Lake Bunyonyi Ready!!

When Dan (vegetarian) returns to Uganda next month, he's going to be working down by Lake Bunyonyi. Intending a visit, and hearing the rumours of how cold it is down in Kibale, I've just finished a lovely jumper for myself.

It has an interesting twist stitch that I hadn't used before, but it wasn't too difficult. It's made of an alpaca/wool/silk mix and it's really warm!Yum yum yum...

More baby clothes on the way - 'cos I know you love them!
P.S. Sorry you can't see my face, but it was sweaty as the jumper was just so warm!

Horse Riding at Munyonyo Speke Resort

My Goodness! I just participated in the laziest weekend of all time! I went out with Lara & Steve (only been in K'la 2 weeks!) on Friday, and then Saturday we were just vegetables around the pool! So so lazy. I was very careful with the suncream and so didn't get too burnt.

Then Saturday night we got a curry delivery... I'm starting to get a good collection of take-away numbers on my phone now... We have an office opening party in September and I'll never fit in my dress. I also tried to stain my nails with henna paste. Now that I read that bad, I can see that this is a bad idea... but I was just blided by my enthusiam and optimism. Sadly the result is such an awful mess that I can't even bare to post a picture here... I will be wearing nailpolish until it grows out!!

On Sunday, Lara & I went to the Speke Resort at Munyonyo for a girlie day. I've never been there before, and it's quite something. They have lots of restaurants, a huge pools and gym, a marina and stables! Everyone drives around in golf carts. It's feels a bit like an exculsive celebrity rehad facility. We took a horse ride down to Lake Victoria and it was brilliant!

The horses were in excellent condition and the ride was very eventful. We rode along a main road with cars and bodas tooting at us! The horses weren't even bothered, but it was strange for me as a rider to experiance other road-users having so little respect for the horses. Certainly not like in the UK!

At Lake Victoria

After that we hung out at the sauna and spa and by the pool... as all this lazing around suggests, you can expect a BIG knitting update tomorrow!!

Lake Mburo National Park

This weekend we went to Lake Mburo National Park, close to Mbarara in Western Uganda. It's the only place in Uganda where you can find zebras... and I think we saw them all!

After a big night out on Friday night, we set off with a full car (everyone seemed to have relatives, girlfriends... etc that needed a lift to Mbarara... the more the merrier!!) at 8am Saturday morning.

It took about 3.5 hours to get there... it would have been quicker but we had to keep stopping to be sick (not me!!), buy dirty meat from the side of the road (the only true cure for a hangover) and take pictures at the equator (I won't bore you with them here... but I took a tonne!)

The first port-of-call at the park was a boat trip! Again plenty of Hippos and birds, it was really just nice to kick back and be by the water.

There are actually 5 lakes in Lake Mburo National Park, with the namesake being the biggest. It was teeming with fish, and so my friend, Marvin, insisted on leaning out of the boat the whole time with a stick and a hook (his fishing rod!), I was just worried that he might catch a hippo!!

Anyway, Marvin's patience was rewarded and late in the afternoon, he finally made a catch. He threw it back declaring it was far too small to eat!!

We were staying in really basic accomodation (thanks to me! oops!) , but I thought it was quite sweet. There were clean sheets, towels and mosquito nets! what more could you want??

And at least it had heated water!! Yup, that's the watertake with a fire underneath!

On Saturday ight we had a FIERCE game of Ludo. I never knew it could be played with such raw passion! Friendships were made and broken that night.

On Sunday morning we did the 6:30am Hyena walk, but we didn't see any hyenas! So disappointing! I really loved being so close to the animals though. We saw lots of zebra and waterbuck, and without the sound from the car engine, they were much less timid.

There were lots of impala too, and our guide told us about how they lend their name to the country's capital. Apparantly, during the time of colonisation, British "explorers" who were writing reports avbout the country of Uganda back to the Bristish government, refered to the area of the current capital as "Kampala" when they misheard it being called "Ka impala" ("Place where the Impala are" in Luganda)
Anyway, I LOVED being so close to the animals... but it was not so fun when I stood in the way of a trail of African Safari Ant and they all went up my trousers and bit my bum!! I have bites all over! fortunately they're not itchy... pheweeee! Small mercies!!
We headed back to K'la after the nature walk. Marvin decided to buy some fish on the way, and I protested about the smell, but he assured me that he would hang them outside the car... 200kms later, only one dust-covered fish remained!

Last Picture: A zebra crossing!! hehehe!

Kampala Snake Park

Yesterday we finally made it to Kampala Snake Park!
I had been after a guarenteed smile for quite some time now, and this place sure did deliver! Construction is still not fully finished, but they already have plenty of snakes on show, as well as tortoises. They also intend to host some crocodiles in the future.
The best part is that the guide who shows you round, knows everything about the snakes on show and even climbs in with most of them and pokes them with a stick so that they move for you. I have some videos of this... I'll try to upload them, but I'm still learning how to use all this stuff.

After this the weather was quite grim, so we just went to the beach resort in Entebbe and ate a big mama (deep fried tilapia) and chips.

Yum Yum!! There were lots of those nasty Storks hanging round too... yuck!

Kyenjojo part 2

Sorry!

I just realised that I didn't actually talk about Kyenjojo like I had intended to, in the earlier post.
For me, the most exciting and interesting thing in Kyenjojo is a large pilgrimage site, about 3km from the town centre. It's not clear exactly what it commemorates. It's a mound of large rocks with the names of Saints carved into them. I can find any information about it, so for now, I'll just show a picture.
It's really impressive though!

Kyenjojo and the Rains

It's raining! It's pouring!

Or rather, it was. In Kyenjojo (Say "Chen-jo-jo"). On Wednesday. I don't know about these rainy seasons. They seem to be long, and just as one ends, another starts.

So for work, we had to do a long cross country journey. It rained the whole way, eventually, after travelling 80km along the road to Kyenjojo to Hoima, the roads became completely impassable, with overloaded lorries sliding all over the place on the mud.

Here is my face at being told we had to turn back.

Note, at least this allowed for plenty of knitting time!

It was nice to see all the Ugandan umbrellas come out!


The next day we had to do a load of driving to get to Hoima. But we made it.

It's not raining yet today... touch wood!

Murchison Falls National Park

So it was all a bit impromptu, but I decided to got to Murchison Falls this weekend with some of my friends from the office. Murchison Falls is one of the biggest tourist destinations in Uganda (probably second only to Bwindi Impenetrable forest), and I was so devastated that I left Uganda last time having not yet been there.

The National Park is built up around the falls and hosts elephants, giraffes, lions, Ugandan kobs, waterbuck. buffaloes, hippos and crocodiles. In the 1960s this was Uganda's best and most national park, attracting tourism from all over the world. Unfortunately political disruption and hunger later led troops and poachers to wipe out a vast majority of the game in the park, and animals numbers nowadays are much less dense.

So it was all left to the last minute and unfortunately, we couldn't secure any accommodation within the Park itself! We had to settle for staying at Masindi Hotel instead.

At first I was disappointed... until I found out that the Queen has stayed there!!! And Ernest Hemingway!! Oh and Katherine Hepburn when she filmed The African Queen. So then I found the accommodation quite suitable.

Masindi Hotel

We set off on Saturday morning and the roads to Masinda were pretty good. Through the park though, not so much (as you'd expect!) , Just look at the roadsign! Fortunately this didn't happen to us!

On Saturday afternoon we took a river cruise along the Nile to the base of the falls. We saw lots of game! Elephants, Hippos, Crocodile and Buffalo. It was so hot. I wish I knew the temperature, but it was the kind of heat when you have to breath with shallow breathes.

In the evening we had dinner at the Masindi Hotel. I had Fish & Chips. I think it's probably what Lizzy would have ordered!

Sunday morning, we caught the ferry to Paraa and then took a game drive. The park was so busy that there were no game wardens available so we just drove around aimlessly for a while. We saw some Giraffes, and I was thrilled, because these were the first ones that I had seen in Uganda. But no lions!

In the afternoon we went to the top of the falls. I spent the entire time there terrifies of the tsetse flies that were buzzing round waiting to bite me. They land on your clothes and then bite you, hard. I spent the whole panicking that I could hear buzzing.
It was so beautiful at the falls. They have been described as the most spectacular thing to happen to thee Nile along its 6700km length, and they certainly are exquisite! The noise is incredible, and I got soaked by the spray!

Epic Fail at Blogging!

Guys, I'm sorry! This is my formal apology. Life and work and everything got in the way! But now I'm back, and I'm yours and I will do my best to bring you some super stories over the next few months!

Remember to err is human, but to forgive, divine.

xxx