A little bit of this and that …
… and anything else in between …
Several images come to mind when I read about this week’s challenge. All of them involved birds.
But this one is different … There were hundreds of birds flying around, and sitting on trees and branches …
But somehow, he found a tree just for him. And no other birds came to join him.
And so he sits by himself, up on the top of the tallest tree.
One.
A collection.
After the boat ride, we went on further up? down? the river to the Source of the Nile.
I think I’m in the ‘The Rest of the World’ count.
We didn’t take the boat ride to the island where it is said the source of the Nile River is located. So this marker will have to do. This is the post from last year, when I took the boat ride.
There were some changes in the park, but not much.
The souvenirs stands were still there.
We walked around and ended up on higher ground by the riverside, where we sat to watch the river and the sunset.
We couldn’t stay long. We had to get going for the long drive back to Entebbe.
But the peaceful hours spent by the River Nile stayed with us throughout.
On the way back, we met kayakers going the opposite way.
“Where is (x)? Is this the way to (x)?”, they asked.
“(x) is that way”, pointed our guides. They were pointing in the direction from which the kayakers were coming from. And everybody laughs. How far was it from their current position? Quite far, they said.
Calling them over, we offered to tow them back to their base. Paddling over, they held on while good-naturely laughing with us on their predicament. They got lost, they said. They went in between the islands on the river, ended up on the other side, and they thought they were on the right track back to base when they went around the islands.
“Is this where you started?”, asked our guides.
“Yes! Yes!”, they exclaimed as one.
And with that, they let go our boat and paddled over to their landing, waving and calling out to the worried parents … one of whom was ready to send out a search party.
I actually have a photo for this week’s challenge: Reflections
Taken last weekend, while sailing down the River Nile.
The river was so peaceful, and even though the sun was hot, there was a cool breeze blowing. I took the picture to send as a quick update on my whereabouts. It was only later that I noticed the skyline and the reflections on the water.
This was taken with an iPhone … and it actually looked better than the one taken with the DSLR. Which just shows that spontaneous shots can be just as good as composed shots.
Not often that I see nets being cast out. I’m just glad that I had the right settings and my hands were steady enough to take these shots.
As I watched this, I suddenly thought of ‘fishers of men’. Don’t know why.
Maybe it was because it was the simplest and most basic actions of life … fishing for their food, survival, life … on the River Nile. And maybe the Nile River is as common to them as any other body of water. But to me, this was the mighty Nile River, as I’ve read often in the Bible. Just imagine … Jesus was also in these waters! ok, up by Egypt, not down here. But still … this was something more than common to me.
We would come across fishermen in their boats once in a while.
With thoughts of freshly-caught fish for dinner, we would ask if they caught any fish and if they would be willing to sell them to us.
Even the offer of money was not incentive enough for them to part with their catch.
After all, that was their dinner, and if we bought their dinner, then he would have to stay out longer fishing, wouldn’t he?
