Week 5 March 26th Saturday
First proper weekend off and a trip to a place near Jinja with Helen and Steve. We left Kampala at 9am for a 2 hour journey passing through busy towns and villages. There seemed to be lots of road side markets and shops. You get the impression of people shopping, chatting and children playing. We have tried to take photos as the car moved along or when it got held up in traffic so we hope that we have captured some of the daily activity that is the norm for the people of this region.
We noticed in 2 places that women were using a pump to bring up water from a well and filling large yellow jerry cans. Along the road side there are cows and goats tethered and grazing. There are lot of people walking along the road side carrying sticks, baskets, matoke, and water, often on their heads. We passed a bicycle with a single bed frame on it and Lorraine spotted a boda boda with a whole dead pig on the back.
After an hour or so the scenery became very rural and as we have had some rain the trees and grasses are looking very lush. We turn down a dirt track for about a mile and then came upon “The Haven” aptly named as it turned out. Helen and Steve camp here on a regular basis at weekend as the views across the river, Victoria Nile, are breath-taking. We were not camping ha! Ha! We treated ourselves to an ensuite lodge called a banda. It had a lovely thatched roof and two verandas one up and one down. The reception area was also the bar/restaurant and we could sit with our drinks overlooking the river. It was very comfortable and we had excellent service.
The river here has rapids up to a grade 5 and we watched a few hardy souls go white water rafting! It is a “twitchers” paradise and just sitting in our chairs we have seen some fabulous birds, including a pair of Fish Eagles, a Woodland Kingfisher, yellow weaver birds and Ross’s Turaco to name just a few. It was very quiet and peaceful. Dinner was a buffet and was very good. That night there was a terrific thunderstorm which Julie slept through much to Lorraine’s great surprise.
Sunday March 27th
Two weeks to go!
We were back home at 2pm as Steve had to go to work up country. We just had a quiet afternoon preparing for the week ahead.