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Published: January 17th 2007
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Sunrise at Queen Elizabeth NP, Uganda Had a bad sleep Monday night, due to Becky’s scary hippo stories. Rach & I both tossed & turned for an hour or so in the middle of the night, before realizing we were both awake & needed to pee. We listened out for animals, then I opened the tent door & surveyed the area with Rach’s head torch, searching for pairs of eyes. Satisfied there were no animals nearby, we raced around to the rear of the tent & took turns scanning the bushes whilst the other took a nature break. It was quite serious at the time, but once back in the relative safety of the tent I had a chuckle at how hilarious we must have looked.
We broke camp before dawn on Tuesday & did a game drive on the way out of the National Park. Didn't see many animals, just a few elephants, but nothing new to add to the list. Ate lunch again at the equator & had a yummy latte from the expensive cafe to finish the meal off.
Checked out African drums en rout to Impala, where we stayed at a funky campite called Red Chilli, had hot showers, a
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Sunrise at Queen Elizabeth NP, Uganda nice bar & free internet. We were able to go partying in town, however everybody was so tired after dinner, we all just hung out at the bar & spent our remaining Ugandan Shillings.
Wednesday morning was an early start, but Jen turned up to breakfast with a Marmite moustache because she'd lost a card game last night - quite entertaining. During the day Jen was forced to sing along to a song up & down the truck aisle, whilst Cheryl had to dance along, also as punishment for losing card games. There were a few people who didn't know about the dares, so the looks on their faces when the girls began their performances were priceless. It was good entertainment & everybody got into the groove, singing & clapping along for encouragement.
Crossed into Kenya & camped againg at Raj's Overland in Eldoret, the place with awesome showers & a great bar. Had a couple of drinks but it was a pretty chilled night with a few joints going around, so I headed to bed early in preparation for a long driving day ahead tomorrow.
Stopped in Eldoret market early on Thursday morning to
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Sunrise at Queen Elizabeth NP, Uganda get ingredients for dinner, before heading onto our next campsite at Lake Baringa. We are due to spend a couple of nights here & although the campsite is nice, with a cheap bar/restaurant & pool, it's the place where Romy's previous passengers were trampled inside their tent by a hippo - so I'm a little nervy about it. The story goes a mother hippo lost sight of her baby, which was on the other side of the tent, so she walked right over it to get to bubs! Luckily the hippo missed all vital parts of the people sleeping inside, but one girl did sustain a slight lower leg injury. Nothing worthy of hospitalization & definately a total freak accident, but I still don't think I'll sleep very soundly here.
After dinner I'd gone back to camp to move washing out of the rain, when I had my first close hippo encounter. Blair & Al had spotted her about fifteen metres from the campfire & called me over for a look. I checked it out & had headed back towards the truck, when all of a sudden there was a great kerfuffle behind me & the boys were yelling
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Roadside drum shop, Uganda at me to get on the truck. Turns out they had spooked the hippo, who'd bolted, only they didn't see in which direction, so ran anyway just in case it was coming for them. I managed to panic, lose my footing & was still trying to climb up the stairs when the boys arrived. It's lucy the hippo wasn't chasing behind because we would have all been toast, as a hippos top speed is almost 40km/hour, so the panicked bolt the boys did would have been pitiful in comparison.
Afterwards I needed a drink to calm my nerves & headed back to 'Goat Bar' for a vodka or three. Ended up playing cards & this time it was my turn to lose. My dare is to European kiss Romy hello in front of the whole group. It's supposed to happen tomorrow sometime, but I have no idea how the heck I'm gonna pull it off...
Was unable to complete my dare Friday morning as my group was cooking pancakes for breakfast & I saw Romy well before everybody else. I had considered doing a big good morning hug etc, but my plan was foiled when she got
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Man making African drum, Uganda up before the rest of the group. I spent most of the day relaxing, with a quick dip in the swimming pool before the rain came, followed by a nice afternoon nap. Fortunately Romy had decided to make one of her specialities for dinner; goat & poitje with vegetbles. so there wasn't alot for us to do except cleaning up afterwards.
Awoke early Saturday morning to the sound of hippos eating scarily close by to our tent. After much waiting, looking out the window flaps & listening for noise, Rach & I decided they'd gone back to the lake & so got up for breakfast. I'd endured much ribbing from the group for not performing my dare yesterday & decided it was best to get it over with early, so as soon as I saw Romy I went straight in for the kill. Fortunately most of the group was milling around having breakfast when I approached her. I wished her a good morning (loud enough to get everybodys attention), kissed her on both cheeks & gave her a big hug. I'd debated on throwing some Italian in as Romy is from Florence, but decided I was probably too
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Jen & Cheryl providing truck entertainment, Kenya nervous to remember & would only end up looking more foolish - if that was at all possible... It was all pretty funny & she realized quickly that it was a dare & I was relieved to have it over & done with. Mike had also lost at cards & spent the entire breakfast wearing his underwear as outerwear. It wasn't quite as embarrasing as my dare, but amusing none the less.
Was a long day of driving, stopping for lunch at a pretty area called Thompson Falls & set up bush camp at a place where they keep ex race horses. We had some trouble getting in to camp due to the rain turning the driveway to a mud pit. Robert actually lost control of the truck with the back end finishing up in a ditch, so we all had to disembark while he got her out. Apparently the road to the campground was in a similar condition, hence the need to bushcamp. The campsite owners were really good though, they let us set up in their backyard & the guys even dug us a loo nearby to use.
Went on an optional excursion to a
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Becky, Rach, Vic, Dianne & Ali at Lake Baringa, Kenya nearby National Park to see some Chimpanzees on Sunday. They had two families living there, comprising of orphaned or trafficked chimps & some that had been born there. It was quite interesting to watch them up close, but it had very much a zoo feeling because they were in a big electrified cage. The cage was erected to protect them from each other & also to protect us as they can be quite aggressive & dangerous if provoked to attack.
We were fortunate enough to visit with a tame black Rhino called Moroni. I was really scared at first, due to an unfortunate encounter with a very cross Rhino at the San Diego zoo years ago. Moroni though was so placid, he was practically asleep & we all got some great close up photos with him. There were no hippos at the viewing area we visited, owing to the water level being quite high & it was a bumpy ride back to camp, but a good day in all.
Monday we left our little horse/bush camp & visited a giraffe sanctuary on the way back to Nairobi. It was pretty cool to see the giraffe up close
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Thompson Falls, Kenya & be able to feed them, but again it felt like a zoo atmosphere.
Arrived at Karen camp mid afternoon & did the first of three big truck cleans. Fortunately the sun was shining & our dishes dried quickly, so we were able to finish up in around an hour, then head into Karen for some catch up time on the internet.
Had a very huge dinner at Simbas; Romy ordered meat platters filled with crocodile, emu, beef & camel. My favourite was the camel, followed by the emu. Unfortunately the beef was a bit tough & the crocodile tasted fishy, not how I remember it at all. Had a few drinks at the bar before heading back to camp for more drinks there & finished up around 2:30am.
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