Uganda: Murchison Falls

Wednesday 17th June: Uganda. Murchison Falls National Park:

We woke early, dined on weetabix, banana & cold milk, followed by a mug of hot tea cooked on our own stove, overlooking the Victoria Nile. We set off to catch the 10 am ferry to the other side, the crossing takes about 10 minutes.

Once there, we did our own game drive tour around the Murchison Falls National Park. We spent about 3 hours there and saw Elephant, Buffalo, Giraffe & Warthog, plus the usual Impala. At 2pm we went on a 3 hour round trip boat trip, to the Murchison Falls itself. Along the way we saw crocodile & literally dozens of hippos, elephants grazing at the waters edge as well as lots of different birds.

I enquired as to what would happen if anyone fell overboard and was told that a croc or a hippo would have you before you’d either drown or be pulled back in. I can quite believe it. We stopped for photos near the falls and then made our way back downstream. It took 2 hours to get to the falls but only one hour to get back, thanks to a fast flowing river. We made it back just in time for the 5 pm ferry and were back in our camp site at 5.30. We got a bit of a shock when we drove in because there was another vehicle parked and a tent erected.

The camp fire was lit soon after and our new neighbours joined us to say hello. Hannah, from Oxford in the UK, is a newly qualified doctor, doing a one month volunteer stint at a hospital in Uganda. Although critical of some of the NHS failings, she told us she had new respect for it after her experiences in Uganda. Johan, her boyfriend, flew out from the UK to have a week camping with her and they were leaving the next morning for Kampala & London.

We had an enjoyable time & they joined us later after they returned from the restaurant at the nearby hotel. Meanwhile, we set up our cooking gear & had pasta with tuna plus a few glasses of wine. We’d had a pretty hectic day; we were tired, and called it a night at about 10pm, with the sound of hippos snorting in the background. At 2am I was awake, feeling a bit uncomfortable. Sure enough, my air mattress was quite flat & I was now sleeping on the ground. It was about as effective as a sheet on the ground. At 2 am I was not going to look for the pump & disturb everyone, not to mention the possibility of meeting a hippo on the way to the car, so I just resigned myself to a rather uncomfortable night. Needless to say, I was up early.