We spent a couple of days in Fort Portal just relaxing, one day just updating my blog and the other watching a pretty cool local cultural festival thing. We just happened to arrive soon after it started, and just sat with the crowd watching local singing, dancing, acrobats and comedians. We were the only white people in the whole place and it felt pretty cool to be watching a genuine cultural show that was aimed at local Ugandans instead of rich, foreign tourists.
At this point I realized that trying to get to and around Murchison Falls using public transport was not really a practical option. Matt and Harper were heading up to Gulu where Matt hoped to get work, so we couldn’t share another taxi with them, and so we said farewell. I had seen adverts for organized trips to Murchison from the Kampala backpackers place we’d stayed in before heading to the gorillas, and now I understood that those trips were actually the best way to get to see the Falls (unless you had your own transport). So the plan now was to head back to Kampala and get onto one of those tours. But phoning ahead it turned out that all the trips had been booked out well in advance (its high season now, although it really doesn’t feel anything like it until something like this happens), and so it meant we’d have to give the Falls a miss. It was a pity really, as they’re supposed to be really spectacular and a major highlight of Uganda, but I guess they’ll just have to wait until the next time I come back.
But of course, when you can’t do one thing, it just means you get to do something else instead, and in this case we decided to take a day out to visit the nearby crater lakes. After the usual negotiating shenanigans we hopped in a taxi (no other option I’m afraid) and got to a lovely quite campsite where we could rent bicycles. The camp is right beside Lake Nkuruba that really is a stunning small lake in the crater of an extinct volcano. You could have walked around the crater rim in under two hours I’d say, and the steeply sloping rim was completely covered in lush, dense forest. As I was standing at the edge of the lake I could see two troupes of monkeys on the far side, swinging from the high trees. It was incredibly peaceful here, no-one else around at all – the campsite was empty that day – and I could have just sat there and contemplated all day. But apparently there is good cycling around here so we sorted out bikes and headed off.
Being volcanic, it was pretty hilly, and the bikes we had were naturally fairly crap but Sarah soldiered on bravely and we only had to walk up hills a couple of times. The rewards, however, were quite spectacular. It was a beautifully sunny day and as you’d come around a corner you’d be greeted with another gorgeous crater lake set amongst the hills. We stopped at the luxurious Ndaly Lodge for a bowl of soup, a rest and the stunning view, as its set atop one of the larger crater rims. After leaving the bikes back to the campsite (after a failed attempt to find a local waterfall) we set off on a one-hour forest trail walk which was really beautiful, although poor Sarah got pee’d on by a Columbus money that casually watched us hike past.
The following morning we caught the bus to Kampala and arrived nice and early at the incredibly chaotic bus terminus (South-East Asia has nothing on this place!). After dumping the bags in a cheap nearby guesthouse (we only planned on spending a single night in Kampala and moving on to Jinga early the next morning) we headed out for the day to try and organize the next phase of the trip (we knew Mark Kane was going to be in Zimbabwe from the 29th and so needed to organize how we were going to get to Harare to meet up with him, and where we’d go and what we’d do in the meantime).
After a fair bit of running around and thinking things through, and phoning around we got everything sorted out. Basically the plan was to fly to Lilongwe in Malawi and then overland down to Harare. Basically every news report we saw (which wasn’t that many as we don’t get to watch any telly, thankfully!) reported that Zimbabwe was in meltdown, and so I didn’t want to organize flights directly to Harare two weeks early. Instead I thought we’d fly down to somewhere nearby and then travel overland on the 29th if everything looked OK (and everyone knows the media sensationalise everything anyway, as I learnt on my last trip traveling through ‘war-torn’ Nepal. Needless to say, Zimbabwe turned out to be brilliant, and we didn’t any trouble whatsoever, or even any hassle). Interestingly, the flight to Lilongwe passed through Nairobi and we had the option of stopping over there if we liked. This gave us the opportunity of stopping over and possibly doing another safari there if the dates worked out and once there was availability, so I took a chance and booked that option. Naturally, when we then rang the safari company there was no problem at all in getting a safari for the day we wanted.
It felt great to have everything organized so easily and quickly. We now had a few days left in Uganda (I wanted to visit Entebbe and Jinga, a town near Kampala that is reputed to be the source of the River Nile (although a couple of other countries claim to have the source too), and has good white-water rafting), I’d also get to do another safari in Amboseli National Park in Kenya (meaning we’d have a chance to at least see Kilimanjaro, having already decided that climbing it just wouldn’t be worth it), and then we’d have 10 days or so to mess about in Malawi and to make our way from there to Harare once the coast was clear.
Having gotten everything done quickly, we now had some time to kill, so I decided to try and see the Uganda Museum. Of course, Negator (pronounced Neg-a-tor by the way, not Nee-gate-er) initially complained at the idea of this, but relented when I simply said I’d go on my own and just meet up with her later – and it was lucky that she did too. As it turned out, the rafting company we wanted to use in Jinga has an office right next door to the Uganda Museum. I knew from their advertising that they will pick you up for the rafting in Kampala if you like, which would be nice as it would save us the hassle of getting to Jinga and finding accommodation on our own. So we popped in and naturally they had space the very next day.
So that meant we could really relax, everything was now sorted out for the next few days. To celebrate we went to the best restaurant in the best hotel – the Nile Serena Hotel’s ‘Pearl of Africa’. It was all a little strange hanging around this fabulous five-star hotel for the afternoon (and blagging my way into getting a personal tour of the extensive leisure facilities), then eating in their very exclusive restaurant (and paying $95 for the privilege, literally over 10 times what we’d normally pay in a nice restaurant for dinner), and then returning back to our hovel of a guesthouse that was $5 for the night. It sure is nice to be able to afford to mix it up a bit now and again.
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