Thank you thank you Gilo for insisting I come to Uganda!!! The most beautiful country and people abundant with monkeys and butterflies! I have been met by glorious colours and birds of all hues, the source of the Nile which was very special and Lake Victoria which is vast and lovely. My Blog is going to be updated shortly for a full report but I thought I must just check in to say that I am going like a Boeing but Tracy is rattling along and is going to need some TLC when we get back to Nairobi next week. Once again thank you to Joost for organising spare parts for me and a huge thank you to my nephew William for getting the parts there and putting all the people together who are going to be fixing her. I am truly blessed, not only with my experiences but also my wonderful family and supporters Oh Woe is Me --- TRACY has a HIC CUP---- This was my heading with all about it now floating in the clouds, oh my grief with all my stuff floating in the sky it should be pouring “Blogs” by now!!Well Tracy is now on her tires again and we are on the road. We have crossed the Equator, now in the northern HEMISPHERE in Uganda having dri0ven through the most beautiful country I have ever seen. Thank you Gilo for insisting that I include Uganda into my itinerary. It really is a country I would not have missed. We left the frenetic hustle of Nairobi and having seen all I want to see ------ The Giraffe Manor with the opportunity of watching Giraffe at very close quarters for hours in luxurious comfort. Then Daphne Shaddrok, Elephant Orphanage where I adopted an adorable baby boy called Luggard — This is a most wonderful nursery of babies who’s mothers have either been poached or died, they are reared by dedicated men who are with them 24 hours aFfghjjj day, sleeping in their stables and feeding them every 3 hours. You won’t believe it but these well cared for babies sleep on mats and are covered with a blankie and if a baby is stressed it sucks its nanny’s finger, so that is why I had to adopt a baby !We were taken to lunch at The MUTHAGA Club which is so colonial it just isn't possible from a world long gone, with a few old souls shuffling along to bath in the warm pool and reminisce. Finally we saw Karen Blixen’s house which has been kept up and even though it is in a suburb of Nairobi when had expected all these “must see” sights in the bush, which they were I am sure but are now within the roar of the traffic. So those being everything that I simply had to see I was rearing to go then this hiccup. But that is behind us after our wonderful host spent a morning under Tracy appearing covered in grease with Tracy humming Thank you Jim and his wonderful co mechanic for a brilliant job. With me at he wheel we left Nairobi in a fog, a real pea souped, and headed for Uganda. The clouds lifted and Maretha took over and has been driving brilliantly over roads that are to be seen to believe. Horrific. We left on the Sunday and stayed at Kiboko (meaning hippo) on Lake Victoria but still in Kenya delicious fresh fish tilapia and Nile perch it rained but was beautiful and that is where I lost my Blog------in a rain cloud!!!!!Here I would like to say my drivers have been brilliant from Zambi to Giles then Katherine and now Maretha I really have been lucky. We drove through the most lush vegetation I have ever seen, in fact took the scenic drive and it was simply glorious . The next day we shot over the Equator and only knew when we saw The Equator Hospital , no need to record THAT!!!We reached a magnificent tea plantation, not only tea but veggies that looked as if they had been grown on steroids the carrots were huge the cabbages the size of football’s and the corn as high as an elephant’s eye!!!! THE boarder was with the usual chit chat can we buy your car, I go with it, that's OK what about my friend, we will give her a small house ----- and so it goes you have to have time and plenty of it . We reached JINJA and Nile River Base camp where we were given rooms for 40 $ each breakfast included, a very good deal! We had 2 nights of me desperate to get water from the Nile source and spending hours getting air time. Here we bumped into aa couple that I had met twice before, they were with overlanders and live in Uganda Hester and Yosef who very kindly gave us a winning two night stay at The Red Chilli in the Murchison Park, how lucky for us. We also met up with Billy whose camp is Explorers River Camp, his sister in law is in Darling what a small world. His camp is too beautiful and we hope to stay there on our return. The town and roads surrounding JINJA are in state of needed repair to see all these old houses either derelict or in need of maintenance makes my fingers itch!!! But did meet the most remarkable old lady who runs a restaurant called Oasis and she taught her chef to make cinnamon buns that were to die for was also most interested in SHINE as she had been a teacher and would take a couple of books to her church. She had piercing blue eyes and was bent and a fund of knowledge, had been in JINJA for thirty some thing years.For me this is what it is all about. Next day as the sun rose we set off for The Murchison Falls as my other destination spending the night with a remarkable woman Angie who runs Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary which she started with 6 Rhinos and now has 26 The breading programme is going. She was married. To a military man who died last year so she runs it on a strict military discipline with the result that she has the community all supporting her. I find that there is so much to see that our time is simply not long enough so we pressed on to the Reserve and the Red Chilli which really pulled out the stops not only honoring the winning ticket being to complete strangers but giving us a family chalet with a bathroom on our second night. Now I must say that this park is so worth the effort of getting there it really has every animal and antalope all mixing together in this lush countryside that is a cross between an english country estate and a golf course. Then the Murchison Falls as Maretha says is like a washing machine the volume of water that passes through a relatively small area is amazing what a magnificent spectacle. We saw it from the river with hippo elephant, crocs fish eagles and birds along the way really a must see. We were woken last night with a monsoon type storm like I have never heard. Rain in torrents thunder and lightning so dramatic, that made you think this is the end of the world. When we left at 6this am there was not a signed of Rain!!!!! Maretha went on a Chimpanzee walk said it was marvellous and saw a female and a male. Sadly the walk was too much for me so I sat and watched a million butterflies of every brilliant colour like a rainbow fluttering through the Forrest , with me sat a huge male baboon perfect peace between us.