2007 January 1st - January 24th Uganda and France for fun and meet and greet with fugitive and well known fraud artist, David Reiner 👍

2007 January 1st - January 16th Uganda, Kampala, Murchison Falls, Jinja,  

January 17th - January 23rd, Sigean, Barcelona

Dateline: 2024 January 25th Toronto, Ontario

My (ex) book keeper, David Reiner
Fraud artist and fugitive, here in Jinja where we finally met and he confessed to actually stealing from his clients. A real shock to me!

South bound to the other (African) great lakes (Edward & George)

This trips travelling map 

A trek to meet up with my one time book keeper and look for a place to build my retirement home

Neither worked out

Uganda is simply Africa Lite

Somewhere, there are negatives or more probably digital pix of my time at the horse safari and falls on the Nile. It was quite a frightening ride as I remember, but that may be all I ever claim, the memories. Hold the front blog!

Found lots of material on my archived videos, that's where a whole pile of stuff resides

I leave Toronto on new years eve flight,
Heathrow on a new years day flight.
It's cheaper
Here's my hostel, some way out of town
There's an ad for accommodation in Murchison Falls park. 
I book it. I should have headed out for gorilla's instead

I stay in a hostel in Kampala and sort out my brain

Instead of heading straight to the Gorilla watching

I book into the Murchison Falls Park 

It's good to be back in Africa

And be immersed in the continent again

But after my Southern Africa trips with the family, 
this is actually very tame, except for local "terrorists"
which were actually, quite real

I meet up with Paco, a Spanish guy who just
enjoys travel and photography. 

I become his chauffer, which works for both of us

It looks like everything is under exposed

So, at least I can use Paco's correctly exposed shots

We took a guard to
some of the park
See notes re "terrorists"

Murchison Falls, dusk

Your correspondent, correctly exposed

My shots.
These seem to work better

It was a fun outing

My newish digital camera, with my ancient telephoto lens

And why not, sun setting

We hung around for quite a while

Pretty much, thoughts on a
common theme I guess

The falls are actually just to the right

This is just pictorial mood music

Next day, I'm on the tourist boat, heading to the falls

Now this does look familiar

I guess if this is the Nile, these are Nile Crocodiles

Actually, the tails are quite tasty, but I don't want to catch is, or skin it

So that's it. Previous shots from somewhere up there
I remember being pretty unimpressed with this, but what else to do as a tourist here

No big tuskers any more, I wonder why

I guess this qualifies as big game

We used to get a kick out of these in Kenya

And a good laugh from these

There's pretty much no one else in the park

Just driving down a back tack, and this gut not only just turned up
but also hung around for those important 5 seconds

Well, I'd invested in coming here

So, I guess this is the usual
tourist Oooohs and Aaaaass

One more night, and I'm heading out
I've decided to head to Gorilla watch, but even though
I have a 4 x 4 vehicle, I only make about 1, 2Km down the 
road before I give up. It's totally corrugated and this vehicle will not make another 150Km
I have been given a contact for a property, I head out there
but it's another waste of time. I head back to Kampala

Stopping at a Chimpanzee sanctuary where I get
a personalised individual tour

I've decided to try white water rafting on the Nile

It's pretty demanding

These guys don't need you to drown, or breath

White water rafting time

Not sure if I'm up for this any more
I just hope that my sunglasses stay on. I wire them on

A little more civilised than our Zim treks

But just as wild, and I'm not so young anymore

This was the easy boat. Just hold on

But without the family on board, just adrenaline without the shared memories

Well, after a couple of wipe outs, you will eat anything

Stay hydrated,
just about anything that's wet and clean will work

After lunch, we head out for the most demanding rapid

We were warned to hang on

Well, we got what we signed up for

We all got totally lost. 

I kept hold of something
but I still remember coming up thinking

"I'm never going to do this again"
Looks like I'm the only one who needed hauling back in

And then, it's all over

Back into civvies, thankfully

I'm done in town, so I head to Jinja next day
On the Nile, just up from the rapids, a horse safari outfit

I take the 3 hour ride. Solo tourist mode
I said I was "experienced", which bit my arse
and occasionally when I got caught in Acacias, ripped my flesh

North towards the Nile islands

I think she had a pretty good idea of my riding ability.
She never turned round to confirm my skills level

I meet David at a bus stop, and as, at this time, he
was a fugitive, I sponsored his time with me
Next day, hanging out again
David did some accounting work here years past, so he has contacts

Somewhere in here, I contacted the group that had a plot of land for sale. I was hoping to build a house and move here to retire.

A surveyor and lawyer arrived, courtesy of David's contact, I was introduced to the land, shown the trees and lumps of rocks which delineated the boundaries  and I was inducted into the tribe.

David & I continue to investigate investment opportunities 
Here is the view from one of the properties

They are both right on the river
This would be part of one of them

And meet the locals, my new neighbours?

We are escorted around 2 properties

If we/ I are buying,
we need to be admitted to the tribe first

We need to be admitted to the tribe first

We attend to the tribal hearth and are inducted into the clan
I think I'm still a member

This is the David I thought I knew........

I made no commitment, and the deposit David and I had made several years ago went to said surveyor and lawyer.

All in all, I'm very happy with my decision and consequent non move. We head to the source of the Nile, just down the dirt track

We ham it up, fugitive style

David is/ was a lovely guy, but trusting him again?
I think I'll pass on that

My (ex) book keeper, David Reiner
Fraud artist and fugitive, here in Jinja where we finally met and he confessed to actually stealing from his clients. A real shock to me!

The sun sets after a hectic day of land buying
(apparently I did commit, but never actually bought anything)
David and I depart company. Seems that he's still living on a lump of cash I sent him. I never got it back
We won't meet again until I visit him in prison in Toronto
He ended up getting 3 years at Kingston Jail. His wife was the first person
in Canada to serve divorce papers over the internet
I was the only person ever to visit him 

After Jinja, I head across the country, again toward
the great lakes, maybe Gorilla's

Lots of this. 
Welcome to Africa folks

After my trek to Jinja, I'm back
into Africa Lite again 

The road to Queen Elizabeth game park is pretty good

Well, this was a standard sight in Zimbabwe
but much bigger elephants there

Certainly Africa

Good to get back to my African routes

Quite a lot, but all young and relatively tusk less.
There's a message here folks

We (me and other tourists), have a guide 

I think that this is on the way back

It's still Africa, but if you have lived here (Africa) for 5 years and did a self drive safari with the family twice for 9 months, this is tame stuff
I have had enough of Africa "Africa'd Out" I state in a video
Gorilla's? Can't be bothered anymore
Time to head home

A few days left to explore

Probably Lake Mburo

And the local wildlife

This is the troop.
Nasty things if you are not careful folks

Just hanging out in the dilapidated hide
Tame stuff

Well, tame can still be life threatening 

Looks like just the right size for a canoe

More of a large zoo I guess

I stop at a fuel station to fill up and chat in Swahili
"You speak Swahili with a Nairobi accent" the clerk tells me

Another tourist trap, Uganda style on
a more travelled route

Kampala chaos. Heading home
I guess that this is my last trip to Africa

I leave Entebbe on January 16th and (presume) I arrived in Perpignan the next day

Mid January, Pied a Newts, Sigean, France. Nirvana

And of course, down for our celebratory
Bi valves 

at Martines, Leucat

Mad dogs and English tourists etc

Les Pontoons, Peyriac-de-Mer

An old salt marsh

This to become a regular event until Pied a Newt no longer exists (2023)
Port Mahon

And that, once again gentle reader
Is all he wrote

From Your Correspondent