Uganda Part 3 - Lake Mbuto and Kampala

I got about half way through this and now I have to leave for the airport to come home.  So I am going to post and then finish the pictures later.  See you tomorrow. (ok, I got the rest of the pictures up).

Uganda Day 3

Up early again for 7am breakfast.  Then an hour with a bird guide.  We just walked up the road but we saw lots.  Have I mentioned pedestrians in Uganda, and probably all over Africa.  When a car is coming, they get the heck out of the way.  Those on foot seem to have zero right of way.  As we were birding, I followed suit.  It was a little like Canadian street hockey – CAR!  But we jumped into ditches and tree lines instead of just moving aside.

I think I also haven’t mentioned my money situation.  The resort (I laugh as I call it that since it is just a cluster of tents but I can’t remember the name at the moment – update – the name is Buhoma Community Rest Camp) has no internet and doesn’t take visa.  I had taken some money out at the airport but I could only take out 800K USch.  Once I have given my first payment to Francis to cover gas, I only had about 400K left. Then I must have bought something  because when it came time to pay for the room I only had 300k left.  Not enough.  Francis could have gotten some money but I managed to scrape together some Euros that Alina had sold me for Tanzanian schillings on Zanzibar.  I had wanted to save them for Amsterdam but no such luck.

 

I had a few small bills left.  As we left the gate, Francis had to stop for something (of course we weren't stopping to shop or pee but I managed to get one of them in). There are all of these little shop stands just outside the gates.  I bought a beautiful basket bowl and a little hand carved gorilla keychain.  Plus Nikki’s coffee of course (which Francis had to cover as I was out of dough after the basket).

And then, unfortunately, another long drive to Lake Mbuto National Park.

(A day or two later, I have lost track.  Either way, it is Friday at about 5pm and I am in the Nairobi airport waiting for my flight to Mombasa – if I may so, I am getting good at this customs/security/departure thing).

The drive to Lake Mburo was long, but not as long as the Bwindi drive.  Plus Francis decided that we should drive through Queen Elizabeth National Park.  That is the park with the lions who sleep in trees (that is different apparently).  But as is always the case in Africa we got too late a start so the lions had descended their arborine beds (I made that up but I llike it) and hidden from us.  We did see some interesting birds.  We weren`t allowed to leave the main road or we would have to pay the park entrance fee of $150 so no exploring.

A monkey

A tiny baby monkey

Scenes from the road

Queen Elizabeth Park

A banana market

Warthogs

Again, Francis forgot that human females (and probably males too) have to use the bathroom.  Eventually I asked if we could stop.  I wasn`t going to have a repeat of the last drive.   He stopped at a hospital and we caused quite a stir because it was a local hospital and they likely have never had a North American tourist stop there before.  Of course, no western toilets.  But in for a penny and all, I used the pit latrine as they called it.  They were very nice and found me some paper and soap. 

Eventually, many hours later,  we reached Lake Mburo and found our camp – Kimbla-Matana.  Trying to be a good client, I let Francis handle check in while I birdwatched off the restaurant deck.  But before we could check in, I had to look at the tent.  It was very nice.  I wanted to stay and let Francis finish the paperwork but no.  We had to complete check in before they would make up the bed.  So back to the reception.

This is when I discovered that they were going to charge $170 US instead of the quoted $100 per night.  I let Francis handle it. First he argued.  Then he insisted that they take us to the next camp.  I was tired but I trudged along.  We looked at a cabin at the next place and asked how much.  $260/night.  Back to Matana.  More of Francis arguing with the guy who came with us, Moses. Moses calling his boss to discuss and apologizing but the prices go up and there is nothing to be done.  This had been going on for a hour or so and as always in Uganda, I had to pee.  So, that was that.  I told Francis to stop talking.  I looked at Moses in the parking lot and told him that under no circumstance was I going to pay more than the quoted price.  I would use my massive influence on social media (ok, I may have exaggerated a lot) in North America to tell the world that Lake Mbuto should be avoided  because they lie about their prices.  I want to talk to the boss immediately.  Amazingly, the boss was right there in the room behind reception.  Go figure.  I got my price.  I think I scared Francis but don’t piss me off and waste time when I have to pee.

My lonely table for one.
Notice that the other tables are bare.

A corner of the reception/dining room.

Reception

Another corner.  It was very nice.

Someone finally made my bed and let me take a shower.  Side note, there is no running water in the tents.  For handwashing, they bring a pitcher of cold water and a thermos of hot water.  For showers, they fill a bag that hangs over the tent with 40 gallons of hot water when requested.  I didn’t investigate how the toilets flush but I suspect another tank of water somewhere out back.

Lake Mbuto from the resort deck

Eland tent

My room, fancy

Visitors while we dined

We had arrived in time for dinner.  But drivers don’t get served in  the dining room.  But Francis stayed with me and had a beer while I ate.  The dinner was great.  Four courses, start with some tidbit, followed by soup.  Every meal had soup and it was always the best.  Then beef stirfry.  Then banana bread for dessert with caramel sauce.  At the next table, the only other guests had been at Bwindi at the same time as me so we struck up a conversation.  Dad and son from Finland.  Dad was a birder.

We organized our morning tour, a walking safari.  Then to bed.  This is when I discovered that I had a butler of sorts.  What with the dinner and my own manservant, I was starting to feel a bit bad about insisting on the lower price.

Uganda Day 4

8am start to our walking tour with Rebecca, a guide/ranger (complete with AK47).  Robert came along but not Francis.  Rebecca said she knows the animals but not so much with birds.  But she would try.  As it turns out, while it is not part of her job, she is a hobby birder who participates in the local bird counts so she knew lots.  She IDed some and I IDed others.  She was very excited to learn a new bird (I got to show her the red cheeked cordon bleu).

Rebecca

The Crested Crane (not its official name)
the national bird of Uganda

Robert found a warthog jawbone

The warhogs did not live in fear in this park

Lk Mbuto park does not have many animals.  Apparently there is only one lion.  The rest were killed for eating cows in the local villages.   Lots of antelope and warthogs.  We went to the watering hole.  Not only do animals drink at the watering hole, they also poop.   So there went another pair of shoes.

As we were wandering around, some water buffalo started to come toward us.  Rebecca moved us away.  Water buffalo are very dangerous and aggressive.  Avoid at all costs (keep this in mind for later).

We saw lots of birds in our two hours before Francis picked us up.  Back to the resort.  We were trying to organize a boat tour of the lake but it was expensive so I wanted to ask the Finns if they wanted to come.  But they were only in the park for a half day.  Once they left, I was the only guest at the camp.  It was weird. 

Back to the park info centre where we booked a night safari and asked if anyone else was doing a boat tour the next morning.   Nope, not so far.

Then a long break for lunch and the afternoon off until 7pm leave time for night safari.  That is when I took advantage of the wifi in the restaurant to upload the Jipe Moyo Graduation post. Then another 4 course dinner.   I should mention that the restaurant is a big open patio that looks over a bushy field. During every meal, we had some animal or other show up and eat while we ate.  The first night it was impalas,  the next warthogs.

After dinner, Francis drove to the info centre to pick up our guide.  As I was waiting, during the last few minutes of light, three water buffalo showed up.  Right by the path to the parking lot.  Francis was late so I spent half an hour wishing them to go away.  Soon it was dark and they became invisible.  But we could hear them stamping about and snorting.  Soon Francis arrived and the resort men assured me that we would be safe on the path.  So they surrounded me and we made it to the car without incident.

Night safari was a bit of a bust.  There are leopards in the park and the only real time to see them is after dusk. Of course, the 7pm start stretched to 8pm.  I suspect the leopards were hunting by then.  But we had Teddy, with her huge pitlamp, sitting outside the back window of the car, trying her hardest to find something interesting. I mentioned that her sitting on the open window sill of the car might be dangerous but Francis assured me that the light protected her.  I wasn't assured by this since I hadn't been worried she would be eaten, I was worried she would be thrown from the moving car when we hit one of the many huge potholes.  But she never did, so there you go - Africa.

Lots of impalas.  Two hours of impalas.  We saw the backside of a mother hippo and her calf.  The red glint of a bush baby’s eye.  Various antelopes.  A few zebras.  But not an owl or nightjar or leopard to be found.  I was getting so tired.  Just as we were about the re-enter the park info centre, we saw a huge snake crossing the road.  It was a rock python.  There was some discussion if it was 2 meters or 4 meters.  So I will say it was 3 meters to be fair (and because it was gigantic no matter).  It took its sweet time crossing the road.  This was the only picture I took during the entire night safari.

rock python

We got back to the camp and one of the assistants escorted me to my tent.  Except we only made it a few feet before the familiar stamping and snorting, right in front of us.  Akkk.  I don`t know who was my guide but he told me to turn around.  Which I did double time.  But then he said, don`t run.  Don`t move.  Stay close.  He was calling for help from the other guys around.  Just to add to the fun, I had worn my sandals since I had to let the poop dry on my shoes.  Do you remember the biting ants from Bwindi.  They are in Lake Mbuto too.  And I was standing right by their nest, not allowed to move.  They don`t just bite sometimes, they bite all times.  They bite as soon as they find the flesh of the fool who stood by their nest.  And they bite hard.  So I had a few chomping my feet until we could move again.  Finally to the tent to take off my shoes and pick off the ants, their teeth probably still in my foot.

Shower and bed. Big thunder and lightning and rain storm in the night.  There was so much wind, I was acutely aware that I was basically sleeping under a table cloth with my tent.  I and my tent made it to morning but without much sleep (for me, I can`t speak for the tent).

Uganda Day 5

This was an unfortunate day all round.  We were going to do the lake tour and then head to Kampala. I thought we were signed up for the 8am lake tour.  I wanted to go early for two reasons.  First, and most importantly, more birds early in the day.  And second, it would mean we would have an earlier start to Kampala.  So, I was there having breakfast at 7am.  7:30 rolls around, no Francis or Robert.  At 8:15 I went back to my room.  I was not pleased. By 9:15, I started to worry.  I wandered down to restaurant to see if Francis and Robert had abandoned me there.  By the way, I had no money again.  Once I paid for the room and the tours, I was back to zippo local currency.  And of course, the camp doesn`t take visa.  The next camp does but not this one.  I really wish Francis had warned me but I don`t think he knew.

As it turns out, of course, they hadn`t left.  Robert was there and Francis was at the info centre.  I was not happy.  Why had he not told me what was going on?  (the next day, Francis admitted that he and Robert had some beer the night before and had slept in but he was pretending at the time that the late start was all part of his master plan).   Now the best we could do was a 10am start.  It is hot at 10am.  And even hotter at noon when the tour was supposed to end.  I say supposed because we didn’t actually leave the dock until almost 11. 

The boat tour was ok.  Not many birds but we did see the coveted African Finfoot which is almost endemic to Lake Mbuto.  Plus a couple of Booted Eagles.  Lots of hippos and two crocodiles.  Robert and Francis had never been on a boat before so that was fun to watch.

Hippos

African Jacana

Booted Eagle

Who's watching who?

The not very elusive African Finfoot

Here you can sort of see his fin foot.  It is red (and finned)

Back to camp.  Shower and lunch and then we were off, only two hours behind schedule.  For a nice change of pace, Francis knew the way to Kampala so we didn’t have to speak to everyone on the street.  Or not for directions at least.  Francis decided to buy his family some fruit on the way. So we stopped at lots of road side stands and bought bananas, pineapples, potatos and some fish (which they tied to the grill of the car!).

Francis wanted to beat the traffic so no stopping for bank or bathroom.  We got to the hotel, Kenlon Hotel.  I was shown my room.  By this time, Francis was really getting on my nerves.  Seriously, it is unreasonable to want a bathroom occasionally!  Francis has never had a North American client before.  I think he was trying so hard worrying about the little things that big issues were forgotten (food, water, biological functions).

He also really wanted to be a ‘proper guide’ and do all of the decion making, problem solving and taking care.  But he went into hyperdrive at the hotel, ordering people around.  It is bad enough to be rude but to be rude on my behalf was too much.

First, in the room, he made the clerk open the patio door.  It was raining and noisy so I said I didn’t want the door opened.  (But then they couldn’t close the door so I basically had an unlocked room that night).  Then he told her to turn on the tv and find CNN.  I turned it off.  I just wanted to eat dinner and go to bed. 

We went back to the front desk.  It turns out dinner is not included in the room, just breakfast.  I didn’t have any money and dinner wouldn’t start for an hour.  Francis told me (he kept telling me to do things this day and it was really pissing me off) to decide what I wanted right now and he would pay.  Then I could eat later.   I was really tired of Francis by this time.  I did not want to have to decide on the spot.  So, then he said he would stay and wait for dinner to start.  I was so tired (and again, no chance to pee yet) so I kind of lost it.  I told him to go home and I would not eat dinner.  I told me I was tired of having no money, no control, no idea where I was or what was going on since he would never tell me what he was discussing with the staff in their local language.  Go home!

So, he left and I went to my room.  He had the desk clerk call me to make sure I was ok.  I was.  A while later, the desk clerk called again.  Francis had come back and given some money so I could have dinner.  But, in the definition of ‘cutting off your nose to spite your face’ I was too mad to take it.  So, I ate some cookies I had left over from the packed lunch a Bwindi.  They are called ‘Glucose Biscuits’ and they are a bad as they sound.   TV was horrible. So, I checked my email, read some online news and read my book. Finally to sleep despite the noise and wind coming through my open patio door.

The next morning, Francis met me at breakfast.  He apologized for being a jerk and I apologized for overreacting.  We were both tired.  Breakfast was horrible. 

The plan for this day was to find a bank.  I owed him his fees which were about $950.  Plus I needed some money to convert to US for yet another entrance Visa and some spending money because we were going to the craft market.  All told, about 3 million Ugandan Sch-.

We went to Barclays, an international bank.  That branch couldn’t do a Visa advance (remember, I still don’t have a debit card).  We would have to go to the main branch.  But I decided to use the bank machine twice since the withdrawal limit is 2 mill.  But the second transaction wouldn’t go through.  No worries, we would go to the market and then go to the main branch where they could do the withdrawal.

I bought way too much at the market.  I had given Francis 1.5 million and still owed him another million.  I had kept enough to get $50 for the Visa.  I spent about 300K USh- at the market. That left me with nothing AGAIN.  Off we went to the main branch of Barclay’s.  I go to the Visa withdrawal counter (number 10) and wait.  It takes forever to be rejected.  Daily limit? 

I called Visa.  I talk to the first guy.  Yes, I had maxed out my daily limit but that shouldn’t matter at the bank.  I turns out when I tried a second withdrawal that the ATM, they put a hold on the card AGAIN.  So he transferred me to security.    A million questions, all good, I am definitely me, just in time for the phone to run out of minutes AGAIN.  We were late heading to the airport so I promised Francis I would send him the rest of his money by Western Union.  And I gave him what American I had ($23) that I didn’t need for the Visa.

We got to near the airport where there was a huge line of cars to get through the road check.  It turns out the national soccer team (the Cranes) were just about to arrive from some national game (which they lost) and the entire country was heading to the airport to meet them.  Francis bypassed everyone, lied to the guard and gave me some money to bribe him to let us cut the queue.  Which we did.  Rush through the check in, security, immigration, security, another check in. 

Flight to Nairobi was uneventful but I had a nice chatty man beside me.  He stole me two tiny bottles of Scotch (which were free anyway).  And now, here I am waiting for my next flight.  I can’t believe it, I am caught up. My posts are way behind but at least I have writing them to present time.  (As luck would have it my boarding is a bit delayed or else I would still be a day late (and clearly a dollar or a million schillings short).