Over the river and through the woods...

Over the past three weeks, Staci and I have traveled all over Uganda. Our first weekend trip was to Sipi Falls which is about an hour or so north of our village. We stayed at a scenic lodge with bandas located at the bottom of the second set of falls. We were able to hike the three falls in the two days we spent there, eat delicious food, and most importantly, relax.

The next weekend, we headed into Kampala for a meeting with Solar Africa regarding our non existent power at the school--more on that later. And from there we headed up to Murchison Falls, which is in northern Uganda close to the Congo border. The first day we traveled to our campsite. We camped out with warthogs, which are surprisingly very cute and friendly, and we paid close attention to the signs warning of the not so friendly hippos and baboons running around our camp. The next day we went on a boat ferry to the bottom of the falls. On the way we saw hippos playing in the water, elephants eating from the sperm trees, and crocodiles basking in the sun. At the bottom of the falls, they dropped us off under the sign “beware of crocodiles,” and we hiked up the roaring falls. God’s handiwork was brilliantly displayed at the top of the falls.

After lunch, we went on our game drive. Right before getting into the safari van, we saw female elephants and their babies crossing the street right in front of us! During the five hour game drive, we saw different areas of the park: savannah, coast, mountains, and different animals: giraffes, elephants, antelope, birds, and of course, more warthogs. On our way back, we saw one of the best sunsets I have ever seen in my life.

On the last day we went chimpanzee tracking. They brought us deep into the thick forest, and the chimpanzees were all around us. After leaving the national park, our last stop was at a rhino sanctuary. We quickly learned that the rhinos were all imported—four from Kenya, and two from, yes, Disney World. During our “tracking” tame rhinos with GPS systems, I ended up gouging a chunk out of my foot from a thorn/root sticking up from the ground. Although it was my fault and hurt, it was fun to boast for the next couple days about my battle wound from tracking rhinos in Africa.

Our last stop before Staci went back to the US was the source of the Nile, in Jinja. We camped out, and then went white water rafting on the Nile the next day. This is one of the top two white water rapids in the world. It is a series of 12 rapids, with multiple class 5 and class 4 rapids in a row. We decided to take the wild/extreme route with our guide Paulo, and in the course of the day, our raft flipped over twice, I was thrown out twice, I was rescued by a kayak once, we went over an 8 foot waterfall backwards, and we ended the day in the “bad place.” Although Staci would have gone again in a heartbeat, I wanted to live. That night Staci headed back to Kampala to fly back to the States, and I spent the night on the town with some locals.