Crater Lakes part II

Jan 10/09

I'm woken up in the dark hours of early morning by a terrifying sound. It's very loud and sounds like it's coming from the low cliff above Richie's tent. It sounds like the ghost from The Grudge, if that helps anyone. I've never heard it before and thankfully it only lasts a few minutes. My heart starting racing instantly and I just kept thinking ' It's OK, I'm safe in my tent! Nothing will attack me in here with the super thin screen/nylon walls protecting me! Besides, it sounds closer to Richie and will get him first!' I talked about it with Richie later and he was equally shitting himself. He said he was holding tight to his knife, ready for action. His knife is a formidable weapon too, it's about as long as my forearm! He thought it was a pissed off hippo. We told the staff and they didn't know what it was but a guy later told us it was a hyena. He says they pass through here. I guess that makes sense but I've had a new idea about what it was. I just heard it again this morning in the predawn hours of 5am as I waited for a bus near Semliki national park. I don't think there are many hyenas here but there are many baboons and that's what I think it was. They are big enough to make that kind of call. I can rest now if I hear it again.
I fall back asleep and awoken again at 8 but this time by a more familiar sound. Branches and debris fall on my tent and I hear monkeys crashing through the trees all around - African alarm clock! I get up to see it's a large troupe of red colobus. I get out my tripod and start photographying. I eat the rest of my cereal for breakfast and I'm still hungry so I order an omelette and coffee. The coffee is in the form of instant powder which is kind of funny since Uganda produces some of the highest quality coffee around but most of this is for export. I get powdered milk and sugar to sweeten to my taste and a 1.5L thermos of boiling water. I'm not a huge coffee junkie and 1 or 2 cups is enough for me. I'm not one of those guys who sits around a coffee pot drinking it all day, so the 1.5 litres is a but much for me. In my hotel in Fort Portal, The Continental, when I order coffee with milk I get a small thermos full of boiled milk to which I add sugar and instant coffee. Coffee with milk is called African coffee here.
I'm walking to some nearby crater lakes today. Richie's guts are bothering him so I'll be walking solo but I don't mind. It's a beautifully sunny day and I leave at noon, the hottest time of the day. I walk a rarely used single lane road to the small roadside village of Rwaitera. I eat beans and matooke ( mashed plantains) for lunch and then continue on to try and find a loop back to lake Nkuruba. I pass a lushly green tea plantaition that reminds me of the so many I saw in India. I'm walking down the dusty red road now ringed with crops like maize and cassava on both sides when a large grey mongoose drops down the one side, runs right in front of me and jumps up the other side back into the crops. How cool and unexpected!
I stop at a wooden shack overlooking Lake Nyamirima, a small but picturesque crater lake. No one is around but after a few minutes a guy appears and I buy a warm coke from him. He gets his mother who is the manager of the campsite here and speaks better English. She points me in the right direction to get back to Mkuruba. I'm walking through people's yards now. No one is in sight but 2 dogs are on guard. I get out my tripod for a weapon, though it's more for show. Most dogs here are scardy cats and are all bark and no bite. As soon as I raise the tripod over my head, they back off to a safe distance. This is real rural Uganda, I see a fat black women topless and she makes no effort to cover up when she sees me. Uganda is fairly conservative, topless women aren't something you see everyday. Her whole household watches me as I go by. I ask constantly to make sure I'm going in the right direction and everyone is nice and no one asks me for money here. Before I realized it, I was on the road I had started on. I arrived back at camp 4 hours after leaving. I immediately hit the lake for a swim. It was almost like I never left. The monkeys were still around and Richie was still there photographing them. I left a jerrycan full of water in the sun and it was warm for my bucket shower. I read till dinner. Richie and I both eat cassava with beef. Surprisingly the beef is cut in small tasty chunks and has no fat on it. The cassava is heavy and super filling. I sit in the moonlight for a while before retiring to my tent. I'm listening to the book Devil May Care (a new James Bond adventure) on CD, bought for me for Christmas by my brother, Jeff. It's just starting to get excting. I close my eyes and imagine I'm watching a movie (Thanks Jeff).