Me trying to kayak!!!

Well it's all good fun but sometimes quite intimidating but I've managed to run the river without swimming now ... I'll put some images of each of the rapids .. but anyway I'm trying .. these photos are Nile Special and Malalu Wave.

Waiting in the eddy for Malalu

White Nile Kayakers .... 2011/2012

Playboating is white water kayaking on waves and holes attempting many or all of the tricks in the book ... it's a great spectator sport and I'm loving learning ... of course there are no photos of me doing anything 'epic' ... no chance of that .. but here are a few pics of kayakers who have stayed at the Lemon and who have been caught on my camera. I can't remember exactly who is in every photo but I'll do my best ...

Nini

Bartosz

Gerd

Mikhail

Gerd

Ah and that is me .. not quite on the wave!!

Stas

View of the wave from above

Murchison Falls with Chris, Eric and Andy (Jan 2012)

After the Banda Island trip we said farewell to Adrian and I headed back to the Lemon to pick up the boys for another trip to Murchison. We stayed the first night at Ziwa rhino sanctuary and then once we reached Murchison we had a night at the top of the falls and then two nights at the campsite at the new Murchison River Lodge. The place is fantastic and the campsite one of the best fixed camping places I've used in Africa EVER ... We had a lucky trip and saw lion and leopard as well as the usual plains game and of course the ever awe inspiring Murchison Falls, which were at the highest level I've seen yet ... I've not put any pics of animals in because .. well I see them all the time and none were so good as to warrant putting online for all to see ...

All of us in a sausage tree on the shores of Lake Albert ... Chris, Erik, me and Andy

Me, Andy, Erik and Chris

Staging a kakak move ...

Looking down into the falls gorge on dusk

The concrete block in view is Winston Churchill's £10 bridge that lasted only a few months until it was swept away in high water.

Sunset from the top of the falls looking back upriver

Chris making the twice daily required tea!!

Sunset from Murchison River Lodge

 

Banda Island Lake Victoria (January 2012)

Work at the Lemon finished at the end of December 2011 and after a fabulous 'Occupy the Lemon Panda New Year Eve' party, Adrian and I headed off to visit Banda Island as potentially there was a job managing the island. The Island is beautiful and well worth a visit. I decided not to take up work there, but anyone traveling the way of Uganda, who wants to get off the beaten track should definitely head that way.


These are just a few snaps of the three days we spent there .. The journey starts in a lakeside fishing village with all the hustle and bustle of African market places. Boats in and out, loading and unloading of everything from fish to flour to chickens to building materials that the remote Ssese Islanders rely on. Then there are the 'carriers', the men are carried on their shoulders to the boats and the ladies in their arms, this allows the 'carriers' to make 500ugx per person. A fine way to make some coins ...

 After a 3 hour boat trip on a packed fishing boat you reach the island but still need to take a smaller boat round the island the the other side (I thought we could walk across the island but turns out that its harder than we thought .. Adrian will elaborate more on his blog) ...

 Then the castle comes into sight where the eccentric Dom used to live until his sad demise in 2011

Sunrise from the island is well worth getting up to see ..

 The dining room also has an upstairs from where it would be amazing to watch a storm over the lake

Chilies grow everywhere in Uganda ...

This was the banda that we stayed in ...

And this was dining out ...