Pearl of Africa

Firstly, my apologies for the extended break between postings. I realise all our dedicated readers have been missing out. My only excuse is that Uganda has been action packed with Laurens' arrival and getting to grips with sub-saharan life. Also, Uganda only has power for 24 hrs out of 48 hrs, so usage of internet is not always possible.
Anyway, we have been having a amazing time since touching down in Uganda at the beginning of June. The visual shock of arriving into a place of such vivid colours was staggering, especially after the last couple months of contemplating desert landscapes. Everything in Uganda is either a brilliant earthy red or stunning green. The contrast between the red dirt roads and the green of the surrounding countryside is amazing.
We spent a couple days in Kampala picking up the gorilla tracking permits and generally getting our bearings. As African capitals go, Kampala is fairly low key, but that doesn't prevent it from being a special blend of organised chaos. You only need to step into a 'taxi' to understand that life works at a entirely different pace in Africa. We have had a great time zooming around town on boda-boda 'motorbikes' and generally racking up near death experiences.
The people of Uganda have been wonderful and always seem to have a huge smile on their faces. The standard call of 'Mzungu mzungu how are you' rings out whenever they see you pass. Mzungu loosely translates into 'white man who stumbles around aimlessly', which pretty much sums up most backpackers.
Once Lauren arrived we undertook the long bus journey to the south west of the country to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park for the highlight of any trip to Uganda, tracking the endangered mountain gorillas. See the special posting about the gorilla tracking.
After Bwindi we luckily got a lift with a couple of aid workers to picturesque Lake Bunyonyi, which brings images of The Hobbit to mind. We fully deserved our day relaxing at the lakes edge after being tricked into getting a canoe to the island hostel, not realising that we had to paddle. All three of us were done by the time we arrived and couldn't muster the energy to do anything the rest of the day.
Next stop on the whirlwind tour was to Jinja, the adventure sport capital of East Africa, for a spot of white water rafting on the mighty Nile. Lauren and I braved the rapids, which dwarfed the ones of the Tully River in Queensland. Our raft only flipped 4 times and no major injuries were sustained, so overall a successful expedition.
Leighanne and I spent a couple more days in Kampala getting buses sorted and generally watching a lot of World Cup football, especially Australia triumph. We have now moved onto Tanzania and are all locked and loaded for our 5-day safari starting tomorrow. With any luck we will be able to view the wilderbeast migration as well as seeing the 'Big Five'.