Leaving Nairobi we stopped at the local 'Nakumatt' for a few last minute essentials and then headed west to a town called Eldoret. We passed the viewpoint for the Great Rift Valley and looked out across this vast plain in awe. Chris pointed out all the places we were going to visit later on (Maasai Mara, Longonot Crater etc) and I spent the day staring out of the window admiring the expansive views of Africa. Please excuse the hanky-hair look in this photo, it's a necessity when travelling with open windows on dusty roads, I just have to deal with looking like Nora Batty.
At Eldoret we set up camp for the first time at a place called Naiberi Campsite. Dave was a pro already, having travelled up from South Africa with African Trails with his girlfriend Dervla (who unfortunately had to head home to go back to work from Nairobi). So being a pro, Dave introduced Sean and I to our tent - a pretty nice affair with ample room for two and decent thick and spongy camping mats. We headed down to the pool for a quick dip (which turned out to be very quick 'cause the water was freezing!), then headed down to the bar. Blimey, what a site! It was like stepping into a adventure theme park. There was a stream running through it with frogs in it, a campfire and statues of animals everywhere, it even had its own bridge. Team that with about 15 dogs and a cold 'Tusker' beer and we were very pleased. It didn't even matter that the campsite showers had no water, 'cause that just meant we were allowed to use the lovely posh ones in the spa!
So I was already enjoying myself after day one.
On day two we drove across the border into Uganda at the Busia/Malaba crossing.
We turned right in Tororo and headed up towards our first 'attraction' - Sipi Falls. The scenery was visibly greener in Uganda and when Chris took a wrong turn in the truck we were met with the most fantastic drive through Uganda villages with children almost waving their arms off at us in delight at seeing 'Muzungus' in this massive 30 tonne truck rattle by. At one point Chris stopped to ask directions and was told that we'd gone the wrong way, so he cleverly turned this massive vehicle around on their narrow village dirt road, only to then be told by someone else that we should continue the way we were going. This was hysterical! We were pretty sure at this point the locals were just having a laugh with us! So turn around we did and on we carried as we had been. Oh how they laughed at us! When we reached the gateway to the National Park area we knew that we'd done something wrong, so Chris managed to find the park rangers office and after he bought a 'Friend A Gorilla' charity cap from him and offered to give a lift to one of the rangers who happened to be on his way up to Sipi we set off back down the road only slightly to the last village we'd been through where we had taken the wrong road (seems the previous village was right after all).
We dropped off our 'guide' near the Sipi town and headed to our next camp, Crows Nest. It was a bit cloudy and spitting with rain when we arrived, but this didn't stop us all gasping at the wonderful views out over the valley and the waterfall. We promptly opened a beer and sat on the terrace watching this view. Since it was now pretty dark, Chris treated us to food from the bar - and this was real local stuff. And by george it was blooming marvellous! We ate Poshi (or Ugali as it's known in Kenya - a kind of maize porridge that looks like mash potato), goat stew, ground nut sauce, chappati, sumake (a green spinach type veg), spicy bean something or other which we loved and loads more. We were so full and so satisfied! By far the best local African meal we'd had to date! By this time we were all in the swing of getting to know one another and so it was only when the storm knocked over our gas lamp and it smashed to the floor that we realised how much the storm was picking up and that we'd probably best get snuggled up in our tents.
The next day was bright and sunny and we headed off early with our guide towards Sipi Falls.
We worked our way down a long set of 'steps' and then across some small tracks along the edge of the valley. Our guide stopped to tell us about the different types of plants and how they are used (coffee, something they boil to settle upset tummies and another with leaves that are rather good as toilet paper).
We soon reached the first pool of the waterfall. This has a 95m drop and was really something to behold. All the boys stripped off and went for a swim (I'm sorry but it was far too cold for me to contemplate so I acted as cameraman). The looks on their faces kinda made me happy with my decision!
We made our way over rocks to the other side of the river and then started our flipping steep climb up to the second level of the falls. My goodness gracious this was hard work. This was so steep that at one point they had built a ladder for us to climb (as our guide of course nimbly ran up the cliff face at the side of it). Then across the main road at the top, through a posh lodging's garden and a little into the forest again and you come across the second tier. You approached this one from under the rock so there were lots of 'showers' of falls to stand under (we were all so sweaty that the boys just stayed clothed this time and got in).
Then we headed back to the main road and followed it back to the campsite where we scoffed down our pre-ordered lunch and got ready to head off.
Sipi was delightful. And if anyone happens to be in that area, I highly recommend it - and you have to eat at Crows Nest. It really was that good.
We continued our westward journey, camping by the Nile at Jinja the next night. The sunset over the Nile at Jinja was stunning but we were told we return here later in the trip, so I won't blog about it too much for now.
We headed through the capital, Kampala the following day. The local elections had just been held and you could notice the police presence. That and all the millions (literally millions) of campaign posters. If a dog sat still for too long I'm pretty sure someone would have stuck one on him. They were everywhere.
Museveni had won for the third term and political parties were organizing celebration parties. At one roundabout we pulled over to let a police van and his wailing siren go by. Not hearing more sirens Chris pulled back to continue round the roundabout only to scrap along a second police van. Oh dear. We were rather caught side by side. This of course meant that everyone had to come and have a look. People in the cars behind got out, everyone on the street stopped and looked. And of course EVERYONE has something to add about how to separate the two vehicles. Fortunately for us this van was in a hurry to something far more important so after 10 minutes of decoupling, checking that neither vehicle had any major damage they sped off. However, Chris had of course taken off his seat-belt as part of this venture so just past the roundabout another police car stopped him about that misdemeanour and so the age-old bribe was offered - $10 for his 'lunch'. This chap was smart and quickly replied "But there are 6 of us in the car". So 60 bucks lighter of wallet, Chris was able to continue our journey. And low and behold - just outside of Kampala after ages in a traffic queue who should drive past our truck but Museveni himself in policy convoy!
After that our journey onwards was uneventful (except for a comedy moment when we stopped for petrol and the attendant had to hand pump in the petrol because there wasn't any power (poor sod, this is a big truck with a big tank!) and we spent the next night at Mbarara University Inn where we were treated with some hot rod racing cars revving until the early hours in the car park a few feet from our tents. Nice.
The next day we headed to Lake Bunyonyi near Kimbale. We stopped in Kimbale before heading to our campsite to pick up some stuff for dinner from the local markets. Dave and I got given our allowance and headed off into the throngs. I'm pretty sure that in the vegetable market we bought stuff just because it was thrown into our baskets and everything we bought was '1 kilo's' worth cause asking for anything less was just too complicated.
The butcher was a Sweeney Todd-esque delight of flying knives and whacking thuds. I dare not ask for anything less than what we bought here for fear of my life. This guy was seriously talented! Then Chris joined up with us again and he told us we needed to buy chicken. An actual chicken. A live chicken. Dave and I weren't exactly sure what to say when Chris told us to pick one, so Chris took charge, choose a 'plump' specimen and we headed back to the truck with the chicken (which became affectionately known as Schnitzel) under his arm.
We upturned the library book box, threw in some newspaper and Schnitzel got settled into his last home on board the truck. Jake took a shine to Schnitzel and calmed him down by covering his eyes. I'm pretty sure by the time we reached the camp this chicken was the happiest it had probably ever been.
We gave it a few more hours of relative happy life with food, water and lack of millions of other chickens climbing on it and then sent it off to the kitchen for slaughtering. Schnitzel returned to us like any other chicken from Sainsburys and Sean and I set about cooking 'Schnitzel's Demise' - a rather delicious Thai Green Chicken Curry.
The poor chicken's final few hours of freedom thereafter became known as 'Schnitzel's Last Stand'.
The beautiful camp at Lake Bunyoni would be our home for a few days as it's the jumping off point for our first 'big deal' attraction - the Mountain Gorillas.
Here are the photos:
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