March 23, 2013 - Murchison Falls

I just got back from a wonderful long weekend in the north of Uganda, at Murchison Falls National Park. There is so much to write about (and so many pictures!) that I will divide it up among a few different posts.

Amber (a visiting NICU fellow from UCSD) and I got up very early on Saturday morning to head to the Red Chilli (yes, spelled with to L's) hostel where our trip was planned to start. When I woke up, it was pouring rain outside, but I decided not to get discouraged too early, as the weather is completely unpredictable here (especially during rainy season - as we found out later that day!!). Hajii, our trusty driver, picked us up from the guest house before sunrise and took us to Red Chilli without any problems.

From there, we waited for a while to collect everyone on the trip (there were about 24 of us in total) and we boarded ourselves on to three rickety-looking vans to head to Murchison Falls (though our awesome green van turned out to be very reliable, and quite comfortable, actually...).

At first, Amber and I thought we had the whole van to ourselves, as there were no other guests; however, we picked up six other tourists about an hour and a half north of Kampala, in a small town called Luwero. All six of the other tourists were doing some sort of medical volunteering, with three medical students (two from Britain, one from Germany), two physicians (both from Britain), and one nurse (from Canada). We quickly realized that if anything went wrong on the trip, we were probably lucky to have each other close by. =)

After about 5-6 hours in the car, we arrived at our initial destination, the gate house to Murchison Falls National Park.

Despite my fears that the roads would be terrible (based on my experiences in Nepal last year), they were actually quite good. The first 4-5 hours were on paved highways, and the last distance was on dirt roads, but well-maintained (and quite scenic!).

Once inside the park, we had another 1.5 hours of driving on (slightly more bumpy) dirt roads before arriving at our primary destination of the day, the top of Murchison Falls.

Murchison Falls, also known as Kabarega Falls, is located on the first portion of the Nile River, after its origin from Lake Victoria (which borders Kampala). This portion of the Nile is known as the Victoria Nile. The Falls are found where the Victoria Nile meets with the western portion of the African Rift Valley. Basically, the whole of the Nile explodes through a small opening, approximately 10 meters in width, and tumbles 44 meters to its resting place below. This means that over 300 cubic feet of water pass over the falls per second. Unbelievable. The view is spectacular.

There is another "smaller" waterfall just to the left of Murchison Falls, known as Uhuru Falls. Despite its official name, Ugandans prefer to call it Independence Falls. As the story goes, the Victoria Nile flooded in 1962, and the limited chasm of Murchison Falls was too small for the excessive volume of water flowing down the river; therefore, this caused the water to overflow its course and create the second (though still spectacular) waterfall just to the north.

As 1962 was the same year that Uganda achieved its independence from British rule, the waterfall has hence been called Independence Falls by natives of Uganda. (Although, apparently, aerial views of Murchison Falls from prior to 1962 show the presence of two waterfalls, I prefer to believe the first story).

The views were breathtaking. As we were on a short hike to see better views of the falls, I looked in the distance and noticed that there were some very ominous clouds that appeared to be heading our way; however, they looked to be relatively far away and traveling slowly.

Therefore, I did not bother to bring my raincoat or umbrella with me. Rookie mistake. Of course, as we were the farthest distance away from the van, the clouds decided to let it all loose. At first I simply thought it might be mist from the waterfall. I was soon mistaken. The rain literally started coming down in buckets. We were soaked to the bone within 60 seconds. And then it started to hail. Awesome.

The whole time, I was trying to shield my camera with my body (it was only wrapped in a small canvas bag), praying that it would make it through the storm (thankfully, it did...). By the time I made it back to the van in the pouring rain, my clothing was dripping wet and it looked like I had just taken a swim in the Nile. Even an hour later, when we got to the campsite (and of course, the rain had stopped and the sun was out, because that is how it rains in Uganda), I was able to wring rain water out of my socks. Yuck. So, lesson learned. Even if the weather looks beautiful in Uganda, always be prepared for rain. It's unpredictable.

But despite the rain, it was a beautiful day and a marvelous waterfall.