Churchill's Pearl

Winston Churchill once said that Uganda is the "Pearl of Africa". While I haven't seen the entire continent (yet), I can't think of any reason to correct him.

My first stop in Uganda was Jinja, home of the source of the Nile River. And some of the best white-water rafting in the world. I must admit, I was terrified. One girl I talked to said that her boyfriend had done it the previous day and that he hated several "fights for his life". My rafting friend Daniel and I looked at each-other, and I seriously contemplated wussing out. But no. Ten minutes in the truck, and we put in just past the dam on Lake Victoria. Our guide, Jamie, taught us what to do when the boat flips, and after a warm-up swim through a Class II rapid, we were ready for our first big one. We had four Class V rapids of the day, and I ended up getting thrown out of the boat during three of them. The longest swim was on a rapid called "Silverback" (after the gorillas...see below...and the froth); lots of water in the lungs. The craziest "what-did-I-just-do" moment came after we went sideways over a 15-foot waterfall. So much fun; the pictures barely do the day justice. I would definitely go again.

Over the weekend I went on a gorilla tracking safari in Bwindi National Park, in southwestern Uganda. The ride there from Kampala was an incredibly long ten hours, the last three of which were over the bumpiest dirt road I have ever been down. Or up. But the views were worth it- Uganda's Switzerland. Rolling hills, rain forest, villages, farms. So beautiful. Sunday morning we got up early for our a briefing by the park rangers. I was assigned to track Group H, made up of 18 individuals including a Silverback ("the boss"), three blackbacks (other large males), and several females, juveniles, and babies. Back into the cars for a bit. Then we had a 4 hour hike through the jungle: up and down hills, our guides were literally hacking our way through the jungle with their machetes.

When we finally came upon the gorillas, they were resting in a thick briar, so the pictures didn't turn out very well. But we were crazy close and got to see eleven gorillas. So beautiful. They were mostly just lounging around. Eating some leaves. The baby kept jumping up and down pounding his chest. At one point one of the younger males decided to remind us whose house we were in and came charging right up to us; he literally passed three feet in front of my face. And let me tell you, getting thrown in the Nile is nothing compared to being charged by several hundred pounds of showing off gorilla. I almost peed my pants. Not really. But I really did almost ran away, which is the worst thing I could have done- making him want to chase me. Good thing our guide reminded told us to freeze on the spot. Later on, though we couldn't see it, one of the other males tried to make a pass on one of the females; this pissed off the silverback (the only male allowed to mate), so he went lumbering over there and started scolding the youngester. Two gorillas fighting 10 yards away is another scary sound, especially when all you can see is bushes falling by the wayside.

What a day. What a country.