WEATHER: Windows open 27C
HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Going for a safari walk
BUMMER OF THE DAY: First drop toilets on the trip and they were gag able
BUYS OF THE DAY: New giraffe bangle for 2AUD
WORD OF THE DAY: Oh Myyy God – Julius style
ANIMALS SEEN TODAY: Topi, red neck spurfold, waterbucks, impala’s by the hundred, baboons, a centipede, marabou storks, African ants, a dead zebra and vultures
CAMP SITE RANKING: AWESOME, bar overlooking the Nile, Wi-Fi, flushing toilets, showers (no hot water) but I am going to have to rank it 5 out of 5 stars
Well I am alive, today is a new day and I am ready to take it on. I don’t have down days very often, but when I have them I am a tough crowd to break. In my defence being away for 461 days, it is bound to happen and I just need to have the day, accept it and then move on. After all I am living the dream, I am in Africa, with a great group of people and things that don’t kill us make us stronger. So I have gotten up and I have dusted myself off and I am ready to go again. I do have to say maybe I was in the wrong frame of mind when I wrote yesterday, there were people that knew I wasn’t myself and asked if I was okay, so I don’t want to paint my group with a brush that they are all nasty so and so’s, their not, so thanks for those of you who did come up to me – you guys are awesome and I am so going to miss you.
So a new day breaks, and we are up at 5am. We have a safari walk this morning at 6.20am and we need to have everything packed up and ready to go by this time. As I now am in the tent on my own, I wasn’t sure how long it would take to pack it all away, but Jools came over and helped me and we had it all rolled and dusted in no time. Thanks Jools. We also have a really long day on the road today, so all round we are going to be stuffed no matter which way you look at it. Liz had prepared a light breakfast to get us through till we got back in a few hours that consisted of some dry biscuits, cereal and bananas. The ‘real’ breakfast was going to be waiting for us when we got back.
This was the first stop where there was only the option of a drop toilet. Every other place had them as well as a western toilet. I put it off as long as I could, but I just had to go before we went on the walk. I have to say it was the most vial experience I had had on my whole trip to date. The smell was making me retch and I nearly lost it in there while I did my business. Even with the shallow breathing, there was no masking that god awful smell. Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh – drop toilets stink - literally
We got trucked into the national park a little further and more on to the plains than the shrubs and we broke up into 2 groups and we each got a park ranger to take us around for 2 hours. He was armed with his rifle in the event that we saw some unruly animals eg: the buffaloes again. I didn’t know that they were so dangerous. So we walked, and as we were still so early there was still a mist in the air and it was pretty amazing to see the colours of the sky in the hues of pinks and blues as we ventured around. In the walk we saw Topi (a type of antelope), red neck spurfold, waterbucks, impalas, and baboons. The impala was all over the park and at the end we got as close as a couple of a meters before they got spooked and moved a little further on. Sometimes we stuck to the animal tracks, other times we literally went off the beaten track and legged it through the savannah fauna and also all the animal dung. Considering how much dung we saw, where the hell were all the animals? As it was still a little cool, this was part of the reason that we didn’t see too many. The highlight I would have to say was when we climbed a massive hill, and when we got to the top, the view of the park and the valley was pretty impressive. To think we were walking around a national park with only our guide as our savior should a lion appear or an unruly buffalo, it sort of added to the ‘danger’ element. In saying that, the park only has 3 lions, so the likelihood of us seeing one was pretty low anyway – but that’s besides the point right?
We got back to camp at 9am, and our omelets, sausage and baked beans was all ready to go. So we all ate, cleaned and packed up the truck and were ready to go at 9.50am. We did have one more small thing to do before we left and that was to star in Ballbags video he is hoping to sell to Intrepid when he gets home. He got Jools to dress in his Masai Mara outfit again and show us all how to do the Masai jump with the lake in the background. It was so funny to see everyone jumping and I have to say Big Mike has a pretty good jump with a wad of airtime – who says white men can’t jump? I also got my own video footage which turned out awesome and while we had everyone in a jumping mood (they were buggered) I also got them to do my group Bernstar jump!
On the road at 10am and we are heading for Jinja today which is over 300km away. We are expecting to arrive in, all going well, at 5.30pm this afternoon. So after you take out the lunch stop of an hour, that’s another 7 hours we are clocking up on the bus radar. We drove for 3.5 hours before getting to our lunch stop, which also happened to be the second time we got the opportunity for a photo stop at the equator. It is a different cross point from the last time, and the sign looked a lot better as well. So another opportunity for a Bernstar jump and another claim to fame. No multitudes of school children this time though for the photo – oh well. They had a bunch of local handicraft shops at this stop as well, but Jools was a bit of a ‘move it’ Nazi today as we still had a lot of ground to cover. In saying that there is nothing like a power shop and I managed to buy a new bangle for 2AUD that had a giraffe print on it. It looks awesome with my silver bangle from home and the zebra pattered bangle I bought in Ruhengheri.
So onwards we push for the final leg of the day. The roads are still bumpy as, speed bumps galore, and they just aren’t a single hump, they are 4 in a row, so for those trying to get some sleep on the truck, it is intermittent as we pass over these speed bumps every 30 minutes or so. It is also incredibly dusty, so we get a little pushed sometimes, if we close the windows to keep out the dust, it warms up like an oven, so we need to have some open and everything just gets coated in a fine later of dust, I am not sure how long my laptop will last, as it gets filthy, so I am sure those small particles of dust are not doing it any good.
I have had 2 proof readers that like to read my blogs as I finish them on the bus and before they are loaded and that is Paps and Sean. I was a little embarrassed with yesterdays ‘Home Sickness’ entry, but we can’t always have rose coloured glasses and one has to take the good with the bad. Needless to say when we arrived into camp at Jinja Em was the first one to help get my shell up of my tent, and Sean then came over and helped me with the rest of the set up. Thanks guys, it meant heaps to have some help. I am now looking at the other side of the coin and to have a tent of my own for the next 3 nights has to be some form of bonus now right? I can spread my shit from one end of the tent to the other and not have to worry about anyone else. See there is always an upside to a downside!
Having had no power for the last 2 days, my laptop has 16 minutes of juice left, my Playbook is dead flat, my IPod is running on 20%, my camera is on the last free battery and my phone has one bar left. Everyone else is also in the same boat, so there will be a manic run for the power points when we get a chance.
The camp itself is pretty amazing. The bar is overhanging a cliff face that overlooks the Nile River, the beers are only 3000 shillings ( 1.20AUD for 500ml) the toilets and showers are in this pretty funky looking shower building (they are cold but we can’t have everything) and the toilets (which are plentiful) flush and have paper. They also have a bungy jump here at the camp site, which is 40m, so according to Sean, it’s not a big one, but would be pretty cool to say that you jumped in Uganda. Never fear, I wasn’t getting up there, but Sean was the only one out of the group that was giving it some serious thought. So we sat in these comfy over stuffed cushioned couches and consumed a few beers before dinner. The weather has been a little dicey towards the end of the afternoon, but held off over dinner, which I have to say I think I had the best chicken ever, and time for us to put everything away and head back to the bar.
We had out nightly meeting and one of the guys from the camp ran over what optional excursions could be done tomorrow. Majority of the group were going white water rafting. Yeah….I’m not really a water baby, so that was no. There was the bungy jump, which is probably the only thing I haven’t done, as I have parasailed and sky dived, but bungy? I am not too sure about and then the third option presented to us was a jet boat ride on the Nile. Okay now you’re talking. How many people can claim that they jet boated on the Nile? So for 75USD, me and 4 others signed up for the 10am departure. How cool.
I made sure I wasn’t going to go ‘crazy’ tonight, not only to not be an embarashemnt again, but with jet boating in the morning, I would think you wouldn’t want to be hung over for that. So I only drank beer and a lot of us went to bed at 10.30pm, which I made sure I was in that group. There was a lot of thunder and lightning hanging around, so I made sure I had closed all my windows and my door flaps and then settled in for the night.
Only 3 more nights left of this tour when we will say goodbye to new friends made and the whole dynamics will change. I hope my next group is as awesome as this one. I have been so lucky with all my tours and touchwood that it continues.
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