MURCHISON FALLS

When your cousin comes all the way to Uganda to visit, you obviously have to plan a road trip up to the beautiful Murchison Falls, and that’s exactly what we did! Rachel, my dad and me all rented a van and headed out on our adventure!

My advice if you plan on going on a long road trip in Uganda…go to the bathroom about ten times before you head out! There are ZERO public washrooms in this country…well ok, to be honest there are a few…but I wouldn’t go near them if my life depended on it! If you know me, then you know I’m huge into staying hydrated and I drink A LOT of water…note to self…bring my own portable potty on Uganda road trips ;)

We finally made it to the hotel where I was able to drink all the water in the world AND have a bathroom to use YAY! Best part was at dinner, we noticed a cashew and vegetable rice on the menu! Cashews, almonds, and walnuts all those delicious things are SO expensive here so the fact that they had a cashew rice was unbelievable! We were expecting to have three tiny cashews on it…IT WAS COVERED IN CASHEWS! Oh my goodness it was so delicious! I never even liked cashews before…it’s funny how when you can’t have something you all of a sudden want it.

Anyway, the next morning we headed out, enjoyed a nice boat ride along the Nile and then finished the day with the game drive.

The boat ride:

Last time I came we had an awful experience on the boat due to some very rude tourists and A LOT of rain…it was NO fun! This time however, we had an almost empty boat and the NICEST guide! Every time they would pull up close to an alligator they would tell Rachel and I to come up on the front of the boat to take pictures…at one point I could have reached out and touched this giant alligator.

We saw lots and lots of hippos but my favorite part is always the waterfall at the end. It is so beautiful and its incredible seeing Gods beautiful creations up close. Despite all the “ugly” that is in Uganda there are a lot of hidden gems and Murchison Falls is definitely one of them!

Forgot to pack sunscreen so obviously we all had to buy matching tourist hats :)

The game drive:

Last time we chose not to have a guide due to no room in the car and we also haven’t had the greatest experiences with guides here…they usually have no idea what they are talking about! However, this time my dad convinced us to have a guide in the car. BEST DECISION HANDS DOWN! I REALLY wanted to see a Lion this time and our guide wanted us to as well…we were driving off the road into the bushes to find us a Lion! We did find the Lions home…and its leftovers from last night’s dinner but sadly we didn’t spot any lions.

Near the end of the drive our guide says “Pull off here and lets go down to the water” We pull of the road and start driving down to the Nile. As we get closer I realize just how large the group of Hippos are that we are approaching and we keep going closer and closer! It was really cool being so close to the hippos. At one point were all admiring them and then Rachel asks, “How fast can a hippo run?” “Oh about 30km/hr”…haha were all just like “Oh that’s nice can we go back now!”

 How cute are they!?

Overall, we had an incredible time! We also went up to the top of the falls! You don’t realize how powerful water can be until you see it flowing down a huge waterfall! It was so beautiful up there!

Seeing all of the animals wild and free truly makes you realize how beautiful our earth must have been when it was first created. There is a certain feeling you get when you see these beautiful animals up close in their natural habitat. Hopefully we can continue to preserve these parks and the animals that live in it.