Totally flaked out on waking up for the sunrise. Damn. Today we want to go check out the star of the show, Murchison Falls. Only, we want to drive there and see it from above, since we've now seen it from below. The two Swiss campers (a Biochemist and Doctor) told us last night of a campsite right by the falls. The facilities are Spartan at best though. It's about an hour and a half drive to the falls from the Nile River Resort, on these bumpy roads. The option is to pack up totally, check out the falls and if it's ok we camp there. Or, leave everything here, drive to check the falls and return later. We're also keen on crossing the Nile via ferry to the other side and do a quick safari around the park. The ferry leaves at 10:00. It was 08:45.
Annelie and I opt for a quick saddle up, breakfast, shower and rush to the ferry. So do Marieke and Dirk. We're the last ones to leave the camp site (as usual). We wave Sidilla goodbye and blaze off into the sunrise. Everybody is queued up at the docks in line for the ferry when we arrive 4th in line. A school-truck (flat bed truck with railings) arrives full of school kids. And we wait. And we wait. 10:00 am comes and goes. 10:30 comes and goes. And it's HOT! We park off under a tree and wait some more. Fanie and Dirk takes a car to the gate to find out what's up. I go chat to the other guys, when I get back to Annelie she's started her very own cult. Seems like the school kids have taken quite a shine to her, posing for pictures (there was a camera guy there, using an old film camera) and the teacher in charge asking her questions and so forth. Everyone was having a good time, including Annelie! They were posing with her while holding out her hair, to prove it's real and straight (they ALL had shaven heads, even the girls, and everyone was dressed in blue uniforms). I get asked to take pics with my camera so they can see what they look like on the digital screen, then I was roped into a photo session with the boat owners, and then I had to pose with them for photos. Quite funny. Some of the older gentlemen took quite a shine to Annelie also, requesting if they could have a personal pics with just them and Annelie. Meh, why not, all good fun. In the meantime, Dirk and Fanie return with some officials. It's 11:00 already. Long story short, but it was labelled as "human error". The ferry driver didn't organise enough diesel for the day, so he left the ferry right there to go organise more. Turns out he DID have enough diesel for two more trips, but still. What should have happened is that they should have organised it last night. In the parks board defence, they were very surprised at this and kicked some ass. Before long we where off, in this blazing heat. All the cars loaded up, school truck and this ferry became awfully cramped. More pics with Annelie (what am I, chopped liver??). Not long before we reach the other time and drive off into the park. Baboons everywhere, nursing baby baboons and scratching themselves.
And wow, what a treat. Some of the most green, lush and beautiful savannah we've ever seen (I must say, typing that is beginning to smack of cliché, but I'm truly limited in describing the indescribable!). Just wide, wide open spaces, dotted with thorn trees, or palms and chest high Elephant grass. Wildlife everywhere, Kob's, Water bucks, Buffalos, Warthogs, a whole TROOP of elephants, about 17 of them (one big fella scratching his side against a tree), Impala, a whole savannah FULL of Giraffe of every size, lots of birds (forgot all their names!), and rolling hills of green. Marieke has a natural talent for this kind of thing, her wildlife spotting ability unsurpassed. She radios in an antelope spotted in a tree. Dead, of course, it's head just hanging in the nook. Clearly a very big kitty dragged a kill up there. But to our dismay, no kitty was around to claim responsibility. Still. WOW. What a good spot! We reach a stop off point next to a river that flows back into the Nile, where we say cheers to Mattie and Fanie and drive the full circuit all the way back to the dock. Dirk, Marieke, Annelie and I continue on. Very interesting elephants along our way, including a lone, OLD, big fella, large tusks, just standing under a tree, taking a drink from the nearby waterhole now and again. Very cool, spend about 15 minutes just watching him, and him watching us. Such a noble spirit. We continue on. It's during this time that we reach our Northern most point of our journey: 2˚20'37" N (Lat) / 31˚33'52" E (Long). From this point forward, we're south bound, on our way home.
Back at the ferry, and it just docked, cars are driving off it. Two other vehicles muscle their way into the queue. The result is that Fanie and Mattie can't be on this particular trip and have to wait. Annelie expertly reverses the Bullet into position and we cast off. Funny thing happens while Mattie and co wait for the 15 minute return trip: a baboon jumps through the open passenger side window, into the cab and tries to steal whatever Mattie was stashing behind the seats. Marietta was scared senseless! Mattie charged the baboon, which give him one sour look before leaving the scene of his own volition. Cocky son of a gun.
Disclaimer: No damage was done, article stolen, or animals harmed in this production.
Onward to the falls proper, deeper into the national park. A few baboons hold us up as they crowd the road. They're very shy of cars though and duck into the bushes as we approach. The road turns a bit nasty, lots of sharp turns, sharp exposed rocks and potholes. A small inconspicuous board indicates "campsite" to the right. The first spot doesn't really inspire us with much mope, so we turn around and turn left into the second area. Time for low range. The path down to the river is all 4x4, at an incline of about 20 degrees down slope, lots of rocks. We park the bullet on the hill instead to do recon first. We're very pleased with what we find: 3 open lots, divided by trees all round, right next to the Victoria Nile (the "Nile's" name changes depending on which lake it flows out of). As it stands, we're above Murchison falls, which flows to the left and onward. The water is just one rapid on the next, if I had to grade it, I'd grade this entire stretch as one big grade 20. The river seems to flow violently in one direction on both banks, and then flow in the opposite direction in the middle!! It's all very beautiful and mesmerizing.
One or two other boggles, namely a little sandy bay, very inviting for a swim in the refreshing water, especially in this heat. The pod of 4 hippos lounging just a few meters away. The other two look more... prudent. Annelie and I choose the left most stand that leads to a little rocky platform, where previous campers created a fire pit. The spot overlooks the entire stretch of river, as far as you can see before it bends around the left to the falls. It also looks like a most excellent spot to chill and have a beer later, as well as take a splash, since it's unlikely hippos or crocs will hang around in this area (water is way to choppy).
Before we setup we take a trip further down the main road to the falls.
What amazing violence. Even with the windows closed you can already hear the roar. Difficult to explain what I was looking at. It's like somebody flipped a switch on a blender, frappe. Just one big mess of masses of water crashing into each other before cutting deep into black rocks to form the waterfall proper (also known as Kabalega Falls). It falls about 10 meters into another small pool and then again deeper, must be 50m down into nothing but foam and white water. It smashes into the left, then the right, then back to the left before finally becoming something more resembling a river further away. Back in '63, the only little bridge they built across this... madness... was destroyed during a flood.
But.. my word. Mesmerizing, hypnotic, raw. So loud, you can't hear yourself think. Not that you'd want to. I mean. Look at it!! I try again, in vain, to capture some of the essence of it, but there is no way a video camera or photo can cut it. Or rather, it's way beyond my ability to do so. The entire mass of the Nile (Victoria Nile, whatever) is forced through a relative door frame gap of unrelenting stone about 6 m wide, before it plummets about 120 m in three separate cascades.
Later on in the evening, we returned here to watch the sunset and Annelie and I spent a good half hour just sitting and chatting. I came to an epiphany that:
a) I'm in love with the Nile, which sparked the discussion if whether or not it's possible to be love struck by an inanimate subject
b) There is no such thing as an "off" day, for the falls. There's no "the Ocean looks so peaceful today, it's almost like a lake". The Nile, the waterfall, everything we're witnessing at this moment has been going and going and going like this for Millennia. Back when the Pharaohs and Cleopatra and all those folks where around, Kabalega was here. Maybe it was called something else. But this raw, unrelenting violence has almost always been here. 24/7/52/3000+. Wow.
Back at the camp, we had crackers with tuna and mayo and Doritos (cheese flavour) and enjoyed the brief tropical rainstorm (of exactly 37 rain drops) while sitting in our camp chairs on the rocky platform next to the bedlam, with a nice cold Savannah, of course. Before it got too dark, Annelie and I mentioned to Marieke that we will be taking our bath now, so they must kindly excuse us. We stripped down naked and plunged into the water, lather up in bio-soap and washing ourselves down with the lukewarm water (keeping an eye on the hippos. And hoping no enterprising crocodile happens to be surfing some gnarly rapids at that point). We felt like royalty!
Made a huge campfire to keep the hippos at bay, had some wine and tucked in at 21:00, after dowsing the fire a bit. Anything after this time is fair play for any hippo, and I suppose they'd want to get out of the water at this point. (read: we were way too shit scared to sit there by ourselves after Dirk and Marieke tucked in!)
Highlights: Bathing in the Nile, like a Pharaoh!
Seeing lots of wildlife!
Best campsite so far, by far.
[G & A], out
*instrumental*
