are able to get out and stretch our legs at the delta, which doesn't look like much except a lot of blue water and aquatic plants. We carry on but then turn around on the word of more lions. They are on the same road we took to the delta but were closer to the water in the dense vegetation, that's why we couldn't see them on the way in. One of them crosses the road in front of us and 4 others are close by. They are all about 1 year old cubs and not the full grown lion size yet. We all wondered were mom and pop are but we don't see them. We can only stay a few minutes with the cubs because we have to catch the 11am ferry back to Red Chili. We are able to take some good photos but we all would've liked to stay longer with them. We drove fast back and had to pass on animals and photo opporunities. I didn't like this at all and it felt much too rushed. What's the point of a game drive if you can't stop and look and photo the animals you are they to see? I think they should have pushed the time back an hour so we could catch the noon ferry to have more time. We only had 3 hours and most of this was spent driving to the delta.
Back at camp we all had lunch but the restcamp was out of some food and I settled for a cold pasta salad. We had till 2.10 till our afternoon boat safari up to the falls started. It was almost 29C in our tent but there was a breeze and I took a short siesta as did most of the others in our group. We met at 2.10 to get to the river for the 2.30 ferry. The ferry is one of these party style ferries with 2 flat levels, accomodating about 25 people on the bottom deck and a few less up top. I don't like being in the direct sun if I don't have to and decided to sit on the bottom level on a lifejacket. The rest of the group sat upstairs. The ferry was full of all the same people from the restcamp and the Indians. The journey up to the base of Murchison is 17km and we moved at a snails pace. I liked this very much because it gave us plenty of time to observe the wildlife along the way which included many hippos, some Nile crocodiles and a few elephants. There were also many birds, kingfishers, fish eagles and bee eaters. A few unlucky birds were having their nests dug up by 2 Nile monitor lizards. Baboons and vervet monkeys were on the shore and in the trees. The trip was filled with wildlife on all fronts.
It took a few hours to get to the base of Murchison falls. We stopped at one point were the river widens again after coming through the narrow channel of the falls. Many fish die going over the falls and many crocodiles wait on the shore here for an easy meal. We continued to a small rocky island closer to the falls but still almost 1km away. I spotted black and white colobus monkeys in the trees and pointed it out to the guide. Surprisingly he didn't seem interested though I thought we was a good guide. He reluctantly told the rest of the boat but by this time they had disappeared out of sight. We pulled up to a large rock and tied the boat. The current was very strong here. Most of us jumped onto the rock for some good photo opportunites. Murchison falls doesn't actually drop that far but the wide river upstream is forced through a gorge only 6m wide and results in probably the most powerful surge of water in the world. I didn't know it then, but we would be able to get much closer to the falls on our walk to the top tomorrow.
On our return trip we stopped at the same place with a dozen crocodiles hanging out. An elephant was there now and was eating a bush very close to the crocs. Hippos were in the water. It was quite a scene to see all these large animals so close together. The elephant almost stepped on some crocs and forced them into the water. We saw most of the same animals on the return but didn't stop this time. We arrived back at camp at 6.30 and arranged for our Christmas dinner to be at 8. I showered in the slightly cold but refreshing shower and read till dinner. There was only one option for dinner and it was a matter of deciding between having a 3 course meal or just having dessert or a starter with our main course. I decided to have the dessert with my main. There were 3 main courses to choose from. I went with the chicken which included potatoes, beans, and red cabbage and almonds. It was all very good and the lemon lime refrigerator cake for dessert was one of the best desserts I've ever had. Catherine treated us all to a glass of mulled wine. I've never heard of it before ( which does't mean much, I don't know a lot about food admittedly) but apparently its big in Europe around the holidays. The wine is heated up and spices such as nutmeg, ginger, cardamom and cinammon are added. I liked it more than regular wine. It kind of reminded me of a sort of chai wine. We stayed up chatting and listening to Christmas music. At 10.30, Stefan and I were the only ones left and I suggested we go to our tent so they could close. It was a very merry Christmas and one of the best ones I've had in a while. Although I felt the game drive was rushed, the boat up to the falls was a great experience and the closest I have ever been to hippos and crocodiles.

Murchison Falls National Park

I got up at 7am wednesday morning to pack up my tent and eat breakfast. I bought a bag of oatmeal for $1.50 and some powdered milk and this will last me for breakfast for 4 mornings. Last night was the end of my longest stretch of consecutive nights in my tent. Usually I will use my tent for 4 or 5 days and then stay in a hotel/guesthouse for a night or two and then back to my tent but this trip I have been going from place to place staying in my tent. I slept in it for 12 nights straight, beating my last record from Borneo of 9 nights. I stayed in a tent for 25 nights so far, 21 of those in my own tent. It's been great to use my tent a lot, since last year I hardly used it at all, there just wasn't any opportunities in India.
There are a few groups going on the 3 day tour to Murchison. In my group is Stefan - Swiss, Konrad and Mirjke - Belgian, and Catherine and Rebecca from England. I sit beside Stefan for the 4 hour drive to Masindi, where we will have lunch. Stefan is well travelled and is doing the same circuit as me, around Lake Victoria. The road to Masindi is in pretty good condition but the scenery is nothing special, just a lot of scrub bush. It's a sunny and hot day. We arrive in Masindi about 1.30. We eat lunch at the Traveller's Rest restaurant. Shortly after leaving the restaurant we turn onto a dirt road for the remaining 2 hours to the Red Chili Restcamp, deep inside the park. There are a few baboons, buffalo and some Kob (Uganda antelope) along the way. At the restcamp, Stefan and I share a tent. The tent is similar to the one I stayed in while in Masai Mara but its a little nicer and roomier. It's about 34 C in the tent, much to hot to stay in there long so I walk down to the Nile river, about 10 minutes away. The Nile is an important feature of the park. Most of the wildlife is on the north side, the restcamp is on the south, so we will have to catch a ferry across the river, which dictated the length of our safari. The river is also the starting point for the passenger ferry to Murchison Falls.
Murchison Falls national park is the largest park in Uganda, covering an area of 5050 sq.km. Most of the park is savanna bush with the southern section containing Budongo forest, an area of dense mohaganey forest harboring chimanzees and other primates. The park is close to the border with Democratic Republic of Congo and in an area of Uganda still harbouring occasionally rebel activity but is considered safe right now.
We all ate dinner together at 7pm. I had delicious spaghetti with Italian meatballs. We talked for a few hours about Africa, travelling and each other. Konrad has been living in Kinshasha, DR Congo for the last 8 years working for the U.N. and Catharine was there for a few years but is now beginning a new job for the U.N. in Kampala. They are both on a short holiday. Rebecca and Mirjke are travelling around East Africa for 1 month. Stefan is on an epic 8.5 month trip which he began in central Asia, then Japan, Africa and some of Europe before he goes home. He his visiting some of the same sites I plan to visit and we might meet up again. I often don't see the same people too many times when I'm travelling. I'm usually on a longer trip than most people I meet and I travel very slowly. Even if people are heading to the same places as me, I'm usually travelling behind them. Stefan is one of the only people I've met who is just strictly backpacking and not doing any type of work. We crash as 10 as we have a long day ahead. Murchison falls is very warm but the temperature drops to a slightly cooler 24C during the night and is good for sleeping. The staff have warned us about wandering at night to use the toilet. Hippos frequent the area and we don't want to run into one of them unexpectedly. Warthogs are also around the camp all the time but these aggressive looking animals with curved tusks are harmless.

Kampala

I could tell I was getting closer to Kampala because the traffic was starting to get congested. Although Kampala has a reputation for being one of the safest capital cities in Africa, its downfall is the traffic jams it frequently experiences. The matatu I was in was hardly moving once we were in central Kampala, so I decided to get out and get a boda boda to Red Chili Resthouse, about 6km outside of the centre. I dropped off my large pack and headed back into town. I tried to change some travellers cheques that I didn't have the receipt for but with no luck. I browsed great bookstore and bought a book on Mammals of Africa. I have a similar book at home but thought I would be ok if I left it at home but I'm feeling lost without an ID book. I really like the one I bought, lots of color photos, info and distribution maps.
Kampala is a busy city with traffic and people and I didn't really like it but I don't really like any cities that much. Though I have seen much worse cities than Kampala. To me cities are just an unfortunate stopover between national parks and wild areas. They do have their benefits of cheap internet,good food and sometimes a cinema but after a day or 2, I'm ready to leave. I'm never in a park and thinking, ' Oh, I can't wait to get back to the city!' That's why I choose to stay out of the city at Red Chili. The place is full of foreigners and I see the Americans I met at Sipi Falls. I also came to Red Chili to book a budget safari to Murchison Falls National Park. There is no public transport in the park and it would be much more expensive to hire my own vehicle so this is my only option for visiting the park. The 3 day tour doesn't leave until wednesday, it's monday now so I have to spend another day in the city.
I hangout at Red Chili for the afternoon and go back into the city for cheap and fast internet and some lunch. I eat dinner alone and go to bed early. We are leaving for the park at 8am tomorrow morning.

Things that make you go........hmmmmmm?

I have a question for all my loyal readers out there and for anyone else who's interested in answering. I have been asking this question randomly whenever it I think about it, for the last few years. Many of the answers are similar but I have been surprised before, so I'm just curious on where my readers stand. Here goes.....

If you could be any animal in the world ( living or extinct), what would it be and why?


My answer would be a New World monkey, no specific species as long as it's a New World monkey. I say this because New World monkeys, those native to South America, are the only types of monkeys to have a prehensile tail, used as a fifth limb to hold onto branches. I would like to be a monkey because they live in my favourite place, the tropical rainforest, they get to swing through the trees and eat fruit all day. They live a relatively carefree existence with few natural predators.

Happy Holidaze

I just wanted to wish everyone a safe Christmas and a Happy New Year. I will be spending my Christmas inside the Murchison Falls National Park on a 3 day tour which leaves tomorrow. All the details of the trip will come in a few days. I'll keep you updated and thanks for reading.

Mabira Forest Reserve part II

I took advantage of my third noiseless morning at Mabira by sleeping in till 9. I walked to the Exodus and ate what was becoming my usual breakfast - omelette wrapped in chapathi, coffee and juice for $1.75. I got on the red trail at 10 but took a diversion to the right to begin the yellow trail. I'm sharing the path with a giant millipede (15cm) for a while. Red tailed monkeys are crashing through the trees. While I'm watching them, I see movement closer and lower in a tree. I look at it and for a second think it's a big dead leaf falling but it was actually a flying squirrel. It must have been disturbed from its daytime nest and glided to a lower tree. I was very surprised to see this during the day. I'm also not 100% sure if it was a flying squirrel, there are other flying mammals here called anomaloures ( or similar) that I think are different than a flying squirrel but for now, let's just say it was a flying squirrel. It sat motionless on the trunk of the tree after it landed and I could see it clearly with my binoculars. It was all grey with a dense tail that ended in a bit of a tuft. I tried to get closer but the vegetation was so thick here, I scared it off trying to get through it. Sometimes the forest is all about timing. Some of the forest here is very nice, tall canopy and little undergrowth and some of it is dense with little visibility. There are a lot of strangular figs, choking the life out of a variety of different sized trees.

After walking leisurely through the forest, I emerge onto the main road after 4 hours. I decide to have a pure fruit lunch today. I buy 10 bananas, 5 small mangoes and 5 large passionfruit for $1 and wash it down with a litre of mixed juice for a $1.50. The bananas and the passionfruits were very tasty but I was disappointed with the mangoes. They were small and very stringy, I needed a 1m of floss after I finished eating them. I'm a bit of a mango snob after visiting Guimaras in the Philippines. This small island is known for having the worlds sweetest mangoe and I believe they did. They were huge, juicy and each half could be eaten with a spoon, it was like soft ice cream, no stringyness at all. I've learned now to stay away from most other mangoes.

The camp isn't very well maintained here but today they're doing a cleaning blitz, raking away all the fallen leaves. A guy was here checking out the site to bring a big group Christmas day. I like having the camp to myself but wouldn't mind if a few other travellers arrived. I showered again with the monkeys watching me and then ate rice/beans at Exodus.

Tonight I'm walking the dirt road to the red trail and following that all the way back to the camp. I figure it will take 2 hours. Even before I get onto the trail I see eyeshine high in the trees. Parts of the forest here are so dense and low that I feel like I'm being swallowed by a green living beast before I finally emerge in the stomach where the canopy is raised again. I see 3 more sets of eyes but it isn't till the fifth set that I see what's behing them. It' a small bushbaby and is low in the trees and is also curious about me. He sits still while I photograph him. The forest can be very relaxing at night because its so dark and quiet, except for insect sounds, there is no monkey calls or tree crashing. All the bushbabies I saw were on site only, I didn't hear any of them. Nightwalking can also have its unexpected rushes as well. Sometimes an animal I don't see is waiting in the bush beside the trail and waits till the last minute, when I'm almost beside it, to run away. This unexpected busrt through the undergrowth is a quick adrenaline rush. Most of the time it's a bird but sometimes it's something bigger, like a duiker or forest antelope. There are leopards in Mabira forest but they are rarely seen. Conversely, the best time to see them would be on the trail at night. Leopards are big animals and like most big animals prefer the path of least resistance when possible. The trail I'm walking on is definetely the easiest way through this forest.

I cross the main road and pick up the trail on the other side, I'm on the home stretch now. As I get closer to camp I see eyes high in the trees but as when I'm just a minute from camp I see another bushbaby low in the trees. He also hangs out with me for a few minutes. I'm trying to take photos and walk 2 steps off the trail when suddenly I feel biting pain on my legs. My legs are covered in ants of all sizes, from 2cm long and smaller. No matter what their size, all they want to do is viciously bite me and hold on for life. I begin taking them off but there's too many and I'm still standing in them, so I run back to camp and strip down to my boxers. I hate ants and this isn't the first time I've had problems with them on my last few night walks. Since I'm walking slow and not concentrating on the forest floor, I sometimes walk through an ant area but don't know it until they start biting me. This always seems to happen at the worst times too, just when I'm about to take a photo or see something cool. Like I said, the forest is all about timing, sometimes it works out, other times it doesn't!





I sleep in again till 9 on my fourth day at Mabira. Today I am combining the red and yellow trails. I take a few photos of flowers and large trees but there's not a lot happening in the forest today. I see redtailed monkeys but no mangabeys. I'm out of the forest after 3 hours. Back in camp, I'm surprised to see 2 vehicles. One is a family from Kenya who I chat to and the other is a foreigner/Ugandan couple who can barely spit out a 'Hi' to me as I walk by. I didn't talk to them at all, they weren't interested in talking to me. I don't like these types of travellers, not interested in anyone else. There's also the type of traveller who when seen in public, especially in a smaller town, just turn the other way and ignore me, like they want to believe they are the only one travelling in that country. I can understand this when I'm in a capita city where there are a lot of foreigners, but other places it doesn't make sense. I also don't care for these types of people. I'm interested in all the foreigners I meet while travelling, exceptions maybe for people who are there to do missionary work, I don't have much in common with these people. But for the most part I'm interested in where someone is from, where they have been and where they are going. I've learned a lot from just talking to other travellers about places to go that I didn't know about before.

I am going to Kampala tomorrow so tonight is my last nightwalk. I see 5 sets of eyes but only a few of these are close enough to tell they are the same bushbabies I've been seeing. I just walked the dirt road tonight towards The Rainforest Lodge, 2km each way. I decided to have an easy walk on the road for once, though the road goes through the forest and is more like a wide trail than a road, there's no traffic. It just means easier, more level terrain, though most of the road is hilly, there are no roots and rocks. The one big bonus of the road is the lack of spiderwebs spanning its width. In the forest I'm wiping a web away from my face every few minutes. It's kind of annoying and feels gross to have this silk web all of a sudden in my face, and usually at eye level. Oh, and there are no ants on the road! Even though I'm only 55km away from the capital city of Uganda, the sky is clear and the stars are amazing. There is music and partying going on near the main road and it's another loud night.

I sleep in till 9 and then pack up my stuff. I eat my last breakfast at Exodus. The young waitress there asks when I'm coming back. I tell her 'Never.' but she gives me her phone number anyway. Unlike most travellers I meet and most locals nowadays, I don't carry a cellphone. Sure, they have their benefits but most of the time I don't want people calling me and think cellphones can be really annoying when I'm trying to have a conversation with someone and their phone keeps ringing or they are constantly texting. I walked up to one of the stopped matatus and got in and was on my way to Kampala.

Mabira Forest Reserve

Mabira forest reserve center is found 500m from the main road at Najjembe village. The site is run by the forestry department and not U.W.A., making it very cheap. Camping was $1.50 a night and the one time entry fee was$3. The camp was in the forest surrounded by tall trees, looked like a great spot to set up my tent. It's possible to walk unguided in the forest here and they supply a map and the trails trees are color coded, making self navigation very easy. The main road ran through the reserve with about 1/3 on the campsite side and 2/3 on the other side. It was almost 3pm when I started hiking so I stuck to the shorter trails on my side of the road. There were many red tailed monkeys around but the monkey I was hoping to see here was the grey cheeked mangabey.
The reserve is very basic with long drop toilets, though with a western seat and a concrete cubicle for a shower. The walls of which went up to my chin so I could still watch the forest as I bucket showered. There was no one else staying here. After my walk and shower I go to Exodus restaurant but surprisingly for a restaurant, they had 'no food' this evening, so I ate a Little Kingston down the road. The Najjembe village is very small but it a major quick stopover for vehicles with sellers in blue vests running up to stopping vehicles to try and sell them water, skewered meat, fruit or anything else they wanted. They had a lot of fruit, mostly jackfruit, pineapples, mangoes, passionfruit, papaya and bananas.
I come back to the campsite at 8pm and although the site appears quiet, it's not. I can still hear the thundering of heavy trucks on the road and people in the village screaming or whatever and blaring music, it kind of sucks because this place could be so much better. I try not to let that bother me though and concentrate on my first night walk. I was very happy to hear the forest officer tell me that I could also walk unguided at night. It would cost me $20 to take a guide at night, I'd see how things went on my own first.
Fireflies were all around the perimeter of the campsite in the forest. I walk for 30 minutes and don't see anything. I begin to think, ' Watch, I'll get back to the camp and then see something there!' Well, literally about a minute before I arrive in camp I see my first eyeshine, about 5m away and about 5m high in a tree on a large horizontal branch. The eyeshine belongs to a primitive nocturnal primate known as a potto. These tail less primates are mostly arboreal and move slowly. The potto doesn't move right away but slowly turns around and goes back up the branch, this is when I see no tail and know it's a potto. They are small, 50 cm in length, up to 1.5kg and stoutly built with a bear like face. I knew what it was right away because I've looked through my African Mammals book so many times, but didn't expect to actually see one! The first night walk was a huge success.


Day 2
Last night was very loud until very late in the night so when morning came and it was quiet, I took advantage of it and slept in till 9. There's no reason to get up early here to get on the trails anyway. The forest never really gets that hot and stays cool for a while into late morning and the animals seem active at any time of the day. I go to Exodus for breakfast of omelettes wrapped in chapathis. I take the main road for 2km before turning right onto the red trail. As I get deeper into the forest, the sounds of the road disappear and I actually feel like I'm in the forest. Mabira forest extends for 300sq. km and is the biggest area of semi decidious rainforest left in central Uganda. It is under threat though from encroaching sugarcane plantations and illegal logging. I hear crashing of trees to indicate monkeys are around. I settle down in a spot and wait till I can see them. It's troupe of grey cheeked mangabeys. I don't think they see me yet because I don't hear any alarm calls. They stay in view and I get some distant photos.They are a medium sized monkey, mostly black but with a dirty grey mantle of hair on their shoulders.
The trail crosses a dirt road and leads to a radio tower with a lookout point. I get back to the village, eat chicken and chips for lunch and relax at the campsite for the afternoon. I was clothes and shower around 5.30pm. As I'm showering, red tailed monkeys are in the trees above my head. I've gone from one amazing shower location with views of the Nile and now to monkeys crashing around me. Wow, Uganda has the best showers ever! I end up eating dinner at a tiny table that looked better if in were in a primary school, but the food is cheap and tasty. Groundnut sauce over rice and a bowl of cabbage washed down with a Krest soda for $1. I take a bit longer of a nightwalk tonight, building up for an epic nightwalk tomorrow, but tonight I only see a set of eyes way high up in the trees. By its movement I think it's a bushbaby. I arrive back in camp at 9 and hangout reading till I go to bed.

The day after rafting

I spent the day after rafting just relaxing. My body was a bit sore but it was more from the paddling on the calm stretches than being thrown around in the rapids. I took a boda boda into Jinja town, about 6km away. Half of the way is on a dusty dirt road but the delicious fragrance from the coffee bushes blossoms kind of evened it out. I just went to Jinja to check emails and write emails. I hung out with some British rafters my last night at the NRE camp. The showers at the camp are outdoor with one side of them completely exposed for views of the Nile while you wash. They are really cool, I wish my shower at home had that view! The showers are located on a steep forested hill where red tailed monkeys and monitor lizards live. While I was drying off I heard something in the bushes below my shower stall. I stopped moving and went to get my camera. It was a monitor lizard. He saw me too and we both looked at each other without moving. I won our staring game when the lizard broke away to go up the hill somewhere else. I could hear him escaping but didn't seem him well enough for a photo. My last morning I went back to the showers looking for a monitor lizard but I found red tailed monkeys instead. One of them was low in the branches and feeding on a jackfruit tree. The temptation of the fruit was too much and he let me approach close for some photos. I really like these campsites that wildlife frequents.
I ate a few chapathis for breakfast and took a boda boda back to Jinja, this time with all my things. I wrote for a while at an internet cafe and then hopped into a matatu westbound for Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. However, I wasn't heading to Kampala quite yet. I got off 2okm later at the low key Mabira Forest Reserve.

White water rafting on the source of the Nile river

The truck full of rafters rumbled down a dusty road to the Owen Falls dam, the source of the Nile from Lake Victoria. We stopped at the river's edge and got organized. Rafts can hold up to 6 people. Joining Portia and I was Colin and Isabelle from Canada and Bart and Daphne from Holland. We chatted a bit beforehand and all got along well and thought it would be a good group. Our guide was a local guy Peter. We got into our red raft and set out and a long stretch of calm water. While we floated along, Peter told us about the rapids and gave us a crash course in rafting skills and commands he would be giving us before and during the rapids. He was a funny guy, always joking and asking us if we ' are shitting ourselves?!'.
For our first rapid, an easy class 2, he told us to jump in the water with our helmet and lifejacket and just ride the rapid. This was fun, the warm was a perfect temperature and it was mostly overcast. Overcast skies can still deliver a searing sunburn and since I'm not carrying any lotion, I managed to mooch some off of Portia before we left, but I did wear long shorts and a t shirt to try and minimize my exposed skin. Floating lazily down another calm stretch, we saw something black and small in the water up ahead, swimming across. Peter joked that is was a crocodile or a hippo, which there aren't many left ( if any) in this 30km stretch of river we would be rafting. It was actually a Nile monitor lizard swimming across the river. Monitor lizards can reach lengths of 2m and are the second largest lizard in the world after the Komodo dragon. We hit our first real rapid called the Ribcage and it was an easy class 4. We made it through unharmed and it was fun. Going through a rough rapid is a rush but what's worse is sometimes we would just float on the calm stretch before the rapid talking about it and waiting for what, I'm not sure. The anticipation and suspense was killing me!
Bujagali falls was our next and our first class 5 rapid. Class 6 rapids are illegal and dangerous to run in the type of raft we were in. It was a little scary looking at it but we made it through, no problems. There was a safety raft with us all the time for those who wanted to chicken out on the rapids. The thing is the safety raft still goes through the same rapids but its weighted down and tries to take safer lines. There was also a bunch of guys from the rafting company in kayaks to rescue anyone who got thrown out of their raft and bring them safely to the nearest raft until they could meet up with their own raft.
50/50 was our third rapid and the name means that we have a 50/50 chance of flipping over. The class of rapids, at least to me, seem a bit misleading because I would think that class 4 and 5 are much rougher than class 3 but our raft flipped for the first time going through 50/50. I guess our luck wasn't with us on this one! I think and have heard that sometimes the guides flip the boat on purpose to up the fun/adrenaline factor. Somehow right after our raft flipped, Peter was on top of the upside raft and doing backflips. When Peter yells ' Get down!' he means for us to grab our paddle and rope tight and crouch down on our feet, facing the outside of the raft. I was crouched down before the rapid and when it flipped, it flipped towards my side so I went in somersaulting headfirst! I managed to hold onto my paddle and wasn't that far away from the raft when I surfaced and grabbed onto the rope around its length. Most of us were near the raft, i pulled myself in and then helped pull others in. The girls had a tough time of pullling themselves in. The technique involved a lot of upper body strength, you're supposed to pull on the rope until your arms are locked straight and then flop into the boat. I would straighten my arms tight and just chuck myself in. I had no problems but the girls, lacking the immense upper body strength I possess ( that's meant to be funny people!, my legs are probably my strongest muscles), had trouble getting themselves in. I tried to get in first because I knew I could help them in from the raft. I had an easy time in the water and thought it was kind of fun flipping but Isabelle had it rough and Portia was more or less terrified. She was trembling and spoke of a possible panic attack. She didn't expect herself to be this scared but she watched a DVD of the rafting before and knew what she was in for. They film all the rafting and watch the DVD at 9pm at NRE. The DVD's are for sale but at 45$, are quite expensive. I was a little confused as to what Portia was expecting but we were all very sympathetic to her, that is, except Peter. When Portia opted to join the safety boat for the next big set up rapids, Peter ridiculed her like crazy. Calling her chicken and making the motions of a chicken and everything. It was a little funny but none of us were that harsh with her.
Totoganda, a class 3, was our next rapid. This rapid used to be a class 5 but the building of the dam upstream diverted heavy water and turned the rapid into a lowly class 3. We went through it smooth and it was fun. Surf city was our next class 3 rapid. We also went through this smoothly. I must admit that the rapids were our boat didn't flip all kind of blended together unless something more memorable happened besides flipping.
The set of rapids was 200m long, class 5 and carried the ominous name of Silverback. Peter explained to us that there were 3 sets of sideways rapids and then a big one at the end, we would hit dead on and possible might flip us. Needless to say, Portia got in the safety boat for this set. These rapids looked intimidating upon approach but we were all as ready as we could be. I was holding on tight but apparently not tight enough because we hit the first rapid and I was thrown out of the raft as it flipped, or so I thought. Next thing I know I'm in the rapids and trying to get a breath when I saw the sky between huge waves of white water in my face. It was intense and a little scary. I went through the first few rapids but then was pushed over to the left in calmer water where another raft was waiting. I jumped into their raft, coughing and choking on the water I had just inhaled by accident. Next I saw Colin appear our of the rapids and we rescued him too. He was worried about his girlfriend as our boat wasn't in sight. We finally met up with our boat and to Colin and my surprise, our raft didn't flip. Somehow only Colin and I were tossed out, everyone else stayed in. I wasn't sure how this happened. I had a rough dunk in the drink but was ok and was ready for more. It became a joke later that Canadian men are so tough, we just willingly throw ourselves out into the rapids, we don't need a raft to go through them! Portia was in the safety boat for this rapid but it also flipped! Not much of a safety boat. She was shaken but ok and didn't have much choice but to take a hit from an inhaler and go on.
Jaws was our next rapid and was a hard class 3. The guides take the easy way through this rapid because before they used to flip and had people underwater for 50 seconds! That's a long time to be rolled around underwater. We made it through unscathed. Our eighth rapid and the last before lunch was the class 2 Pyramid and we made it through clean.

We had a long calm stretch of river for 45 minutes and during this time we had our lunch while floating. Half a pineapple and glucose biscuits were for lunch and we always carried a 4 litre bottle of drinking water with us. This was a time for fun and relaxing on the Nile. Most people jumped in the water and floated along. We all stayed in the boat. I had been in the water enough for now! Peter told us a funny story while he was guiding a boat of 4 Japanese and 2 British guys. The Japanese didn't understand much English, so Peter put the 2 English guys up front and told the Japanese to do whatever they do but this kind of backfired when they came to a rough set of rapids. The English were thrown from the raft and upon seeing this, the Japanese also threw themselves out of the raft!

The last 4 rapids of the day were 2 class 4 and 2 class 5. The first rapid after lunch was called Overtime and had too much water going over it, so we had to walk around it while the rafts went over with just the guides. Too much weight in the boat and it could flip which would be really dangerous here. The class 4 rapid called Retrospect was next and this one stuck out in my mind. We went into the rapid and our raft lifted high out of the water on my side. I was anticipating to fall backwards but then somehow our raft managed to right itself and we didnt' flip. We all breathed a sigh of relief after this and laughed it off but we knew we weren't out of the shit yet.
The last class 4 rapid of the day was called Bubugo. It was hard rapid but short. We hit it and flipped. It wasn't too bad for me this time and soon a kayak was there to pick me up. Our last rapid was at the end of a very intimidating set of class 6 rapids. The rapid was class 5 and called The Bad Place or The Washing Maching, neither one a promising name! Peter assured us that our raft would flip for sure here, so if you didn't want that, you should get out now. The girls all decided to play it safe so it was just Colin, Bart, Peter and I. The rafts were all taken out of the water and portaged around the class 6 rapids and set back in at the beginning of The Bad Place. I watched 2 rafts go before us and they took a slightly safer chicken route and didn't flip. Now it was our turn. Peter told us that we would paddle hard for a few seconds and then to through away our paddles and just hold on tight. My heart was racing but I was ready, bring it on! I wasn't about to chicken out on our last rapid after all I had been through. I figured I had already been in the water 3 times, what's once more?!
I paddled hard for a bit and then threw my paddle before anyone and held on. We went down a huge wave and then got caught up on a wall of white water. The boat stalled here and began to violently shake. Peter was the first to go, he just rolled backwards off the back of the raft. After seconds, I lost my grip on the rope and was being jostled around uncontrollably. This didn't last long and before I knew I tried to get a good breath before being pitched out of the raft. I was immediately caught up in the washing maching. I knew why they called it that. The other rapids were so fast moving that I was soon free of them but here I was just being rolled around and didn't feel like I was moving anywhere. I didn't know up fr0m down and tried to swim upwards but I could have been swimming deeper, I just didn't know. I just wanted to get a breath. I was doing ok for the first bit, having some breath left but then it kept going on and I began to think about extreme possibilities. I thought 'Please, don't let me be the first to drown here!' But then as things started to get really, really scary I finally breached the surface and my lungs pulled hard for that first breath of precious oxygen. I was choking and coughing and my sinuses hurt like hell but I was alive and swam towards the saftey boat to avoid going down the next set of class 3 rapids only 45m away in just my lifejacket. I climbed onto the safety boat, heart pounding and full of adrenaline. My chest hurt and I was shaky but I had no regrets, in the end it was intense fun. Once on shore I was super surprised to see our raft float by with just Bart in it. By some virtue of luck and miracle ( it was his 22nd birthday) he had managed to hold on against all odds and ride out unharmed. I talked with Isabelle on shore who watched all the action unfold. She saw me go under and not come up. She kept saying 'Were is Dan?!' She was worried about me because she couldn't see me for a while and was relieved when I finally surfaced.
We all went to the waiting truck and had water and plantain chips and then began driving back to NRE camp. The dusty road went through small villages and all the kids waved and said ' Hello'.
A huge spread of food was ready for us when we got back and was included with the rafting, alogn with 2 free nights camping, 2 beers and transport from Jinja to Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. I filled my plate and finished and washed it down with a beer. I cleaned myself up and rested for a bit in my tent. In the eveing I sat with my friends from the raft and we talked about the events of the day. At 9pm they showed the DVD filmed of us that day. The bar was packed as the footage was beginning to be shown on a huge screen. I saw myself in it a few times as our raft flipped. The highlight of the day was Bart's surfing on the raft in the washing machine. He was franticalled trying to grab onto anything that he could as the rapids bounced him around the boat. It was amazing to watch. I saw myself being thrown from the raft but never saw myself re appear. I didn't buy the DVD because 45$ for 20 minutes of footage is a lot of $ and I'd rather save mine for the national parks. Sitting there watching the days events brought back the feelings I was experiencing as it happened. It was truly a day never to forget and I'm so glad I did it. I had rafted before in Ecuador and Costa Rica but we never flipped and it was nothing like rafting the source of the Nile.

Sipi Falls to Bujagali Falls

After a day and a half getting things done in Mbale, I wanted a proper relaxtion spot and for this I went to Sipi Falls. I took a shared taxi there and arrived in an hour. I went straight to the Crow's Nest to camp. The Crow's Nest is located on a hill opposite Sipi falls and sits on terraced land. My terrace was the one above the restaurant and reception and included 2 dorms and the toilets but no one was staying there at the time. I pitched my tent at the far end, as far away as I could get. I had an amazing view of all 3 tiers of Sipi falls with Mount Elgon looming in the distance. I really liked this spot. I just hung around for the afternoon. I planned on going to see the first and most impressive tier of the falls in the late afternoon. 3 Americans had arrived, Shawn, Dave and Allison and we all walked to the falls together. It was easy enough to find the way, no guide needed, though I had a few offers of people wanting to 'guide' me there. The falls drop 99m and land with an explosive spray that can be felt far from the actual falls.
We backtracked on the trail for a bit before turning right on a small trail. This led us up the other side of the valley to some caves. We explored the caves a little. There were a few bats and I was interested in going deeper into the cave but no one else was. We took the trail back to the main road and walked back to the Crow's Nest.
There were only about 7 dining options for dinner on the Crow's Nest menu and even more limited dining options in Sipi village. The Americans and I all pre ordered our dinner and before mine even came there was enough food for all 4 of us.I thought I'd try past just for a change. The noodles came in one small pot, way more than I could eat, and the sauce in another pot. The food was all good and proportions gargantuan. The moon came up as the sun went down and we chilled out after dinner for a while. We went up to a viewpoint on top of the hill the Crow's Nest is on. Superb 360 d views and the moonlight lit up everything. I didn't need my headlamp.

I woke up at 8am in my tent my second day at Sipi just as the sun was warming it to an unbearable temperature. My tent was in the sun for most of the day and it became a staggering 45 C in there! The dorm beside me was unoccupied so I spent most of my time on the covered porch there, reading, writing and just absorbing the view. The Americans left on a hike in the morning to the 2 other tiers and I would have joined them but I made a committment to meet a local guy to take me to them at 1pm. I just hung out for the morning and went and met him at one. We first ate lunch in a very local place. Chickens searched the ground for any food that had fallen. I had a simple but very filling bowl of rice and beans. After lunch we set out for the falls. The trail was steep but short and soon we were in a cave behind the second tier. The spray from the falls was refreshingly cool. From there it was more uphill to the base of the third tier. There were great views from here looking out over the plains. The third tier is the smallest of the three but we were able to get near the base of the falls easily. The spary soaked us in minutes. We took a different trail through the village and people's huts on the way back.
Before my guide, Thomas and I set out on our hike, we went to his house for a minute. There are many coffee bushes around on the sides of the trail. Thomas asked me if I want to see a chameleon and I told him, yes, of course. He spotted a chameleon on a coffee bush. Apparently there are many of them on the coffee bushes here. Thomas is afraid of chameleons, so he keeps an eye out for them so he doesn't run into them. This is how he spotted this one. I took a few good photos and told him to point out anymore chameleons he saw. He told me once something landed on his roof and woke him up in the night. He turned on his flashlight to see a large chameleon on the floor. He tried to shoe it out but couldn't and had to ask his parents to get rid of it for him. Thomas is 22 years old. He said if the chameleon would have been in his bed, he 'would have died'! Some people are afraid of chameleons here and others aren't. I couldn't get a good answer as to why. Seeing that there was potential here to see more chameleons, I decided to stay an extra day and go looking for them with Thomas. We agreed to meet the same time tomorrow. Thomas was very poor and made some money guiding people or selling petrol. His clothes were filthy and his shirt had a huge hole exposing one of his shoulders. He wore flipflops for our hike. He was missing a few of his lower teeth and I think this was the reason for his lisping. He was a nice guy and seemed genuine and not pushy about taking him for a guide. When I asked him how much he just said that I could decide on a price. I talked to a few people to get a good idea of how much to pay him to find out what was fair to him and myself.

No one had showed up to stay at the Crow's Nest, I had the whole place to myself. There was a huge fire here in March and this is a new Crow's Nest I was told. There weren't on the grid, so there was no power but they did have real showers. From 5 -7pm there was hot water and for a few hours in the morning. I had to wait for the water to heat up and while it did the base of the shower room filled up with water. The drainage wasn't what is should be and for the shower I was standing in 5cm of water but I couldn't complain as the food was cheap and so was camping so it wasn't a problem for me.
I ate peanut sauce on rice with veggies for dinner, all huge portions which I tried to finish but couldn't. The moon was out again and it was very bright. The wind was also howling up the hillside and wasn't conducive to sitting outside. Even though Sipi falls is located at an elevation of 2000m, it stayed fairly warm at night and I was comfortable in my silk sleeping sheet inside of my equatorial sleeping bag.

The stiffling heat again woke me up on my third and last day at Sipi at 8am. I just relaxed in the morning and met Thomas at 1pm for lunch. After we began to search for chameleons. We went to a small house along the dirt road in the village. A guy there had 3 chameleons on a branch he was holding. Apparently Thomas had spread the word that I was looking for chameleons and someone went out and found these 3. I didn't tell him to do this and this wasn't what I wanted. I don't like the animals being brought to me. I wanted to be brought to them. I realized they wanted $ for me to take photos of them but I didn't want to support this. I just looked at them and told them to put them back in the forest. I made it clear to Thomas that it was just supposed to be him and I looking for chameleons. We started searching and without asking another guy began helping us to look. This guy was the first to find a chameleon on a coffee bush. It was a bright colored chameleon and I took some good photos. I told Thomas I would give 1000Ush (50 cents) to someone who could find me a chameleon. That was the motivation for this guy and he needed the money for booze. He was already drunk, I could smell his breath a mile away but he did find a chameleon in its natural habitat, so I gave him the money. As we looked at that chameleon, we found another in a neighbouring banana tree and then another guy found one on some bushes close by. I gave him 1000Ush as well. I saw them both later sitting out front of a house drinking. Thomas and I left the main area of the village to meet Sandra, a local girl who invited him and I for tea today. We met her yesterday on the trail. We walked uphill to her school which Thomas said was her 'house' but she wasn't there. Thomas wasn't the most educated guy and there were some small communication problems. When I met Thomas at lunch he was dressed up in clean clothes, button down shirt with no holes in it and nice leather shoes. I understood why when he said that he had already visited Sandra this morning for tea. She actually invited me and told me that Thomas knew were she lived and he could show me. Maybe he took this as an invitation for himself and went without me. We looked for Sandra as we went back to Sipi village but didn't see her.

I had the whole Crow's nest to myself again this evening. I ate bamboo shoots in peanut sauce with rice and veggies. The didn't come out till later and the wind was calm but the sky was cloudy and there wasn't good stargazing. Monday, the next day was big day for circumcisions and they were partying all night sunday to celebrate. I could hear terrible African pop music all night in the distance. During our hikes Thomas was talking to some guy friends younger than him who were wearing skirts. These weren't sarongs like some men wear in developing countries but full on female skirts. I asked Thomas why and he said they had just been circumcised and it was too painful for them to put on pants yet. Plus tradition said that they had to wear the skirts for a certain amount of time. Thomas had invited to a circumcision ceremony at 7am monday morning but I wasn't interested.
'Are you afraid.' He says.
' No, it's just not something I have a desire to see.'
That was the truth and I also didn't want to be the only mzungu there to be gawked at and probably be expected to donate something.

After breakfast I decamped and was on the main road waiting for transport at 9am. I took a matatu back to Mbale. From Mbale was next stop was Bujagali falls, about 6km from the town of Jinja. I got on a bus in Mbale, the first bus I have been on this trip but it wasn't a full sized bus. It was more of a medium size bus and I got the seat inbetween driver and passenger. It was fairly comfortable and the road was pretty good. The roads in Uganda seem to deteriorate from the edges first and then potholes later. Unlike the roads I took in Kenya which were swiss cheese with pothole and most drivers took to driving beside the road. There were whole unofficial lanes beside the real road but this made for some dusty driving. On our way back from the Masai Mara in Kenya,a few giant storming clouds of dusk moving like fast hurricanes passed right in front of us. I had never seen any like that before. I wouldn't want to be caught inside it but it sure was spectacular to watch it cross our path.

The bus arrived in Jinja town after 2 hours and 20 minutes. I got off and then took a boda boda to Bujagali falls. I went to stay at the Nile River Explorer's campsite. This was a strategically located site with terraces affording great views of the Nile river just below its source from Lake Victoria. NRE camp is also very popular with backpackers and overland trucks. Overlanders, as they are known, are huge trucks that cater to the cater to travellers who I think are inexperienced, lazy or afraid of travelling on their own and opt for this mode of travel. They can be a cheap and convienient way to travel but I don't think you get a real taste for travelling in Africa inside a huge truck with a bunch of other foriengers. They are on a strict schedule and camp most nights, eat basic food and much time is spent driving from place to place. You can be with the same group of people for months at a time, which can seem like an eternity if you don't get along with them. For me the whole experience of travelling in Africa or anywhere in a developing country involves taking local transport, but enough ranting about overlanders, I'm sure they are all nice people. I've met some and been treated to dinner a few times, so I'm not hacking them, it's just not for me.

Bujagali falls is more a series of rapids than an actual waterfalls. It's just upstream from here, near a dam where the Nile begins its 6700km journey through Sudan and Egypt. A 30km long stretch of the river here includes some of the hairiest and dangerous rapids in the world. It is 'Probably the best white water rafting in the world', just like their t shirts say. Thas the reason I came to Bujagali. I had rafted before in Ecuador and Costa Rica and really liked it. I had heard good things about the rafting here and even though it was a bit expensive, I didn't think it was something that I could miss. I couldn't pass up on the bragging rights of white water rafting the Nile river, now could I?!
I set up my tent and met a few people staying at the NRE camp. I met Portia, a blond haired 27 year old from London camping beside me. She invited me out to dinner with her and a bunch of others. We ate at a local place, shunning the high priced western food available at NRE camp. There were huge pots of rice, peanut sauce, cabbage, cassava and beans which we all shared. The cost was 2500Ush, just over a dollar American, a fourth of the cost of a meal back at NRE camp. I was starting to get into local food more to save money and just to see what locals ate. I was spending too much time and money at decent restaurants. After dinner we played a super long game of Uno ( I won finally, but everyone was close at some point) while driking Nile special beer. Portia would also be going rafting the next day. There were a lot of people staying here as it is kind of the base for adventure. Kayaking, quad biking, mountain biking, bungee jumping and other activities are all on offer here, at a price though. I was only prepared to put out the big bucks for rafting though. I was saving my money for the national parks.
The guy behing the bar told me if I wanted to go rafting the next day just to be at the reception area at 8.30 and everything will be sorted out then. I went to bed with the anticipation of an exciting next day. I sure got excitement and a little more than I expected.....white water rafting on the Nile is next!

Mount Elgon Day 5

My last day on the mountain begins at 7am. I join the guys by the fire eating porridge. They offer me some and I gladly accept. They've already put sugar in it and it's tasty and filling, better than my cereal, which I give them along with the rest of my powdered milk. I pack up my tent and we're on the trail by 8.30am. The trail is all in the forest. Most of it is gentle but there are a couple of super steep descents. We reach the Forest Exploration Camp around 11. The trek end here. We have some tea. I say goodby to Fred and Francis and give them a healthy tip. Even though they didn't talk to me much, they still did their part to make this a great trek. Fred came with me on the boda boda to the main road. From here we took a shared taxi back to Mbale. Fred went back to Budadiri and I went back to my hotel in Mbale that was holding the rest of my gear. I got my same football stadium size room and began cleaning everything. First my clothes, then myself and my pots and spork. It felt so refreshing to take a warm shower and wash all the gunk from the past 5 days off of me. It had been a challenging but a rewarding trek for me. The highlights being the view from the summit, the differnt types of forest and vegetation and the cave. I took a nap and then went to the internet cafe. I enjoyed the peace and serenity of the mountain very much and it's always an adjustment being back in town again.
In the evening I eat at Nurali's cafe below my hotel. The place is packed with single guys taking up all the 2 seater table. I join an Indian guy drinking a beer. He is from Punjab in India and likes it here very much. He has been here for 5 years. His English isn't great but we try to talk. He shares his meal with me and I share mine with him. I have a beer and he offers to buy another. I accept and am feeling quite buzzed after a litre of beer in under an hour. I haven't drank this much in a while. Singh offers to buy another beer but I can't handle another. He insists but I insist I will be sick if I drink another beer. I quickly floss and brush my teeth and pass out in bed at 10. The end of a long 5 days and now the end of writing about them. It's been a long 4 hours writing about Mount Elgon but I know those who are following the blog, officially or unofficially will enjoy and appreciate the time and effort I've put in. Tomorrow I will go to Sipi Falls, for a few days of camping and relaxing.

Mount Elgon Day 4

Our program today is a short one, with the cave of tatum, 3 hours trek away, our next camp. It's possible to continue past tatum cave to the forest exploration camp, another 3 hours on, but I want an easy day for once. I get up at 7 and have the vaguely terrible wheatabix cereal washed down by another tasty coffee/milo. The valley we're in collected moisture all night and my tent is covered in dew. I don't want to pack it up wet and since we have a short day, I decided to wait till the sun bathes the valley and dries my tent. Katy and Barbara pack up, they have a hard hike to Mude camp. Katy is actually moving to Toronto in January and has never been to Niagara Falls, so I gave her my website card and told her to contact me if she wants a tour of the Falls.
By 9am the sun is in the valley and my tent is thoroughly dry and I'm ready to go. The trail begins with a steep climb out of the valley and then into tall grass. I don't like this part of the trail. The grasses are as tall as me and wet. My boots and pants get soaked though they dry out quickly later. Today we have our last grand views of the mountain before we descend into the forest zones. We have a couple of huge climbs and descents before finally reaching the mixed bamboo forest. I loved being out on the mountain in the open with inspiring vistas in every direction but I'm also happy to get back to the forest. The forest is my element, more so the steamy lowland tropical rainforest (my favourite place on Earth, everyone should visit one at least once in their life) but I feel at home in any forest.
The gigantic entrance of Tatum cave comes into view exactly 3 hours after we left Kajere camp. I'm glad to because my left knee is bothering me on some of the steep descents. The cave is an old lava tube and is filled with enormous bolders. This isn't a limestone cave, like I've explored many times in the past. There are no sparkling or dramatic formations here. There is however, a huge colony of bats deeper in the cave. I set up my tent just inside the entrance to the cave behind a small waterfall gently cascading over the mouth of the cave. I really like this spot. It's a bit warmer too, I can take off my boots again, and there are no sweatbees. The ground is flat and dry and the scent has the familiar aroma of ammonia from all the bat droppings, though its not overpowering. I eat my lunch and relax and read in my tent. I come out of my temporary lodging and find camp almost deserted. Fred and Francis have gone and only Fred the porter is left. I take him a bit deeper into the cave to see what its like with my headlamp. He has never been this far in the cave, he tells me. We see more bats but they are too far for a photo.
The ever present fire is weakly smoking throughout the day. The smoke fills the cave and with the late afternoon sun penetrating into the cave makes for some really cool photos ( another daylight hole?). I take a million photos from every angle with different degrees of light allowed in.
Back at the entrance to the cave I take this opportunity to write in my journal. Fred sits on a rock across from me and watched. Later we both move to the fire for warmth. He is sitting beside and I'm still writing in my journal. He not so casually glances at my journal and asks what language I'm writing in! I tell him it's English and make out a few sentences for him. I tell him it's not him. I don't write for anyone in my journal and it can be quite messy, with my friends at home even having a hard time deciphering the seemingly clandestine language. I'm getting hungry around 6pm and Fred boils some water for my dinner. Fred and Francis come back shortly after I finished eating. They said they were on top of the cave trying to get a signal for their radioes. They don't work in the cave. They began to cook their dinner of leaves they picked in the forest, beans and posho, the maize flour. I sat around with them by the fire while they ate and tried some of Fred's dinner. It wasn't bad at all, if I ate all 3 items in every bite and its certainly the cheapest meal available, that's why they eat it. I was hoping for an epic dispersal of bats at dusk but was severely disappointed. Only a few bats circled around the entrance. Fred said they usually swarm out in numbers at dusk but not tonight. I went into the cave to investigate. All the bats were still where I saw them earlier in the afternoon. More were active but they were just flying around, none were leaving. I was staying up for the bat show but with no show I went to bed at 8 and read and listened to music. During the night I heard strange sounds and things close to my tent. Not sure what they were but I did have my best sleep of the trek so far.

Mount Elgon National Park Day 3

Our program today is to get to Kajere camp, 20km away. Yesterday I covered 16km to the summit and back. I get up at 7 and eat my Wheatabix cereal. It was the only cereal I could find that was somewhat healthy, too bad it doesn't taste that good! I finished my milo/coffee and began packing up my tent. I'm ready at 8 and we leave on the same trail as yesterday. We reach a junction and branch off to the left. It's sunny and clear again. I can see scars of fire on the bases of the giant senecios and other plants. Fred told me a fire accidentally raged here in March. Other than the burnt branches, it was hard to tell as the ground was covered with grasses and flowering plants. Regeneration comes quick to Elgon. We stop at a viewpoint and again can see our epic route in the horizon. I really feel small traversing these huge distances on this mammoth mountain. We descend and ascend many times, with only some level ground to take the edge off. We descend into a valley at 1pm, at the base of which is Kajere camp. I can see why it was chosen as a campsite, its one of the only flat areas around with water source. The sun is blanketing the floor of the valley and for once, it's actually warm. I take off my socks and the pungent stench of my sweaty feet and boots permeates the air. I put on my sandals.There are flies and hoards of sweatbees, which I take as a good sign, it's warm enough for them here. There was nothing at Mude camp. I wasn't sure the sweatbees were that at first. They were landing all over everything but especially savoured the salt on my socks and in my boots. I let them land on my feet to be sure of what they wanted. I watched them lap up the sweat on my feet, no harm done. They were extremely ticklish though and I couldn't let them go on for too long. They got up my shirt and down my pants somehow but I never got stung. I don't think sweatbees do sting. Can anyone back me up on this? I guess I can look it up later but too much to write now. I've seen sweatbees one other time on an epic 6 day trek through the rainforest in Peru. I put my socks and the ground and within minutes I couldn't see them anymore, due to a dense gathering of sweatbees. There were getting annoying though so I got in my tent to read and relax.

I was super surprised to hear other voices in camp around 6pm. A guide and 2 porters arrived carrying the packs of 2 Canadians, Barbara, in her sixites and Katy, in her twenties. They had a long day and were glad to finally be in camp. I help them set up their tent. They are both in Uganda doing volunteer work, as most mzungo ( white people) are here to do. It's weird that almost everyone I met in every African country I've been to ( Ghana, Cameroon, Gabon, Madagascar, Swaziland, South Africa, Kenya) has been there to do some sort of work. I give them credit because I'm not one for volunteer work and prefer to have freedom to travel and not be in one place for an extended period of time. I have hardly met any true backpackers, I always get asked by mzungo if I'm here to work. Nope, I'm 'just' travelling.
I eat my noodles and tuna for dinner again. I sit outside, it stays warm until the sun goes down, but even then it's not as cold as Mude. Katy and Barbara have rice with veggies for dinner and graciously offer me some. It's the best food I've had on the mountain. Too bad I'm not going their way they tell me, they would have shared their food with me. By 8pm we're all in bed. I have another not so nice sleep as it's cold and the smoke from the cooking hut blows right into my tent all night. So much for fresh mountain air tonight!

Mount Elgon National Park Day 2

My second day on the mountain began at 6am with a temperature of 6 C. I quickly put on clothes, oh wait, I'm already wearing clothes! I put on more clothes, grabbed my food bag and headed into the cooking hut. I had to hang my food up because of a couple of fearless, rather large mice that lived in my hut. I saw them during the day, upon seeing me they did nothing. I heard them walk on my tent and tarp during the night but they didn't get to my food. It was considerable warmer in the cooking up. Fred had boiling water ready. I used some for my cereal, which was my leftover maize cereal from Kakamega. I used the rest of the water for my milo/coffee concoction. I didn't bring any sugar, figuring the sugar in the milo would be sweet enough but when Fred offered sugar, I didn't refuse. Sugar would be the only foodstuff we shared during the whole trek.

Our program today was make a bid for the summit and then return to sleep one more night at Mude camp. The summit is often wreathed in clouds by afternoon so it's important to get their early. The usual time is to leave camp by 7, taking 4 hours to the summit and then 2 more to return to camp. I was ready right at 7. The Belgians weren't ready yet but I wasn't waiting for them. The trail was still not in the warming rays of the sun and the vegetation was sprinkled with a layer of white, sparkling frost. After about 30 minutes we were finally in the sun. We were walking directly into the suns welcoming rays. It was then I realized I forgot my tilley hat at camp. This was a big mistake, since I would be in the sun all day and would burn badly. I didn't bring any sunblock, preferring to cover up instead. Fred always had a radio with him, keeping in almost constant contact with people up and down the mountain. I was grateful he had it. He radioed camp and the Belgians were just about to leave and they could bring my hat. That's good news. In the meantime, Fred had a toque and a cap and he let me borrow the cap.
The vegetation has now changed to Afro alpine moorland, with mostly tussock grasses and giant senecios. It's really a surreal and harsh landscape.Many of the plants endemic to the mountain. One plant that was abundant and familiar to me was wormwood or Artemisia. After an hour and a half we reached Jackson' pool, a small, shallow stagnant, freezing cold pool. We rested here and waited for the Belgians with my hat. They came, we chatted for a minute and then left them to rest there. Fred points our epic route ahead, descend this hill, climb the other hill opposite us and then follow the ridge to the summit. We get out into the open with no protection from distant hills and are pummeled with a ferocious biting wind. I have to put on my raincoat and put the hood up. We stop at an area out of reach of the wind and rest here before our final summit climb. It's still a beautifully sunny day and I relish the sun and windlessness while eating some raisons. Fred says he has a headache and that only Francis will be accompanying me to the summit. Francis has hardly spoke to me at all, I guess because his English isn't that great. Fred is fluent but Fred the porter is more limited and doesn't talk to me much either. It's a tough climb in the wind and my lungs and heart work overtime due to the thin oxygen in the air at this altitude of over 4000M. Slowly but surely we reach the summit, Wagagai at 4321M. There are amazing views in all directions and we are at level or higher than the clouds building in the distance. We are on the ridge of the collapsed caldera which is over 40 km sq.
Mount Elgon is a solitary extinct volcano, over 80km in diameter at its base, making it one of the largest surface areas of any volcano in the world. It first erupted over 20 million years ago and used the be the highest peak on the continent. Lifetimes of erosion have reduced it to its present height, which is the seventh highest on the continent. I have also climbed the eighth highest mountain in Africa, Mount Cameroon. Mount Elgon is also an important watershed, receiving over 3000mm of rain a year. It is on the border with Kenya and it's possible to do a cross county climb, meeting Kenyan Wildlife Services at the hotsprings. What a way to cross the border! The total area of the Ugandan and Kenyan protected areas is 2229 km sq. and the mountain has been declared a Man and Biospere Reserve.
Francis and I only stayed a short time on the summit due to the whipping winds. I took some photos and began descending. We picked up Fred on the way and kept going the same route back to camp. It was easier physically going down, no heavy breathing or sweating but it's certainly harder on the knees. There is now thick mist obscuring the views around Jackson' pool and soon the whole upper mountain will be in the clouds. I pass the Belgians on the way down and will see them back in camp. We arrive in camp at 1pm, exactly 6 hours after leaving, just as predicted. I'm tired and hungry and after my lunch of cashews and cookies I take a nap while it's still kind of warm. The temperature at Mude camp never seems to rise above 13 C. I sleep well for a few hours. The camp is now full with a group of 7 Germans and their 2 guides and 4 porters. We all eat our dinner and hangout around the outside fire. The cooking hut is full now, with 12 Ugandan guides and porters. Now that I know my sleeping bag isn't sufficient, I get into bed already ready with my clothes on. I listen to music and go to bed around 9pm.

Mount Elgon National Park Day 1

My team for the mountain consisted of 2 guides, Fred and Francis and my porter, Fred. For once some easy names to remember! The reason for the 2 guides are in case one guide falls ill or is out of commission, it doesn't cost anymore. Fred's fee for portering up to 18kg of gear is a 8000 Ush ($4US) a day, not much at all really for more enjoyment of the trek. I only carried my camera, Ipod, book, journal and some personal stuff. I wasn't going on this trek without some things to do at camp.

Fred, the guide and I were the first on the trail. Fred let me walk first so I could dictate the pace. I always have to walk my own pace and believe everyone should be allowed to walk their own pace. The trail began through cultivated land and some small huts, we weren't out of civilization yet. Almost an hour later we reached the last hut, where you can purchase a coke. I was drenched in sweat because there was no shade but I felt good. When we sat down at the hut Fred was impressed. He said I was strong and asked if I was a 'sportsman'. I told him my job back home was very physical and I also mountain bike but in reality, I hadn't done either of these things much for 3 weeks before I left, I just had energy. From this last hut the trail became very steep. No switchbacks here, just straight up the mountain! After 30 minutes of this we came to the beginning of the forest. I was so glad too, the sun was burning me up. The forest was at an altitude of around 1800M and in it grew many plants I recognized. On the forest fringes was a huge and attractive orange flowered butterfly bush, which I had never seen before. On the floor of the forest were impatiens, begonias, flowering maple ( I think), ageratum, coleus, nasturtium,kniphofia ( red hot poker), and many ferns. The dominant forest tree was Hagenia with some Podocarpus thrown in to mix it up. It was satisfying to look around the forest and actually know what I was looking at. I was actually telling Fred what plants were what and he knew some of the ones I didn't. I've been to many lowland tropical rainforest, different than this forest, where the plants on the forest floor are hardly distinguishable. The only reason I recognized these plants is that they were in flower. There's not too many plants that I know by foliage alone. The trail became less steep and wide. After an hour we reached the first camp site, Sasa river.

We arrived at camp at 11.40am. The camp contained a small cooking hut and spaces for tents in the forest. The Sasa river, actually a small 2 m wide stream, flowed beside camp and offered pure drinking water. I ate my lunch of cashews, fibre cookies and chocolate bar ( the UWA office told me to buy 'prepared food' for lunch, no cooking required). Fred and the guy's lunch was taking a while and by 1pm, they were still not ready to go. It was my choice to either spend the night at this camp or carry on for another 3 hours to the next camp. Since it was early I decided to carry on to Mude camp. I was ready to go and wanted to burn the energy I got from my lunch and told Fred I would start on the trail to the next camp. I said I would walk slow and take many pictures. He said ' Don't go far.', but I just kept walking, the trail was cleary visible.I saw one black and white colobus monkey in the trees before I got to a zone of mixed bamboo and giant flowering lobelias, really cool stuff. The inflorescence was 1m long on a 5m high plant. Fred caught up at 45 minutes. I could see the forest changing as we climbed higher and higher. It's really something tangible to see the forest change before your eyes. We left the forest after about 2900m and entered the heath zone of mostly Erica shrubs. The temperature was also dropping. We were out in the open now and it started to sprinkle a little. At this altitude we were litterally in the clouds but I was confident it wouldn't be a full blown rain and didn't put on my raincoat. Thankfully I was right. We reached a remote ranger station at 3300m. Here I signed a guestbook and gave the ranger my receipts. He lives at this station for a month or 2 at a time. It must a cold and lonely life, I thought.

We landed at Mude camp, altitude - 3500M, at 3.40pm, 6 hours and 40 minutes after starting our hiking, including our 1.5 hour lunch stop. We had covered 11km. Mude camp contained 2 cooking huts, one of which Fred said I could pitch my tent inside. I was very surprised to see a brand spanking new A frame hut. It was totally empty except for the 2 Belgian hikers using it to sleep in. The Belgians were Carl and Ann and were the only other hikers at the site. They had come up the way I would be going down. The camp had some cover from the Erica shrubs and a very, very small stream. I pitched my tent in the hut, walls and roof stained black with the smoke of countless fires. I read and relaxed and chatted with the Belgians. The temperature was 11 C. When the sun set it got even colder. I had instant noodles and tuna for dinner for my 4 nights. It was ready in 4 minutes, I only needed boiling water, which they usually had on hand in the cooking hut. Carl, Ann and I had our own private fire away from the cooking hut. Though it was considerably warmer in the cooking hut, I was being subjected to eye tokes of smoke every few minutes and choose to mostly stay outside. The guides and porters stayed in the hut all the time and would also be sleeping in there. I don't know how they did it.
The moon rose high in the sky as soon as the sun set and unfortunately was too bright for the stars to be any good. We all called in quits at about 8pm and went to bed. I watched some Simpsons and Happy Tree Friends on my ipod. I was comfy in my tent but started to get cold. The rented sleeping bag wasn't cutting it. I thought it would be fine because they know how cold it gets but it wasn't. Slowly but surely, garment by garment, I started adding on clothes. I usually like to only sleep in my boxers, that's how I started out. Then came the socks, then a long sleeve shirt and finally my pants. The sleeping bag had a good hood cover and I had this tight around my head and only my lips protruded from the cold cocoon. Needless to say, I didn't sleep well.

Mbale to Budadiri

The Ugandan Wildlife Authority (UWA) office told me I have to get myself to the small village of Budadiri in order to arrange my trek in Mt. Elgon National Park. I had a feeling Budadiri was a very small place with no internet or things to do, so I was in no rush to get there earlier. UWA told me guides were always on standby, they don't need much notice. So, I checked out of my room at 9.30am, they have the stupid checkout time of 9am, which I think is much too early and have hardly seen before ( and trust me, I've seen a lot of checkout times!), noon is the average checkout time. They let me stay till 9.30am. I went out and bought the rest of my food for the 5 day trek because guides/porters have their own food and it's best to get your own. I stored my luggage at the hotel and then went out to the internet cafe for a while. I got to the Kumi Rd. taxi park at noon and waited about 30 minutes for the minivan to fill up. As soon as we left Mbale we turned down a dusty red dirt road. We followed this road for an hour before reaching Budadiri. This was rural Uganda with small mud brick huts and local crops such as coffee, banana and maize. Maize flour boiled in water, known as posho, is the local staple for most Ugandans.
When the conductor of the minivan wasn't around, I asked the passenger next to me what the fare is, 2000 Ush(Ugandan Shillings) ( about $1), he said. When the conductor asked me for the fare, I just handed him the 2000 Ush. Then he said ' And 1000 Ush for your luggage on the roof.' I firmly said 'No,', and that was it. No one pays for their luggage here, especially when it isn't taking up any passenger space. In most of the countries I've been to there hasn't been an extra charge for luggage. The exception that I remember was Ghana and I would pay for my luggage there because it was the norm but not here and I wasn't going to let myself be taken advantage of, if I could help it.
The minivan dropped me at the UWA office. I arranged everything and paid for my 5 day trek here. I would be ascending the Sasa route and descending the Sipi route to avoid backtracking. I hired a porter, who would carry my food and most of my things and also help with getting firewood and other camp duties. I also hired a sleeping bag because mine is only good till about 15 C. and it gets much colder than that on the mountain. I was all set to go. The officer showed me my accomadation for the night, across the street at Rose's Last Chance Guesthouse. The officer would contact a guide and he would come to the guesthouse later to go over the details of our departure. My room was spartan but clean, just a huge bed in a concrete room. Showers were of the bucket variety but they would heat the water up. Rose was a very friendly woman and cooked me an omelette and potatoes for lunch. I read for a while and wandered into town to buy some tiger balm, in case of any sore muscles during the trek. A small jar of tiger balm cost 500 Ush ( 25 cents).
Around 5pm I heard chanting, screaming, hooting and a catchy tribal drum beat coming from street. I went to see what it was all about and discovered it was a group of men, all different ages joyfully gallopping around town celebrating one guy's impending circumcision. Now is the time for circumcisions apparently. While in my hotel room in Mbale I also saw groups of men chanting and drumming down the street from my window, 3 times, but wasn't sure what it was for. I just know I wanted to avoid large gatherings, but it turns out they had no ill intent.
Dinner at Rose's consisted of rice, chapathi, beef and some veggies and of course, a Nile beer. There was much more food than I could possibly eat. Fred, my guide, had come around earlier in the day and we discussed the details of the trek. We would be leaving tomorrow morning at 8am by boda boda for 7km to where the road ends. From here we would start trekking. Sounded good to me. I chatted with Rose and her cousin for a while after dinner and then went to bed.
Pancakes with honey, bananas, an orange and coffee was for breakfast the next day at 7am. Fred came by at 7.30 to assure me everything was on schedule. I paid Rose for the room which I thought was quite overpriced at 20,000 Ush ($10US) but was made up for by the very cheap food and drink. I had 3 full meals there and a beer and it only cost 8000 Ush ($4US), so that took the sting out of the high room rate and I left full and happy.
On the way to our trekking point, the boda boda I was on was trying to climb a hill but couldn't make it. The driver kept trying but his motorbike didn't want to do it. I walked up the hill and when Fred arrived on his boda boda, I was sandwiched between him and the driver. His skilled driver and tough bike made it to the end of the road, from here it was by foot for the next 5 days.