Murchison Falls

Some of you are probably wondering where the hell are the animals in this whole saga. After all, it's Africa. That's what you do here: chase around game reserves like something out of Hatari. OK, so here it comes...

About two hundred miles north of Kampala is Murchison Falls, a place not only in the lore of the search for the Nile, but once one of Africa's premier game reserves--until the massive slaughter of animals under that psycho of the ages Idi Amin, or his successor Obote, or the Lords Resistance Army. For much of the last forty years, Murchison Falls has been off limits, but presently it's calm and the animals are back. Before the troubles began, the park was used, in part, for the filming of the African Queen, and since I've shamelessly ripped off the movie poster for this blog, the least I can do is visit and pay my respects. And as a side note, it was here that Ernest Hemingway suffered the two back-to-back plane crashes--with the last one nearly killing him.

So, off I go with seven more-than-congenial English, German, and American companions. A backpackers hostel in Kampala offers a three-day safari for only $240--an absolute bargain.

Murchison Falls may not be the highest or widest falls in the world, but it has the distinction of being the most powerful. The Nile River at this point in its journey north squeezes from a width of fifty meters through a six-meter gorge in an unbelievable burst of fury. We hike to the top and then to the bottom.

Murchison Falls

The next morning I go on a game drive through the reserve, and the complete assortment of animals are at work, standing about looking photogenic. I've got a ton of pictures, but here are a few that don't need to be blown up...

And if that isn't enough, we follow this with a cruise for some hours up the Nile toward the falls where there is an elephant and hippos and crocodiles galore. This is the jungle boat cruise for real...

Some kind of water buffalo.