Rest & Relaxation: Lions and Tigers and Bears...oh my!

OK…there were no tigers or bears, but there were lions. Two of them!

Most people come to the lodge either with a tour group or with their own vehicle. I of course came with neither, so I booked my game ride with the lodge. A lodge vehicle, driver and guide. And I was all by myself, which was pretty cool. My guide/driver was Eric and he was fantastic. There was a hole in the roof of the landcruiser and I stood with my head sticking out the whole time. There were tons of giraffe, which are my favorite animal. They are so gentle and majestic. I learned that the older the giraffe gets the darker his spots and more pronounced the small horns on his head are. I also say lots and lots of Oribe, Jackson Hartebeest and Uganda Kob (the national animal of Uganda). It was in a field of Oribe, that we saw the male lion. We had stopped and Eric jumped out of the vehicle and climbed on the roof and said there was a lion. He could tell by the behaviour of the Oribe that the predator was there. He jumped back into the vehicle and drove off the road into the field with the Oribe and sure enough there was the lion. OH MY GOODNESS. A wild African male lion! Eric said it is very rare to see a male lion. We drove right beside it and it walked right on by. Incredible.

We left and went down the road a bit and saw one of the other tour trucks up ahead on a different path. Again there was a field with Oribe. The other driver called us over and sure enough, there was a lioness approaching the Oribe. She was injured in the back left hind leg and was limping. She could only walk for a bit then stop and lie down. I felt so bad for here. Eric said they would report it and that sometimes a vet comes from Kampala to check on animals the rangers are able to capture. Unfortunately, it doesn’t bode well for the lioness as she can’t hunt. If she can get to her pride, maybe she can eat their kills. Otherwise….

We kept going and saw a group of three elephants. The one kept looking straight at me. Another was pulling leaves from a tree; the whole tree shook with the force of it. We also saw a pack of elephants down near a watering hole. Two of the males were play fighting until the big mama elephant broke it up. The last thing we went looking for was the elusive spotted leopard. They are hard to find. Eric says some weeks they don’t even find one. Sure enough, we didn’t find one. But since I had seen lions, elephants, giraffe, buffalo, water buck, osibe, Ugandan kob and warthogs I felt I could let go of seeing the leopard.

The landscape is so varied in the park. There is forest, savannah grassland and savannah woodland. Everywhere you look the land looks a little different. And it is extraordinary when you see the Nile majestically winding its way through the land. At one point we were at the Nile delta where several rivers meet together at the end of lake Albert and transition from the Albert Nile to the Victoria Nile.

I am glad I took my dad’s advice and went on the game drive. This land is beautiful. Even without the animals I could drive through the park just to see the beauty and variety of the land.

Rest & Relaxation: The Fire

Started out like yesterday. I got up around 8am and went to breakfast. After I sat at the pool for a while reading my book. Came back to my room and was finishing up with my music files when there was a knock on my door. Turns out there was a call for a Kristee, but the last name was different. I went back to my computer and a few minutes later there was another knock. The call was for me. So I went down to the front desk and waited. A lady came out and told me the call was from Food for the Hungry and that they would call back in 10 minutes. I asked if it was FH Uganda or FH Congo and they told me it was FH Uganda, So I came back to my room and was going to call Golda at the FH office when my phone started ringing. I noticed I had two missed calls and was wondering what was so important someone was trying very hard to reach me….

It was Renee from Bukavu. There was a fire in my room and most everything was lost. Just my room which was good, although good is a relative term to me. They think the fire started in the light above my bed. Jeff, our house guy extraordinary, discovered the fire when he came to work in the morning. He hurt his hand trying to put the fire out and that hurts me more than the loss of the things. But, it still stings that my family photo’s were destroyed, the notes and letters from supporters, the printer CFHI provided me with, the extra toiletries I lugged all the way from Canada, the arts and crafts I collected in Uganda, my baseball gloves, books and bibles and $2500 US. I feel like I have been violated. Kind of like you feel when you are robbed, yet there isn’t anyone to blame, just a fire.

So, that sort of put a damper on my holiday. I cried my way through lunch which was a little embarrassing. I need to talk when I am going through stuff like this so it was the staff that got to hear all about it. One of the tables overheard and a guy came out and told me how sorry he was. I burst into tears again. My attitude, truly is however, that all that was lost were things. They can all be replaced. If the fire did start above my bed and I had been sleeping in the bed, I could have been hurt. And while that is truly how I feel, it really sucks thinking about the things that made me feel at home being destroyed, my clothes damaged by smoke and flame. But, life moves on and so will I.

I went on my regularly scheduled Nile boat ride and saw hippos, elephants, crocodiles and Murchison Falls. Coincidentally, the guy that spoke to me at lunch was on the boat with his family and friend. They were extremely nice people; he’s Ugandan and is married to an American women and they have two beautiful girls. We had a nice time chatting on the boat, but always the fire was on my mind.

After the boat ride I came back to my room and called my parents who were their normal practical selves. I love them! I was considering not going on the game drive in the morning and instead heading back to Kampala and home, but Dad convinced me to stay and enjoy my holiday before heading back and dealing with the fire’s aftermath. It was good advice…as always.

I was debating whether or not to go to dinner. I hardly ate any lunch and was hungry, but the thought of eating by myself again and thinking about the fire was not appealing to me. Then another knock on the door. I thought it was the guy who comes in and pulls the mosquito net around and sprays the room, but it was a man from reception letting me know that the doctor, Hugo, requested that I join them for dinner. Thank you Jesus…who knew what I needed at that time. So I went to dinner and had a lovely time. It was nice to be able to chat with people and even be able to joke about the fire.

And I booked my game drive!

Rest & Relaxation: Nothing To Do

Going to sleep at 9pm means walking up early. But I didn’t want to get up early, so I forced myself to doze for as long as I could. Breakfast is from 6:30am – 9:30am and I set the alarm for 8am. I was awake before that so lay in bed and read till the alarm went off and for a bit after that. I headed up to the dining room for breakfast and was the only one there for a bit. I think my table is number 4, as it is set for 1 person and that is where the hostess took me last night. So I headed back there and sat down. The staff are already calling me by name; it is so nice to have the staff walk up, call me by name and ask how my night is; it makes me feel not so alone. On my way back from breakfast, I looked up, and standing right below my balcony was a very large, obviously hungry hippo munching on the grass in front of the lodge. A hippo! I had to shake my head. I am staying in a place, living in a country where a hippo eats the grass under your balcony. I love AFRICA!

It is hard to know what to do with yourself when you have nothing to do. After breakfast I sat by the pool and read my book. Then I came up to my room and watched an episode of Reaper (my brother works in catering on the set in Vancouver). Then it was time for lunch. After a wonderful lunch of salad, beef stroganoff with mashed potatoes and fruit salad I thought I would take my camera and go for a walk. As it is a game park, I stuck to the main road down to the ferry launch. Ran into a couple of baboons on the side of the road, but that was it. It was stinking hot so I decided to lay down with the ceiling fan blowing and watch the last episode of Reaper. Then I finished a book. Then I showered. Then I organized my music files. Can you see the trend here? Nothing to do and I love it. I did manage to organize a Nile boat ride for tomorrow and a game drive for Thursday morning. So not a completely useless day!

Rest & Relaxation: Getting to Murchison Falls

It is easy to get from Bukavu to Kampala. The flights from Kamembe to Kigali and Kigali to Entebbe are scheduled and predictable (the plane will always be late from Kamembe to Kigali!). On this trip, those two flights were the only travel arrangements I was sure of. Getting to my final destination, Murchison Falls, was going to be a crap shoot. And if there is one thing I don’t like while traveling, it is not having a plan; not knowing how I am going to get from point A to point B. Well, I’ll give away the ending right now: I am sitting at the Paraa Lodge at Murchison Falls on my verandah overlooking the Nile River. It is beautiful; majestic in its calm and orderly procession across the amazing African land. I have been on and in the river as it rolls and drops and speeds through Uganda, but here it is slow and relaxed. But that’s getting ahead…I’m sure you are wondering how I managed to get here in the first place.

I spent weeks trying to find a way here. I knew I wanted to spend my first R&R relaxing in Uganda and since I had never been to the West of Uganda I thought that Murchison would be as good a place as any. I didn’t want to go with a tour group as I didn’t want to be on anyone’s schedule but mine. It’s harder that way, but I think the payoff is so much better. So I booked, well actually my friend Julia booked for me a room at the Paraa Lodge. It is the up market accommodations at Murchison, but since this is my first holiday in 2 ½ years I decided to throw caution to the wind and go for it. So, now I had a reservation for Monday-Thursday night, but still had no idea how I was going to get there. I searched the internet and didn’t find any good answers. Then I remembered that I had the Brandt Guide to Uganda. DUH! There I was able to find that if you are trying to get to Murchison all by yourself, you can take a bus to Masindi and from there hire a taxi to take you to the park. I learned from my housemate Joel that I had to take a ferry to get to the Paraa Lodge.

So I had a starting point. I got back online and found that there was a Uganda Postal Bus that left at 8:00am every morning from the Main Post Office going to Masindi. I had my favorite Kampala taxi driver, Fred, take me to the Main Post office at 7am Monday morning. Already there was a pretty good line up of people waiting. I met a group of Muzungu’s from the UK, Australia and I think the US that were going to Tororo (near Mbale) with African Inland Missions. The bus finally arrived and it was a mad dash to get on board and get a good seat. You don’t put your luggage underneath (they charge extra for that) so I found a spot in the back corner and tucked one back pack on the floor at my foot, put the other across my lap and the camera bag on top of that. Not comfortable, but it gave me a little space as no one could get too close. What proceeded was the longest, most uncomfortable bus ride of my life. For six hours I couldn’t move. We traveled on some stretches of road that could rival the Congo. I was sitting at the back of the bus and at times I went air born. All this on 3 hours of sleep (I had stayed up late catching up with friends the night before). So I slept most of the way to Masindi, the only way to forget about the numbness in my butt and the pain in my back.

The one thing that always stands out for me about Uganda is how friendly the people are. All the staff working for FH are amazing and you could think it is just them that give me that impression. But the truth is, Ugandans are a friendly lot. They want to know all about you, where you come from, why you are here. They always tell me they pray that I will stay longer, visit their part of the country. There openness is always so off putting and so very welcoming. On this trip, I was blessed my several helpful Ugandans who made it possible for me to get to the Lodge as happy and in one piece as I did.

The Postal bus was a mistake. It stops all over the place. Mostly in towns to drop off/pick up mail, but also to pick up passengers from the side of the road. And they don’t really announce where they are. I had a generally idea that Masindi should be around 3 hours outside of Kampala (without stopping!), so I felt comfortable napping most of the way. When we finally came to Masindi, the bus stopped on the side of the road and most of the people started getting out. With my two pack backs, camera bag, sweat shirt and bottle of water, I was neither quick nor graceful trying to get off the bus. As I made it from the back to the front of the bus, the conductor came back on and asked me if I was going to the post office. I told him I needed to rent a special hire to take me into Murchison Park so he told me to sit back down and they would drop me up ahead at a tourist location. It turned out to be The Traveller’s Corner, a place I had read about in my research for the trip. Thank you Uganda Postal Service worker!

I got off the bus and headed into the restaurant and was greeted by the server. I told her I needed to find a special hire to take me to the park. She got on her phone, called a driver and told me he was just on his way back from Paraa and would be there in 30 minutes to get me. Now that is why you should always tip your waitress! Thank you Traveller’s Corner waitress. I was also able to have my first meal of the day, a Spanish omelet and a coke. The driver Sam arrived and we quickly got on the road. My tour book had said around 100,000 UGX for the special hire to the park, and when Sam said 150,000 I was pretty happy. Fuel has gone up so much in the last year, that I was appreciative it wasn’t any higher. We also took along with us a Murchison Park guide who was on his way back to work. His name was Emmanuel and he was a great resource as I asked him questions about the park.

Sam was/is a wonderful resource. I have his number to call for a ride out of the park and he said he would get me on a bus or Matatu on Friday to get me back into Kampala in order to catch my plane back to Kigali. He also said he would come to the park and take me for a game ride if I can’t hook into a tour here at the lodge. Along the way to the ferry launch, we saw a few animals. There were tons of baboons. We saw them mostly in the forest part of the park. That’s were the trees and vines were thick and the insect noises reached my through the sound of the car speeding along the dirt road. Later, when we came to the more savannah areas, we stopped and watched some warhog and saw a Uganda Kob. I saw another Uganda Kob at a watering hole and a few more warthog standing in the middle of the road. When we reached the ferry launch, the next boat wasn’t for an hour and a half. Sam spoke with a man he knew, Angelo, who is the captain for a boat that takes tourists up the Nile to the bottom of Murchison Falls. Sam entrusted me to Angelo and we sat and talked for a bit. He is from Arua, but has been working the Nile here at Murchison for three years. Angelo gave me the number for the Lodge so I could let them know I was here and arranged for me to take one of the Paraa boats across the river so I didn’t have to wait or pay for the ferry. Thank you Angelo!

On the way across the river I watched a herd of water buffalo and a hippopotamus make there way into the river for a late afternoon dip. The boat driver radioed the lodge and a van and driver met me at the launch to take me to the lodge. Thank you boat driver and Isaac the van driver! As I was standing waiting for Isaac, I looked and not 10 feet away was a very large primate. I don’t think it was baboon, but I am not sure what type of primate it was. He was just sitting there, no fear as I pulled out my camera and got a little closer.

The Lodge is beautiful. It has been around for a long time; weathering war and royal visits. I was greeted at the front door with a cool towel and a fresh juice. The wonderful lady at the front desk gave me a room with a view of the river and it is spectacular. The room is simple and understated, with a quality that can only be called colonial safari. There are no TV’s and no phones in the room. It is quiet, with the sounds of animals in the night close enough to hear but not see. After a quick clean up and rest I headed up to the dining hall for a beautiful dinner by lamplight. It is weird being on my own; wonderful but lonely. I have no agenda, no plans. It’s just me, my wits a couple of books and my laptop. Exhaustion overtook me early and I think I was asleep by 9:00pm.

Day 1 was one for the books!