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Well it's been just over a week since we last blogged.. This is not because we have nothing to report but more because the Internet access is a little dodgy and there is nothing more annoying than losing all the blog in Internet never never land...anyway I digress.
When we last blogged we had just left Lake Bunyonyi, which seems to be spelt three different ways, and headed back towards Kampala where we were to stop for the night but after a quick vote we headed onto a place called Jinja which is where Lake Victoria spills into the Nile and the locals say is the start of the Nile river. Hence Jinja is the centre of Uganda's adrenalin junkies heaven with white water rafting, canoeing and bungee jumping etc. so just for a laugh Steph and I bungeed then shot the Nile rapids before lunch and skydived after! Yeah right!! we did toss up the idea but settled on a relaxing day at the camp followed by a cruise on the Nile in the evening.
I spent a part of the day wandering around Jinja taking photos for a lady from my work who
used to live there back in the 70s before Idi Amin three them out. So had a lot of fun just wandering talking to locals. In the evening we got onboard a small boat and motored up the Nile to Lake Victoria viewing an amazing array of birdlime and reptiles on the banks before reaching the source of the Nile and then drifted back to our starting point.
The next day we sadly said farewell to Uganda and crossed back into Kenya and stopped at the city of Nakuru which is Kenya's forth largest city and home to Nakuru National Park which we headed off to the following morning for an all day game drive. When we arrived at the gate we saw a guy who was wearing the loudest shirt I have ever seen and I almost took a photo of him cause this shirt would scare a wild lion half to death... Which is just about what he tried to do 1/2 an hour later.....read on!! We were greeted shortly after we arrived by two lions sitting under a tree who we a mating pair and they sat while the van loads of tourist took
copious amounts of photos of them. They finally reached saturation level and moved a little deeper into the bush...enter man in the loud shirt...who was not happy with viewing the lions from the safety of his vehicle!....no he decided that it would be a good idea to step out of his vehicle and walk to the front of it coming to within about 25 metres of the two lions and snap a few extra shots. I guess he missed the National Geographic program that showed a lion covering this distance in a heart beat but lucky for him the huge male lion was more interested in the safety of his lioness to attack...I guess the lion figured that any person who was stupid enough to do this just had to be a threat!! So they both moved deeper into the bush. Just plain dumb!!
We had a great day at the park and saw a large number of rhino, which the park is known for, at once point we saw 15 white rhino in a large group which was an amazing thing to see and one which our guides where very shocked by cause it doesn't happen
every day.
That afternoon we headed to Lake Naivasha which was nearby and set up camp for two nights. The following morning Steph and I and another couple went for a three hour walking safari through a park called Crater Lake. As we entered the park we were met by a fantastic sight...Now some of you would have recently seen on NZ television a BBC program about Africa featuring Sir David Attenborough where during one episode he showed two male giraffe fighting... Well We can now tell you from experience that to stand 45 metres from two male giraffe who are vying for the affections of one female, and decide to sort it out in a Manly way, is amazing. These two males were pushing each other into trees and kneeing each other until all Hell broke loose and they started neck fighting. The noise was fantastic with loud thumping as their horns struck each other in the neck and body areas with great force. They would fight and then both stand and rest for a short time before the argy bargy would start again. This lasted for about twenty minutes, or at least until my video
camera ran out of space, and then the victor gained the spoils of war and moved on with a suitably impressed new lady. I will sell our video to the BBC if hey ask nicely. It was...yes you guessed it....amazing!!
We spent three hours just walking through this park seeing a variety of antelope and zebra up real close and keeping our distance from a large herd of buffalo. There were leopard in the park but being mid morning they were nowhere to be found...thank goodness. Steph and I are both of the same opinion that this was the best walking safari that we had done to date.
While we were out walking Anita and Ryan and other fool hardy people were on a small boat on Lake Naivasha viewing hippo at close range.
The next day we head back into Nairobi for and overnight stop while the staff on the truck filled up with provisions and got themselves day for the next leg of the trip to Tanzania and the Serengeti National Park where we are crossing fingers that the migration hasn't started yet.
As I am
writing this it is Sunday morning and we a heading towards the Tanzania border to head over and to the town of Arusha..so until after the Serengetti we will sign off now and update when we have some more spare time in our busy schedule...
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Fiona
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Great blog Craig. We are enjoying the photos. You were lucky to see a 'crash' (large group) of rhinos.