Christmas at Nimule National Park

Patrick Gore, the new headteacher at Cece Primary School also leads the congregation of the local Africa Inland Church.  As a Christmas treat for this church’s youth group, he organized a trip to Nimule National Park.  A national park in war-torn South Sudan?  Yes, in fact it is one of several, as can be seen from this Bradt Guide article. 

In all the four years I have lived in Nimule this has been my first opportunity to visit the national park, even though it is only just outside the town.  Entrance is free of charge to locals, but has to be arranged in advance so that the rangers take groups of people together.  For foreign NGOs a charge is made.  The rationale is that local people are poor but need to be educated about their environment and particularly the harm done by thoughtless littering, tree-cutting and burning.  Foreign NGOs are rich, educated and can afford to pay something towards the sustaining of the national park.  As a local resident who they were well aware was helping the local community, I was allowed to tag along with the church group, but was asked for ‘water’.  ‘Water’ is the local jargon for a tip.  Knowing that all government employees suffer from the government’s poor record on paying them, I was happy to do so.

We were all asked to bring food and drink with us.  I brought bread rolls and peanut butter as well as three bottles of water.  What I failed to realize was that there would be a place to cook and that everyone else’s idea of ‘bringing something to eat’ was to bring cooking ingredients to be clubbed together.  My supply of water was inadequate due to the searing heat.  Live and learn.  Next time I will do it differently.  Another thing I would do differently if possible, would be to wear tough footwear.  I and most of the party only had flimsy sandals, but the way is rough and also wet and slippery right next to the river. 

Two of our group striding out.

In spite of everything the national park has remained open even though there have been very few visitors.  The wildlife rangers are a corps of the SPLA, the national army of South Sudan.  They are trained in conservation issues and facts about the many resident animals, birds and plants in the park, sometimes not very accurately.  I was told that the park began in the 1930s as a game reserve (i.e. the animals were there to be hunted).  In 1945 it was re-designated as a national park (the animals are now there to be preserved from hunters).  The national park is the smallest of South Sudan’s national parks at around 450 square kilometers in area.  This information conflicts with the information in the Bradt guide and I am not sure which is correct.  It is not fenced, so the animals wander freely according to their time-honoured migration patterns.  The eastern edge of the national park is a mountain range on the border with Uganda, so great herds of elephants migrate seasonally through South Sudan, Uganda to Kenya and Tanzania.  Around the national park itself is a buffer zone, which is intended to have the same rules as the park itself.  However, there is an ongoing problem of cattle-keepers bringing large numbers of cattle into the buffer zone.  It is now the dry season, and the cattle-keepers have burnt wide swathes of the area.  The Wildlife Division protests but as the cattle belong to high ranking generals, they are outranked and ignored.

Patrick and I next to the falls.

Our group intended to start our trip at dawn, but the South Sudanese being the poorest timekeepers I have ever met, we did not leave the rangers office until past eight in the morning, when the heat of the sun was already making itself felt.  This was a great shame because it reduced our chances of seeing the big animals, who are most active in the cool of the early morning, and particularly the elephants, which I was very keen to see. 

As we followed our armed, uniformed guides, the first place we came to was the wildlife training centre.  We were shown it with great pride, but it was quite obviously disused, not surprisingly in the current civil war situation when army resources are going towards fighting, not conservation.  Our own guides received their training in other African countries.  We then came to some ruined buildings.  These buildings were the home and army headquarters of John Garang de Mabior, who was to become the founder and first president of South Sudan, a very important figure in the war for independence.  A battle was fought at a place called Achua in 1995, which was the turning point in the struggle for independence from Sudan.  Operations were directed by John Garang and his officers from the buildings which we saw.  This is clearly a major historical site, but I had not heard anything about it until my visit. 

After leaving John Garang’s headquarters, the path took us through a wide and shallow valley between some of the Imatong Mountains.  The White Nile flows through the same valley.  As it was the dry season, everything was tinder-dry except the area immediately next to the river, which was very lush and green. 

As we walked along the valley the river was on our left and stony mountains were on our right.  There were baboons sitting on the rocks and in the bushes.  My eyesight is not as good as it used to be, so I struggled to see them unless they moved.  I was assured that there were a great many.  Looking towards the river, we saw hippos.  These were much easier to see as many of their mouths were gaping a startling pink against the green background.  I know that there are also a great many crocodiles, but they remained hidden.

Fulla Falls 3

As we walked on the guides answered my questions.  Since arriving in Nimule I have very often seen eagles wheeling over the town, but nobody had been able to tell me what species of eagle they were.  I was told that they are African Black Eagles.  However, on my return home I googled African Black Eagles only to find that they don’t exist!  I believe he meant African Fish Eagles, but I could be wrong.  I also asked about the ball-like nests I saw in some trees.  It was pointed out to me that the nests were only in the thorn trees.  They are built there by weaver-birds.  The sharp thorns protect their young from predators.  How the parent birds avoid the thorns was not explained.

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We came to several piles of fresh elephant dung right in our path.  To give an idea of the size, imagine a full wheelbarrow.  I have never seen dung like it.  It is not at all smelly and resembles large heaps of compressed grass clippings.  A guide told us that when eaten it is a traditional cure for epilepsy.  Some of the young people put handfuls of dung in their pockets to take home.

Cooking at the fishing village

After walking for around three hours, we started to hear the sound of the rapids.  The Nile is a totally natural river and sprawls in several wide, fast-moving channels around islands composed from dense patches of weeds.  The various channels come crashing together as the valley narrows very dramatically.  We were aiming for this narrow passage, which is a famous local beauty spot called the Fulla Falls.  The name is slightly misleading as really they are rapids, not waterfalls.  However, they are still well worth a visit.

There are three rapids in close succession, imaginatively named Fulla 1, Fulla 2 and Fulla 3.  In order of wildness, Fulla 1 is the mildest and 3 is the strongest.  However all are deadly if someone were to fall in.  Next to Fulla 3, the end of our long walk, is a fishing hamlet consisting of round huts made of stones and ovens where fish is smoked ready to be carried the long distance to market in Nimule.  When we arrived the girls in our party immediately started getting out cooking ingredients and preparing a meal for all of us.  Gender equality is much talked about in the abstract in South Sudan, but has yet to become a reality.  Villagers brought copious quantities of freshly caught fish for the girls to cook.  It was a lovely meal.  The only problem from my point of view was the lack of clean water for drinking.  Everyone else drank straight from the river, but I have had my experience of Nile water before.  My water bottles by that time were nearly empty and the temperatures were going up, not down.  The villagers produced a saucepan and we boiled some water for my use which I decanted into my bottles.  It was a lovely spot to eat, under a shady tree.  The village chief introduced himself and was delighted that I was inadvertently sitting on his grandfather’s grave.  A woman passing by on her way to the next fishing village came to greet us.  I remarked on what a beautiful place she lived in.  She agreed and said that they were never hungry.  It was so nice to meet such contented people.  Before we left, it was announced that it was the twentieth birthday of one of our party.  He gave a charming speech about how he had never had a birthday like it and how happy he was no longer to be a teenager.  I think our trip would be hard to beat for most twenty year olds even worldwide.

View of the fishing village with

fishermen in the foreground.

At about 3pm we packed up and started our return journey, seeing the same scenes and animals in reverse order.  This time however, some of our party spotted elephants in the distance.  I was desperate to see them, but try as I might I saw nothing.  My eyesight needs serious checking next time I go back to England.  I start to doubt if I would spot an elephant if it was in the room with me.

One of the guides returned with a large bag of aloa vera which he was going to plant at the wildlife rangers compound.  Apparently it grows wild next to the river.  We discussed the benefits of aloa vera.  He told me that he is the medical officer for the unit, and would be using it for medical treatment for his unit.

We arrived back at the start of the walk, desperately thirsty and footsore, at around 6pm.

Fortunately a boda boda (motorcycle taxi) turned up, otherwise getting back home would have been agonising.

Patrick is hoping to take a party of the older children from Cece Primary School to visit later next year.  That will be a very great excitement for them and help bring to life their science and social studies subjects.  It will also be an introduction to the history of their country to learn about John Garang.

The trip felt like a real holiday and was a great start to Christmas.  Next year, maybe more people will come and experience our lovely national park.  The wildlife rangers want the outside world to know that they are very, very keen for more visitors!