Well, where do I begin?! After my last entry I have done so much I sometimes struggle to remember it all. After Zanzibar, Holly and I travelled to Tanga. It was a bit of a waste of time in all honesty seen as Holly spent two days in bed and I just spent! I spent almost an entire day on the internet and crying to mum and dad begging them to let me come home, for parents who miss me a lot they are rather persistent about me staying across the world from them! However, after a lot of tearful diary entries I managed to hop aboard a bus to Mombasa with Holly. On the bus we met a lovely local woman who was kind enough to offer us a place to stay on our first night meaning we had free accommodation and a comfy bed, plus a shower!! It was still really hot because we were on the coast but it didn't really matter, it was free! After our free nights stay we decided maybe the woman would want her bed back so headed off to Mombasa backpackers, our new home for the next week.
Backpackers was amazing! We made so many great friends and had such a good laugh. We even went to an all night beach party with everyone to bring in the new year...now that was a party! The DJs were great and the company was a hilarious! I ended up dancing on the bar at the front of the crowd and getting in a lot of trouble with the bouncers, but it didn't stop me, I was having way too much fun (the alcohol blood level probably helped!) After getting a little more drunk and a lot more hungry I abandoned the bouncer and limped off to find some food (I fell off the bar quite a lot.) Stupidly I didn't take any money with me so had to beg for free food. This consisted of me saying to a waiter "I'm pretty hungry, but don't have any money, any chance I can have some food?" to which he replied, "Sure take a seat" and returned with a massive plate of food! I quickly munched the food and ran off before the waiter could "take me for a dance!"I actually wandered down to the group and fell asleep only to wake up in time to see the sun rise...I amn't too great with the late nights!
The first week of new year was spent very similarly, I basically slept all day every day, only waking up to visit the old town a couple of times, to have a swim (mainly to cool down) and to watch another movie...it was great! Sadly it did have to come to an end at some point but only because we were off to Nairobi to meet our best buds, Rachel and Jen. They had sadly been involved in accident when they were in Uganda so were a little shaken up with the idea of public transport meaning the trip to Nairobi was delayed. However they arrived on Holly's birthday which we spent watching movies and eating crappy foods. Again we had a free place to stay thanks to my wonderful brother-in-law, Keith, so we had a posho cake for dinner and Holly's birthday (don't worry the night before I had actually bought her some chocolate cake which she loved!)
After our lazy day we booked our safari! I was so excited!! On the holiday I had wanted to go to Zanzibar and do a safari and thankfully I was getting to do both!! Holly didn't really fancy the safari so it was just Jen, Rachel and I which was fine. Two days after booking the safari we were in our safari bus with Jack (new guy!) and two very well dress Sri Lankan ladies, they were possibly the two funniest women ever...unintentionally. They were just ridiculous, I mean we saw a goat and they stopped to take about 50 photos, and then they were shocked that people actually peed in a hole in the ground! Needless to say they were pretty well-off.
The safari was amazing! We saw so many amazing animals and had such a great laugh. Jack was a funny guy and joined our three to make us a four (3 + 1 = 4! I should teach maths!) which was lovely. We saw 4 out of the big 5, lions, elephants, leopards and buffalo, sadly the rhinos were no where to be seen! We also saw a lot of giraffes and hippos which was amazing. If you are really interested we also saw 2 or 3 different types of gazelle, loads of zebra's, endless monkeys, hyenas and loads more! I will upload some photos because I can't actually remember everything! I even managed to get up at half 5 in the morning for an early game drive which was cool! We saw some lions feasting on their kill from the day before.
After safari we returned Nairobi, grabbed our bags and headed off to Wildebeast Eco Camp, it was beautiful, in fact it reminded me of Michelle's garden a little! Obviously it was a lot bigger and had a massive pond, but I was just waiting for Jamie or Ellen to run over and ask me to play a game! We stayed there for 5 nights and drank a lot of wine, made friends with a beautiful Canadian woman, Danielle and lay in the sun. Needless to say, Rachel got burnt while I didn't even change colour a little! If anyone ever wants to go to Kenya I must warn you, money is almost the same as the British pound, therefore it does cost an awful lot...something I wish I had been warned about!!
Finally we realised we had to return home to Uganda so packed our bags and hopped upon a night bus which took us back to our beloved home, well, sort of. We arrived in kampala and spent a week there spending once again WAY TOO MUCH MONEY. But hey, I bought some gifts for people (Jack your top is in my bag ready to come your way!) and bought myself a whole new wardrobe! Honestly, I don't think I will be needing more clothes for the rest of the year, although of course I will accept anything anyone has to offer! I may make some of the new items gifts to the children and Justine. Rachel and I managed to get extremely drunk one night to the point her ankle is now twice the size and she has to limp everywhere and we both sat crying for a while, awk. We also danced for a good 2 hours so hopefully lost some weight and didn't look too much like fools!
Now we are heading home. I am currently sitting in an internet cafe trying desperately to upload my photos which is taking hours (literally!) and then I am going to grab a taxi home to my Uganda mama and (most likely) rat filled home, but in all honesty I cannot wait!! Holly is staying an extra night in Masaka so tonight I will be spending my first ever night alone in 5 months! Can you believe that, I am a little scared so if anyone wants to call me that is completely fine!! I always enjoy coming to Masaka and hitting the post office where I get to collect post from the lovely little man that always smiles when he sees how happy I get. Thank you to Auntie Colleen for the DVDs (tonight might not be too scary with Magic Mike!), Auntie Moo and Uncle Rob, Uncle Andrew, Auntie Louise and the clan, The Southam Family (so many people now know about you by the way...I miss you all a lot!), Timone, Kirsteen, Kathryn, Granny and Grandad and of course you Mama and Shrek! I miss you all loads and hope everyone has enjoyed their cup of tea! Sorry this took so long to read!! Just think, it has taken me about an hour and a half to upload 20 photos...Uganda time, what can I say?
All my love
Your Ugandan Girl
ELEPHANTS!! There were loads of elephants everywhere!
