9 - 14 OCTOBER 2011

UGANDA – Country number 22 – UGANDA

KABALE AND LAKE BUNYONYI

Current exchange US$=2840 Ugandan Shillings

Easy bus ride of 82km to the Ugandan border crossing from Gatuna in Rwanda to Katuna in Uganda. The Ugandan immigration official kept reading my visa, and reading my visa and checking my passport. Ten minutes passed and I asked a few times “Is there a problem?” He ignored me and I kept waiting and occasionally persisted with the same question. Eventually he admitted to being baffled by a stamp on the visa that was very faint – he couldn’t read what the stamp said. When I checked, I read out to him‘Ugandan High Commission, Dar es Salaam’ and then he was very happy stamping me into Uganda with the advice that when I returned to that office in Dar, I should tell them to use better ink!! Back on th ebus I chat with Pastor Robert who would like to invite me to his church on Sunday if I will be in Kampala? Yes I will and yes I’ll go – I am sure I can do with a few more blessings in my life! Another 23kms brings me to Kabale, the gateway to Lake Bunyonyi – a traveller’s paradise according to the blurb. Walking through to the other end of town, I find Edirisa, a community cultural centre, museum, restaurant and hostel. Checking in, I get a grand tour of the simple facilities with lots of info and being reassured that ”you are now part of our family”. Very sweet of them. The museum consists of an example of a traditional hut in a large room with many examples of tools, goods and dress.  There are canoe safaris on offer here and as much as I do like an occasional paddle, three full days is not too appealing especially when I learn you have to paddle yourself! Striking out to a local hardware store, I get a new sim card AND very groovy torch (in the absence of my head torch) that recharges directly from AC and is also small enough to carry (up to now I had only found battery lights and torches to light up a whole room). Let there be light! Then I check out a café downtown with great chai and free wifi of decent speed – whoo hoo!

Here in the dorm I chat with Lisa, an entomologist who is here trying to contribute to science teaching at a local school, but found she was right up against it because of a lack of student motivation to actually ‘learn’ and a general unwillingness to learn new teaching techniques on behalf of the staff!. I also chat with Rosie from Sydney, who has established her very own project and currently has nine children in an orphanage. www.foundationsau.org  I asked her how she determined to get here in the first place – she saw a doco on the ABC and telephoned to find out where it was, jumped on a plane and here she is!! Amazing determination.  A nice night at Edirisa and wake up to find three new travellers here in the dorm – the three Israelis whom I met in Moshi, Tanzania that quit the safari! They took an overnight bus from Kampala, arriving here at 5am! They are looking at a canoe safari but until they are all well, are heading to Byoona Amagara @ Itambira Island. I have also considered staying there but think I will stay on the lake shore and make a day trip out to the island one day for lunch.  I hope I can share a taxi with them to the lake so fill in a few hours online and then buying up fruit. By early afternoon they have decided that they’ll head to the lake later in the day so my next option today is to get bodaboda out there. A bodaboda is a small 125cc motorbike and with me and my pack on board we travel the 9km out to Lake Bunyoni along a fabulously scenic dirt road. I have now decided I will return to town on Friday, market day, when public transport is available to save another trip back on the bodaboda!! Especially as the short rains are setting in and I cannot see the road improving anytime soon.

Lake Bunyonyi is GORGEOUS, placid, encircling 29 islands and is surrounded by gently sloping hills with the small village here. All the countryside is terraced and farmed and with the daily short rains now set in, everything is a lovely emerald green. The gardens at Bunyonyi Overland Camp where I pitch my little tent on a ledge overlooking the peaceful lake are extra nice. Comings and goings on the lake are usually by dugout canoe so the only sounds are the splash of a paddle, birdies during the day and the froggies at night. This camp is a stop for many of the ubiquitous overland trucks which are huge things. They park at the top of the camp and disgorge 20+ folk who can be a very mixed bunch. They don’t seem to be very keen on to venture anywhere except for where they are pointed at!! That means no visits to the village, except if their tour leader takes them, no trips on the lake and certainly no meals anywhere else than other what is dished up by the truck cook. The constant pitching and striking of tents every day must be very tiring too. I think I’d be awol half the time on a trip like that because even if they have a free day it sees them hanging about, doing laundry and resting. My travelling seems like a never ending pleasure holiday compared to that style of ‘go, go, go’ travel. I guess you do cover large distances very quickly but you couldn’t have any interaction with local populations, even with its frustrations and only see what is ‘on the itinerary’. On another day the truck folk are taken in groups to an orphanage, which must be the lifeblood of www.littleangels.org because during the visit all are asked to sponsor a child whom you meet there and then! Is Uganda the home of the orphanage for mzungus? I guess with the steady stream of tourists, it must make it an effective place to get sponsors and thus money.

Next day I head to the village dock to organise a day trip to Byoona Amagara on Itambira Island, at the very heart of the lake. The little man agrees to 3000 shillings each way to take me there. There is an extra paddle on board our dugout canoe so I get to paddle along too, which is so lovely and relaxing as he did the navigating, steering and general commentary. The morning is sunny, water is calm and we arrive within the hour. On landing I meet the Israelis again, who are very enamoured of this place. Walking around, it is indeed very peaceful and the menu here is tailored for the mzungu and is nothing short of wonderful. After a great lunch, I watch rolling clouds closing in and head back to the canoe where the little man thanks me ‘for keeping time’. On the lake there are now waves and I’m keen to keep moving because I do not want to get caught in the middle of this lake in a heavy downpour, bailing. The little man tells me it will not rain and he is so right because threatened rains didn’t appear until the next day! I’d been told there were fine views over the lake from Arcadia Cottages high above us, so getting directions I head off the next morning. A hike and a half uphill, asking the occasional person I meet if I am still on the right track along with fab views all the way up. However environmentally it is an awful sight – eucalyptus plantations, cultivated lands and badly eroded tracks that are washing away with every rain.

I make to the top and the views are breathtaking. Playing lady of the manor, I order tea and take in the wonderful vista especially those big black clouds rolling over the lake. I want to head to the other side of the village for lunch, so check which way the track is, head off back down the mountain. Soon enough I meet a lovely young man who wants to walk with me, with the rains gently starting and I slip down, landing gracefully (NOT) on my backside. He stays with me, guiding and holding my hand for which I was really grateful – the track here is awful with the continuing rain making it extra slippery. I feel so OLD but am very reluctant to topple down this mountain when my bruises from Parc d’Vulcan are healing so nicely. Eventually we make it down, part ways and I head to the Birds Nest for lunch. This is a fabulous building on the lake shores, which was originally built by a former Uni Chancellor who fell foul of General Amin (read disappeared/murdered). The building fell into disrepair over the years of internal strife then was resurrected by some Belgians who have turned it into a lovely hotel and restaurant. Continuing with my Lady Muck theme I dined on crayfish (fresh from the lake) salad, homemade ice cream with hot chocolate sauce washed down with a glass of South African white wine all the while watching the rains pelt down! Soon enough the short rain finishes and a light drizzle enables me to wander back to Overland Camp and I shift my tent out of the rain and under the shelter. The rain doesn’t let up all afternoon and when a new truck turns up, these tourists proceed to pitch in the rain. The first truck folk have moved their washing under the same shelter and I’m told “we are getting up at 4am tomorrow and will collect our washing so we hope we don’t disturb you.” Wasn’t that nice? Unfortunately in practice, collecting their washing somehow required them to stack the plastic chairs on which their washing was draped. And others felt that if they were up @ 4AM, then the whole world, which revolved around them, must be up too!! ggrrrrr And to make matters worse I wake up on the ground because of a leaky mattress so farewell old friend you have served me well.

Leaving it with a Congolese refugee because I’m sure he’ll find a use for it, if not repair it. I pack the tent and carry it back to Kabale in the hope that perhaps I can find a worthy recipient – perhaps Rosie’s orphanage could use it cause it could double as an insect net for sleeping babies?  A nice walk down to the boat dock and the market is getting underway – so the matolos are all lined up in anticipation. These matolos are privately owned passenger cars used for public transport, in which you cram four people in, back and front. We wait for one to fill but I’m in no hurry and its fun to people watch as they come from all points of the lake for this market. Finally others turn up and its an easy trip in a back to Kabale, compared to the slightly hair raising trip on the boda boda to get here. Checking in again I meet Emma, who is also travelling independently but has organised many volunteering stints at various organisations before coming out. She has travelled Ethiopia so was a mine of information, including enlightening me on the origin of the flea problem of which I heard so much about. More on that later, but let me tell you I will be searching for, and stocking up on flea powder in Nairobi before flying to Addis!! Before leaving Kabale, I receive an email from Ange that they have managed to locate my torch and have sent it with a friend to Kampala who is staying near the Jaguar Bus station. I get his cell number and am quietly excited because I am still naïve and believe that I just may get my head torch back. I preorder a rolex for my breakfast – a tasty combination of an omelette rolled up in a chapatti – to take on the bus. mmmmm

FACT: Uganda is located between 4 degrees N and 2 degrees S, straddling the equator but due to its elevation of 1100m above sea level (I appreciate the hills now) the weather is very pleasant. Established on seven hills and known as the Pearl of Africa Uganda is landlocked. Bordering Kenya, South Sudan, Rwanda, DRC Congo and Tanzania, its name comes from the Buganda Kingdom and gained independence in 1962. Their population stands at 31 million and growing at a rate of 3.6% which cannot be not good news for their struggling infrastructure. Then there is the rampant inflation currently sitting at 28.3%, rising from 21.8% in August and 14% in July. They are grappling with the worst economic indicators in decades and no relief in sight. Times are getting touch but an amusing aside to this was an article in the paper (as usual). It had a photo of a parish priest castigating his unhappy flock because ‘they are returning the Offertory Envelopes empty”. This priest had invited the press to embarrass his parish into giving to the Bishop’s Annual Appeal. If I was a parishioner, I’d tell him to get on a direct line to the Vatican and ask them!!