Murchison Falls

 These are supposed to be the most spectacular falls in West Africa, so anticipation was high.

We decided to go with the Red Chilli Company, which has a rest lodge in Kampala. We had a fairly uneventful if long and bumpy bus ride in to the capital, just as dusk was falling, we had to walk a little way to exchange money etc, however it was the most terrifying experience so far, it is just a chaotic mingling of people, stalls, bicycles, taxis and huge coaches all vying for every square inch of space, there is little definition of road, pavement etc. At one point there was a huge coach trying to leave the bus park, across which there was a row of boda boda (motor cycles) through which pedestrians were crossing and across which the normal traffic was crawling along.  The coach decided it was time to leave and just kept ploughing through, albeit very slowly, the boda bodas were trying to scramble away, leaving the pedestrians (that was me) to be pushed into the flow of other traffic, I just held on to the boda until I could see a gap to get out.   

The rest house even though it was still in Kampala it was very quiet, it has flushing toilets and hot showers, the best.  We joined a disparate group of other travellers, which is always fun and set off for the north.  It takes the best part of a day to get there and we were grateful for a really comfortable camp, with proper beds, we were warned not to keep food in our tents as both the warthogs and hippos have a sweet tooth or two.  The camp was founded by a British ex diplomat, Steve Willis, who was killed in 2005 whilst helping a marooned raft, by the LRA, the company still provides funds to support water projects etc for the local community.  It is strange to think that such terrible conflict was waged in this beautiful area so recently, from which both the human and animal populations are still recovering.

The tour consisted of early morning game drive, with a dawn crossing of the Nile.  

We were fortunate to see lions, including one female with a kill, elephant, many waterbuck and other antelope, hippos and my particular reason to have this safari, giraffe they are so graceful, the last one we saw leaving the park appeared to have a broken leg.  I also saw a one eared antelope, and other limping badly, I guess these are the survivors, for the time being anyway.

In the afternoon, we took river trip 17 km up to the falls, we had seen the foam generated by the turbulence even as we got on the boat, the river is so wide here, wider than Lake Albert in places, even now at the beginning of the rainy season when it is at it’s lowest.

We saw more elephant, swimming this time; hundreds of hippos and some 3m crocs.  We eventually approached the falls and were able to climb out on to a rock to get a more central view, they are tremendous, 6000l/s through a 6m gap.  We couldn’t get too close because of the turbulence generated.  

We had a gentle cruise back and I thought it appropriate to have a Nile Special on the Nile.

The next morning we went on a walk to the top of the falls, we could hear them even as we arrived, as we got closer I could feel it in my chest.  I am not sure the photos do it justice I have video which is better but can’t upload it until I find a broad band connection.  

It was definitely the highlight of the trip although seeing all the game in their natural habitat was fantastic too.