Uganda - Sipi Falls

In the midst of what was an exhausting driving tour of Uganda (where I was supposed to be auditing our clinics but in fact I spent 7+ hours a day on the road) I had planned a weekend break to Sipi Falls. It made sense when I made the booking as we would be working in the nearby town the following Monday, but due to exhaustion of the external auditor we had to rearrange the whole trip and I decided to head to Sipi Falls for some rest and relaxation on my own anyway.

Sipi is in the mountains above the "city" of Mbale, which is close to the Kenyan border, about 5 hours drive from Kampala. The falls were called the "most beautiful of Uganda" in the guidebooks so I thought it would be a nice break. Since I had originally booked for both myself and the doctor from the US, I booked the nicest place, Sipi River Lodge - yet I somehow missed the fact that our cottages had shared bathrooms...it felt pretty basic. No electricity in the cottages but the lodge was quite nice. I arrived around 1:30 on Saturday - it took a bit longer than expected because we ended up behind the president's motorcade (which is like 15 cars including two ambulances, one that looks like a brinks truck and the rest having soldiers with guns pointed in every direction). I had a big lunch (I was the only guest that weekend) and decided to go for the afternoon hikes to the two closest waterfalls. I had read you could do mountain climbing or abseiling down the waterfall, which sounded fun but it had been pouring all day so I didn't think the climbing would be that great of an idea. I also hadn't realized that there were several falls and that the rest of the lodges were overlooking the biggest falls, while this camp had views of falls #2. I sound like I'm complaining but I'm not, the location was very nice and I would recommend the lodge. You can see it a bit in the picture to the left, which is taken from the top of falls #2.

So after lunch, me and my guide Jasper (an employee of the lodge who had grown up in the area, had a degree in social work and had previously worked as a counselor for an HIV NGO, and was wearing plastic flip flops on the hike) headed up the hills. It was muddy and slippery from the earlier rains. And I realized that I had packed for the work portion of the trip - not the weekend, so I didn't have hiking boots - just my brand new, white as snow, running shoes. And no rain jacket or sweater or anything warm. T-shirts, that was it. Jasper had a big rain jacket, I just decided I wouldn't melt. The hike was lovely, after the first waterfall we hiked through fields of maize, banana trees, etc. and local villages. We were often walking right through someone's yard. The hut were circular mud structures, the nicest ones with tin roofs. But most of them were immaculately kept. The little area around them had been well swept, with flowers planted. They really seemed lovely and well cared for. The picture is Jasper in front of one of the huts (one that didn't have as many flowers).

We got to falls #3 and turned back. We got hit up for money from the local kids as a "passing through fee" but I wasn't carrying any money - that seemed okay. As we started back it started to rain again. The mud quickly accumulated on our shoes rendering them more like skis. No traction at all, so we were just slipping down the slopes. Jasper took his flip flops off - I tried to keep knocking the mud off (to no avail). These two girls were finding their own ways to keep dry. Towards the bottom of the hill the paths were small streams. And by the time we got back to the lodge I was soaked and covered in mud. I meant to take an immediate shower but instead passed out. When I woke up I showered and tried to wash the mud off my pants. I figured I was out of luck with the shoes.

The next morning Jasper and I headed out for the remaining falls, the big daddy of them all. The pants had dried pretty well in front of the fire and the shoes weren't too wet. About 20 minutes in, I realized that whatever I was feeling in the tip of my shoe probably wasn't just my bunched up sock. When I took off my shoe a caterpillar-y thing fell out (I forgot the golden rule of ALWAYS looking in your shoes before putting them on). Jasper freaked out a bit talking like it was a leech... but I'm going to stick with caterpillar. The hike down to this falls was really steep. At a spot there was a ladder as otherwise we would have had to scale the rocks. And the whole time these women were carrying very heavy loads of maize up the hill! That never ceases to amaze me. We were really close to the bottom, the terrain was getting harder as we were walking over vines and didn't have real footing and Jasper was about 3 steps ahead of me when he sprinted back towards me yelling about white ants. Apparently they bite. He was trying to get them off himself for the next 10 minutes, but he had spotted them before I got covered. I got one bite and the rest were just on my shoes. We had to backtrack a fairly significant amount, cross the river and approach from the other side. The waterfall is beautiful though. And it was so great to get out of a car and move!

On the way back we were resting after a steep climb and ladder up the cliffs. In the cliffs themselves there are little caves and kids were sitting in the openings. One little girl in a purple dress came towards us. She seemed curious and after peeking around corners, came up. She had a crystal from the caves that she showed Jasper. And then she followed us the rest of the way. I asked "what is your name" and she responded "what is my name".

And that was about it. A really nice break. The drive back was uneventful - no presidential motorcade. But I did realize I could play my iphone through the stereo so as we were driving down the mountains some random bluegrass came on and my Ugandan driver seemed to really enjoy it. He was tapping his fingers and feet. The only other songs he did that to were Santana and Girls Just Wanna Have Fun! I tried to explain what bluegrass was by saying if we were in poor mountain areas in the US instead of poor mountain areas in Uganda, that's the music we'd be surrounded by:)