Murchison Falls Trip First Day!

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I had to be at the main reception/bar by 8 for an 8 30 leave. The weather even at that time was hot! We got onto the mini bus that we'd be using for the trip!
As we drove through Kampala you could see the locals queueing up to Vote, as it was election day (the 2nd democratic election in 28years!!) Driving through the suburbs shows a real mix of large industrial units surrounded by the housing of the majority of the population of Kampala. All along the side of the roads are stalls selling hand made wooden furniture, Sofa's, Iron Gates, coffins?? and a variety of foods, ranging from bbq'd chicken, to pineapples and bananas, and almost every 20 meters was someone or a stall selling simcards or phone credit, even in the most remotest of places there was full mobile phone reception!

As we traveled out of the city the surrounding scenery changed from wooden/tin huts and factories into lush green fields, banana trees, sugar cane, and lots of other plants just grew everywhere, with small towns every few miles! the further away from the city we got the smaller the towns became, until they were very small villages with only a few houses or mud huts! but still extremely green! small markets appeard every 10 miles or so selling all sorts of foods, like they had in the city!

noone was talking to each other on the bus until we stopped for lunch, when we all introduced ourselves and chatted about where we came from, and what our travel plans were.
The group contained a wide mix of people, from all over the world. We had a pretty good lunch in Masindi town, and then after an hour or so where back on the road.

Just outside Masindi we turned off the main road and onto a dirt road, which we then stayed on for the rest of the trip till we went home!

Shortly after turning of the main road we were in Murchison Falls National Park, the lush green that had surrounded us previously, turned into Tall trees and small shrubs, and still very green!!

We drove through the NP for about an hour, before we came to the Falls. As soon as we got out of the bus we could hear the water crashing over the top! we took a walk that took us to a hight point, with views down the Nile, and onto the Falls!
The Path then took us down, till we were right next to the falls! It was nice to stand there and let the spray cool us down , as we had been walking at around 2pm (hottest part of the day)

We then travelled for about half an hour to the Red Chilli Restcamp, where we were staying for the trip!

We were given a quick brief about the area, and then shown to our tents! I was sharing the tent with Joan, a Photographer from Spain,

We then went to have dinner, and chatted some more.

We were told in the Brief that the camp was unfenced and animals can just come and walk around, we had already seen the Baboons and Warthogs, but during the night a Hippo came up from the river! It made the weirdest noise ever, and must have woken the whole camp up! and this was at 3 30am! so we weren't too impressed with that!

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