Leaving behind the world of CSB (despite the texts which track us wherever we go!) we entered the world of camping.  John and Loren are the first friends who have not only hosted us camping but actually taught us to love it too.  The other few we have camped with have supplied food and fun and kept us in TP and bedding but never convinced us (especially David) to come back and try it again! But all of us agreed today that it is John and Loren’s interest in teaching us, their willingness to let us try and to answer many dumb questions that let us catch their “bug” for the wilderness life.

The first night past Masindi was on the south side of the park in the “Shoebill Campsite” named after a rare kind of bird found in Murchison Park.  After a long day on the road and a hike up to Murchison falls (gloriously powerful) we were hotter than hot.  Northern Uganda is about five to ten degrees warmer than where we are and boy do you FEEL IT. Fortunately we found a cool spot to swim and spent an hour or two cooling off with drinks and dives.  Then back to the campsite for dinner accompanied by attempts by baboons to steal what they could!  The night was uneventful though the site insisted on a night guard for the camp.

In the morning we packed up and headed to the car ferry which took us across the Nile to the north side of Murchison park where most of the game is located.  We drove for several hours through the park trails spotting elephants, giraffes, oraby and hartebeest.  Around lunch time we reached our campsite, the bush camp in the middle of the park.  Located on the delta between Lake Albert and the Nile the site is simply a bit of the park itself and has no signs or markers and is noticeable only by the charred fire rings.  Lake grasses ran all around our camp site which had beautiful views of the water.  The UWA armed ranger we were required to keep with us at all times suggested that we set up our tents well away from the high grasses which shelter predators, allowing them closer than  we would like without being able to see them. (hard to forget that we have snack-sized children)

The afternoon was hot and hotter and since we had only drinking water we made a trip down to the Nile to pull up a cooler full of green water for washing dishes and hands.  Does this really make you CLEANER?, we wondered.  After cooking meat and veggies for dinner we headed out as darkness set in for a night game drive to spot the noctornal animals.  Our mission turned up a few small foxes and weasels but nothing else until we were almost back at the camp site and spotted a leopard running across the road just a little ways from where we would sleep!!  As always in the game parks, nights are filled with sounds of hippos and other wild animals but we did not have visits from lions in the night.

The next day brought another long morning game drive.  Sitting with John, Loren and Brian on top of our car we cruised through morning’s cool stillness and stopped for a potty break.  Brian silhouetted against the savanah, his tiny white self against the big colorful wildness that is Africa – peeing.  This is our children’s lives; sometimes most startling in the ordinary.

We are so thankful for these few days with the Clark composed of few deep conversations but much shared communal work and quietness in nature.   Sometimes there is little left to say when you have experienced together so much. We will hold this time close, cherished, until we meet them again ” on the other side” for the birth of their baby in June.  Another thing Africa has given us; new American friends we will keep forever.