WE JETBOATED ON THE NILE RIVER

WEATHER: Wet and rainy in the morning then overcast for the rest of the day

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Jet boating on the Nile

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Washing not dried

BUYS OF THE DAY: Has to be the Nile Special at 1.20AUD for 500ml

WORD OF THE DAY: Oh shit

ANIMALS SEEN TODAY: Monkeys and 2 dogs at camp

CAMP SITE RANKING:  Same as last night no change

Well that lightning and thunder eventuated into pretty much rain all night.  I was hoping that my tent was locked up tight enough for no water to get in it, as it was quite a constant fall all night.  It was nice to hear the rain on the tent.  The 60 day people hadn’t had a good rain on their tent all trip, so 3 days from finishing their epic journey it was quite fitting they got some rain.  There were a few claps of thunder that just literally rolled across; you could hear when it started and when it finished.  It is pretty amazing to see and hear a storm when you are camping as I think it gives you a different perspective of the storm.  The rafters later found out it hadn’t rained in 61 days!

So we got a sleep in with breakfast at 8am!  It was still raining on and off, so we had to eat in the truck to keep ourselves dry.  So needless to say the truck had mud from one end to the other with us all walking in and out and thank goodness I wasn’t on truck duties today – what a bitch.  We later found out that the bus was going to get a professional wash in the afternoon anyway, windows included.  As I was doing dinner that night, there were 3 gents cleaning and the security guard got in on the act, with his rifle strung over 1 shoulder as he scrubbed and mopped. 

I wanted to get some washing done, but as the weather was crap I wasn’t going to, as from previous washes, the items are hand washed and then hung over trees and shrubs to dry, they don’t have driers.  Anyway Jools introduced me to the man in charge of the washing and he guaranteed that my washing would be dry by the afternoon.  So with a guarantee how could I resist, so in it goes, for 10,000 shillings (4AUD) it was too good to pass up!  Let’s see how it comes back and I hope the day clears up.

Due to the weather, Sean wasn’t allowed to do his bungy jump, which was a bummer, but then after breakfast, the weather cleared enough and he was given the green light.  So he was the only one that jumped from our group and I have to say I think it may have been the most documented jump of all time.  Paps videoed, I took the burst mode, Lisa had Sean’s camera for the pictures and Jo went up the tower with Sean and got photos from the top!  Lucky guy.  All went well and he can now add Uganda to the other 4 countries where he has also jumped.  From there 8 of the group headed off to do white water rafting for the whole day, there were 5 of us doing the jet boating and the others were going into town and to have a day of rest and relaxation.  Our pick-up was supposed to be at 10am, and at 10.25am, Astrid went and enquired about the pick-up and he said he told us the wrong time and was supposed to be 10.30am.  Oh, okay – so then when he came over 10 minutes later and said there is a problem with the normal transfer, another one is on the way and will be here in 20 minutes, oh, okay.  One hour later at 11.40am the transfer finally arrives.  We aren’t too happy, as we could have been doing other things, but it was here now, so in we jumped for the 45 minute drive to the jet boat.  It was a good drive, as we were in an 8 seater minivan, it was nice to drive through village’s incognito so to speak, rather than in our massive, beast of a truck and not get as many stares.  I think sometimes we take what we have for granted.  You look at some of these small communities and what they have (and don’t have) and it makes you think is there a way that I can help somehow?  I am really seriously thinking what would be the best way to help and I’m going to have a word to Jools and also to Paps and Emma as they have a charity that they have set up themselves which is quite inspiring in itself.  Africa truly is still a third world country and they need all the help they can get, but in saying that you still see big smiley faces as we pass and lots of waves from then children, so there is still hope for the future.

We arrived at the jet boat to have Gavin waiting for us.  He used to drive the Shotover jet in New Zealand and now has this gig here in Uganda.  So we saddled up in our lifejackets and then boarded the boat.  As it worked out I got a middle seat on the end, and I think I had one of the best seats in the house.  So Gav took us through the 3 minute safety spiel and the 2 most important hand actions, one to give us a heads up for the 360 and the other one telling us a rough patch was coming up.  So after a test 360 to make sure we all could handle the pace and didn’t want to get off, we set off up the Nile.  Only after a few minutes we saw some rafters, I thought it had to be our group and yelled to Gav if we could go over there and say hi, he said hell yeah.  So at 90km/hr we literally jetted over to the first raft and it happened to be our group which was awesome.  I have to say it was so hilarious, at first you could see that they were all happy to see us, nice little waves and smiles on their faces, and as we got closer and weren’t slowing down they knew something was going to happen.  I think Paps was the most excited as he stood up and was giving us a big wave with his oar in his hand and then as we got within 10m, we swerved and made this massive wave that soaked the whole raft, and all I could do was laugh my head off as we moved then down the flotilla of rafts and continued to do the same thing to all of them!!!  It was so flippin funny, but my Intrepid raft has to be the best splash of all and it still brings a smile to my face.  WIPEOUT!!! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA………….  I think I may cop it when they get back to camp this afternoon but it was so worth it……HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA…….

We got 40 minutes on the jet boat, which is typical.  We went over one set of rapids on the boat and got some airtime and we did about 50 x 360’s and we got absolutely soaking wet, but I have to say it was worth all the debacle this morning and to say that we jet boated on the Nile is a pretty good call to fame and was worth the 75USD we paid for the privilege.  It was very different from the New Zealand one, as that is done in a canyon, so not much room for the 360’s and it is more the adrenalin rush of hugging the canyon walls, where this experience was more going the fastest we could go at 90km and without even slowing down going straight into a 360.  Every time I saw the 360 hand action, I would say ‘oh shit’.  Gav would then swerve one way, then the other so we didn’t know which way he was going to turn and then boom, 360, and water everywhere, Nile water at that, but we figured as we were pretty close to the source, that it was going to the cleanest here than say doing a jet boat in the Egyptian part of the Nile which I just wouldn’t do.  Good theory.  A few more raft sprays, 2 more rapid runs and some more 360’s it was time to head back.  What a great experience and even better when we got off the boat, there was a cold Nile Special waiting for us, how appropriate to drink a Nile beer at the Nile.  Awesome.

The rest of the afternoon was spent at the bar, overlooking the Nile, and getting my blog updated.  They have Wi-Fi here, but it cuts in and out, so if I’m not responding to messages and comments it is purely for this reason, and I will when I get a better connection, somewhere.  My main aim is to get my blog entries uploaded when I can, which thankfully I was able to do.  Ye haa!

We were on cooking duties yesterday, so I went up at 5pm to see if Liz needed any help, stupid question, as I was the only one from my team in camp, so we were chop chop chopping till the rafter bus pulled up and the second they all got off they came straight over to rib me about the classic water splash!  It was cool to hear their side and I still couldn’t stop laughing!  It was HILAROUS!!!!

I got the nod that the washing was ready to be picked up.  So I walked to the wash room, and I swear there were at least 50 bags of washing in there, luckily mine was at the front and then the lady apologized, saying sorry that it wasn’t 100% dry due to the weather.  No shit, I could have told you that this morning.  So they were just a little damp, but there’s no way they are going to dry properly with the weather still overcast and now they will smell worse than when they went in, but they are clean. 

It was a Friday night, so after dinner we went back to the bar for a few brewski’s and to try and hook back onto the internet, which every man and his dog was also trying to get on, so I wasn’t too successful, but my blog is up to date, so I can’t complain.  It was a really good day and once again it is nice to be off the truck.

THE WHEELS ON THE TRUCK ARE STILL TURNING

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.

TODAY I WAS HOMESICK

WEATHER: Hot and 27C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Finally getting out of the truck

BUMMER OF THE DAY: I’m homesick today = sad Bernie

BUYS OF THE DAY: Bottle of water at 1.50AUD

WORD OF THE DAY: Curl up in a ball

ANIMALS SEEN TODAY: Monkeys, leopard tortoise, 100 warthogs, water bucks, zebra’s, deer   

CAMP SITE RANKING: Very basic finally drop toilets for the first time all trip and ordinary shower - 2 out of 5 stars

I don’t know what I dreamt last night, but I had a very restless sleep and the minute I woke up at 4.50am I thought of home.  I miss my god-daughters, my best friend and my home which is no longer mine.  This was going to be a curl up in a ball day – I can have one of those every now and then right?

Up early, meant I beat everyone to get all my stuff to the coach, as we are leaving Rwanda and heading back into Uganda today.  I even had time to catch up on my diary with a cup of tea as the rest of the crew woke up.  What a grandma I am turning into.

So all packed and on the truck, we left our home for the last 3 days.  We have over 400km to cover today and a border crossing, so leaving at 7am Jools hoped to have us at camp by 5.30pm.  This is one of the longest travel days we are to have, so we need to suck it up, it was worth it to see the gorilla’s yesterday so bring on the 8 hours on the truck.

We only had to drive around 40 minutes to get us to the Rwandan border.  The process was similar to what we have done in the past, we get out, line up, show our passports and then we get stamped out of the country.  As I hadn’t had my globetrotter’s book stamped yet, I had nothing to lose on asking the immigration guy if he would do it, and he was more than obliging, so I now had my Rwandan stamp.  Yip yay.  Our passports then got checked as we walked the 60m through no man’s land to the Ugandan check point.  I was the passport collector with the 50USD fee, and I stood and got everyone’s passports cleared and stamped letting us back into Uganda.  He was a very thorough official, taking his time, checking all the pages and signing a proper signature in all 22 passports.  He was in no rush.  He wasn’t as friendly as the Rwandan guy, but I had nothing to lose asking him about my Ugandan stamp for my Globetrotters book and blow me down he stamped it no problems!  Yay – now all the countries are up to date.  The whole process for both borders took around an hour.  Crossing back to Uganda we lost an hour and wound our watches forward.

We stopped at Kabale at midday for lunch.  As we had a long day, we were given 5000 shillings to go towards lunch today.  This was also the place that we stopped at on the way through that had free Wi-Fi access.  I ordered a chicken burger that looked exactly like the beef burger when it came out and the internet wasn’t working to well, but it was good to get off the truck for an hour.

My tentie is back sitting next to me today, but still not much has been said to each other.  I think she is switching tents and moving in with one of the other girls, but she hasn’t said anything to me, so we will have to see when we pull up to camp this afternoon.  It really upsets me, the whole thing, as I don’t think I have done anything wrong and she is treating me like a leper, but I am going to have to let it go, otherwise it will ruin the rest of this portion of the trip.  Add that onto a few short text messages from the ex-husband and my homesickness, can this day get any worse?  Man I am really feeling down today. I need a hug from my little people; they always bring a smile to my face when I need it.  In saying that my across the way seat buddy, Jo, knew how I was feeling, so she brought a smile to my dial and leant me her toy puppy that she was given by her nieces.  So I pulled out my Elmo and they kept me company for the rest of the afternoon.  Jo is awesome and I will definitely be visiting her in Ireland next year.  It was good to have some-one to bounce some frustrations out with.

We drove for another 2.5 hours to a town called Mbarara where we stopped for 20 minutes, to refuel the truck and toilet stop and then drove another 1.5 hours to get us to our camp for the night at Lake Mburo.  As we finally pulled into camp there were warthogs everywhere just grazing on the grass, apparently they will be around us all night, but after watching some of the group getting their photos they don’t seem too flighty or angry, so it will be fun to have some wild animals in camp.  So off the truck we get and my tentie goes with Janet, so I am now in a single tent for the next 4 nights.  Gee that is really disappointing and a little humiliating.  So I had to ask Jools to help put up my tent, once the poles are in I can do the rest, and I am on the edge of the camp.  If my tentie wanted to still be friends, she would have at least explained what she was doing and at least offered to help with the tent.  In saying that no-one else offered or has checked how things are, so after dinner I am going back to my tent to crawl into that ball I have wanted to do all day.  What a fucked day all round really.

There will be a change of groups in Nairobi.  We thought the people going through to Tanzania would be on the same truck as us peeps going all the way through to Cape Town, but we have learned that 7 of the Tanzania’s will be on a different tour, and just 4 of us will be on the Cape Town run.  So I’ll get a new tentie and make some new friends, which could be just what the doctor ordered.  In saying that I have made and met a batch of amazing people who are either leaving in Nairobi or moving onto the Tanzania truck, and I am going to miss them and wish I was going with them.  It’s my Greek Posse equivalents but African L

Well once the sun went down we learnt pretty fast what Lake Mburo meant.  Mburo is a little fly and common to the area.  No shit, the second you turned on a light you would be swarmed by thousands of these fly things.  When you are in the middle of nowhere except the moon as your only light, it was necessary to turn on a light.  So the light would go on to plate your dinner, off goes the light to eat, light back on to go back to the table for the main meal, serve up, eating dinner in the dark, light back on to wash dishes and then it pretty much forced everyone to bed, but it was just after 9pm and we had to be up at 5.30am to pack up and leave camp by 6.20am for our safari walk in the morning.  I blew my nose and there were 3 flies, and I rekon I swallowed around 50 and the rest of the group was in the same boat.  Little buggers.

As we were camped close to the lake’s edge, there was a man walking around the camp all night with a rifle to keep the hippos at bay, should they decide to come anywhere near the camp.  There was an Exodus truck in and also some other random group and they were closer to the water than us.

There seemed to be a storm brewing, with a lot of lightening in the sky.  It was giving us a great display while we were eating dinner by the camp fire.  Would it rain?  When I went to bed, my window flaps were all open; hmmm should I get up and close them should it rain?  I thought I would risk it till this massive clap of thunder rolled over us and I decided to get up and out of the tent to close all my windows and roll down my door.  I also heard a few others getting out and zipping up their windows as well, so it was pretty funny to hear all the zips zipping.

Tomorrow is a new day – I’ll pick myself up, dust myself off and march on, but everyone is allowed to have a bad day and mine was today.  We are only human after all and we can’t be happy and smiley all the time.  I just needed a hug.  I know when my Bestie reads my text I’ll get an electronic one and that will make all the difference.    

Signing off unwanted and unloved today B

A REPEAT OF IOS IN UGANDA

WEATHER: Hot

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Camping lakeside

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Drinking way too much vodka (Shock)

BUYS OF THE DAY: 350ml of vodka for 4USD

WORD OF THE DAY: Vodka and coke/orange

ANIMALS SEEN TODAY: crabs   

CAMP SITE RANKING:  Awesome, gorgeous view, flushing toilets, cold showers and an awesome bar overlooking the lake 5 out of 5 stars

There were no dramas with hippos or snakes coming to visit the camp site last night.  We could hear the hippos and people heard lions as well during the night, but they kept their distance so we were literally ‘happy campers’.  I forgot to mention that 4 tenters upgraded their accommodation last night to stay in these large tents under a shed like structure that had its own ensuite with shower.  It only cost 40USD total for the night and they did look pretty cool.

Leaving camp at 8am, we hit the road heading for Lake Bunyoni and our last night in Uganda as we head into Rwanda tomorrow.  We are hoping the weather stays fine, because if it is too wet, then the truck will not be able to get to the camp site as it is a dirt road and an Intrepid truck nearly rolled a few weeks ago going down there, so there was going to be a site change if the weather looked too dicey.

So another day in the truck.  Today won’t be as long as the previous days, so it will be good to have some chill time once we get to camp.  So things that kept us busy today.  We had another play for the Skittle-off challenge.  As we had run out of skittles last game, some of the guys went and stocked up last stop.  We used James packet today, and even though they were out of date (by only a month), they were still good in our eyes and so they were used.  So the score is currently boys 4 – girls 3.

We had another roadside lunch today which I think may have been the best to date, besides the sandwich stuff; we had a tuna mix and also sweet potatoes.  Delicious.  So from pulling up, preparing, eating and packing away we did it all just under an hour.  Are we getting good at this or what?  We had a stop in a town for an hour as Liz had to get supplies, so Jools pointed us in the direction of a café that had Wi-Fi and I was able to load all my blog entries up to yesterday – so it made 7 in total, and it was like a sense of relief that I was finally able to load them on.  As there were so many of us on the system, it chucked a hissy fit a few times, but overall the speed was really good.  This was also the place where we could get shirts made up, but as we were all on a mission to get onto the internet, people were too busy or thinking of other things that we didn’t end up getting any shirts done at all.  I also ran out of time to actually do some chores.  I needed more toilet paper, more water, postcards and to also top up my mobile phone credit.  Oh well, none of it is too imperative and I’ll have time to do some of this in RuhengerI.  

We were on a mission to get to camp, as there was an African Safari Co. truck also coming into camp today, so we wanted to get there first to get the better area to set up our tents.  Gap Adventures was already there when we got there at 4pm, but they have been there for a few days, so we wouldn’t have beaten them anyway.  The camp site is literally right on Lake Bunyoni, we set up our tents right on the water’s edge and were only a meter away from the water.  No need to worry, there are no hippos or crocodiles here, the lake is safe to swim in.   Some of our group was talking to some Gap Adventures people and they had done the gorilla’s, but from the Ugandan side and they had walked for 9 hours, NINE HOURS, and when they finally did see a gorilla, it was in the distance and not the best view.  Poor buggers.  I know most people only do the Ugandan side when all the permits have been sold for the Rwandan gorillas, but what a tough day for them.  Their truck looked pretty much the same as ours, their chairs also very similar and their tents looked a tad smaller than ours. 

So of the group headed to the jetty for a spot of swimming.  They had a tree there that you could climb and then jump off into the lake.  I would have to say it looked around 10m high, it looked scary, but Lisa and Sean both went up and did a jump.  I took their pictures on burst mode and they look really cool.  Preswick and Papster hired a canoe and went for a paddle around the lake and I decided to read my book with a cold beer in the hand.  It turned out to be a beautiful day and the sun was high in the sky.  It was a busy camp site, as it is where everyone stays to do the gorillas in Uganda.  So there must have been like 7 trucks in camp all at the same time.

Once Em and Paps got back, we thought it would be good to chill with a vodka and coke.  Time to crack out jet fuel Ugandan vodka.   Uh Oh – warning bells are ringing already.  I haven’t had a big night on the drink since my efforts in Ios nearly 4 weeks ago.  The vodka was actually quite alright and a bargain at the 6AUD each that we paid to share the bottle.  The coke on the other hand, after looking at the label, had a 2010 competition advertised on the wrapper – so we can safely let you know that it is okay to eat out of date skittles and to drink out of date coke all on the same day and still live to tell the tale.

There was a t-shirt man roaming the camp selling shirts.  As we all now had some more time, I ran around the group seeing if they wanted a personalized shirt for the group.  Out of the 22, 17 people all got a shirt which was cool.  We got them for 13USD each and they had on the front Hakuna Matata with all our names and on the back we got that we trekked with the gorillas in Rwanda with 2 footprints and two gorilla prints.  We are leaving quite early in the morning so Mac (t-shirt guy) was going to come back at 10.30pm to drop them off.  So I collected everyone’s money and we then sat down for dinner.

The Gap Adventures group looked like they were not having fun at all, so I sent around a Chinese whisper in both directions of our circle that when I count to 3 that we just all start laughing.  So the whisper got sent around and it came back to me that tomorrow is Sunday and the purple gorillas will come to visit!  Ha ha funny funny someone changing the whisper.  But the original one got around and I just said 3 and we all burst into laughter and then we didn’t have to pretend, it was hilarious and we couldn’t stop.  Maybe I feel a little bad now, as there is nothing worse than seeing another group having more fun than you.  I actually looked at that Gap departure, so realistically I could have been on that trip.  Luckily the tour gods were smiling on me when I booked the Intrepid tour instead.  Phew.  I am doing a Gap tour of Galapagos and also of Ethiopia, so I hope I get a livelier bunch.  My Gap Trans Mongolian was awesome – so it is what you make of the group I spose.  We ripped out another laugh when we were waiting in line for the main meal, so it was pretty hilarious.

After dinner, and ¾ of a bottle of vodka later, we headed to the bar that was around 1km walk.  So armed with the last of our vodka and head torch on we walked by the lake and up about 50 steps to get to the bar area, that was outside with table and chairs.  It was a pretty cool place.  Sean and I went up to the bar to check out the prices and you could get a vodka and coke, but you had to buy the 300ml bottle for 4USD and then the mixers separately for 2USD.  They had also run out of coke, so they only had orange left, so we started drinking vodka and orange.  Now this is where the night gets a little hazy for me and somewhere along the way, I have done what I did in Ios and I have fallen over somewhere at the bar.  I was on my own and when I came back I was in a right ol tizz telling everyone that I was bleeding.  I think Justin tried to apply drunken first aid to the wound, and for all my Greek Posse, we know what a bad drunk patient I am.  The upside is that the wound is on the other leg and it isn’t as deep, but it is sore as hell and I have also a few scratches on my other knee, on my scar from my ‘other’ fall.  I have 2 days to recover, as we don’t do the gorillas till Tuesday, so that will give it some time to heal a little.

Em and I walked back at 10.30pm to meet Mac (the shirt guy) and he wasn't there.  So we waited for about 5 minutes, at this point we are pretty pissy) so we decided to write him a note telling him he could find us at the bar.  We thought we were quite clever, but I think the pole we left the note on was behind the truck, so he probably had buckleys of seeing it at all.  But it was a great idea at the time – according to a drunken Bern’s and Em – we thought it was hilarious.

So if I can’t remember a fall I’m not going to remember getting back to camp, which I don’t.  I briefly remember Sean going for a swim in the lake, as his sister got married, and him prancing around in his jocks afterwards.  I am just grateful I didn’t follow him in as I was that drunk I am sure it would have sounded like a great idea to me.  So after that I am not sure what happened except Jo and Sean trying to get me into my tent and then me waking up inside the tent with no mattress and no sleeping bag.  What the hell happened I am not sure and my tentie Afke is not speaking to me, so I must have done something to make her cranky at me?  So in the end I think we got to bed around 3am and we have to be up at ready to go at 6.15am, so I only got a few hours’ sleep, and of course was still drunk packing the tent up.  At least a drunk pack Intrepid style only entails stuff left in the tent vs. drunk pack Europe style where I would leave things in the hotel and they are gone for good.

It was a great night though, but maybe I shouldn’t drink as much and maybe actually remember the whole night!  Yeah right, I have been saying that for years – good luck with that Bernstar!!

QUEEN ELIZABETH NATIONAL PARK

WEATHER: Overcast, slight rain and 23C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: We didn’t travel as far in the bus today

BUMMER OF THE DAY: The weather was a little off for the lake cruise

BUYS OF THE DAY: A bottle of local vodka that Em and went halves in at 6AUD each

WORD OF THE DAY:

ANIMALS SEEN TODAY: Ibis, encoli cows, egrets, pelicans in numbers, yellow beak cranes, cormorants in huge numbers, hippos – a lot of them, African fish eagle, savannah elephants and water buffalo.  

CAMP SITE RANKING:  Pretty good, flushing toilets, cold showers and an undercover to eat under, oh and a bar. 3 out of 5 stars

Well day 8 of the trip and 7 days of camping in the tent and I have to say I am quite enjoying the whole camping gig.  Our tents really don’t take too much time to put up, and we have got the rolling and putting away of the tents just about down pat, so this is probably the biggest hassle with the whole process which takes up 20 minutes of our day.  I’d only texted my old boss a few days before leaving London, telling her if she ever needs a good laugh, to think of me in a tent for 60 days, but I am happy to report I am loving it.  For those of you who know me, to imagine me camping one night let alone 60 nights is outrageous banter!!!

I’m finding I am waking up before my alarm even goes off which has been set for 6am the last 3 mornings.  It’s not so bad, as you get first crack at the toilets and getting onto the truck to avoid the morning congestion when everyone is trying to get all their gear back on the truck.  We left camp this morning at 8am with only 200km to drive today it should only take us around 4 hours.

I have a competition running and I have got the whole bus to guess how many pictures I will end up with at the end of the trip.  The guesses are listed below, so there will be no challenges next year saying that their guess was written up wrong.  The blog does not lie.

15,555 Janet

28,488 Paps

29,555 Jo

30,489 Em

33,333 Bree

32,873 Sean

34,245 Emma S

35,731 Lisa

37,377 Laura

38,641 Emma T

43,246 Louise

46,100 ME

49,251 Katie

63,483 Mike

92,000 Julia

Our first stop was at a town called Fort Porto.  Liz had to get some food shopping done, so we got 45 minutes to get some things done.  There was an internet café but apparently it was slow so I didn’t bother.  I really need Wi-Fi for my blog anyway.  I did some banking instead.  I tell you I have come nowhere near spending my daily budget of 100AUD a day.  The last 2 times I have used an ATM, I have pulled out 80,000 shillings which converted is only 32AUD and this has lasted me 3 days each time.  Now that is outrageous.  So I am re-couping money, which is awesome and hopefully will give me extra cash in the kitty to do Europe on the way home next year.  Not a bad incentive hey.  We went to the supermarket and stocked up on some more water.  Em and I decided to go halves in a bottle of vodka that was 12,000 shillings (8AUD) so we can have a tipple when the mood suits.  For 8AUD it is probably rocket fuel, but it is Ugandan so we are trying something locally distilled!  Sean and Emma have been chasing a blanket and pillow respectively and they both found these at the supermarket as well.  They were both the same cost as the vodka to give you an idea on the costs.  Sean’s blanket has been dubbed the ‘lurve’ blanket as it is pink with hearts and love written all over it.

We travelled for a few more hours and then stopped at a local market that was set up roadside.  I think this works a little like Morocco where the markets are on once a week on a certain day, so it was quite busy when we got there.  It is a crying shame that the locals don’t like having their photos taken as it was a photographers paradise with all the colours of the fruit and veggies and the ladies dresses.  Em was saying the adults are paranoid that if we take their pictures they think when we go home and show all our friends that we then make fun of them. Based on that I wouldn’t want my photo taken either, so they are a tough crowd.  If you ask them then it’s okay, but 90% of the time it is a no anyway.  We were able to bust a few out if you include some-one from our group, so I did get a handful of pictures.  The main thing at the markets was HUGE bunches of green banana’s, there would have been over 300 per bunch and they were all loaded on to bicycles for the transportation.  Some of the bikes had 5-8 bunches on a bike!!!  It looked amazing!

We finally got to stop at an equator sign as we pass over it for the third time.  There was one on both sides of the road, so half of the group went to one side and the others stayed on our side.  We decided to get a group photo on the other side of the road and as we were all crossing, 2 minivans of school children pulled up.  So I asked one of the teachers if he could take our photo for us and he misunderstood and walked over to be ‘in’ the photo, so why not get all of them in, so I invited them all to get in the photo.  There would have been around 60 of them all in their uniforms, so it was an awesome photo with our group and the students on the equator line, how many people can have that claim to fame?  It was an opportunity I couldn’t let pass so I also got them to do a Bernstar jump as well, it sort of worked, but as there were some many people there wasn’t much room, but you can see the front people jumping so that was pretty cool for me.  I also got my own jump, so I am back on the jump board again – welcome back.

We made it to camp at 1pm.  The weather is a little drizzly today, so the camp site is a little muddy.  But this is also part of the camping experience, so suck it up princess.  We are lucky it has an undercover area where Liz prepares the food and enough room for us to all sit to get out of the weather.  Tents up, beds made, we had around 45 minutes to chillax till we got back on the truck and headed into Queen Elizabeth National Park.  I had volunteered a few nights ago to be Jools financial controller, when it came to spending the kitty money, so my first duties came when we had to enter the park.  I recounted the money and passed it to the ranger and waited till we got our receipt.  My personal banker Shelly would be proud and my post banker days finally coming in handy again.

We had a nature cruise booked for 5pm, so we got around 1.5 hours to drive around the park.  We had elephants in our sights today, along with leopards (yeah good-luck),hippos and lions.  We are yet to see a male lion with the mane for our photos.  Well we didn’t have to wait long to see elephants.  We saw a herd of 8 and they had 3 babies with them.  They were probably 800m away, but we were able to get some good photos and not be in a distance that was going to upset them.    We drove a little further and we got to another herd and they were a lot closer, around 10m away.  There were 3 of them, a female, a teenager and a baby.  We got to watch them for a few minutes till one of them started to get ancy and gave the charge stance, the flapping of the ears and an elephant call.  It made for a cool photo even though we could have been in immediate danger, as there was no way Chris could have started the truck and moved had she decided to charge the truck.  Oh living life on the edge….

Down to the lake for our cruise, which was like a jumping crocodile boat, seats downstairs close to the water and there was a viewing area on top to accommodate 14 people.  We departed at 5pm and after a hiccup of some passengers having not paid and doubling back to offload them, we got on our way at 5.25pm.  It is a shame the day was crappy.  The sky was grey, which in turn our photos look a little lifeless, but we did get to see like a hundred hippos in the water.  We saw a few yawning (which is a sign of aggression) but I wasn’t quick enough to capture it on my camera.  Some of them would literally pop up right next to the boat.  This place would be a bird watchers paradise, so needless to say we saw a hell of a lot of birds and hippos for the 1.5 hours we were on the water.  The guide for the cruise asked for my email address should he have any problems with the stowaways we had started out with, which I was happy to provide.

Back to camp with one more elephant sighting right next to the road.  As we didn’t get back to camp till 7pm, dinner was already up and ready to go, so we washed the hands 3 times and tucked into zucchini soup for starters and then we had crumbed fish, potatoes and veggies for dinner with custard for dessert.  I don’t know why, but it seemed like there were a billion dishes to wash tonight and guess who was on dish duty!  Yeah team A.  But I do have to say the truck people had a pretty rough day, as the weather was wet, we were all tramp sing in mud from our shoes, so they also had a massive job getting the floors all clean – poor bastards.

We all headed up to the bar after dinner, where I was able to recharge my laptop and have a beer before heading back to my tent.  I wasn’t going to take any chances with snakes and hippos, so I had my headlamp on as well as my mega night torch to get me back safely.  My feet were dirty as, so I decided to have cold shower to rinse off and then I was able to finish yesterday’s blog before reading for a little while and then switching off the headlamp at 11pm. 

Let’s hope that no snakes come to visit and the hippos keep their distance from the camp, even though it would make a great blog entry I think there has to be a line drawn somewhere – right?

WELCOME TO UGANDA

WEATHER: Bloody freezing in the morning 9C to a tops of 27C and beautiful

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Beating Lisa at our lollipop sucking competition

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Not really beating Lisa at the lollipop sucking competition – I cheated

BUYS OF THE DAY: A roll of toilet paper for .25c

WORD OF THE DAY: Mumbo – hello

ANIMALS SEEN TODAY: Travel day – so no animals today

CAMP SITE RANKING:  Flushing toilets, hot water and a BAR = 4 STAR out of 5

SOME-ONE TURN THE FREEZER OFF……..

OMG how flipping cold was it this morning.  I know we are high at 2165m and it is the altitude, but F#@K I woke up during the middle of the night and put on another shirt over my pj’s, put on my jumper backwards so my hood was at the front, so I could pull it up over my face, add my towel on to that and then I moved my sleeping bag around so the hood of that also covered my face, and then, and only then did I feel warm enough to try and get some sleep.  My feet weren’t cold for some reason, but I managed to cocoon myself enough to get some warmth. It was C-c-c-c-cold……

So a 5.30am wake-up call, this safari camping gig is a tough love first thing in the morning with all these early starts, but today is a MASSIVE travel day.  We have 350km to travel.  This may not sound much, but based on the conditions of the roads and traffic, it is expected to take 8-9 hours - yes to travel 350km.  Every time Jools updates us of how long we have till the next stop or how far left to go it is always given to us in kilometers, it is never in time, as the roads are that unreliable.  20km till our next stop, 120km till lunch etc.  We also have a border crossing today as we say good-bye to Kenya and hello to Uganda.  Jools rekons it can take from 1-4 hours to cross depending on who is working, whether they like us, how much they check the truck etc……

It is the second day of tents, and this morning we have to take it down in the dark, as we are leaving at 7am, so everything on the truck by 6.30am for breakfast.  This tent fitting in the bag thing is driving Afke and I nuts on day 2.  There is just no way that tent will fit back in its bag, we re-rolled the bloody thing twice and we just couldn’t get it to work, so we left it as it was, which looked like a car accident, everything poking out, we couldn’t even pretend to close it up, it was a disaster.  We were one of the first to put our tent in the truck, so we just hoped that no-one would notice this tent bag, now twice the size of everyone else’s conspicuously in the tent hold.  There is definitely room to improve on our tent packing skills.  Afke and I have decided that tomorrow is the day we will get this bloody nemesis into its home.  Maybe after 60 days I may just master it – maybe.

On the road again, and as predicted the roads are shocking.  Not just bad – SHOCKING. No wonder it takes so long, at one point we passed some road works and to be honest I don’t know why they bothered, but I guess you have to start somewhere.  I’m having problems with my ears, I keep having to try and pop them, I guess that is to do with my cold and also the altitude as well?  I am sounding worse, it’s all in the nose, but I’m feeling okay, so I just need to get rid of the symptoms.  I am taking my cold and flu, ate a whole orange, drinking vitamin C and Louise gave me a vitamin horse pill so hopefully I have taken enough to get me in the clear.  People are jokingly keeping away, but I can see fear in their eyes that they don’t want any of my germs the closer we get to the gorillas.  I throw a fake sneeze in just to rile them up! Ha ha.

Well we could tell when we were getting close to the boarder as there is a massive queue of trucks.  I am talking like 30km long.  These trucks can wait from 3-7 days in this queue just to get into Uganda.  Uganda is a land locked country, so all its imports are bought in by road.  There are 2 other crossings in Kenya and one from Tanzania, but this boarder is by far the busiest and the longest.  By rights, we really should be joining this queue, but then that would be an Intrepid tour in itself.  Itinerary would read day 1-7 border crossing before continuing on with the trip.  Yeah not good for Intrepid and probably not a big selling point for clients either I would imagine.  So we did what everybody hates people doing and we jumped the line.  To facilitate this we had to drive for 30km on the wrong side of the road, so you can imagine, there were times we had to squeeze past oncoming trucks with the stationary one (who had possibly been sitting there for days) and as we are also in a truck, we could see straight into their cabs and felt a little guilty as we pulled away, continuing with our queue jumping.  It was a sight to see the endless line of trucks.  What a way to make a living.  But as the saying goes there is always a silver lining (not for the truck drivers) but there are people selling commodities to all the truckers, so they get to make a living off this endless queue.  A smart business opportunity.

We got to the boarder at 11am, and we all had to get off the truck and get our passports stamped that we were leaving Kenya and then back on the truck, crossing no man’s land to get us to the Uganda boarder control.  Here we all off loaded again and had to supply finger prints of both hands and pay our 50USD.  I have to say the crumby stamp they gave us for 50USD was a little disappointing.  In total the whole process only took a 1.2hours and then we were on our way again in UGANDA.  Afke and I just looked at each other and said, man we are in Uganda!!!!! Pinch time.  Sometimes we just need to sit back and take in where we are and what a great opportunity we are getting to experience.  No matter how or why people got here, we are all travelling for basically the same reasons.

The immediate thing I notice is that the roads are better in Uganda, which is a little surprising as the country is known for its corruption; you’d think they wouldn’t care so much about the road infrastructure.  We stopped about 20 minutes over the boarder for our roadside lunch.  It is pretty cool we can pull over anywhere and within 40 minutes there are seats out and food prepped and on the table. Another 40 minutes later and we are washed, packed and back on the road again.  This is safari people. 

So drive driving driving again.  We got to glimpse Lake Victoria, which is the second largest fresh water lake in the world after Lake Baikal, which I would like to point out I walked on frozen nearly 4 months ago.  Man that seems like a million years ago.  I am really going to have to make some time when I get home to go back through my blog and pictures to just pinch myself and remind myself what has been done.  That is probably one of the few ‘downsides’ of doing so much.  Normally after a holiday when you get home you have a chance to soak up the ‘after holiday’ experience, share it with your friends and start planning the next adventure.  I am currently moving from one awesome trip to the next, except for the contact I have with my new friends, it is go go go onto the next trip.  I know, I know – I can hear you all say ‘poor Bernie’ whatever………

Lake Victoria is the source of The Nile, which flows through 9 countries.  And to be a smarty they are

Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia, Egypt, Burundi……..  It is the longest river in the world.  Not many people know but the Nile has 2 tributaries called the White Nile (Lake Victoria in Uganda) and the Blue Nile (which starts at Lake Tanna in Ethiopia) and both these rivers meet in Khartoum in Sudan where they then flow to Egypt and then out into the Mediterranean Sea.  I wonder if I will see the Blue Nile when I am in Ethiopia.

So another 4 hours got us to our campsite for the night just outside of Kampala.  We did have a little hiccup where a police officer was involved.  In Chris’ defense he had to get a run up to pass a van and 2 long haul trucks, but as we pulled back into our lane, there was a police officer there waiting for us.  So we got pulled over, Chris had to get out and show his papers and then Jools got in on the act and told the officer we had a sick tourist on board and we were speeding to get to the hospital to get Chris out of the fine and to not have to palm over some ‘money’.  We didn’t think he was speeding for the record. 

The camp is busy and there is another Intrepid truck with 18x15 year olds on a school trip.  Needless to say Jools is happy that he has our group and not a truck load of teenagers!  There is a high five for this camp with flushing toilets, hot showers, an intermediate Wi-Fi and a bar.  I wonder if we are getting spoilt before we hit the rest of Africa – who cares lets live with the now with showers and toilets!

We went and had a beer before dinner at the bar and we now have to wrap our heads around a new currency.  We are now using the Ugandan schilling and the rate is approximately 1USD equals 2400 of the local currency!  Holy Moly – how good are you at your 24 times tables.  A beer was 2600, as we had just crossed over; we had no local currency, so they would accept our USD instead.  I am sure that is better for them anyway as I am sure the rate they use for us is lower than what they would get, so they make some more money off the sale and the exchange.  Oh well – we are thirsty so it is worth it.

Dinner was a fare of vegetable soup for dinner and pasta with meat sauce, veggies and cabbage.  Team A’s duties tonight is scrubbing – yes I was a scrubber for the day legitimately, and as the dish washers go first, Lisa and I thought we would have enough time to duck to the showers and get back in time to do our chores without anyone noticing that we were gone.  Well I probably shouldn’t have washed my hair and I may have had a better chance to have gotten back on time, but when I saw 2 people flapping pots I knew we were in for a bit of trouble.  Needless to say when we showed out faces we got quite a ribbing from the team as well as some hanger on-ers.  So we have now been given the task of pot scrubbing on our own when the rotation comes back to us again.  Fair enough, but in our defence we really weren’t gone that long, I didn’t think.  Sean has been more than happy to rub in my lack of duties, as I have been joshing around with him that he always turns up after the work is done (possibly a little unfair) but it is good to be able to have some fun at some-one else’s expense!  Needless to say you have to be able to take what you give out, so I just take it all on the chin and tough it out.

Time to utilize the bar.  It has a pretty good atmosphere and they had music playing and we could just reach the Wi-Fi  from where we were sitting outside.  I love this part of the trip, where we all just sit and chat for hours.  I have some more places to now add onto my travels, with Em and Justin in London, so it will be good to be able to see some friendly faces when I am back there in October.  5 beers later (that’s 3L) it was time to hit the hay – midnight isn’t too bad a knock considering how early we were up this morning.

I am not sure what is up, but I took 1 photo today!  ONE, UNA, UN, A HAN.  It was a drive day and we have been told to always ask if we are taking photos of people, but as we are driving through villages and towns I haven’t bought out the camera as Jools said African people aren’t too keen on getting their pictures taken and there have been instances where the bus has been vandalized because of this, so the camera doesn’t see much air time when we are travelling.  But for those of you who know I am a photoholic, this would have to be a first EVER, one photo in one whole day.  That is just about UNBELIEVABLE.

So I have 5 days till the gorilla’s and I have to say I am feeling and sounding 100% better, so I think the likelihood that I will wave goodbye to the gorilla trekkers without me is going to be minimal.