It seems like so much stuff happens everyday, that it’s hard to remember everything that happened after my last posting in Kampala. I took a boda boda (motorbike taxi) from town back to the Red Chili. Was that ever crazy! Traffic is insane and nobody stays in their lanes or takes turns. At one point we were driving down the wrong side of the median into on coming traffic, but we somehow managed to make it back in one piece.

We did do our big night out on the town. We started by going to a bowling/karaoke bar. Everyone else in my group was too chicken to sing, but Claire and I ran right up to the stage and impressed the audience with our rendition of Madonna’s “Holiday”. We even won free beers since we had the guts to be one of the first ones to sing.(You can take the girl out of Asia, but you can’t take the Asian out of the girl, I guess.) Anyways, after a few drinks we got most of the girls up on stage and butchered “Brown Eyed Girl”.

At about midnight, we joined up with some more people from different overland trucks and went to a nightclub. We had a great time! Kaz finally had to force us all to go home at about 3:30.

Claire and I had to drag our butts out of bed at 7:30am that morning. We had signed up to go to Chimp Island, so we were suffering a bit that morning. We took a car out to Lake Victoria, and then took a 1 hour speed boat ride across the lake to Chimp Island.

The first thing the man said to us was that if there was an emergency we should all run down to the boat. I was thinking, “what kind of emergency could happen here?!” Then he told us a delightful story about how one of the caretakers had had most of his fingers and toes bitten off by some crazy chimp that had escaped from the fenced in area. (It had attacked him and instead of rolling up in a ball like he was supposed to do, he had kicked at and punched at the chimp. So that’s when the chimp bit him.)

It really was a cool experience though! We got to sit really close to the chimps (on the other side of a fence) and they fed them a bunch of fruit and veg. The chimps are so human like. Some of them actually peeled the carrots with their teeth before they ate them, so that they didn’t have to eat the outside. It really felt like you were watching evolution take place, especially when they walked on 2 legs, interacted with each other, and ate.

One carrot didn’t make it over the fence and a chimp saw it sitting there. So he found a stick and tried to pull/ push it to his side of the fence. Another one had a few carrots in his hands, and another chimp didn’t have any. The one without the carrots came and sat my the one with food and sort of gave him a sad puppy dog face and begged for one. The other one crossed his arms, hid his food, and turned his back on the beggar. (He looked just like a kid that doesn’t want to share.) Eventually after a lot of begging, the greedy one shared little bits of the carrot with the other guy. It was so cool watching them!

After Chimp Island, we stopped in Kampala at a local restaurant and had some great African food. (I was really missing local food. It’s great to eat salads, sandwiches, and steak all the time, but you really miss out on the experience of eating with the locals an seeing what it’s really like in the country.) Then we set off for Jinja. Jinja is the source of the Nile. So there are tons of touristy activities to do here like white water rafting, ATVing, mountain biking, bungee jumping, walking tours etc.

I needed a little break from my group (some alone time), so I decided to take a boda boda to town and explores a bit, than I’m doing a village walk in the afternoon. Tomorrow, I’ll be white water rafting down the Nile! I’m so excited!

We left Rwanda, and made our way back to Lake Bunyoni in Uganda. The first time we camped there we basically had the whole place and to ourselves. That was not the case this time! There were at least 5 or 6 overland trucks there (carrying at least 12 people each), so we were basically camping on top of each other. We were glad to get away from the crowd and head out early the next morning for Queen Elizabeth National Park.

Queen Elizabeth National Park is in North-western Uganda, so almost on the border of the Congo. We did a quick afternoon game drive around and saw a few animals. (This park has alot less animals in it, because the Ugandan army poached the animals until the late 1980’s, so the numbers are just starting to go up again.) It is a beautiful park that borders both Lake Edward and Lake George, so it is really known for it’s hippos and birds.

The campsite was pretty basic, but obviously I’m getting used to that by now. During the night we could hear a bunch of hippos grunting and hyenas. We even had one hyena walking right up to our tents looking for food.

The next morning we woke up early (before sunrise) and headed off on a game drive. We saw a bunch of different birds, hyenas, water bucks, gazelles, impalas, and cobs. (This park is sort of know for it’s cobs, which basically look like a cross between a deer and a gazelle. Not too excited but it was fun to watch them because it’s their mating season.) Then some people saw a leopard run up to a tree and hide in the grass. It’s very hard to see leopards, so it was sort of a big event. (Unfortunately, I was sitting on the other side of the truck so I couldn’t see him.) I did sort of get a picture of it, but you have to zoom in really close and study the picture pretty hard to see it.

After the game drive, we ate a big brunch and than washed our clothes by hand. (Using buckets and the 1water tap at the camp site. It was a lot of work, I’ll never take my washing machine for granted again.)

In the afternoon, we went on a boat cruise around the lake. It was really the highlight of QE Natinal Park! We saw tons of hippos, elephants, birds, buffalo, and even a croccidle. It sort of felt like that jungle boat ride in Disney World where the hippos pop out of the water all around you. Except this time they were actually real and wild animals. Very cool!

We got really spoiled that evening (our guide, Kaz, is actual one of the owners of Bukima, so she spoils us a bit with meals out and sleeping in realy beds sometimes). Anyways, that night we sat around a very posh safari resort ($300 a night/room) and had some drinks on the balcony. Then we got to eat dinner there too. You’ve never seen a group of people so excited to eat in a fancy restraunt. They had a starter and dessert buffet, plus we got fancy meals too. Boy, were we ever happy!

Unfortunately, as we finished our meal it started to pour down rain. No fun! Remarkable Claire and my tent was the only tent that didn’t leak, so we actually had a decent night sleep. (3 of the guys got some kind of stomach bug, so they were up all night getting soaked in the rain.)

The next day was a 12 hour drive back to the captial of Uganda, Kampala. We are staying at the Red Chili Hideaway. It is pretty nice, but really busy with overland trucks. Today, we got to sleep in! (I woke up at 7:00 am and it was still a sleep in for me.) Then we went to the craft market and bartered a bit with the shopkeepers. I got a few nice things (a painting, picture, frame etc.) Then tonight we’re having a big night out. Eating in a restraunt again, bowling, and drinks! (Wow, maybe we’ll even stay up past 10:00 a big strech for me!)

I have joined my Bukima tour and things are going very well! So far we have had to do a ton of driving (and on really crappy roads, so it’s slow going). My group is really nice. Everyone is basically in their 20’s or early 30’s and most of them are from England or Austraila. There are 3 couples and the rest of us are single girls.

So far the highlights of the trip have been Lake Nakuru National Park, an amazing campsite in Eldoret, and hanging out at Lake Bunyoni in Uganda. At Lake Nakuru we saw white rhinos, black rhinos, lions, giraffes, zebras, impalas, gazelles, etc. We camped in the National Park and there was no fence around our campsite, so it was a bit scary. (She told us that lions and buffalos have been known to walk in between the tents.)

We are traveling really fast because we need to be in Rwanda for our gorilla trek on the 9th. (I’m excited that we get to go to Rwanda it wasn’t on the inital itinerary, so I’ll be going to 10 countries on this trip.)

The truck is pretty nice and comfrotable. And we have been eating really well. We have 3 huge meals everyday. Breakfast is ushually cereal, fruit, yogurt, eggs, and sausage. For Lunch we have good salads and sandwiches with tons of veggies, and for dinner we have had alot of yummy things like steak, chicken, pasta etc.

Today, we got to chill on Lake Bunyoni in the southwestern corner of Uganda. It is a beautiful lake! We took dugout canoes and paddled around to some of the islands. (The dugout is literally a tree trunk that they have carved the middle out of.)

I’m having a great time, but won’t be able to post much since the Internet is really crappy and unreliable here.