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| Full as usual |
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| The banana carrier |
We left Kampala and the crazy boda-bodas (moped-taxis) on Friday. On Thursday we had visited the Mabira-Forest with Ekkehard (Ekke). The Forest itself was a disappointment, presumable because our guide took us to the wrong way, but the day was great. We spent a couple of hours in a beautiful café in the forest, drinking tea, talking well and watching the apes jumping from tree to tree.
To be back on the road was fantastic. It is hard to describe how immensely I enjoy driving through Africa at a medium pace, looking at the people and the landscape, listening to music, talking or just enjoying the quiet. It’s such a worry-free life. Hakuna matata, even though the breaks still don’t work properly. Hakuna matata, even though the swamps were too expensive and the cave not accessible at dusk and dawn when the bats come and go.
So off we went to Fort Portal, full of ideas of what Uganda had to offer. That things turned out to be too expensive for us or not available at all was surprisingly enough more to our amusement than to our disappointment. What we did have, was an amazing camping-spot just outside Queen Elisabeth NP, in the wilderness. Some whiskey made the spot even better!
The following morning we met an elderly Englishman with an elderly Land-Rover at the gate to the Ishasha part of Queen Elisabeth. Instead of visiting the tree-climbing lions, we tried to help the gentleman figuring out what was wrong with his Landy. That afternoon we had a beautiful drive along Bwindi Impenetrable NP.
The rest of our week has been spent figuring out the easiest way to climb the Niarangongo, the active volcano in Congo (DRC). We spent two days in Kisoro, organizing, and have now headed to Rwanda, to cross the border to Goma on foot. We’ll probably be climbing the mountain on the 11th, if we get our Congolese visa until then. Jeremy will be joining us, caching up with us here in Gisenyi on the 10th.
In Kisoro we were so lucky to stumble across a group of American girls. On Monday evening we sat until after one in the night outside our tent (easily the latest evening we’ve had) talking and (of course) playing guitar and singing. It was refreshing to meet a different kind of people than what we’ve met the last weeks.
Rwanda has also been a good experience so far. The border was very smooth, and the landscape beautiful. For African standards Rwanda is an extremely clean and ordered country. Ekke described it as Africa’s Singapore, and that’s not too far from the truth considering that plastic-bags are forbidden, and you can be fined having one=). The first night here, we camped on a beautiful spot in the forest, and now we’re camped on the public beach of Gisenyi, and (it seems) legally so.
This morning we were woken by the alarm of Wombosi. We raced out of our tent to see that one of the back windows had been opened. The thief had disappeared, and with him Rogers Leatherman. We were lucky though, not to lose more. He could have grabbed one of the camera-bags, and if it had not been for the alarm we’d be much poorer now. The rest of the day has been beachy; swimming, sun-beading, reading e.t.c.
The last week has for me been one of the best, not because of what we’ve seen, but because of the time we’ve had, the people around me (Roger of course most importantly) and the enormous feeling of freedom and safety. The blessings to take it slowly many westerners have forgotten, these days. Good temperature and nice sceneries add to it. It is incredible how good package-soup and noodles taste, even the third evening in a row.
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| Looooong horns |
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| Roger in beach mode |
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| Ape |
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| A brilliant spot to camp |
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| Ekke |
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| Our beach |
Tok dei skinn-etuiet til Roger også? Då vil eg tippe han vart arg! Kjekt å høyre at de framleis har det fint i Afrika. Nyt turen vidare, og lukke til i Congo. Høyres ut som om de lev livets glade dagar der nede..!
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