Murchison falls national park

Located 300KMs away from Kampala, Murchison falls national park is the largest in Uganda. It is home to four of the big five including: Buffalo, Elephant,Lion and Leopard.

We set off from Kampala and decided to drive down to Masindi town which is about two and half hours drive.  There isn't much to see along the road except for the scattered road side markets which sell farm products expensively. I would recomend that you pick up whatever you need on your trip from Kampala before you set off. I have a sweet tooth so biscuits and chocolates along with mineral water made the trip bearable. At the turn off from the Gulu highway to Masindi town is some roasted food including chicken, cassava, maize and I don't remember what the rest was. You could suffer a mild tummy upset especially if you do eat the meat :) not that scary, so nothing to prevent you from venturing out really .

Even though you can make the trip directly to the park, we spent the night in Masindi town before proceeding to the national park the next morning. If you choose to spend the night in Masindi town, Kopling hotel is the place to be. They have these beautiful cottages for about $50, well it wasnot peak season when we went. Notice I said the cottages in particular, I cannot say the same for the rooms!  The breakfast was fair for an upcountry hotel.

The national park is two hours away from Masindi town. It is divided into two by the victoria nile. The gorgeous Paraa safari lodge is located across the victoria nile and there is a ferry that crosses every top of the hour starting 9 oçlock I think it was. The service is exquisite and lately, the Marasa group of hotels is giving Ugandans (sorry people) an offer of $100 per head, full board over the weekend. You know you can always go with a Ugandan partner and still benefit from this offer- that is simply how nice we are :)

Above is the swimming pool for residents at paraa safari lodge.

Back to the national park adventure. We took a boat ride to the bottom of the murchison falls.This is one of the many activities that you can do while at the park. Along the river banks there is lots of animals to see. The hippos enjoying their swim and splashing water, the crocodiles, lots of birds- there are 450 species of birds! You can tell am not really in for birds ......but well for bird watchers, something to look forward to.

We also took an evening game drive and apart from the big four, there is lots of girraffes, anteloppes, Ugandakobs,the hartebeest and oribi. On this trip we even saw a lion and a hyena as well! You know how rare lions are. This particular male lion was apparently sick as we tracked him down from his "home"( thanks to our zealous tour guide-Rose) and noticed a slight limp to his walk.
My favourite on this game drive though (and almost always) were the  giraffes all so tall and graceful.

You could also take a trip to the top of the murchison falls which we didnot do. At the end of two days in the park we were thoroughly exhausted and refreshed.

Plan to visit this great national park before this year runs out! Happy New Year!

Sipi Falls

I have been to these magnificent falls twice so far but I cannot get enough of them. They are just amazing!

Sipi falls are found in Kapchorwa district which is about 45mins drive from Mbale town. The road is turmac with light traffic all the way. Today I made my way there and this feeling is gonna last me a month. It was awesome.

the falls 100M high. Notice the beautiful rainbow

It is not a cup of coffee getting to the falls.These ladders made out of poles that the visitors have to use to get to the falls. I had to crawl for some part.

 the slippery path leading to the bottom of the falls. the kind tour guide who helps visitors up the steep path

Taking a break

Mbale

Located in the eastern part of Uganda, Mbale is one town that you cannot miss. I arrived here Thursday night and am gonna be here for the next 30 days atleast. I intend to tell you about my experience here on the foots of mount Elgon.

My first task was finding decent affordable accomodation seeing as I am here for a month,I don't want to leave without an arm and a leg.

Well,I have good news. I found this perfect place. It is located within town but not exactly in the middle of town. The staff are very friendly, the rooms are fabolous and for that you have to part with just ugx 62,000.

 Olive leaf hotel in Mbale

Too little time too much to do

I notice it is June already and I last posted in Jan- shame!
Truth be told, I have not travelled much  at all for the last six months (sad). I surely want to do better for the second half of the year, so help me God!

Fort Portal, here I come

the post office where you can pick a post bus back to Kampala or further on to kasese

This town is not over hyped about. I never thought about visiting it until a friend who hails from there once mentioned to me. "Have you been to Fortportal, how about visiting it one of these days?"

Fortportal  is 4 hours drive from Kampala in a bus (could be slightly more). On the bus, I sat next to this very bubbly lady. She however spoke in the local dialect, so the best I could do was smile sheepily. I figured, it must be something interesting she is trying to show me. Before our friendship, I had beef for her though. She sat right next to the window and kept shutting it. If not for aeration, I love to keep the bus window open so I can get to take some nice pictures as the bus flies past.

This mysterious lady was so interesting. First of all, as the bus conductor came round verifying our tickets she declared how she hadn't paid the bus fare. Reason, she had no cash but was expecting someone to meet her at the destination and clear her fare. The bus conductors must be accustomed to hearing such tales because he let her off the hook. Meanwhile im thinking, really!!! thats the downside of working in a financial institution, you tend to treat people with suspicion alot of the time.
My encounter was not about to come to an end with this madam maa'm. Along the way, there are some stop overs that the bus  makes so passengers can buy refreshments ie roasted beef, maize, plantain etc.. I had carried some snacks from Kampala because I don't do roadside snacks alot. But I needed a drink. Out of concern I asked my neighbour whether there is something that she wanted to eat, she looked at me with this innocence of a child and went "auntie, I don't have any money" (in Uganda many times a stranger will refer to you as auntie, its their way of being polite). I told her, it was okay to pick whatever she wanted to eat, it was on me. Now, I guess you know why she got all bubbly after this!

The town is built on a hill absolutely breathe taking

Fort Portal is one beautiful and clean town. I was mesmerized. I wanted to take it all in at once and believe me, within two hours of getting to Fort as it is fondly called, I had toured the whole town. when I close my eyes, I still see the map of Fortportal town. Did I mention that I visited it 4 months  ago?

Look out for my next post about my experience in Fortportal!


The neat town.

Gulu

If you have heard about the rebel Kony, then you have certainly heard about Gulu. By the way it is pronounced as "GU LOU."  it is located in the northern part of Uganda, about 5 hours drive from Kampala. The road is good all the way. Good here meaning it is turmac all the way. The traffic is not heavy at all especially after you leave Kampala.

I made my first ever trip to Gulu about 12 weeks ago. I was motivated by the fact that the people of Gulu have gone through a very difficult time of war until 5 years ago. For a period of about 20 years, all we heard about Gulu was: war, child soilders, camps, abduction, suffering, name it. Can you imagine being born, growing up and all you have known is war! terrible.

Gulu town

The town is now back to normal and has become a tourist destination. Infact you find more tourists in Gulu town than the natives. As a result the cost of living in Gulu town is higher than in Kampala. Alot of organisations especially NGOs and banks have branches in Gulu town. You will mostly find stuff to get by only that it will be more costly. In the supermarkets, items cost between ugx500 and ugx 1000 more.

uchumi supermarket

I also discovered a bakery that makes nice confectionery right opposite the taxi park. I was able to buy a freshly made muffin to munch on my way back to Kampala.
Accomodation;
Depending on how much you are willing to spend,there are the high end hotels and then the shoe string kind of places. I noticed coronation street having lots of the affordable but relatively good places. Do not be deceived by the outside, please get in and actually look at the rooms before you pay. I noticed that the good places were not exactly very attractive from the outside. Talk about not all that glitters.
Customer experience;
If you have been to other places around Uganda, don't expect too much care in Gulu please. Customer care is not their thing, they will seemingly shout at you, but  thats just them. My worst experience was when I enquired about a service that I was not satisfied with and the attendant turned to a colleague and complained that I was bad. Ofcourse they said that in the local dialect but I happen to know that particular word. Well, they ended up not attending to my issue anyway. It is not a rare occurence to be involved in bitter exchanges with the staff in places. I noticed the staff of Acholi inn are however very polite.

places....

These are the Karuma falls, found along river Nile. Very beautiful . This is on your way to Gulu town.