Awesome African Adventure. Day 17-April 25, 2025

ANZAC DAY We will remember the them.

Leaving Chimpanzee Lodge this morning and heading North to Murchison Falls NP. A 300km trip that wends around Lakes and mountains.
We passed through many small and medium sized Villages and some more substantial towns and cities.

Fort Portal – Tooro Kingdom. A town of approx 100 000 people. Wilson toured us around for a look from the car.
When he grew up Fort Portal was the nearest medical assistance to Kasenda. Men from around the Village would stretcher the person to Fort Portal. It would often take 40 men to carry the patient.
We passed the Kings Palace gates. This town is a tourist town and looks much more moneyed than surrounding villages.

Each settlement has people selling all manner of products from their front verandas or small roadside stalls. There are churches and schools sprinkled around like confetti.

We crossed through Kibale NP at one point and saw some Red Tailed Colobus Monkeys up the. Trees.

At Kyanjojo (Chian jojo) we turned left to head north.

We crossed the Muzisi River a boundary which sees us leaving the previous Kingdom and entering another.

In Kagadi. We passed the hospital where Wilson and took Nicholas (his son) to hospital after the accident the accident that killed his parents near here.

We have seen more mosques and Moslem dress today. They make up 11% of the population.

Earlier we saw a convoy of the same trucks which Wilson said are carrying drums association with oil.

With the Middle East and oil there were many Mosques built but not fitted out inside.

Lots of kids on the back of bodaboda’s coming home from boarding school as it is end of term. They all have a trunk, a rolled up mattress and a bucket (for showers and washing).

Saw a record for us so far. Six people on a bodoboda. Unbelievable!!!

Crossed the Inguse River. So many kids coming home school today. We see a little patch of Orange and you know them Orange school uniform has broken up. Then there was almost every colour of the rainbow. Soooo many little village schools and bigger boarding schools.

Green, blue, burgundy, red, pink, coral, khaki, lilac purple lots of white socks and shirts too – no clue how they keep them so bright and white.

We stopped to eat our packed lunch at a Nguse River Camp Restaurant. We bought some warm cokes and a tonic (opened and started- so returned it). We paid them for that so we could eat our packed lunches. Lots of black and brown weaver birds around.

The weather has warmed up a lot.

Hoima is a big oil city we are heading for next. It was busy. Lots going on all around.
Wilson pulled into fill the tank, only to find we had a quickly deflating tyre. The servo had no air and it was too flat to drive around the block to tyre repair. So unloaded the luggage to access the tools, off with the spare and high lift jack and put on the spare. Repacked the luggage and off around around the block to repair the flat and replace on truck. A hot bit of work for Wilson. We helped where we could, but he was determined to do it. While at the Total Service station, Suzie and I checked out the pharmacy and bakery and the little supermarket at the servo.

There is an oil pipeline being constructed to take the oil drilled for here in Uganda all the way to Tanzania to be refined. It’s amazing to think that there is enough money in oil for the companies to build the highways out here. They are the best road a we have seen.
All done and back on board on quick time.

We are driving down in elevation to our destination which is the lowest point in Uganda.
Wilson also explained the roads here are all welll made and maintained in order to support the oil wells/drilling/industry around these parts.
At 3;30 we had 80km to go. Moving alongside Lake Albert somewhere out to the left.

This area has a lot of poverty, more heat and less food security and less fertile soil.

We came down over the mountains and looked out onto a flat expanse of woodland forest stretching for miles ahead.
To the left is Lake Albert that looks like an inland sea.

There are many many people walking along the roadsides. The towns are kilometres apart and they just seem to walk for miles in the heat sometimes carrying loads, other times very little.

There are many more thatched roof homes in little clusters.

The road is great, really sharp speedhumps to slow us down in towns/villages. Then there are traffic controllers with a green and red flag waving us to slow down. They have a little stool and beach umbrella to sit under. Also fully covered and a hard hat too.

Just before 5 we left the main road back onto a well made dirt road. Signs to a bunch of lodges on the corner so we were getting ever closer. We left this am just after 9am. So a long day in the truck.

We arrived at Murchison River Lodge at 5pm. We had our briefing at reception and taken to our cottage by Alfred.

Our rooms have canvas windows. Upstairs and downstairs, USB charging is in the safe with a padlock. No charging points in the rooms. But a very cool room way to experience the NP.

We decided perhaps a swim is in order. Packed our bits and pieces and headed up to the bar.

Wilson met us there. The views where we had our sundowners is across the River Nile. This is part of the Nile Delta. We are on the Victoria Nile as this bit joins to Lake Victoria. We have Vervet monkeys frolicking and a bit of a breeze. Maybe a swim is too hard.

Watched the sunset colours on the Nile and then moved onto dinner. The beef stroganoff was tender and tasty. Dessert was a cross between hedgehog and rocky road. Very nice meal.

We have a big day tomorrow on top of a tiring long drive today. So the plan is to get an early night.

Home to phaff and get pics backed up. Ready ourselves for our early start Game Drive over the Victoria Nile and into the Murchison Falls NP on the other side. Departure is 6:40. Breaky at 5:45. Security guard pick up at 5:40. (Once again we have to be escorted to our rooms after dark).