Renate and Ian enjoyed a brilliant finale to 2010 when Laura and Shola and Matt and Holly made the journey to Kampala to celebrate a family Christmas with a difference - on Safari at Murchison Falls on the River Nile! The photographs shown in this post are just a sample from the 1450 photographs that we managed to take between us!
After Matt and Holly arrived at Entebbe airport on the Saturday before Christmas we all stayed over in this lovely town on the shore of Lake Victoria and next day went to the Botanical Gardens - which as well as brilliant trees and flowering shrubs has a resident population of vervet monkeys
Who like to be fed pop corn - the monkeys store any un-eaten pop corn in their cheeks and then chew it some more when they are feeling a bit peckish
Just the bluest balls you have ever seen - they go this colour during the breeding season and signifies that the little fella is really up for it!
After Entebbe we made the journey east from Kampala to Jinja and the source of the River Nile - here's the group with Joseph who drove our boat from the Kingfisher resort where we stayed - Renate's missing as she took the picture
The Kingfisher resort on Lake Victoria - just a few hundred metres from where the Nile River begins its 4000 mile journey from Lake Victoria to Alexandria in Egypt - the guides at the Source of the Nile say that it takes the water from Lake Victoria 90 days to make the journey to the Med.
Shola doing his best to hide from the camera in the craft shop on the island next to the Source of the Nile
On Christmas Eve we travelled 200 miles from Kampala to Murchison Falls - a magnificent water fall on the River Nile, and in a national park that takes its name from the Falls. This photograph shows the Nile bursting through the narrow gorge at the top of the Falls
From the top of the Falls it took us another hour to drive the 15 miles to the tented camp where we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Night
Early on Christmas morning - 7.00 am - we took a ferry across the Nile to go on a game drive through the national Park and this giraffe was happy to welcome us
The giraffes in the park were amazing and this little baby was temporarily separated from its mother - we think a reunion took place soon after
A large collective intake of breath as we saw this lioness - there were three or four minibuses full of Christmas Day tourists looking on but she didn't give any of us a moment's attention.
Matt bursting into the background of this portrait of Laura and Shola
After a Christmas Dinner of (for Ian) of beans and chapattis, we hopped onto a boat for a 2 to 3 hour trip up the Nile to the base of the Falls
Soon we were watching a group of elephants making short work of a clutch of bushes and small trees on the River bank
It was the breeding season for crocodiles and this beast is lying on its eggs - it hardly moves while it does this although our guide did caution that if we jumped close to its head we would see a flash of movement!
And finally we made it to within 400 metres of the base of the falls - the 'suds' are (again according to a guide) organic pollution generated by plant and animal waste
And if you are cruising gently down the Nile having been to the base of the Falls what do you drink? Nile Special of course!
The happy team enjoying their starters before tucking into a Christmas Night BBQ organised at the campsite. Note the paper hats - Holly brought six crackers with her from Manchester so that we could capture a bit of the Christmas 'Spirit'.
Not captured on camera by any of us was a hippo that came up from the river, waddled right through the campsite, past the BBQ and camp fire, to munch the grass that was growing around our tents. Laura and Shola were woken at 2.30 on Boxing Day morning by the loud sound of munching and they could see a huge 'hippo shape' through the tent's window. As if this wasn't bad enough some especially 'sensitive' American tourists thought this was the moment to take their 'Facebook Photo' and so flash guns went off - further scaring the living daylights out of Shola and Laura. At every turn we were advised NOT to shine a torch or use flash photography at hippos - they don't like it and can react unpredictably.
Fortunately no unpredictable behaviour was forthcoming and Shola and Laura are still in one piece. You'll not be surprised to hear that Laura exchanged spicy words a bit later on with our north American 'cousins' - about which, more later!
On our way back to Kampala on Boxing Day we had arranged to call in at the ZIWA Rhino Sanctuary. Because of poaching and civil war Uganda's rhino population was wiped out in the 70s and 80s. Now this sanctuary is beginning the task of reintroducing white rhinos from other countries - Kenya and South Africa (and also from the Disney Animal Kingdom) - to safe habitats in Uganda. Once the rhino population in the sanctuary is 'ready' they'll be transported to the Murchison Falls national park. The photograph is of Kawesa, our guide on our walk to see the rhinos - no safety in a big safari bus - a quieter and gentler approach on our two feet. Kawesa knows all the rhinos well and can look at a pile of rhino 'poo' and tell you which one dumped it! He told us that the rhinos have a great sense of smell and they know his 'smell' well - so although the rhinos will 'smell' strangers - it's OK if they are with Kawesa! Hugely reassuring to hear this! We got VERY CLOSE.
This photograph shows some of the north American tourist group that we had the pleasure of spending Christmas with. They gave Kawesa a hard time - they just didn't seem to get it that rhinos are dangerous animals - they wanted to get CLOSER to get that Facebook Photograph. We think Kawesa was badly hassled and if we had been allowed to raise our voices we probably would have. Anyway we congratulated Kawesa on the way he managed them - and commended his approach to his bosses later when we had lunch.
This experience with loutish, over-privileged, arrogant, demanding, white, tourists was a wake-up call for us and a reminder of what Ugandan Citizens sometimes have to put up with when show-casing their Country's natural wonders. If he had encouraged the rhinos to charge us all it would have been understandable!
A mother with 2 year old "Obama" - so called because mum is from America (Disney!) and dad is from Kenya!
This big beast was looking at us for a while and we started checking for trees to climb into - thankfully a few seconds after this photograph was taken he lay down and went back to sleep. Dry mouths as we walked back to have our lunch.
But a good way to end a memorable Christmas Family Get Together!
Diane works as a volunteer supporting the development of Midwife training at the International Hospital in Kampala
Diane's daughter Sarah with the children from two of the village families that her mum Diane has become good friends with
This is another Sarah, a close friend to Diane and a supporter of the village school and church
When we arrived we were soon surrounded by a group of village children 'messing about'. 
