After about a week in Kampala, we left to take a whirlwind tour of the North. We invited our Ugandan friend, Jimmy, to join us. And, along with our driver – Henry, we had a fun group.
On the way to our first destination, we stopped to see a Uganda friend, also named Henry. About six years ago, when I was driving North with a team from Park Avenue Baptist Church, we had a mechanical failure on our car. The back tires locked up at about 60 mph and we ended up making a dangerous 360 across the road. Luckily, no one was coming the other way and no pedestrians were in our path. We were not injured, but the car was done for the day. While we waited for a tow truck to come from Kampala, a young man from the local area came up to ask us if we needed help. At first, I rebuffed his offers because I thought he was just trying to make white friends whom he thought might give him some money. However, we soon realized that Henry was sincere in his offers to help. He brought us to his nearby home where he allowed us to rest in the shade and provided good company while we waited hours for the tow truck. I have never forgotten his kindness. I now try to visit him every time that I am in Uganda. We were able to stop by his home again and see him. He also took us to meet some of his teachers at the school he used to attend. In the past six years, Henry has been studying to become an ordained priest and will be ordained next year. We were so happy to be able to see him during this trip.
The first big stop was Murchison Falls National Park, a popular game park in Uganda. Murchison Falls was first “discovered” by European explorers in 1862. The national park was established in 1952 and now encompasses just over 2400 square miles. We were able to hit all the highlights in the two days that we were there: visiting the falls, a safari drive, and a boat ride on the Nile. It was the first time to the park for Jeff and Jimmy, and thankfully we all had a fantastic experience. And although I have been to this park multiple times, I have never seen so many animals as close up as I did this time. Unfortunately, there has also been a considerable rate hike in the past couple years that targets foreign visitors, so this might also be our last trip to Murchison for a while (or forever if park fees continue to go up).
As soon as we arrived, we visited the top of the falls. It is a violent and dazzling sight. As described on the Uganda Wildlife Authority website: the raging waters of “the Nile squeezes through an 8 meter wide gorge and plunges with a thunderous roar into the ‘Devil’s Cauldron’, creating a trademark rainbow.” In a typical African lack of safety standards, there are no guardrails or safety ropes at the edge of the river. There is only one lonely sign before the water plummets over the falls that advises visitors not to venture any further. Visitors can literally walk to the edge of the falls, with the raging rapids passing by directly in front of their eyes. I get nervous just looking out at rushing the water, and feel humbled before the awesome power of nature. No matter how many times I see these falls, it is always a rush… no pun intended.
The next morning, we awoke before dawn and caught the first ferry across the river to begin our game drive. We had a hired park ranger/wildlife guide to ride with us. He pointed out the best viewing spots, and educated us about all the wildlife we were seeing. We were also the first group to find some lions: a few cubs and then the momma. We saw an abundance of giraffe and antelope, as well as a good number of water buffalo, various monkeys, and wart hogs. The highlights were a dung beetle rolling his ball of dung across the road, followed by an up close and personal experience with a herd of elephants. (See end of post for videos.)
That afternoon, we took a leisurely boat ride up the Nile River to the bottom of Murchison Falls. We saw mostly birds, hippos, and some crocodiles in the distance. The noteworthy part of the boat ride was the time we spent sitting on the boat prior to departure because they had to refuel. This involved docking the boat for about an hour while they procured a vehicle to go fill up a large 60 gallon drum with diesel. In true Ugandan fashion, they “unloaded” the drum by simply flipping it off the back of the pickup truck onto a waiting tire that cushioned its landing and flipped it upright onto the ground. They then tipped the drum sideways to fill up several jerry cans that were manually carried onto the boat and dumped into the fuel tank. Sounds safe, right?
All in all, it was a great “safari” trip.
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