Tales from the Nile

After we enjoyed our amazing evening meal last night, we sat chatting, joking and when we were finally the last people in the restaurant we went to walk to our rooms for bed.

Suddenly a strange hushed 'come here' could be heard and as I turned the corner, there was a collection of 6 Dean Close pupils kneeling down behind a wall like they were looking for cover in C.O.D. - thankfully they were not hiding from enemy fire, they were looking at a family of elephants that had wondered into the lodge grounds. 

As one elephant was joined by another and then another and then a baby. The group of us grew to 14 as Alastair had now thrown on his shorts to run and join us. 

The site of Alstair and Mrs Beecham crawling like they were doing the ground net on an obstacle 0 course will stay in our memory almost as long as the once in a lifetime opportunity of seeing a whole family of elephants about 5-10metres away from you.

Then a large rustle could be heard and a huge bull elephant came through the foliage at the back of the lodge and that was time that the dynamic risk assessment said to move quickly to the stairs just behind us and actually go to bed. 

The excitement of seeing elephants that close was exhilarating.

The comfiest beds of the trip were accompanied by dreams of wildlife and the escape of pure nature so that even a 5.30am wake up was not enough to dampen our spirits.

The early breakfast was to allow us to start our main safari at sunrise (yes, after baboons and elephants we had not actually started real safari yet).

The safari was exactly as one would hope: water buffalo, giraffes, more elephants and even a Hyena (thank you Mr Klemz for your Eagle eyes) oh, and speaking of Eagle eyes, we also saw a couple of eagles.

The whole experience was amazing and the only slight negative we a couple of wild mazungus moaning that the drop toilet in the middle of the savannah was "really, not what we are used to" ( and, yes their american accent was exactly as you just read that last bit in your head). 

Unfortunately there were no lions spotted but the array of wildlife seen was more than enough to sate our safari appetites and as Charlie said "if we had seen everything, there would be no reason to come again".

We ended after four hours that passed as if it had been 5 minutes and went back to our lodge for 2 hours of free time, a swim and an amazing lunch. 

At 13.30, we then regrouped and got on Rosa to head off on our river safari. We boarded 'The African Queen', a double decker river boat cruiser and headed off on our journey along the Albert Nile. Well, we almost headed off but after two minutes we turned around as a family had arrived late. They then unapologetically boarded the boat and seemed annoyed that we had taken the best seats. Lydia tapping her wrist and saying sarcastically "What time do you call this" probably didn't ring as humorously with them as it had done with Team Uganda.

After a second attempt, we headed off on our second Nile boat safari of the trip. The first one had featured kingfishers and lizards, this one had crocodiles, hippos, water bucks, pumbas (warthogs) and elephants. I will not go into a huge amount of detail as the idea of the blog is to inform, rather than to make others envious but this really was another magical trip.

The geographers' highlight of the trip (and many non geographers too) was the middle point of the cruise, driving up towards the Murchison Falls. This is the most powerful waterfall in the world and having been to Niagara, Iguazu and Gulfoss, the Ugandan claim was hard to believe until you were in a boat whose engine was trying to strain to get anywhere near this magnificent feature. The sound of the water can be heard from afar and it would create a spray that would engulf the boat, if it were capable of driving a boat near enough to be sprayed upon.

Our journey back along the river, away from the falls was quicker but we saw more crocodiles on the way back as well as our favourite family of elephants that had crashed into our lodge gardens last night. Hillary, our guide was kind enough to let us drift silently up to the elephamily and sit watching them, silently soaking in the hypnotic effect that elephants can have on a group of people.

After the brilliant safari and after greeting our favourite Ugandan, Alex Musoke, with a chant and cheer, we were dropped off back at the lodge. We were greeted by coffee and cakes, like a luxury 16.00 buns serving at Dean Close and we again headed to the pool.

This time, our pool experience was a tad different and not due to the swim up bar. As we entered the pool, we heard a crash. We looked up to see a baboon stealing the cakes and donuts from the serving table. We then heard a cry of 'Rango' and we looked to see a chameleon silently and slowly walking along the poolside. He clearly believed that he was invisible but his slight colour change was not enough to fool human eyes.

It took about two hours for our chameleon to escape but he did eventually make it to the woods and hopefully he is living a lovely life in the forest but as you know with chameleons; they come and go, they come and go.

Next to the pool was a man selling animals made from wire that poachers use to trap and kill animals. We had been told about this wire on our safari and this local man was saving animals from the wire and using it to make his works of art. Of course a couple of these animals have been purchased and we hope that many other tourists also buy some to both help to fund local artisans and also to save many more of the beautiful animals out in Murchison Park.

Day turned to night as we sat at the swim up bar talking about the adventures of the holiday and it was again time to go up for our evening meal.

Days like today are rare in anybody's lifetime and it has been a privilege to experience the day with Team Uganda (photo was taken by Jamie).