Week 7

28/06/10
Becky, Dustin’s wife arrived today. We headed to the ferry landing in Entebbe to get to Kalangala, which is one of the Islands in the chain of Ssesse Islands within Lake Victoria. You have to see it to understand, but the lake is immense. Communication continues to be a problem. Dustin was told by the Taxi driver that the ferry left at 2pm so we had planned to be there about an hour early. This morning we were told that the ferry leaves at 11am so we scrambled to get there before it left. We arrived at the landing and of course the ferry was not there. It leaves the island at 8am and arrives there at 11am and then departs at 2pm, so we were there about three hours before it was. Getting on was very frustrating because the searched our bags thoroughly, much more so than they have ever been searched at an airport. The ferry was about 100ft landing craft and the ride was about 3 hours and fairly smooth except for about 15 or 20 minutes of rocking when we were in some of the more open parts of the lake and the wind kicked up the waves. When we arrived there was a small wooden boat waiting to take us to our hotel which we could see in the distance along the shore. We pulled up on the beach which was quite clean and not what you would expect of a beach in a fresh water lake. It had white sand and the water was fairly clear. We managed to get from the boat to the beach without getting our stuff and our selves wet, since a few of the staff pulled the boat up o shore enough for us to hop of the bow. They had tea and popcorn for us. Afterwards we got settled in to our rooms which were nice except they felt humid and the furniture and linens felt wet. There was not mold though. Dinner was different and good based on that alone. It was fried chicken that didn’t taste like fish. They light a bonfire at night by the shore and we sat out by it for a little while before heading to bed.
29/06/10
When we came to breakfast we were surprised to see monkeys just across the lawn. We had breakfast and watched the monkeys, before heading up the mountain to the town. We walked and it was evident then that I needed to start exercising again, because I nearly died on the hike up the hill. As we were leaving the hotel a very friendly and health looking German Sheppard adopted us, probably because few locals show dogs affection and he has come to learn that foreigners like dogs. He walked with us the whole way and back. The town was a very basic trading center with just a few small stores and a bank. It didn’t have ATM, so we hung out outside with Stegosaurus Rex, the name that Chris gave the dog, while Dustin tried to negotiate the red tape in the bank in order to withdraw money. We got back to the hotel and took a nap, until dinner was ready. They made the most amazing fresh fish and so far the best meal we have had in Uganda. We relaxed by the fire for a little while again before heading to bed. It rained a little while later after they had shut off the generator and it was very relaxing to fall asleep with the noise of the rain on the tin roof.

30/06/10
We had to be ready early to catch the ferry back early, so we had breakfast and anxiously awaited the van to take us back to the landing, which got us there just in time to have our bags rummaged through and to get on board. We weren’t anxious to leave really, but if we missed the ferry we would have to wait until tomorrow to catch the next and we had reservations. We headed back to Kampala to a back packer’s hostel called Red Chili to stay the free night that we were entitled to, because we had booked a tour of Queen Elizabeth National park with them. We were skeptical of a hostel, but we hoped it would not be much worse than Hotel City Square. We were wrong the mattresses were repulsive and the bathroom was disgusting, but we reluctantly stayed because our tour left early.
1/07/10
Our guide was on time and we received our briefing before we left. We were told that we would be going a certain route because the roads were better, but it seemed like most of the 8 hour drive was on the worst roads in Uganda. They were under construction and much of the roads were dirt and full of pot holes. We stopped about half way to eat lunch and then continued a short distance to waterfalls nearby. After a short visit at the waterfall we continued and arrived at Simba Safari Camp near the park about 6pm. We had dinner took a shower and went to bed
2/07/10
The first part of the tour was taking a community walk and visiting with a group of women who make crafts. We heard many similar cultural explanations as we do in our research. When we arrived to visit the women’s group the tour guide had them sing for us, which made us a little uncomfortable because it didn’t seem like it was part of the program and they were not expecting to. Also, the second song which was in their native language was explained by the tour guide as being about how colonizers had devastated them and asking us to help them. We went through a question and answer session for a few minutes. Our group asked pretty superficial questions about their crafts and how they came together to make them. They on the other hand had some pretty hard hitting questions, one of which was if in the US women had the problem of their men getting drunk often and coming home and beating them. After that we headed to a boat ride on the channel between lake George and lake Edward for a wildlife tour. Along the shores there were elephants and hippos in mass. We also saw one crocodile and a few warthogs and waterbucks. There is also a fishing village along the shore of the native people, who were allowed to remain within the park when it was formed. We took a lot of good pictures. After that we drove through crater tour. It’s an off road path along the ridges of the calderas in the area and there were some very scenic views. We stopped at Queens Pavilion for a short rest before we continued to our camp. The next day was the safari drive and you have to be up early in order to see the animals that are more active in the morning before it gets too hot, so we got back and went to bed.
03/07/10
We headed to the park about 6. The Toyota van that we were in has a pop up camper roof without the canvas so you can stand up and see all around the vehicle, so see the animals and taking pictures was pretty comfortable and pleasant. We were concerned that we would not be able to see lions because cattle ranchers had recently poisoned several lions and there were only about 7 left. Our driver received a call after driving for about 30 minutes that a lion had been spotted and we headed in that direction. We arrived to see a female lioness walking about fifty feet, parallel to the road we were driving on. Not too far ahead of her was a herd of waterbuck, which seemed to be cautiously aware that she was there, but not necessarily concerned. We followed her for some distance and eventually she laid opposite to a tree off the side of the road, so we were not able to see her anymore. There was another call about hyenas being spotted and after a few minutes of debate between our guide and driver, they decided to circle around the tree to take a closer look at the lioness. She just watched us as we drove just about ten or fifteen feet from her. We stopped and she sat up for just a second, which made everyone very nervous, because we could see now just how big she really was and we got the feeling that she could easily get to us. She settled back down a second later and was calm as we took a few more pictures before driving off. We drove a few more hours and saw plenty of warthogs, antelope, waterbuck, and buffalo. We also stopped by the fishing village that we saw yesterday and were standing on the shore with the Hippos just a few feet away in the water. I got a little nervous, since Hippos kill more people than any other animal I Africa each year. We headed back to camp to take a nap. The final part of the trip was to learn how to make paper-bead crafts and grass baskets with some local women, which we did after dinner. It was very interesting and it gave us an appreciation for how much time goes into making the crafts we see in the markets.
04/07/10
Today was all about driving back to Kampala, again on the worst roads known to man. We arrived about 5. We had hoped to make it earlier so that we could settle into hotel city square and make it to the 4th of July celebrations at the Embassy earlier. No such luck, but we made it just in time to get some of the last burgers and hot dogs. We watched a African dance troupe perform and then they had fireworks. They were better than expected and they went on for about 10 to 15 minutes. After that we went out in town with a group of young girls that we met on the trip. The nightlife was rather dead, so we called it a night early, and we headed home about 2am.