Wednesday, October 26, 2011

THE CATERPILLAR ON THE NILE


So you may be wondering why the weird title..well the Nile part is pretty self explanatory as you read on but the caterpillar??? 

WELL let me tell you a story about a hairy caterpillar……now the hairy caterpillars you find over here are a little poisoness in that their hair has little bits of poison on them to deter predators…….whilst sat minding my own business a hairy caterpillar decided to make my hair his home…..i was non the wiser until I let me hair down and BAM!!!!!!!! I looked and felt like I rolled around in a nest of stinging nettles…..i have since learned my lesson…..if you brush you hair more frequently it wont look like a cozy home for little poisoness creatures!

Anyway since I last wrote, we have collected all the new expectant passengers and ventured out of Nairobi and headed to Nakuru National Park for our first day of adventure. First, we stopped 50km’s outside of the city to take in the phenomenal view over the Great Rift Valley. When we arrived in Nakuru there was just time for a quick road side lunch (ate in harmony with the growing number of monkey spectators) before heading off on our first game drive. 

Although the clouds were collecting above us in grey abundance promising rain, we had a fabulous drive…lioness’ right next to us on the side of the road too lazy to move out of the rain, and we were graced with 2 rhino sittings, along with zebra, buffalo and an enormous amount of different birds. The following day we headed to Eldoret to stay at Naiberri Riverside Camp. We got there early in order for everyone to watch the Rugby world Cup and after a day of celebrating (we have A LOT of Kiwi’s on board) we settled down for dinner (I proved 1 passenger wrong that you CAN bake lasagna without a stove)

The next day we crossed the boarder into Uganda and headed to the town of Jinja where we stay at the amazing Nile River explorers campsite, right next to the source of the longest river in the world. The River Nile. We stay here for 3 nights during which time there are heaps of activities to get involved with such as rafting the frothy Nile rapids, mountain biking or even horse riding!! Most of the peeps decided on a day of rafting but a few decided to stay behind, relax and take in the stunning view the campsite offers over the river. It also turns out that we bought some nice weather with us…Uganda has 2 seasons…the wet season and the not so wet season. It has apparently rained here every day for 3 weeks…..over the 3 days we have been here it has been beautiful sunshine!

Our last day at NRE in Jinja was spent volunteering for Soft Power….a charity that builds and maintains schools and focuses on educating local communities. Everyone returned covered in paint apart from 1 passenger……who as it turns out found him self in the class room teaching the children about the solar system!!!!

Tomorrow we head into Kampala Uganda’s capital where we spend one night and pick up 2 extra passengers before heading into this tropical country.

No comments:

Post a Comment