Murchison Falls and Kampala

Hi all, hope everyone's doing well. First off, congrats to the Celtics on beating the Lakers. I'm just happy to see the Lakers lose. Second, I read an article that kind of upset me by an espn.com columnist. He wrote that Tiger Woods winning the US Open saved sports. I'm sorry, but wealthy white men do not realize that most people on this planet or even in the US don't care too much about golf, if at all, and as amazing an athlete as Tiger Woods is, he cannot save sports. Its amazing to me how much golfers think the sport is infinitely more popular than it is or will ever be. I wasn't aware that sports needed saving, but even if it did or does a golfer or golf will not save it. Ok...back to Africa.

I got back from my trip to Murchison Falls National Park, which was very nice. I was with a group of 16 mzungus, and there were several very nice folks there, which made it a very pleasant trip. Like I wrote before the park marks the northernmost extension of the western rift valley and lies at the northern tip of Lake Albert where the Victoria Nile empties into the lake from the east, and the Albert Nile starts out of the northern end of the lake. It was my first time seeing the Nile, so that was cool, although I will see it again in a week or so, I think. The park is named after a waterfall where the Nile is pushed into a narrow gorge creating a very impressive falls. There are also a gazillion animals, and I did a game drive yesterday that was amazing.

The first thing our group did was a boat trip up the Nile to the base of Murchison Falls, and along the way you see elephants, crocs, buffalo, etc... Similar to the boat trip I did in Queen Elizabeth NP, but this time there was a waterfall at the end of it. Than in the afternoon we went on the game drive across the savannah landscape of the Victoria Nile delta as it empties into Lake Albert. Saw lots o' animals, but the coolest were giraffes. I don't know what it is about them, but I loved seeing the giraffes. The following morning we drove to the top of Murchison Falls where you can actually see a second impressive fall that is not visible from the boat trip. When I post the pictures, maybe tomorrow, y'all can see what I'm talking about.

So that was the trip the park. Three days, and really only the three sections to it, but it was very nice, and I'm glad to have now seen pretty much the entire western rift valley from Lake Malawi to Lake Albert. Tomorrow I'm going east of Kampala to a town called Mbale, which is the base to climb Mt. Elgon. Mt. Elgon is one of volcanoes of the eastern rift valley, and has the widest base of any volcano in the world, indicating that it was at one point taller than Kilimanjaro, but today it tops out at around 4300 meters. I'm really, really looking forward to this hike, which should last around 4 days. The plantlife up near the summit is supposed to be really unique.

Before the trip to Murchison I was in Kampala for several days, and had a pretty good time. There's not much to see sightseeing wise, but its a bit city that offers a bit to do. I went to the world cup qualifying match between Uganda and Angola, in which I expected Angola to win easily, but it was Uganda who beat Angola 3-1. The atmosphere was great, although the stadium was only half full, which was a little disappointing to see. There was a street arts festival I went to one day too that was various booths of artists as well as a few projects the public could participate in the closed off section of the street it took place on. It was put on by the German embassy, and at least half the people there were German. Their embassy paid for a very nice get together for the german expat population of Kampala. I saw a percussion show, relaxed,and read a bit too. The latest book I've read is also one of the best, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. It takes place over several decades, primarily in the Belgian Congo and later Zaire. Its a fictitious story, but the historical events that occur were true. Its an amazing book, and I could go on for quite a while about it, but I think y'all should just read it and see for yourselves.

Entonces...I hope everyone is doing well, and I'll post again probably in another week when I'm down from Mt. Elgon.

tchau, B