Return to Kampala

Murchison Falls

This morning we awoke a little earlier, in preparation to leave the lodge and make the long drive back to Kampala. We met for breakfast at 7:00am and loaded the bus by 7:45am, to make the ferry across the Nile. The Islamic bus arrived just after our bus, and they were told that they had to go the long way around the river because they couldn't fit our bus and theirs on the ferry at the same time. I have no idea why they couldn't just take us over and come back for the other bus. Apparently the ferry only runs two times a day, with no exceptions. We were very lucky to have arrived first, or we would have been the ones going the long way around, and we would have missed the falls.

Shortly after leaving the lodge, we arrived at the falls. What a magnificent site! It was absolutely breathtaking! The force of the water was unbelievable. We took tons of pictures and just walked around enjoying the scenery. Andrew sat atop a huge stone, watching us enjoy ourselves. I'm sure he was probably praying that one of us would not do something stupid and fall in on his watch.

The rest of the day was fairly uninteresting. We drove for 8 long hours. The roads are extremely bumpy and it makes for a very long and uncomfortable ride. We passed the time by listening to our ipods, sleeping, or reading. I pulled my portable DVD player out and watched a movie. There was the occasional sound of laughter that would flow through the bus. Everyone was having a great time with each other, in spite of the lack of comfort. 

There was an instance where Godfrey slammed on his brakes and we all had to grab on to something for balance. Apparently a young man had walked out into oncoming traffic, without even looking, and a car swerved to miss him and was directly in our path. We narrowly missed him. There were definately angels present at the time!

We stopped a couple of times for Godfrey to purchase bananas and vegetables from the roadside vendors. There was also a slight mishap in the Kampala traffic. A car ran into the side of our bus and there was a few minutes of "negotiation" between Godfrey and the young man driving the car. We all sat inside, with eyes as big as quarters, watching and wondering what would happen. After a few minutes, Godfrey drove way. Turns out that the young man was a soldier and so there was no use in negotiating with him, even though it was clearly his fault. Luckily there was only a minor dent and a few scratches on the side of the bus, so Godfrey wouldn't be out too much to fix it. I felt bad for him, though.

We arrived back at the guesthouse, just as Rick, Deb and Verna did. They had spent the day at the Bulrushes, helping with the babies. I was a little envious. There is a special place in my heart for the babies and I would have loved more time with them. I did enjoy our safari immensely, though. As we sat around talking, I mentioned to someone that I would love some pizza and that maybe we should call Pizza Hut. LOL! I thought I could smell it and someone said I was just imagining things, that I was delirious. The girls called us to dinner and when we walked through the kitchen, there sat two huge platters of PIZZA! I knew it! It was delicious. I was in heaven. 

As we ate our dinner, we noticed a group of children gathering in the backyard. One of the girls told us that they would be singing and dancing for us. We were all so excited to have one more chance to be with the children before we left. They had us bring our chairs outside. We all grabbed our cameras to capture this special event. They started with an instrumental song and then danced a traditional Ugandan dance for us. It was beautiful. The kids were just precious. There was a tiny little girl who danced out front. We learned later that her name was Esther and she was only four years old. 

Afterwards, we had a short team meeting to discuss the next day, which would be a travel day to London. We then went to work packing and getting ourselves to bed. We would have an early start. Breakfast would be at 5:00am and we would depart for the airport at 6:00am.