Sipping Away

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The long Easter weekend provided us with enough time to get to the far east of the country and see a spot we had missed out on when we were in Mbale over the elections, Sipi Falls. I met with Lauren and another volunteer we’ve met out here, Debbie, at a horrible time on Friday morning. Once the 5 hour constant fear of crashing during our journey had receded we had a relax in Mbale where we stopped off for a night before going on to Sipi.

Despite it being seen as a ‘hotspot’ for trouble at the moment I have loved the calm, relaxing feel of Mbale both times we have visited it. Our hotel, Mbale Travellers Inn, was nice as it was cheap and we had an Indian that tasted like paradise after the blandness of our Ugandan families’ normal meals.

The next day we travelled from Mbale to Sipi. We thought we’d just get a Matatu, the minibus taxis that go everywhere, but instead got offered a comfortable car for almost the same price. A bargain in Uganda nearly always seems to be too good to be true and so it proved with 14 of us crammed into the 8 seat people carrier. As some of the first ones in, we at least managed to manoeuvre into the good positions and avoided an hour sat on the handbrake!

All was forgiven when we got there as our lovely little campsite had beautiful views everywhere. We even got a guide up to a spot to watch the sunset where cameras became addictive as everyone tried to capture the beauty all around. From what I have read and heard, there are more beautiful places in Uganda but few can be as dramatic; the Karmajong plains stretching out for seemingly eternity to the North and to the East, Mount Elgon and other Kenyan border mountains rising out of the mist.

We went for a tour of the three waterfalls on Sunday and got rewarded a rare bit of sunshine. All the waterfalls are gorgeous set into the hill, though I think three was enough. It was like squeezing a dry lemon to get any information from our guide, though he saved himself a lecture on how to get himself good tips by taking us down to the bottom of the last, and biggest, waterfall making us spend an hour on near vertical slopes and taking in a 30 foot ladder that worryingly had several rungs missing.

Me and Lauren got up before 6 to make our way to prime position for sunrise. It was beautiful to see it come up from behind the mountains but not enough to make up for a severely stubbed toe (I’m hoping that sounds sufficiently dramatically painful) from stumbling around in the dark and getting out of bed at such a disgusting hour. I may retire after my one sunrise and just take my chances on the African sunsets.

We spent the rest of our time lazing around and enjoying our Banda huts. It is easy to appreciate why they are the traditional form of housing as they are refreshingly cool and somehow completely waterproof.

The relaxing effect of our stay even extended to our journey back, only 6 or 7 in a 5-seater. We did get the surreal experience of seeing Ugandan taxi drivers with overcrowded cars avoiding the traffic police though. Our driver pulled up about 500m away from where the traffic police are station, one person gets out to make the car ‘safe’ (not having more than 2 people in the front) and gets on a boda (motorbike) he gets driven about 500m the other side of the traffic police and we pick him up again.

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Photos

View from Sipi
Over the Karmajong plains. Doesn't quite do it justice, you could see for miles.....