Lake Bunyoni

While waiting for the rain to stop I was able to catch up on my blog and emailing for free at Edirisa. The rain stopped around 2 and I went back to my hotel. Even though it was way past checkout time, Bruno was kind enough to let me go with no penalties. I took a boda boda the 8km to Lake Bunyoni. The road was pretty rough but the first views of the lake from high up were amazing. I went to the Amagara parking lot were I waited for my free canoe to Itambara island were Byoona Amagara is located. I didn't wait long for my canoe and in no time, Jackson and I are off. Before I can even begin to feel guilty for him paddling me, he hands me a spare paddle. It's a 50 minute paddle to Amagara and I paddle the whole way, stopping only to take some photos. I can see perfect cone of Mt. Muhavura (4127M) looming over the hills in the distance. I will be on top of there soon, I thought to myself.
I choose a nice and hopefully dry spot for my tent, near the waters edge but divided from the other campsites by a tasteful bamboo wall. Amagara bills itself as a backpacker's paradise and I think I agree. Its very calm and peaceful and has a beautiful location and lots of western food at decent prices that I haven't seen anywhere else. I planned to spend 4 nights here. I would have maybe stayed longer but with less than a month left in my trip, I didn't want to be rushing around or miss anything but I could spend at least 4 nights here. There wasn't many people here but I hung out with 3 English guys my first night, Adam, Charlie and Brent. Adam was doing volunteer work at Amagara and I wouldn't see him around much but I did hangout with Charile and Brent a lot.
Amagara is eco friendly and only has solar power. With all the rain and clouds they haven't had much power to spare and I never got to watch a movie in their solar powered DVD room. I played a lot of cards, read and just relaxed.

The second day on Lake Bunyoni it rained for about 4 hours but I checked my tent and there were no puddles underneath it. I would be safe and dry for my time here. Chapatis are fairly popular and cheap in Uganda and in Amagara they make a delicious potatoe chapati! Everything on their menu sounds so good and it's hard to choose what to eat. I take fish and chips for dinner and it's the best I've had in a long time. I also treat myself to some dessert. I order 4 chocolate rum balls. I share them with Brent and Charlie. They didn't skimp on the rum and have a really strong rum taste and are really chocolatey and rolled in grated cocount. So good!
Brent,36, arrived the same day as me. He's travelling around East Africa until his money runs out. His girlfriend is working in Tanzania and he will be going back there to see and travel with her. Charlie, 48, quit his job as an engineer searching for oil 12 years ago and has been basically cycling around the world since. He arrived at Amagara 4 days before me. This trip started from England for him and he cycled through some of the middle East before coming down through Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya and then Uganda. I really admire his endurance and am jealous of the freedom he has though I don't envy the riding so much. If you have the time, its the best way to travel. I don't really like taking public transport but it saves a lot of time and hassle with only limited time to travel.

My second morning at the lake I have one of the best breakfasts ever, 2 crepes with fruit inside ( banana, pineapple, passionfruit) and sprinkled cinammon on top. It rains again but after it clears up Charlie and I go to the playing field and through a frisbee around. Charlie throughs it up in the air and a strong wind blows it down a hill into a very reedy area along the lakeshore. Frisbee's over for today. It rains again before the sun goes down and I just shower in the rain. There is no roof on the outdoor shower. I stick with the fish and chips again for dinner and I'm not disappointed. Brent saw it last night and tonight he's having it too.

The weather starts out nice on my third day but since it probably will rain, I move into the dorm for my last night. This way I can dry out my tent today so I don't have to pack it wet tomorrow morning. The day turns into the nicest one yet at Bunyoni. I wash clothes and even swim in the lake. More people arrive, all volunteers or working. Brent, Charlie and I are the only backpackers here. John, 60, an American I hungout with at Edirisa a few times arrives with a bunch of younger people. I take advantage of the clear skies to walk around the island to take some photos.
Lake Bunyoni has 29 islands and is an irregular shape, suggesting that it was multiple volcanoes that collapsed in on themselves a long time ago. It lies at an altitude of 2000m and the water is quite cold.Its the most picturesque lake in the country surrounded by intensely cultivated hills. They are growing Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, millet and sourghom. There is no defined growing season here. Due to abundant rainfall, people are able to grow crops all year round. The hills are intensely cultivated into terraces but not like the spectacular terraces of the Philippines or Indonesia. The terraces are divided from each other clearly but are not levelled flat. They are still on the same angle as the land on which they are planted. Most terraces I've seen before are levelled flat before they plant the crops, but I guess that's too much work here that people don't want to do.
For my last dinner I order crayfish with coconut curry sauce. The crayfish are from the lake and are more like shrimp. There has been attempts to stock the lake with Nile Perch ( Tilapia) but these have mostly failed due to the deepness of the lake, fishing is difficult. After Lake Tanganyika ( Tanzania, DRCongo), Lake Bunyoni is thought to be the second deepest lake in Africa. Now back to dinner. It was really delicious and altough the sauce wasn't spicy it was flavourful and I soaked up every last drop with a chapati. Brent has the chili. I taste it and it tastes like real chili I've eaten back home. I am going to really miss the food here. I've been purposefully avoiding anything resembling local food.

My last morning at the lake I have an omelette wrapped in a potatoe chapati. I pack up my stuff and at 11am leave Amagara. I have a lot of ground to cover today and since there are 4 of us leaving, we decide to share the cost and hire the motorboat to take us back to the mainland and civilization. We all share a taxi back to Kabale. Brent and Leo, an American volunteer, are staying in Kabale and they go to the Flockline hotel after my glowing recommendation. I have lunch with them there while I wait for my share taxi to get more passengers. I put a deposit down on the front seat with the promise of them coming to get me when the car is full. This they did and I was finally off to Kisoro, only 30km as the crow flies but with Lake Bunyoni in the way, the road takes 80km to reach Kisoro. I shared the front seat with one other and the driver. I always take the window seat. I don't want the stickshift in my crotch. The middle guy sits on a considerately placed cushion and moves around the stickshift. No one seems to mind. The driver takes the road towards the lake but takes a right turn instead of a left toward Amagara. This back road is in terrible shape and after about an hour we emerge onto the main road. It must have been a shortcut because it only took us 2 hours to reach Kisoro when I thought it would take 3.
Kisoro wasn't my final destination. Mgaginga Gorilla National Park, 14km away, was. A boda boda quickly approached me and quoted me a price which was slightly less than I had expected to pay. I didn't try to bargain, I just got on and held on. The road to the park was the worst I've seen in Uganda. Some sections were smooth but others were terribly rocky and rough. Lots of kids waved as I passed but I was too busy holding on to wave back. The driver has my small pack in front of him on the handle bars and gastank but I'm wearing my large pack. I have to hold on in front of me to make sure it doesn't pull me off backwards. A few times, I just got off and walked up extremely rocky uphill sections. The drivers bike was really working hard and just before we arrived at the park it was smoking and others gathered to see what was wrong. I didn't hang around. I walked the last few minutes to the community campground, right in front of the gate to the national park. I set up my tent and ordered irish with gnut sauce for dinner. It's back to local food now. It rained heavily while I ate. It calmed down later and I went to check on my tent. I had put it in a questionable area but I liked the privacy it offered. It turns out I was right, it was a bad spot though. There was a low depression on one side and the water had puddled there and I had to bail out 2 small puddles with the lid of my soap container. My sleeping area was dry, so I was fine for tonight. Tomorrow I will move my tent to higher ground.