Butembe

I slept quite well for the first time and.got out of my tent as a troupe of vervet monkeys walked and bounded past the tent – I love how these little creatures behave – mischievous and lively – there was a mother with her little baby hanging onto to her stomach.  I organised to kayak with a ncie guide, Abraham, up the Nile from a lovely campsite with beautiful views over the Nile river. It was early morning and the river was full of birds such as kingfishers (small blue malachite and larger Pied), cormorants (great and smaller reed), hamerkop, kites, a fish eagle, crowned hornbill and many more. We saw monitor lizards by the bank. We looked for river otters and eventually found about 3 otters along the bank which was wonderful to see! I enjoyed talking to the guide about wildlife in Africa and England and comparing the two. The guide gave me a gin and tonic before we started to paddle back to the campsite. We passed rocks across the river which used to be a walkway for locals across the river before the new dam was built and the river rose to more of a lake. We paddled through the river islands which were full of birds and paddled back to the jetty. I nearly fell into the river as I was getting out of the kayak! Then I went on a river cruise on a larger boat up the same stretch of river all the way up to the upper dam. It was sunny as we started and took photos of the river and fishermen in their boats, but then the clouds darkened dramatically and we sheltered from a big storm for almost an hour. The weather began to clear and the boat staff hauled up the tarpaulins. It was an anxious moment when the boatman couldn't free us from the muddy river bank where we had sought shelter. After a few minutes and a lot of heaving with an old oar he managed to extricate us and we sailed back down the river. We saw river otters on the way back as well as the many birds including kingfishers and evrets. It was an eventful but still enjoyable second outing on the Nile. In the evening I had a nice conversation with Kristin (an American girl that will travel with us all the way to Johannesburg) about visiting the earliest sites of human evolution in Africa during our trip, early cave paintings in France and American politics. Kristin susports Bernie Sanders which I liked about her – we agreed to continue our conversation during the trip. I watched Liverpool FC beat Brighton (just!) on the bar TV and talked to Linda (daughter – Heather). I then got an early night with a misty crescent moon and chirping insect calls as I got into the tent. PS – I met a Frenchman who is cycling through Africa as part of a ‘self-powered' trip around the world. He walked across Alaska and Russia – swimming across the Beiring Straight.  He will cycle across Africa to Namibia and then row to Brazil! Read more