Day 5 – 17th June 2007
Woke up in the NRE campsite at half 7 in the morning to Dan prodding me awake. It was time to leave the campside and head off to Masindi in Northern Uganda and Murchison Falls!
Sleepily, I had a cup of tea and a fruit salad and watched the morning birds flying over the Nile. Going to miss that view! Settled my bills at the campsite which was 72,500 ugandan shillings (£24) and chatted to Orla, Lucy, Phil and Kat about tapeworms, ant attacks and Butara Parasites and ringworms…delightful!
We should have realised that the day we were leaving on was a Sunday. Church is extremely important in Uganda and it takes priority over everything hence that was why the bus drivers were 2 hours late so it looked like we may be pushing it to get to Murchison Falls or Masindi on time before the National Park Borders close at 6pm. Sat with kat and Ollie on the bus and started the 9 hour bus journey…yes you read right..9 hours! Imagine the sore bum afterwards!
Throughout the drive, we clung on to the seats as the roads were blocked and had not been cleared due to past civil war so we ended up driving on the grassy makeshift road on the side of the concrete road…there were a lot of bouncing around! Plus the drivers loved to swerve harshly so not only we were bouncing but swaying! It was hard to read my thick book at first but when I managed to get the contortionist in me out, I was able to maintain a steady figure.
We stopped off at a supermarket in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, to stock up on snacks for the next 2 weeks. They have Hob-Nobs! It’s really interesting to see some items look really similar to that back home but having different brand names. I got the Hob Nobs in the end!
After another long drive, we finally arrived in Masindi in North Uganda. However, we arrived at 7pm meaning we missed the border closure so we were stuck in Masindi for the night. Luckily, we managed to swing it to camp in a garden of a hotel where we had food of African Spag Bol! Chatted with Jonesy about the state of the NHS and University but for some reason the conversations always end up back to Poo! Helen, kat, Orla, Jonesy and I laughed a lot that night! It was a good night despite where we are, but the atmosphere was spoiled slightly that the bus driver was being difficult as he wanted more money to drive on and he argued a lot with the petrol attendent when we stopped once to fill up and accussed the attendent of ripping him off. He’s not a nice man.
Finally, it was time to go to bed, I ended up sharing a tent with Lucy, Sam C and Phil and throughout the night it was really really really hot and I sweated buckets as there was 4 of us crammed in a 2 man tent! Slithering in my pool, I rolled over and sighed, Murchison Falls cannot come soon enough!
See More: Uganda Project Series
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