Samuel Baker was a contemporary of Speke and Burton and following the death of his first wife, he set off to explore the Nile accompanied by his second "wife" Florence. Florence was a beautiful Transyvanian girl and Baker first came across her in 1855 whilst on a hunting trip with the Maharajah of Punjab, in what was then part of the Ottoman Empire. She was only 14 (he was 38) and she was being offered for sale in an Ottoman slave auction! Baker fell for her a...

The search for the source of the Nile was one of the major events in Victorian African history. Whether it was Burton, Speke, Livingstone or Stanley - they were all obsessed by it at some stage or other and until now I have never understood why it took them so long to figure it out. Herbert (our driver) told us the other day that the source was Lake Victoria, but I recall driving past the "Source du Nile" hotel in Burundi many years ago and wondered which was co...

Oil has been found in the Albertine basin on the border between Uganda and DRC by Tullow Oil (a UK oil explorer) and its two partners, Total of France and CNOOC (the Chinese National Offshore Oil Company). The finds are significant - enough oil on the Ugandan side to potentially add anything between $2bn to $6bn per annum for the next 20 years to Ugandan tax revenues. The problem is that some of the oil has been found underneath the Murchison National Park and a...

We have rarely seen so many giraffes in a National Park, so it seems appropriate to have a giraffe photo on this blog. Murchison really suffered during the civil war here in the 80's and from subsequent poaching, but animal numbers have recovered and there are now large herds of water buffalo, giraffe, Uganda Cob and hippo. We have also seen quite a few elephants and a few crocs - but no cats at all. The guides assure us that they are here and it's just the long...

Elephant on the bank of the Victoria Nile showing his displeasure about being disturbed by us.