Since the bus to Sumbawanga left at noon, I had time to walk around the Sunday market at Mpanda. Dr. G.T. and his new friend I.. joined me in the walkabout. The bus trip to Sumbawanga was shorter than advertised, in that it was only 5 1/2 hours, not the 6 I'd been told. No breakdowns, no ticket mix ups. No armed guards needed. No mechanic needed on the bus. And the ride was actually comfortable. I had leg room to spare. Dr. G.T. talked to a little boy who was standing up in the bus next to him, and soon the boy was sleeping on Dr. G.T.'s lap. I'm still not sure who the boy's mother or father was, but it's nice that everyone is quite willing to take care of other people's children. The ... read more

Ujiji has a nice ring to it. I wanted to come here for the same reason I visited Wawa, Ontario and Kalamazoo, Michigan. I liked the name. Well, unlike those two places Ujiji has some interesting history ... ok, it's not "history" yet ... "current affairs" then. This guy named Livingstone had been poking around Southern and Eastern Africa in the mid 1800's. He'd gone on 3 missions ... the 1st one to Southern Africa to convert the inhabitants to his form of monotheism ... the 2nd one up the Zambezi and been shown the "the Smoke that Thunders" by a local chief. Well, this guy Livingstone just renamed it right then and there - after his Queen in a far-away land. Personally, I think "Smoke that Thunders" is a far better name than "Victoria Falls". ... read more

I must admit, I came with a bit of fear. It seems safe, but there's peacekeepers everywhere ... well, international troops for several contingents in the hotel lobby for sure. The drive in was on a surprisingly good road ... I was expecting big parts to be gravel and other parts to be pot holed ... but, though it was mountainous and thus windy and narrow, the road surface itself was decent. Tomorrow I head south to the Tanzanian border near Kigoma ... close to Ujiji, where some self-promoting journalist met up with a missionary who was trying to stop the slave trade ... Supposedly that first meeting was actually close to Buj, about 5km south of where I'm now. I was planning to going to that spot, but the taxi driver had other ideas. Needless ... read more

I'd reserved a seat on the VIP bus from Kampala to Kigali, which was to take between 8 or 9 hours with a slow border crossing. Good thing I'd checked an updatded guide book and confirmed at the bus station. The Kigali bound buses did not leave at 01:00 in the morning as my guide book said, but at a more reasonable 09:00. A German researching the kenyarwanda language I was talking to at the Backpackers' Hostel in Kamapala told me that most people need a visa for Rwanda, and that I could apply for it online. I showed him my guide book that said a select few nationals, including Canadians, did not need visas. But, if visas were required, they were issued at the border for US$60. He said he'd travelled with someone who'd been ... read more

Started the day early at 6:45 with breakfast followed by a long game drive through Murchison Falls NP where we got to see lots of animals and birds. No matter how many safaris I've been on, it's still quite wanderous to see all these various animals in the wild. We saw giraffe, water buck, Uganda's national symbols Ugandan Kob and crested cranes, along with elephants, buffalo, harte beest, baboons, vervet monkeys, hippos, wart hogs, and many many more including numerous birds, such as beeeaters, red bishops, and Abyssinian crested horn bills. After lunch, we took a launch to the Murchison Falls on the Victoria Nile. The boat trip was about 3 hours long, and we got to see Nile crocs, more hippos and many birds including African Fish Eagles. When the boat got to the falls, ... read more