At the top of the falls & the long journey back...

Another bumpy ride back - red dirt and dust flying everywhere. We drive up the mountain on the perimeter of the park this morning, and I'm looking out the window into the forests at the side of the road. I'm dying to catch a glimpse of some chimpanzees, although I know the chances are slim. You can actually book multiple day chimp tracking or gorilla tracking excursions in Uganda, and when I come back to this country, I'm going to do this for sure - I've always been fascinated with the great apes.

I stand up and look through the sun roof, getting covered in red as the van in front of us lifts up dirt and dust and the wind carries it our way. A thin layer of dirt covers all my clothes and every area of exposed skin. I give myself a little sponge bath with Baby Wipes, and then give up - it is useless, I would need about twenty packs to get it all off. We're also covered in DEET. The tsetse flies are awful in this region, we've been warned. We aren't quite sure what these vicious little flies transmit - but we know it's something that we can't be vaccinated against. Dengue fever, we assume. (Actually it's something pretty scary known as "sleeping sickness").

When we get close to the falls, we pull over and get to hike up to the top. The water is rushing, as we look down on the Nile - on where we were yesterday, cruising around looking for animals. I feel a bit like we are the only people in the world. After some quick photos, we pile back into our van and prepare for a seven hour ride back to Lweza. Our "vacation" is coming to an end. Tomorrow we're back to our regular volunteer rotation.

The whole way home we are pelted with red dust - it's too hot not to drive with the windows open and too dirty to leave them open. Since I seem to be the only one wearing a light coloured t-shirt, all my trip mates are marvelling at how dirty I am. Although pretty much covered, for some inexplicable reason the reddy brown dirt is much more pronounced on the boob area of my t-shirt. When I step out of the van at a gas station, Dean calls me "Pigpen." Amy captures my awesome fashion statement in a photo that is far too embarrassing to post in this blog. I want a shower, stat. I'll remember this and laugh at it when I'm clean, for sure. There better be hot water when we get to our "base camp", because I have a feeling I'll need about 30 minutes to scrub all of this grime off.

Safari Day, Part Two: Land

Three hour safari game drive: the group is stoked. A van pulls up at the front of the lodge to pick us up, and the first thing we notice is that there is seating on the roof of the van, which is excellent. Jigna and I climb up to sit on the roof at the front of the vehicle so that we can have the first glimpse of any wildlife.

I spend the next three hours in this spot, holding on tight, feeling the breeze on my face, scanning the horizon for animals, and it feels incredible. Our van is rolling down the grasslands at a decent clip, but our guide slows down if we're approaching animals to give us time to take photos. We get to see a herd of 23 giraffes up close - they are literally surrounding us from all sides. What odd animals - huge, majestic, yet strangely awkward, with such dazzling patterns on their coats.

Later we stop the van amid tons of antelope - beautiful creatures of several different families - many specific to Uganda. Our guide sticks his head out the window and to yell their names out to me, still on the roof. Oribi, Kop, Hartebeest. They are all gorgeous.

We've heard reports of lion sightings from fellow visitors, and we are eager to stumble upon the lion family others have been lucky enough to see. It's getting dark though, and ominous clouds have formed. On the horizon, we can see it is raining. No idea how far away the rain is though. It feels like we can see for miles, and I struggle to judge the actual distance ahead.

Our guide steers us towards a known lion hotspot, and thinks he catches a glimpse of a female, but nobody can be sure. "We're going to try it off-road!" he exclaims, and suddenly our van steers into the brush, into waist high grasses, following what we think is the path of a lionness. The sky gets darker. In the grasses we are blind to obstacles - large rocks, uneven ground. From the roof, I wonder how safe this is. The trail goes cold - we never do find our lionness. Our guide is disappointed, but none of us seem too upset - we are still taking in the beauty around us.

When it starts to rain, we finally get down off the roof and into the van. Visibility is poor due to the weather, and the night sky is taking over. Out in the grasslands, we're not too sure how far we are from the lodge - at least a good hour, and we have only the headlights of the van to guide us back.

We veer around mud puddles and shifted rocks. Inside, we nervously look at each other, and buckle our seat belts. We swerve left and right to avoid obstacles, till finally we hit something hard, and end up in a ditch at the side of the road, the whole van tilted on a 45 degree angle. Everyone leans to the right, afraid we'll tip over completely.

Once we recover from the shock, we all step out of the van in the rain, into the mud, while our guide and driver manage to steady the vehicle and get us back on the road. We all feel like we are in the movie Jurassic Park - wild animals lurking in the darkness around us, rain coming down. What an adventure, though.

Of course, we make it back, safe and sound just like we always do, and we have many great photos to oooh and ahh over, and an amazing story to tell.

Safari Day, Part One: Water

Today we head out on the Nile - the Nile! - on a water safari. We board a small cruise boat, cameras poised. (This is around the time that I start to wish I had a Canon Rebel with a couple of big-ass specialty lenses, and not my little point and shoot 3X zoom digital camera. Fortunately, many of my tripmates do have amazing cameras, and we've all agreed to share photos.)

Our guide is the quiet type - he knows all the good spots to take us, but he doesn't say much. We cruise around the shoreline, searching for wildlife. I spot the first few hippos, floating, enjoying the sun. We then realize they are everywhere. We see hundreds of them.

As we're floating along, we are scanning both the waters and the shore for signs of life. Katie is keeping count of how many we see of what, so we can report back to other travellers. On the shore we see warthogs, baboons, antelope, elephants, and water buffalo. Looking through the binoculars, I am blown away by what I'm seeing. How amazing to get to see wild animals like these in their own habitat - it's like watching the National Geographic channel, except live, and eighty million times cooler. I start fantasizing about how amazing it would be to work on a National Park.

Our driver slows down and brings us to an area where tons of crocodiles are known to hang out. He tells us all to be very quiet. Sure enough, they are there, lots of them, slithering along on the ground and slipping gracefully into water. Wow.

The water around us is covered in foam - we are getting close to the falls. We'll see them from the water today, and tomorrow we'll hike up to the top on land. We stop the boat at some large rocks, where everyone gets out and climbs on top to take photos.

Before we know it, we are at the turn-around point and we spend the entire journey back to land pointing out wildlife to each other, snapping more photos, updating our animal tally sheet, not believing we are here.

First night in Murchison Falls

The bumpy roads and the day of travelling are worth it. We are staying inside Murchison Falls National Park, and it is incredible. After arriving, we take hot showers. (Hot showers!) We talk to other travellers from around the world; we order beers; we eat delicious food. No matoke in sight. The lodge has a campfire set up, a band playing some Ugandan music nearby, and a group of dancers showing us how it's done. It is so nice to relax. When the entertainment wraps up, a bunch of us sit around the fire, downing Nile beers (Slogan:"The True Reward of Progress") and sharing stories.

It's pretty dark, but we have a few flashlights and the campfire light to go by. The lights of our nearby lodge are fairly reassuring, except we start to hear some noises - twigs snapping in the bushes, not far from our bonfire. More branches crackle. "It's something BIG," says Eric. A warden walks by just at the right time, and Eric manages to flag him down.

When the man shines his flashlight down a small hill, into the brush, we are shocked at what we see. Elephants, a family of four, not 20 feet away from us. I think about taking a photo but am worried about what response a camera flash might instigate from these giant beauties. We are absolutely awestruck, and we don't dare make a sound. Amazing.

Day Five: More babies!

Back volunteering with the babies today - though I actually spend a large part of the day helping with the laundry, which is where the home really needs the most help. My non-glamorous responsibilities include pre-scrubbing various baby stains off lots and lots and lots of baby clothes before they go into the washing machine. The clothes are all donated, and some make me laugh, like the "My Grandma Went To Aruba And All She Brought Me Back Was This Stupid T-Shirt" shirt I remember a little girl named Angela wearing the last time I was here. It's not funny at all though, really, when you think about it. Angela probably never even knew her grandmother, and there's no way in hell she ever went to Aruba.

I do get to hang out with the babies during feeding time though. I really like this one kid, a one year old boy with a smile that would melt your heart, and big, bright eyes, and bumps all over his face. He is adorable. I teach him "give me five", and he thinks it is the best thing ever.

We stop at another Internet Café where I pay for 45 minutes of internet time and I can't even connect to my Hotmail inbox. Service is pretty unreliable - you pretty much click a link, then wait...and wait...and wait...and hope the connectivity gods are in your favour. Linda gets lucky, and is generous enough to let me connect from her terminal. I read a quick email from Mike, with her remaining 2 minutes, and don't have a chance to reply.

Early to bed for me tonight. Tomorrow we spend a long day on the bus; we are heading to Gulu, a war-torn area in Northern Uganda, to visit an Internally Displaced People's (IDP) Camp. I know I'm not prepared and I know that nothing will prepare me for just how sad and overwhelming it will be visiting these camps. Having seen War Dance, and Invisible Children, I understand what I am in for, but still...

From there, we continue to Murchison Falls for a 2 day safari, which was our add-on to the trip. We've seen the pamphlets, and our accomodations there look pretty swank. Something feels wrong about visiting an IDP camp, and then only hours later, hanging out at a swim up bar at luxury lodge. I bet the ride there will be deadly quiet after Gulu.

I need to change some more money and do some laundry, since everything I have is either sweaty, or covered in baby goo, or both. It is all going by so fast. This place is amazing.