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!