Hippo campus

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The two main hostels in Kampala are essentially the only people running budget safaris to Murchison Falls National Park, though at roughly $300 for a 3 day/2 night trip it's hardly bargain basement. Red Chilli's is about 20% cheaper plus they offer an upgrade to banda rather than tent accommodation, but I figure my chances of ending up with a bunch of drunken teenagers are significantly higher with them than with Backpackers' so I plump for Backpackers'. It also helps that I'm already staying at Backpackers', and their safari has the bonus of including chimp trekking.

The rest of my group on the safari are all 15 years younger than me, they're English, and they're medical students who've been on elective at the same hospital in Kampala hence already know each other. Three of them are getting married this year. Perhaps not the ideal company for a late-30s long-term traveller. I also fear for the future of English medicine when one of them confidently states that car windows block all UV rays. There is little I can contribute to the discussions of cannulas/catheters/suturing techniques/etc so the trip is something of a write-off from a social point of view.

One point of pride for two of the students is that their hostel has been featured in "Red Pepper", Uganda's scandal paper that is something like a toned-down version of the Sunday Sport with less T&A but more gore. In the vernacular of the paper, their university hostel has apparently recently hosted a sex orgy featuring four "whoppers" and one "yoyo" - the name of the girl whose "oilwell" was "drilled" has been thoughtfully provided, along with her room number.

Day 1 starts with a four hour drive north to the town of Masindi. About 70km out of Kampala, we encounter a stretch of road that is crossed every ten metres by what appear to be speedbumps. On closer inspection, they actually seem to be road-building material that has been left in place and never cleared. We crawl along for 15 minutes in disbelief.

One amazing feature of the drive is the Ankole cattle that we see, sometimes in herds and sometimes lone individuals. They sport monstrous horns that look as though they've been grafted on from some kind of giant antelope.

Part way to Masindi, we briefly pause at what is clearly a popular vehicle stop. Immediately we are surrounded by hordes of aggressive, kebab-wielding vendors who push the windows open and thrust their produce into our faces. At Masindi we stop for lunch, which turns out to be a greasy egg sandwich and a carton of juice. This is a far cry from the buffet spreads I'd had on my Kenya safari. The rest of the group are also less than impressed.

We reach the top of Murchison Falls mid-afternoon, and a ranger leads us to various lookouts. The impressive aspect of the falls is that the torrent of the river Nile is channelled through a 6m wide gap, creating raging white water and a mist of spray. Even near the river, it's hot and humid and we return to the minibus sweating.

We then head to our camp. It turns out that Backpackers' actually uses the Red Chilli campsite (though from June 2009 they'll have their own lodge/campsite). The men's/women's toilets are labelled Hunters and Gatherers respectively, and the air freshener in the men's bears the unlikely name of "Climax". Fortunately I get a tent to myself. A pair of habituated warthogs and an extremely ugly stork roam the grounds, looking for food.

Dinner gives us our first introduction to "proper" food on the safari. It's tasty and there's good variety but it's lacking in quantity - there's barely enough for even a sliver of seconds. This is not the last time that this safari will measure up poorly against my Kenyan experience.

The temperature barely drops even after sunset and I retire for the night in just my undies, still hot.

I rise the following morning at 5:30AM, and the cold shower is a relief. The cooks tell me that at 5AM it's very easy to hear hippos plodding through the area behind the camp, stopping every so often for a chomp at vegetation. Breakfast features bacon, eggs, and Heinz beans, but again in insufficient quantities.

The morning is to be given over to a game drive, so at 7AM we are at the Nile, waiting with various other groups for the ferry to take us to the north bank. Hippos are visible on the far side. The river is speckled with "foam" that looks unsightly but is apparently caused by the sheer power of the flow coming through the falls, rather than any algae or nearby soap factory. Baboons are waiting as we disembark from the ferry, and a couple literally attack people who are carrying their lunch bags in their hands. The sight of a bounding primate with teeth bared is enough to persuade anyone to drop what they're holding. The assembled rangers all laugh heartily at this scene. I wonder why no-one had been warned not to carry food in such an obvious manner.

The set-up of the safari is quite different to that which I'd encountered in Kenya. There, I'd had a driver/guide - here, there is a driver, the two ladies who function as cooks, and the three of them also make/break the camp. The guides are park rangers that we pick up at the beginning of each game drive/walk, so there is no time for them to build a rapport with us.

It also becomes immediately apparent that having 7 people in the minibus is too many for comfort. If we're all standing, there's barely room to turn. "Fortunately" one of the girls feels sick and spends most of the time sitting down. We see giraffe, elephant, water buffalo, various birds (including African fish eagles, bee-eaters (?), cranes, herons, malachite and pied kingfishers), but no leopard or even a lion. It's not much of an addition to what I saw in the Masai Mara.

We return to the campsite for lunch, at which point I discover that the interior of my tent is doing an impression of a sauna. My lip balm has melted and I wonder in all seriousness if my anti-perspirant is approaching a temperature at which it might explode.

The afternoon comprises a long river cruise culminating in views of the bottom of Murchison Falls. We pass literally tons of hippos, even some wandering around on land. Also spotted are water buffalo, African fish eagles, herons, a pair of monitor lizards (hunting for eggs), a "snorkelling" elephant, and crocodiles. We stop disappointingly far from the falls, but here the river "foam" has formed small islands. In total, we are on the river for about four hours and I am actually a little chilly when we return.

The driver surprisingly drops us at Red Chilli bar instead of at the campsite and soon after we discover why. During our cruise, we'd been through a small rainstorm but it had quickly passed. However it seems as though it had stopped over the campsite and really pelted down, flooding the area. I'm lucky, as all my stuff was in a plastic bag on top of my mattress, but everyone else had strewn their clothes around their tents and now has sodden gear. I'm flabbergasted as to how this could have been allowed to happen, as the two cooks and driver should both have been in the camp at the time. Not to mention that I had been laughing with the cooks only that morning about a similar flooding incident just weeks ago. I don't ask these difficult questions and no-one proactively provides an answer.

At dinner that night, I try matoke, a stodge made from plantain, for the first time. With the accompanying G-nut (aka groundnut) sauce, it's not half bad.

The garbage management in the camp seems extremely poorly thought-out. The rubbish bin has a lid easily opened by baboons and even warthogs. Every time the camp has been left unattended, we've returned to find the garbage strewn around.

The morning of day 3 is scheduled to be chimp trekking at Kaniyo Pabid. It's a drive of about an hour to get there, whereupon we are informed of the etiquette required of us during the trekking. I've never really seen chimps as loveable, the anthropomorphism of the PG Tips ads having been overridden by reading too many stories in the paper about "tame" ones going bonkers and ripping off testicles, dislocating jaws, etc. I'm relieved when my question about them attacking humans is answered by "Never at Kaniyo Pabid". I'm surprised that, with 20% of their diet consisting of meat in the form of small monkeys and antelopes, they haven't become more carnivorous.

The actual trekking lasts only 20 minutes - with the rangers equipped with walkie talkies, communication regarding the whereabouts of the chimps is easy and accurate. The noise as we enter the chimps' territory is awesome and slightly scary, a cacophony of hooting, screaming, and gibbering, however that dies down once they realise we are no threat. Unfortunately the visual aspect is rather less thrilling than the audio one, with most of the troop high up in the canopy, though their scrambling around dislodges plantains and branches that drop down around us in disconcerting fashion. The occasional shower of urine or fusillade of droppings keeps us on our toes. We crane our necks for good sightings, the light making photography difficult. At one point, the troop makes a collective decision to move on, so they descend from the trees with much hollering and leaf-rustling, though it's still surprisingly hard to spot them. This marks the point that our hour of viewing runs out, so we leave them. My safari-mates are ecstatic about the experience, though I am slightly less overwhelmed.

We then head back to Kampala.

Dull but possibly useful info
i. I booked my 3 day/2 night Murchison Falls safari through Backpackers' Hostel for $295. The price is on a sliding scale depending on how many people there are, plus we got a $15 low season discount.
ii. All meals were included, including the lunch breaks when driving, so cash was only needed for drinks and (where appropriate) tips.
iii. There was no electricity in the camp and only cold water showers.
iv. My overall impression was that the safari was rather amateurish when compared with my Masai Mara experience, and also worse value for money than that.
v. I would suggest trying Red Chilli if you want to do this safari.

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Photos

Hitching a ride
Baboon transport

River of gold
Nile at sunrise

You need a bit more meat on that neck, bud
Giraffe showing its skinny side

Boatmen
Lake Albert

The Austin Powers tent
Of which I was the proud occupant for one night

Comments

[Stace]

haha
Hippo Campus!! haha you're very funny - discovered your african blogs a couple of weeks ago and have followed you all the way around teh world now! Loving then - you really are a fantastic writer and also some beautiful photos. Would you recommend the Canon Powershot S3 IS on safari.. have just bought a cheap one off ebay going to Africa next year - don't want to spend much... Cheers - keep bloggin! :)