So, this past week got me moving to Arua, for a work engagement with UAPA.

This work engagement had a lot to do with the alcoholic drinks control bill, that we so much hope will come into law.

Getting to Arua though, required us to go through the Murchison Falls National Park.

It had been a while since I had last visited this place….to be exact, about 2 years before #COVID19 came for us all!

 

 

The last time I was there, I wasn’t there as a visitor per say.

I was there on traffic enumeration duties, paving way for the entire tarmacked road we have in there now, courtesy of the (in)famous “EACOP”.

We did our work from what is now, Buliisa district for about a week, if I can remember well.

 

What did I see, this time around?

The entire road leading to the national park is a little bit better than it was, back then.

The rules at the park are much tighter now, than those days…we are talking encountering 1 plastic bag and bottle on the tarmac inside the park, coming from Pakwach, on our way back to Kampala.

 

 

I saw lots of animals including a loner “elly” this time around.

Coming from Kampala, we saw them as the sun was drawing down for the day and I was the one driving.

On our way back to Kampala, we saw them early on their road for the day.

 

Speaking of the lodges in the park,

I saw many more of them and even as we were leaving, we saw one’s drive through being designed.

(I wonder; what’s the procedure to be followed when constructing these lodges? Doesn’t the existence of these lodges in the park upset the animals?)

 

I occasionally hoot while driving but this time around, my fingers and palms stayed a distance away from the horn!

Neither did any of the drivers in the park hoot, the entire journeys!

There was the always beautiful sun too….

 

Come to the hazardous waste disposal trucks; I saw a good number of them.

There were lots of patrol vehicles moving on in the park, probably to verify that people in the park were doing what they were supposed to do.