By Graham
Today we left Jinja at 7am and headed north towards our next coaching destination Masindi but first we had a scheduled day excursion to Murchinson Falls National Park (paid for by the volunteers, not the charity!).
The journey took us via Kampala and we witnessed some heavy traffic (not helped by the ever useless traffic police) on the edge of the city plus some immense pollution which left a heavy haze over the slums that surround the city. The slums are built on wetlands and are often destroyed when the floods come and this unfortunately results in loss of life.
Once again we were greeted on our journey by some great signs. This time they included the Brilliant High School, God is Able Scrap Metal, Jesus Cares Property Broker and my personal favourite Descent Accommodation. We also saw 2 good newspaper stories with CWB being mentioned after our work in Iganga and a crazy headline after Uganda’s defeat in the football (see photos).
We arrived in Masindi after 6 hours on the bus and had a quick stop before we started the final 2 hours to hotel in Murchinson Falls. The 78km journey along a single dirt track road was pretty special. The scenery was still as green as we have seen all over Uganda but we saw pine trees and other trees and plants we hadn’t yet come across. We then saw warthogs, thousands of butterflies, huge birds and baboons! We tried to encourage our driver Joseph to slow down so we could take photos but he was very nervous about the potential highjacking by the evil baboons!
We finally arrived at the Paraa Lodge after 8 hours of travelling and after greasing the palm of the ferry man (3pm ferry to the hotel conveniently cancelled just as we arrived). Across the river were 2 herds of African elephants and hippos to welcome us.
The hotel is very luxurious and the views over the Nile are amazing. We had a well deserved relaxing afternoon by the pool and took the chance to recharge some batteries after many early mornings and some very long and hot coaching days. After a swim we enjoyed some tea and cake and Rich easily polished off 3 (or 4 but who’s counting?) cakes.
Dinner was one of the best meals we have had so far with a buffet with plenty of good options for everyone. Most of the team went for 3 courses making up for 3 days without any lunch!
Early start tomorrow for the game drive and boat trip.