God's Beautiful Artwork...

Days of travel and a day of Rest…

I am sorry I didn’t blog last night. We travelled from Iganga to Kampala during the day and by the time we reached our destination about 8:30 I was tired and not feeling great. I decided sleep was the most important thing and hit the pillow about five minutes after arriving. So today I will try to make up for it. We left Iganga early and stopped in Jinja for lunch and a little shopping. This is the same town I have shopped in for the past two years so I know the stores fairly well. They also have a great little restaurant there called the Source Café where I actually ordered a good old-fashioned cheeseburger. It was yummy. I bought a few things there but am saving my pennies for when we shop the market in Kampala on Tuesday. After lunch we boarded the bus and headed to Trevor’s house for our bar-b-q. It was awesome. We ate, talked and then wandered his property to see all that he is doing. He is an amazing guy with quite a vision. We took away several ideas Tree of Life can implement. Afterwards we headed for the hotel, a short distance away but a long ride due to traffic. In case you are wondering, traffic is universal. Only here there are no signs to designate who has the right of way. The biggest vehicle always wins! Being a bus worked to our advantage but it was still a long ride and Hajji did a great job maneuvering through the cars. It is good to be a boda boda (motorcycle) here and you can just go around all the “parked” cars. Of course, you are taking your life in your hands every time you do!  Finally, we arrived at the hotel only to be told by our fearless leader that we would be leaving at 5:30 in the morning. Yes, for those of you who thought you read that wrong, I did say 5:30. So, a new hotel, with an actual shower and I went to bed without one!

We drove today forever before the sun even came up in the sky. This meant I could NOT take pictures so I actually turned on my Kindle and read for a while.  I think this is the first time I’ve read since I’ve been here so I’m not sure I know who the characters are but it was good to relax. Besides it was cold outside so it was good to have the window closed. Once the sun came out all bets were off and the pictures began. We did stop at Murchison Falls (at the top, there was no climbing for this grandmother…) and it was amazingly beautiful. A guide did walk us to all the best spots to see the view and it was spectacular. Needless to say, it was a photographer’s Heaven. Every picture was more beautiful than the last. And then we saw a rainbow just filled with color. I just could have stayed there all day, but eventually they made me leave so we could get to the Lodge. Liz, this year we are ACTUALLY staying at the lodge. It is beautiful. The bathroom has no water on the floor, no bugs and HOT water. The view off the back porch (yes, back porch) is the Nile River, hippos and the whole deal. When we were at the falls we were the only ones there. No one was in my way taking pictures. There were no signs telling us to stay back. It was just us and the water! Amazing!!! However, the roads to get there were something less than great. Imagine the biggest pothole ever and then add another foot. That might begin to resemble what we saw. We did see baboons and warthogs and in the distance hippos. Tomorrow we will go on the land safari in the morning (begins at 6:30) and then the land safari at 2. It has been raining all afternoon (while we were safely in the hotel) so we are all praying for nice sunny (even cloudy) skies tomorrow. No rain would be great!!!

I would write more but am exhausted and am going to bed. Will write more tomorrow after our excursion. Wish you all could join us on this amazing adventure. Love you all and miss you.