Stunning landscapes and fresh coffee at Sipi Falls

My second MCU trip took me to beautiful Sipi Falls, which lay at the footage of Mount Elgon. Instead of rushing our departure on Friday afternoon we sat in a garden like coffee shop, got our car tyre repaired and ordered take away dinners. It was getting dark when we finally hit the road. Due to traffic jams, bad road conditions (especially speed bumps) and a storm we arrived at our lodges at 2am. As appreciation to our arrival we were upgraded to luxury bandas.

On Saturday morning it was lovely to wake up and step outside to see these views in daylight (pic1). After enjoying a filling English breakfast we went on a little hike around the four waterfalls. In addition to admiring the spectacular falls both from front and behind (pics 2,3&4), we swam on a small natural pool where we jumped from up a cliff. We also met a colorful chameleon (pic5).

When it began to rain in the afternoon we were conveniently located close to a restaurant terrace, where we drank a few Amarula coffees before returning to our lodges. Since it kept raining we spent the rest of the day eating our complimentary four course dinner, playing card games and tasting some South African wines.

Sunday was an educational day with an interesting coffee tour. Local producers introduced us to their small organic coffee farm; planting and harvesting trees followed by cleaning and roasting beans (pic6), resulting in the most delicious cups of fresh arabica coffee (pic7). As expected, most income from the valuable coffee fields is centered to few international players. But did you know that coffee was first explored by Ethiopian goats that had sleeping difficulties after eating a bunch of coffee beans?

Many climbers claim that Sipi Falls has Uganda's best rock climbing routes. I was slightly disappointed to miss them this time. However, I hear that some locals, who have been taught to act as climbing guides, treat the rock as theirs charging each climber US$50 a day. In my opinion rock should be all climbers' property, no matter who bolted it. To make up for that missed climbing, I joined MCU's Tuesday indoor climbing session (pic8).