Backpacking

Not a very eventful week this week. mostly just been in transit. travelled back to uganda to join the rest of my group to begin with. Went swimming in Lake Buyonani, thanklfully no crocs or hippos around. Also t\went out for an early morning cvanoe ride, tho me and rachael werent very good at steering it.

THen tra elled back to kenya via the equator, where we expereinced how water floows different ways in each hemisphere and on the equator just goes straight down. Went to a drum market where a lot of people bought big drums but i settled for a modestly small one.

Went for a walk up a hill when we got to kenya, had some local boys take a small group of us up. followed in the evening by some t raditional dancing that we were able to join in. unforunately it was quite dark.

travelling to lake baringo and a truck had got stuck in a big dip in the road, they had the army type people helping, we found our own way across, but we had to build the road up to begin with with some more rocks. huge cheers when we got across, but we had to leave the other truck stuck. apparently we only help out other overland trucks.

yesterday we went for a morning walk i i got to hold a scorpian. we also saw a snake and lots of plant type things. We climbed up a ridge of the rift calley in order to get a good view of the lake.

after breakfast we went for a boat trip, which was unsuccessful becasue we didnt see and hippos. although we did hear them at night, and were scared to leave our tents to go pee in case one charged us. though we did have a guard loking out for us apparently. we did see some crocs on our boat, and saw a fish eagle catch a fish that we threw for him.

after lunch we went to visit a local tribe. i think i got married several times. else they were jsut interested in my watch! there was a language barrier! it was good to learn about them. and we got to dane with them although it wasnt as good as the other dancing that we saw, becasue they were really just jumping around, fun none the less.

today we have just driven from baringo to nakuru on our way to naivasha.

so crossed the border into Uganda on thursday. it was a long day driving, but worth it. i think i prefer uganda to kenya. our campsite was right onto the nile (it starts in Jinga where we were staying). the view from the showers is of the river. and we could hear the rapids at night.

so on friday we spent the whole day doing the rapids starting at the source of the nile on the last day of it being the longest river, aparently the amazon is now the longestest as of yesterday! (apart from 3 people, one with maleria, one recovering from a cold so she can see the gorillas and the other i think was just scared!). there was 7 of us in each raft, mine didnt tip over until the last 2 rapids of 12 the first a grade 3 the second a grade 5). there were a few injuries, myself, i have twisted my arm while holding onto the rope as we went thgouh a grade 5, though i didnt fall out and managed to put up with the pain for the rest of the day. another guy badly sprained his ankle when they fell out, and another girl was just too hung over, stupid!! i have a dvd of the day so can show you that when i get back.

then yesterday i took myself off to do a bungee jump into the nile, while everyone else did either horse riding or quad biking. with my sprained arm i couldnt have done either of these. waited around for a long time while they sorted stuff out, and was quite nervous when i did it. although i have done one before it was easier becuasae i was in a full harness and they helped me to fall. this time i was just strapped by my feet and had to do the dive myself. i didnt get fully dunked into the water but my hands went in. got someone to take a video of me doing it, although my battery ran out, but got the important part, shame i wasted a minute before jumping because she was filming it then. in the end the guy just went 3,2,1 and i just did it. so awesome!!!

i think my travel insurance covers me for all these things, better check before i do a skydive over mount kilamanjaro!!