Watch, as Jamie shows us how to sling mud with a smile! In the end, a house stands built. This is the African way to build a house, and it was cool for us to be able to show Monica how construction works over here along with the team from the Timothy Centre and Shannon's family. Nice to be able to be a part of it ourselves too.
Before we left QE park we stopped in at some gorge (forget the name) where you can see Chimpanzees on the cheap. Hire a guide, strap on your boots and hike down into the wilderness to mingle with the nasty stuff. Our guide was great and the experience was something else… as you descend into the valley, the air gets colder and the trees start thrashing and howling as the baboons go crazy (go ape….?) and warn the rest of the jungle of your arrival. Slop down to the cavern floor beside the river and there are fresh elephant tracks, your guide warns you to stop standing in the trail of red ants, and you begin moving through the forest tracking the chimps down. Hippos burp a warning and you can hear the jungle continually explode around you as you make your way further in. It’s pretty cool to be with an experienced guide as he points out where the chimps have been by spotting tracks in the mud, food on the ground, or piles of what’s left after the food (poop).
We hiked for 2.5 hours and saw everything in the jungle but chimps. On the way back out, hopes dashed, we waited for our guide to finish a cell phone conversation as we began rigging the raft for our journey back across the river when 10 chimps burst out of the bushes a few feet from where we were standing and started climbing the trees all around us. Jamie, Monica and I just froze. Our guide is off in the bushes somewhere talking on his cellphone and we’re face to face with a bunch of chimps who, as it turns out, are way freaking bigger than we thought. Nothing happened (… this blog is here right?) as they just ignored us and climbed the trees, but we were able to watch them do their thing for a good half hour.
Our guide then robbed us blind with a smile on his face, but it was still worth it.
Next up for our trip with Monica was a safari in Uganda. We made the trip to Queen Elizabeth national park (which was something like 6 hours or so) and got ourselves set up in Bush Lodge where we had these sweet stilted canvas tents. The tents even had power, which was awesome, especially compared to places like Bushara island which have similar accommodations without the light.
Fun times were had, animals were seen, hippos marauded between our tents at night, and no one fell in the water on the boatride, which was excellent given the territorial hippo that gave chase when we got too close.
If you’re ever visiting Uganda, this is the park to go to. By far the best safari and overall experience we’ve had in the country. (We’ve also done Murchison Falls national park and Lake Mburu for safaris).
I think that Jamie and I can now officially call ourselves “safari’d out” which is a pretty cool thing.
And now… a bajillion pictures.
Backtracking a bit with this post here. Jamie and I originally went to the airport a day early, by accident, to get Monica. Woops. We made the best of it (sort of… not much went to plan that day) when we found out that there was the fourth race in the Uganda Motocross championship for 2010.
It’s definitely a better time attending an event like this with someone else. Jamie came along and had a great time and took all of these photos. She was my wingman, and I was thankful for it, especially given some awkward personal experiences from the last race I attended!
Assaf Natan won this race, thanks in part to his brand new CRF450R. This made for a convenient excuse for second place in the papers the next day, which gave me a good chuckle.
Check the pics though. Almost as entertaining to watch as the main heats were these tiny little kids no more than 6 years old just blasting around the track at full tilt, no fear! The crowd loved it.
We purchased a special gift (a gift basket) for Merones and her family, and then took Monica to go and meet them. No vehicles available so we took motorbikes, which is always a good time, especially riding back with 9 fresh eggs in your hoodie front pocket!
It’s been nice visiting Sanyu a couple of times now, but we really gotta get saving for a house for her :)
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