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20th november - 8th december

Overlanding across Afica in our Land Rover Defender: Uganda

Andy Lees
2006-05-14 18:47:09

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modern city. as it was only lunchtime we decided against heading straight to the campsite and instead, crossed the railway tracks and headed south to entebbe where there is a 'wildlife education centre', home to a small collection of rescued animals and birds. the sanctuary was of interest as two of ugandas more elusive wildlife highlights; the chimpanzee and the shoebill can be found here - we wanted guaranteed sightings and the photos to go with it.

kampala itself promised two things - first, 'a shoprite', the east african equivalent to safeway, and second, cash machines. browsing the aisles we wondered at the prices, many of the products cost the equivalent, if not more than at home. still, it allowed us to stock up on a few essentials like sweet chilli sauce, camembert and toilet roll. back at the campsite we indulged in the free internet before enjoying a barbeque with joanne and mike from brighton, and babette from munich. we would be seeing them again in a couple of days at murchinson falls.

murchinson falls - 27th november

murchinson falls national park lies in the north west of uganda, depressingly, only a hundred or so miles from the sudanese border, a country we thought we'd left behind so many hundreds of miles back. at the falls themselves, the huge volume of the victoria nile is squeezed explosively through a narrow gorge, shortly before emptying into lake albert and subsequently the albert nile. the riverbanks are home to hippo, crocodile and buffalo; the surrounding plains to elephant, giraffe and antelope. this is the hottest part of the country and it was nice to escape the rainstorms experienced on the equator. we hadn't been expecting game viewing in uganda, and despite the persistent tetse fly that made it impossible to drive with the windows down, and the intense sunrays heating up the inside of the vehicle to near boiling we enjoyed the wildlife.

in amongst all ...