Spam & Spam on safari

This weekend me and the Norwegian girls have been on a safari to Murchinson falls national park in northwestern Uganda -and it was GREAT! We were picked up at our hostel early Friday morning by Tony, our guide that we met when we were in Fort Portal. The drive to the national park took about 5 hours and when we got there we first went to see the Murchinson waterfall. It was very nice and refreshing to see some splashing water after we've been sitting in a hot car on dusty roads half the day. After the waterfall we went to Red Chilli, which was the camp where we'd stay for the weekend. It was so quiet and nice there and nighttime there were soooo many stars to look at. It was also then, in the evening when I was looking at all the stars, that I realised that I'm still in the northern hemisphere...Embarrasing...Someone hasn't checked the map properly before she left Finland...I thought all the time that I was on the other side of the equator...Anyway, the camp was very nice. It had wild warthogs running around there and you could either stay in a tent or a house. To my surprise we got to stay in a house (I didn't really know what we were going to do and see, I just went along on the trip). The house was nicer than Akamwesi -our home in Kampala. Nice beds with mosquito nets, couches both inside and outside on the porch and CANDLES. That comes very handy when the electricity is turned off at midnight. That evening we were all in a good mood, we had a couple of beers and I even went out hippo-spotting at night before I went to bed. But I didn't see any :o(

The next day we had to get up eeeaaaarly in the morning while it was still dark. Urk!After a quick breakfast, we had to rush to the ferry that would take us over to the other side of the Nile, which is dividing the national park into two parts. It almost felt like home when we rushed to the ferry :o) I liked it how they drove the ferry. It was very small and when it was about to pull up on the other riverbank it didn't slow down, instead it just drove a bit faster until it hit the shore and slided up on land. I wonder if it would work to do the same with the Bergo-ferry...? After this the safari began and we saw lots of baboons, elephants, different kinds of antilopes, giraffes, the national bird of Uganda (I don't remember the name of it...) and other birds, but NO lions. We drove around for maybe 1h just trying to find the lions, but they were very good at hiding. Eventually, we gave up and drove back to the camp to have lunch.

In the afternoon we went out on the Nile river with a boat to look at hippos and crocodiles. We saw lots of hippos and some crocodiles. I like hippos and giraffes, they're cute! To me it would have been ok if the boattrip had lasted only 1h, that's how much time you need to see hippos. After that it feels like you've seen them all...But, the boattrip didn't last 1h, it lasted 3,5 h and it was sunny and hot and we run out of water. It was B-O-R-I-N-G. Our guide was with us and I had to ask him if he goes out on the boat every time he's there with some people (I thought it would be crazy if he did) and he said NO! He never does the boattrip because it's too long and too hot. He must have really liked us, since he came out on the boat with us. When the boattrip was finally over we went back to the camp, slightly dehydrated, tired and laughing hysterically at everything and nothing. That evening we were a little bit more quiet than the night before and we all went early to bed.

Sunday morning we didn't do anything special. We just got up and went back to Kampala -home sweet home, with all the cars, noise and dust. I really enjoyed the whole trip, although we didn't get to see any lions. To me it didn't matter, whatever I saw was new to me and it was all very beautiful. If only the trip could have lasted a little bit longer.

Yesterday I had to go back to school. Now I feel that we're starting to get a bit more busy, I don't like it. It's been good so far, it has felt as if I've been on a long holiday. Today I'm happy, because it's a public holiday again :oD It's the end of ramadan and all the muslims are celebrating it and therefor everyone else also get to have a day off. YES! I thought it was a bit funny though, because still yesterday evening no one knew whether the public holiday would be today or on Wednesday. I couldn't understand why it would be so impossible to find out, but then someone explained to me that it's the moon that decides. If they could see the moon in Mecca yesterday, then today would be the end of ramadan and if not, then it would be on Wednesday. Well, today is a public holiday, so I guess someone saw the moon in Mecca yesterday.