One word for the rafting - AWESOME! It was somewhat different from previous white water rafting I've done in that the aim seemed to be how many times can you flip the raft. 4 out of 8 rapids in our case - no coincidence that these were the ones being filmed for the DVD and photos you can buy afterwards! Some of the rapids were Grade 5 (the hardest level that can be commercially rafted) so they were pretty fierce.
The rapid known as 'The Bad Place' wasn't actually as bad as I feared. In fact, it was quite fun even though we flipped pretty much straight away. I even got over my fear of being trapped under the raft because there actually is an air pocket. The rapids on the Nile are far apart so there was also lots of time just swimming, chilling on the raft and eating amazing fresh pineapple. The fruit in Uganda is one of the highlights - fruit salad for breakfast everyday - yum!
The last rapid of the day was a shocker though. Talk about being stuck in a washing machine. I had no idea which way was up or down. Every time I made it to the surface, more white water would engulf me. I was very happy when the guide dragged me out of the water because I was starting to think I would drown!! No one enjoyed that last rapid, that's for sure. It was fun watching the filming from the day later on in the bar. Was also able to watch Nadal beat Murray - no surprise there then..
So that was our last day in Uganda. I've really enjoyed this country. It's such a green, lush country with diverse landscape including mountains, rivers and lakes. As always, the people are so friendly. One of my abiding memories of Africa will be the children smiling and shouting "Muzungu" (white person). They never seem to tire of waving to tourists and their faces just light up when you wave back.
From Uganda, we retraced our route back to Eldoret in Kenya where we spent a night at the campsite we had previously stayed at. The following day, it was on to Nairobi. Here we stayed in a camp in a wealthy suburb of Nairobi (or Nai-robbery as it is so frequently known). As we were on the outskirts, we didn't get to really experience the city. Just the electric fences and razor wire on all the expat houses giving away that we were in Nairobi.
After an afternoon in camp, we headed out to the Carnivore restaurant. As the name would suggest, it is all about the meat and you get 18 different types to sample including camel (quite tasty but tough), crocodile, ox balls (disgusting - not sure what possessed me to even try them), ostrich meat balls, plus all the normal meats - beef, lamb, chicken, etc. The food just keeps coming all night long until you put your table flag down. Suffice to say, I did not manage all 18! Despite the fact that they no longer serve as much game meat as they apparently used to, it was still a fun night out trying different meats.
Next country stop - Tanzania... The truck was based at the Snake Park camp in Arusha for four nights. This is a big overland camp with several trucks in residence. After a night here, most of us headed off to the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater for a two night safari. Serengeti means endless plains and this is where the famous wildebeest migration takes place. We weren't lucky enough to witness that (wrong time of year) but we still got to see plenty of animals including lots that we hadn't yet seen such as wildebeest, hippos, cheetah, leopards, hyenas and male lions. Animals aside, the landscape was just spectacular - vast open plains (the Serengeti is 14,000 square kilometres). The sunset was amazing. The biggest red sun setting behind acacia trees creating an iconic African scene. We camped in the National Park itself - caged cooking areas and hyenas coming through the camp at night - definitely not a night to need to get up for the toilet...
The following day we went to Ngorongoro Crater which is an incredible natural phenomena. Within the crater walls live numerous animals and it is strange to think how they actually got in there in the first place. We camped on the crater rim and I woke in the night to the sound of zebras grazing right aside my tent and bush pigs routing through the camp. Apparently, they are fond of toothpaste and will rip tents down if you have any inside (luckily our guides warned us of this so it was in the jeep).
It was back to Arusha for a night to rejoin the truck and today we are heading towards Dar Es Salaam and have just stopped off at a camp en route to break the journey. Dar is on the beach where we will be tomorrow night and then it is on to Zanzibar, a tropical island paradise off the coast of Tanzania, for four nights. Since the very start of this trip two months ago, the whole group has been looking forward to Zanzibar. It is going to be like a mini break from this epic journey - no truck, no camping, just lying on the beach relaxing and may be some scuba diving or snorkelling..
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