Lake Victoria to Khartoum 



first fifteen miles, otherwise a continual vista of 

 bush and glades takes us to the vicinity of the 

 Kafu river. 



Now we come to the land of palm trees, 

 beautiful tall borassus palms, with their long 

 straight trunks swelling out half-way up, and then 

 narrowing again. Bunches of orange-red nuts 

 of sorts cluster underneath the wide-spreading 

 rustling fronds, ornamented with the nests of 

 countless weaver birds, which dangle therefrom. 

 This means that we are nearing the river Kafu, 

 the boundary between Uganda and Unyoro. We 

 cross at the end of the dry season over a withered 

 tangle of reeds and mud, binding the roots of the 

 floating vegetation together, and affording a 

 somewhat doubtful foothold as one staggers over 

 the quaking mass. Beneath this run the deep 

 waters of the river, which flows sluggishly into 

 the Victoria Nile at Mruli. 



In the distance, towards the north, we now 

 catch sight of the hills round our temporary goal 

 — Masindi, still some twenty-five miles away. 

 A long, long, wearisome march is this, through 

 thickish bush country, all dried and decayed 

 underneath the trees at this time of the year ; till, 

 on joining the Mruli road, we drop into a pretty 

 valley full of native huts, cheek by jowl with 

 their bright green splashes of cultivation, which 

 show up to advantage against the red-brown soil. 



Masindi, nestling under the shadow of the hill 



24 



