Have you every seen the movie Ticket to Paradise with George Clooney and Julia Roberts? Essentially they are a divorced couple working together to stop the wedding of their daughter, who is a recent law school grad, to a guy she meets in Bali on her law school graduation trip. If I didn’t have the desire to quit my job (or maybe work in another country) and run away from home after watching that movie (apparently seaweed farming is a booming business), I’m definitely considering it now! Although, instead of Bali and seaweed farming – that’s my back up, obviously – I would move to Uganda and work in the adventure tours industry doing zip lining, rafting, or bungee jumping all day. It doesn’t seem like a bad gig at all.
On our way back from Jinja we drive past Mabira Forest which is a very fun place to go zip-lining! We were so lucky that we met V while in Jinja as she took our rafting trip with us. We spent some time with her in the evening and then caught a ride to Mabira Forest for a nature walk and the zip-lining in the morning! We did this through Griffin Falls Camp and it was such a fun experience. We coordinated with them the night before through WhatsApp and they were so great at making space for us and making sure that we got there safely as it is very tricky. We spent a little more time than needed weaving through a maze of sugar cane to get to the forest but luckily we made it. Hakin was our guide and he was so knowledgable of the forest pointing out trees, fruit, and other plants found in the forest. He was also a master animal spotter, pointing out all of the different types of monkeys in the forest that were lounging in the trees above. There were two main monkeys we saw on our hike, the red tailed monkeys and mangabey monkeys. The former having, you guessed it, red tails! The latter being black with white chests and only found in Uganda! They typically are more active in the morning and evening when they are searching for food and then lounge in the middle of the day. We were lucky enough to spot a few both on our way to zip lining and on our nature hike after! We also saw quite a few creepy-crawlies along the way – I didn’t know millipedes (or centipedes? I’m not sure, they all have too many legs) could get SO BIG!
Images left to right: (top) Mangabey Monkey, Red tailed monkey, (bottom) Centipede, Mangabey Monkey, Bird that cannot be named because I do not know it
After our short walk we made it to the main attraction – zip lining! There were 7 zip-lines, the highest being about 40 meters off the ground, and definitely the most fun! We climbed a nice big tree to get to the first platform (with the help of a nice rope and pulley system) and then from there we zipped along each line to the next seeing views of the forest, screaming, laughing, and admiring all of the spectacular views! The guys helping us along the way were great and also stood in as our photographers taking videos of our runs and recommending fun things to try like going upside down! It was a blast and so cool to see the forest from the trees.
Images left to right: (top) Me and V, airborne starfish, chair pose, the squad, (bottom) the tree we climbed to get to the first and shortest platform, GoPro frame from the highest platform
After zip-lining we took a nice nature walk through the forest to the water stream that went through the part of the forest we were in. There we stopped to take some photos and admire the butterflies that were flitting in the sun! If you stood still enough they would land on you and they LOVED our guide – they were all over his arms and head. We then took the scenic route on our hike back to where we started. All in all a great way to end a weekend! Take a gander through the slide show for a few shots of the stream down below!
Watch Haley Wander 
Looks like another awesome day. So happy for you to be able to experience all the world has to offer.
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