Tuesday 22 January 2013

A short cruise on the Nile

Freshly brewed coffee, french toast and crispy bacon- breakfast Red Chilli style.

We crossed the Paraa ferry again, this time on foot to collect the car left on the other side late last night.  All seemed fine - no croc bite marks or hippo dents.

When we tried to get it on the ferry however, we were asked to pay again, "but we paid yesterday" we replied.  But apparently the tickets are only valid for 1 day, so if you don't use your return portion it is pay all over again.  I suppose it serves us right for getting so stupidly stuck.

We joined the afternoon UWA cruise to the Murchison Falls.  In blisteringly hot sunshine - but thankfully they were selling cold Nile Special beers.

The cruise goes up river passing cliffs of bee eaters, floating rafts of hippos, the occasional basking croc and quite a few elephants drinking at the water's edge.  The birdlife is spectacular and our guide did his best to answer the questions from the couple in front of us who had a printed checklist of the birds of Uganda which they were trying to fill in.  We found it much better just to watch the birds without the pressing urge to actually identify the little blighters.

You don't get very close to the falls on the boat, the gorge narrows and the boat cannot fit.  An option is to get off the boat and walk up, as long as you have a guide to drive you back home again.  It seemed too hot for this option to be much fun, but those who have been say it is spectacular.

Our adventurous spirit has been dampened slightly by yesterday's fun.

Back at the camp we ate dinner in front of a developing thunderstorm which slowly headed our way.  We retired early to our banda, which was lucky as the storm hit and blew horizontal rain through the bar and tossed the furniture around.  The lightning was breaking constantly and the ground outside quickly flooded the tents.  This went on for about 2 hours, leaving a few of our fellow campers a bit traumatised.

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