Two weddings on the same day, one in the western region of Uganda the other in the eastern province of Rwanda! I had to make a choice between going to one or the other. Since I’ve been to a few weddings in Rwanda at this point, I decided to go to Uganda for a new cultural experience. My friend Gloria’s sister was to get married in their family farm outside of the southern Ugandan city of Ntungamo!! My plan was to go to Uganda a few days before the wedding and hang out in the capital Kampala before heading to the wedding, but after a close look at a map of Uganda, I noticed that Ntungamo is a short distance from the border with Rwanda. That means I don’t have to make the excruciating 10 hour bus ride from Kigali to Kampala. Instead, and after consulting my travel book, I decided I was going to take a different route into Uganda and spend a couple of days along the shores of Lake Bunyonyi. According to my travel book, Lake Bunyonyi is a crater lake and is described as the Switzerland of Africa. I left my house early that morning and took the bus along the outskirts of Volcano National park which extends across the border into Uganda. I got off the bus at the end of the road to the border crossing, went through customs and crossed a border post which consisted of two barrels and a short fence. The paved road stopped on the Rwandan side with no signs of a clear road on the Ugandan side. There was a Swedish couple crossing the other way into Rwanda so I asked them of what means I have to get to the next nearest town. My options were take a buda buda, a motorcycle taxi or a car hire to Kisoro about 20 minutes away. I car hire was heading back to town and the guy agreed to cramp me into his little sedan for about the same price as a buda buda. Once at Kisoro, I jumped into another taxi sedan on a 4 hour trip To Kibale, the next town near Lake Bunyonyi. This was my first experience with private hires in Uganda. I got in the car and settled for the back seat with three other people. I envied the guy in the front seat but soon we made two more stops and two more people jumped in. At this point we were 8 in a compact sedan, a Toyota Corolla. 4 in the back seat and another 4 in the front seat, including the driver, plus my backpack!! The trip from Kisoro to Kabale lasted 4.5hrs and took us up a dirt road crossing the western mountains of Uganda, through a national park with bamboo forest and Pigmy or Batwa population, indigenous people that inhabit this part of Africa. 2hrs into the trip, we finally we reached part of the road that was being widened and paved by an Israeli company. The remaining period was on a paved road that was more inhabited and ran through small farm towns and villages.
Once in Kabale, a bustling town, I walked around and negotiated a buda buda driver that agreed to take me from town up the mountain and down the other side to Lake Bunyonyi. As we reached the top of the mountain, the driver turned off the engine and we descended into a free fall down the dirt road to the shores of the lake. I was treated to amazing views of the Crater Lake surrounded by green hills and fields of papyrus plants. I checked into Overland Camp as recommended in my travel book. The place was amazing sitting on m=one corner of the lake with accommodations ranging from simple tents to tree house tents and cabins. I checked into a furnished tent that was built on a tree overlooking the lake below. At this point and after long haul from my house across the border, through the forest, and finally in town then up and down a mountain, I was glad to finally put my backpack down. I changed into my swimming trunks and jumped in the lake. Lake Bunyonyi is said to be the purest lake in all Africa, my Schisto blood test is still pending!! The lake however, is beautiful and vast weaving through hills and dotted with many islands (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_bunyonyi). There was a sign on the shore claiming Bunyonyi is the deepest lake in Uganda with 6,500 ft deep!! With that in mind I decided to take advantage of the make shift jump board protruding from a tree by the lake knowing that I would never hit the bottom regardless of height :o)
The next day I rented a dug-out canoe, a dug out tree bark!! And took off in the vast lake trying to keep land marks that will allow me to find my lodge on the way back!! Maneuvering a dug-out canoe is tricky business and rowing forward is a challenge no muzungu is ready for!! The travel guide warned of the muzungu circle rowing which I came to experience first hand!! Everything I learned about canoeing and rowing did not apply here due to the way the canoe is shaped!! There tends to be a delay in response and you suddenly find yourself going in continuous circles in the canoe!! It took me almost all day to finally figure it out and the way back was much straighter forward and with direction. I made a stop on Bushara Island. Bushara Island houses a camp site and is a bird watching area. The project on the island was started by a Christian charitable organization supported by the Canadian Aid Agency. The proceeds support local communities through school programs, agriculture, and other cultural heritage projects.At night we would hang out by the bonfire and people would share their travel stories. I met 2 PCVs from Tanzania, other NGO workers from Eastern Uganda, a group of Brits traveling in an overland throughout Uganda, and two Germans who were traveling overland starting in Germany and ending in Cape Town, SA. The German guys had flipped their converted semi off the dirt road and were sticking around as they needed to figure out how to get the truck upright!! I’ve been coming across many people doing overland trips through Africa. I just recently met a British couple who took off from London and were on their way out to Cape Town as well.
After two days at Overland Camp by Lake Bunyonyi swimming in the lake, diving from diving pad hung from a tree, canoeing, and Island hopping, it was time to come back to Rwanda. On Monday morning, I took a moto back to the town of Kabale, from there I got into a cab with 6 other people plus the driver for the 45 minute ride to the border, across the no-man’s land and the border I walked to the nearest village where I got on a motato to Kigali. After reaching Kigali it was time for the last stretch of the trip taking the bus back to my village in the north!!
