The long way home

Sunday we must leave this little nest of paradise, and we opt for exiting via the northern route.  This avoids the necessity of catching the 7am ferry across the Nile and the long/boring drive to the south gate.  It also gives us the benefit of a last little "game drive" for the 24 km to the park gate which we can easily make by our 10:25 deadline.

Pool & the Nile River seen from our balcony

True to Paraa Lodge hospitality, the reception desk staff remember that we missed out on lunch upon arrival, and provide us with a box lunch for today instead.  They even sell us a lunch for Davis for a paltry 13000 UGS.

We do spot a giraffe, several monkeys, and an elephant on our drive out.  Past the park gate, we enter a good quality highway but pull over within 1 km to get probably our best view of a couple of large elephants dining on the edge of a wetlands.  Passing many mud hut communities, we finally stop to refuel since we are running low and petrol stations are scarce in this part of the country.  Davis is doubtful, since he has in the past experienced rough operation due to adulterated fuel from such no-name stations, but we survive the risk as well as the adventure of using the open pit latrine facilities out back.

colourful water bird hunting breakfast

baboon family take to the trees

very large beast just outside the park gate

The penalty for taking the northern route is that it adds perhaps 80 km to our distance back to Kampala, and the excellent highway eventually gives way to probably a 30 km stretch of broken pavement, dirt, and occasional road construction teams.  We pass many people (mainly women & children) walking long distances  with plastic jugs to or from a water source.  Also farmland including rice fields, kilns for baking mud bricks, and people producing charcoal for cooking.

mud hut community

rapids above Murchison Falls

We make a stop at the Rhino sanctuary which is enroute, and enjoy our box lunches, although Sue is suspicious of the chicken, and passes it off to Carly & me.  Uganda was home to white rhinos until the horrors of the Idi Amin regime which sanctioned the killing of the last remaining beast in the 1970's.  The sanctuary has purchased and imported about a half dozen animals who roam on a large fenced preserve.  A successful breeding program has yielded a population increase which now stands at 19.  There are plans to reintroduce rhinos into the wild when the numbers exceed 30.

The tour is pretty pricy ($40 USD/person for the 3 mzungus, our driver is free) and the guide directs us along a rough path for perhaps 1.5 km before halting and leading us for a short walk.  It is mid-afternoon, still very hot, and the rhinos tend to rest in the shade during the heat of the day.  We find a large female and a young rhino lying in the shade of a large bush.  We approach to a distance of about 12 metres, snap photos and ask questions.  It is pretty cool to see these impressive beasts outside of a zoo and to support the good work going on here.

Sue & our guide view the rhinos from a safe distance

Kampala is hopping on a Sunday night, and traffic slows to a crawl.  I enjoy shooting the odd scene through my open passenger window, but Davis warns me sternly to keep my camera strap around my neck and hold on tight.  It's not unusual for a passing pedestrian to reach into a vehicle and scoop an electronic device in full daylight.  With the heavy traffic, sun sets & it is dark leaving Kampala.  The highway to Entebbe is busier at this time of night than I have seen in the past.

Girls eye meat skewers offered by a vendor at the petrol stop.  Davis cautions against sampling meat from unknown sources.

a kiln for baking bricks

We're hungry by the time we reach kabona (the tiny village between BKU and the highway), so Carly has us stop at her favourite rolex stand and treats us each to one of these fried egg delicacies with added veges rolled in a flatbread chapati and cooked in a shallow pan over a charcoal fire.  These delicious treats set her back just 1500 UGS (about 50 cents) each.

It's been a long day, and we know we'll all sleep well tonight.