Christmas in Jinja Xxx


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Africa » Uganda » Eastern Region » Jinja
December 28th 2012
Published: December 28th 2012
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Fort Portal

at the YES Hostel just outside in Boma - happy times :)

Additional maps: Murchison Falls | Jinja

Hello!

Its been a little while since I wrote – but its been so hard to get online recently!! Apart from the fact that we have been really crasy busy, the WiFi has been a constant fight to get connected. Unfortunately, with all the new fangled i-phones and i-pads and teeny tiny tablets that everyone else has brought with them (honestly – have they not read all the warnings about theft?!!!) everyone is ‘online’ constantly, they never turn off their Wifi roaming – so for all the people who genuinly want to access something or google search something, the connections are so clogged up and excruciatingly slow….. it is rather annoying!!!

Let me see…. Since the gorillas (still A-mazing) we have been to a place called Fort Portal, then onto a three day safari at Murchison Falls, and then onto Jinja (where I am currently) for Christmas. All three have been great, in very different ways!!

Fort Portal is famed for its stunning rural beauty and all its rambling country walks (of which we took full advantage) so we really enjoyed hanging out there. We stayed at a Charity hostel called YES (Youth Encouragement Services) and it was so quiet and leafy and green. They took great care of us (there wasn’t many other tourists) and the food was all home cooked from scratch and dead cheap!! Then two bad things happened at Fort Portal…. 1 .. we tried to take a trip to the crator Lakes and failed in all entirity… and 2… I cut my own hair and rendered myself a dead ringer for Julie Andrews in the sound of music…. Bad times!!!!!! The Crator Lakes was something I was soooo looking forward to – but sadly we got absolutely destroyed by the prices (our guide book was clearly LYING about its ‘budget charm’) and the bus out there daylight robbed us on the fare (white people out here get ripped off massively, unless you already have a small idea of what you should be paying – we did not) and then it pissed down the whole time!!!! So the beautiful lake scenery was totally lost on us so we gave up after one night and went back to the YES. Plus I saw a tarantula so I was pretty much out from the off…..!

Murchison was sooo cool as it was our first proper safari tour – and the falls were incredible. It is where the Nile and River Albers cross so the power is crazy strong. And the wild life is ridiculous!! Hippo roaming around, warthog everywhere (want one), huge elephants, big crocs, giraffes (hooray!!), the usual antelope, wildebeest and buffalo – and …. We saw a lion!!! Ok ok so the lion was three legged, about to be sold to a zoo and only questionably alive anyway – but it was still a bonafide lion! On the loose! Hiding (collapsed) in the grass!!!! Was very cool. We went out safari-ing twice and went on a cruise up the nile too (so amazingly beautiful – the best thing we did) and also visited some other falls which were cool too. And at night, the camp we were in was on the grazing circuit of some of the hippos so you had to be really carefull if you needed a late night ‘short call’ (that’s what Ugandans call it) but I left part of my tent window rolled up so I could see them and one came so close to our tent that when I pressed my face against the mozzi mesh I was actually face to face with one!!! Chufffed!! (Maff was asleep – boo!!)

And here in Jinja – well… its hard to describe what the Nile looks like here so I will just say that it is one of the most breathtaking places I have ever ever seen. When the sun sets here its like every blink you take is a post card scene. *sigh* we love it here. We’ve been out Kayaking and saw a forest viper swimming in the water, that was pretty cool, it climbed out and hung in the tree looking at us for ages J very bright yellow under its chin and proper beady eyes. The bar here comes alive at the holidays because the ‘rafting boys’ pretty much sit there the whole time and get beyond wasted!! It’s like an Aussie/South African frat house – not very in keeping with the backdrop scenery, but good fun on Christmas eve!!! We got pretty pissed ourselves and hung out with a lot of crazy germans!!! Great night. We didn’t partake in the ‘rafting boys’ beer bongs, tequaila gun and copious shots – but I did join in with some ass shakin african music!!!! J Christmas day we went down to the water in the beaming sunshine and cadged some free coaching from the rafting guys’ paddle boards – which, because they were still so pissed – turned into some mental yoga on a paddle board competitions and also ‘who can run full tilt lengthways across three boards’ race…. The best way to spend Christmas me thinks!!! When you can’t be at home with your tabby and your family that is 😉 xxx

Oh anyway, this has been a long one!!! Sorry about that guys – miss you all, as usual…. Tomorrow we are taking a massive detour and bussing it through Kenya for new years!!! Its fun to have no schedule!!!! Lots of love – ps, Maff says JAMBO !!! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



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27th January 2013

Ok so where...
...is this bar?! Sounds like my kinda place, do you think my patented moves would go down well there? ;-) xx

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