A long day driving, awaking to take tents down in the rain for the first time ... departing one camp at 0700 and arriving at Hippo Hill Camp 12 hours later. We did stop for half an hour as we crossed the equator and watched the water on both sides and on it ... and it does spiral in different directions and then go straight down. We also had a small mechanical break during lunch whilst David fixed a few things on the truck - it took an hour & litres of water. The afternoon was spent driving through tea plantations and being awed at the size of horns on the cattle.

We have made a few observations on these long trips about the way that buildings in small rural towns are painted with sponsored colours. Kenya was monopolised by 3 companies:
* Wrigleys - for freshest breath
* Crown - if you like it, crown it (a paint company)
* safaricom - local cell ph company.

Crossing the border into Uganda we immediately noticed there was a lot more variety - including the introduction of Pepsi. However airtel and MTN as competitors, "you can send money across any network", are on at least 2 or 3 buildings in most rural towns. There is a different paint company - Sanodin. And fresh breath doesn't seem to be an issue here.

We have also seen murals about how the Ugandan parliament is structured and billboards against corruption in the health system and procurement systems. Fascinating.

We drove down into the west part of the great rift, seeing a large herd of elephants. Our campsite is known for nocturnal visits from hippo & elephant ... we can but hope.