Back to Bushara

This weekend we had a fantastic time once again at Bushara Island, Lake Bunyoni, Uganda, about 4 hours (including the slow border crossing) from Kigali. This time, unfortunately, Niamh's family couldn't come, but many others did. Most of them stayed in cabins, but we were in our new lovely gigantic tent, and camping with us were Hazel's family as well as Zoe's friend Miranda and her mother Anne.

I'll post a few photos to give an idea of the time.

This is at the border, bags of "Irish" potatoes awaiting export to Rwanda, I think. Perhaps they just came from Rwanda. Hard to tell.

Counterclockwise from top left: Zoe and Miranda's flying trapeze, the Three Amigas (Hazel, Zoe, and Miranda) held hands spontaneously and frequently, I carved a pumpkin with my assistant, and we got our inflatable kayak wet again, which was a lot of fun.

Above from top left: Zoe proudly displays Kirsti's excellence in facepainting; Snow White's debut; Our tent decked out to receive trick-or-treaters (it actually rained before they arrived); and a gang of happy revelers.

More Puppy Business

Well, we met with the puppies again, and decided on the one currently called Poochie. As I've already said, this name has to go; its not terrible by any means, but it always reminds me of an odious character on an old Simpsons episode, and that's not a fair way to start life. He's brown and black and grey with white patches -sort of a beagle pattern- and has grown tremendously since we last saw him. He is slightly more docile or deferential than his brother, Doggo, who is grey all over. They both bite everything in site and are incredibly enthusiastic. They love to play fight with each other or whoever else they can engage. And they are fairly free with peeing but tend to go more outside than in the house. So we've got some major work cut out for us.

We're going to keep them at Isabel's house for two more weeks of being together and with the older "mentor" dogs, then bring them into our own chaotic home. That gives us a little time to get all the chewable things (less furniture) out of reach, and a little planning time for figuring where everything will go. It also gives me time to finish my puppy guide I'm reading, for whatever that's worth.

We had lunch there and spent a good part of the afternoon playing with Sam and the puppies (including a little kiddie pool time), and the weather really cooperated. At the end of our time there, Andrea's friend and co-worker Nicola came by and agreed to adopt Doggo, too! So they will both live in Kimihurura -our neighborhood- and have some visit time and maybe even occasional shared walks.

One of the reasons it's good they're coming in two weeks, is because we are expecting houseguests starting tomorrow evening (ash-cloud willing). Tanya and Alistair are our British friends by way of New Orleans, and their son Edwin is one of Zoe's favorite people in the whole world. They'll stay a week, including a Gorilla safari for the grownup guests and me, which I'm really looking forward to. I'm sorry I won't have our good camera to bring with me, but I'll just have to remember the experience.

Thanks to Isabel for loaning her camera.

Camping Again

A few weeks ago -over Easter weekend- we were able to get away with some friends for a great weekend of camping. Andrea had Good Friday off as a national holiday, so we took off in the late morning in convoy with our friends Sion, Emma, their daughter Niamh, and their lovely big black dog Griff (actually spelled differently as it's a Welsh name, but I can't for the life of me remember it, as Welsh words make less sense to me than Chinese words). We drove North to the Ugandan border, crossed over into Kabale, through it, and a few miles out of town, headed off the beaten track, and up into the high mountain passes to Lake Bunyoni.

The worst roads were tied between the single-lane dirt roads into the lake area, and the awful dirt roads in our neighborhood. The most time-consuming portion was actually crossing from Rwanda to Uganda. Sion and I handled all the paperwork, and girls and dog stayed in the SUVs. We had one predicted office for passport stamps and visas (efficient, though it ought to be for $50 US per passport). Then for the car there were FIVE offices to go to just for the Ugandan government, including one for security and one separate one for the police. While in the police office we asked the very bored female police officer whether we were required to purchase third-party insurance for their side of the border, and she had absolutely no idea. Strange, but we shrugged our shoulders and bought some (there are at least 3 insurance offices at the border), and then exchanged Rwandan Francs for Ugandan Shillings. So of all our travel from door-to-door, we were on the road about 4 1/2 hours, with a good deal of that at the border.

Then once we arrived at the lake, we dropped off all our gear (and it was a lot) in the transport company's office (a tiny wooden shack with a desk), parked the cars in a lot, then watched porters load all our stuff on a stretched-out rowboat with an outboard motor. With six or eight chickens. Because of Griff, they decided the goat could wait for the next crossing.

We jumped in as well, and were off to the middle of the lake.

Ten minutes later we were disembarking on Bushara Island and climbing through the forest to the reception area.

In the interest of not taking forever to get this out, I'll continue it in another post soon.

Camp Life

We went camping this past weekend in Akagera Game Reserve in Eastern Rwanda, on the Tanzanian border. It took about 2 hours, 20 minutes to get to the entrance, where we checked in with the rangers and gave them a lot of money. Then we drove a few hours in the park to get to our campsite. I don't know if Andrea or I have ever driven on anything remotely as rough or difficult. We really maxed out our big-ass 4X4. The park roads really suffered from lack of maintenance; in fact they often were nearly unidentifiable.

Anyway, we got to the campsite and had to hack down the grass with machetes to pitch tents. The conditions were pretty rough for a campsite; no latrines, fire pits, or picnic tables. We found a dead tree 500 meters away and hacked the largest branches off to throw on the top of our friends' truck before towing the rest of the whole tree back to camp. We had the grandaddy of campfires until late at night, then stoked it up in the morning for a short spell, and still left plenty for the next folks there. That night was the brightest moon of the year (so the astronomers say), and we enjoyed it eating good food, drinking wine and good single malt among one family we were already friends with, and another we now count as friends. And these people know how to camp in luxury, though the conditions were quite primitive. It was so bright and the fire so warm we could have stayed up all night talking. It reminded me of camping in Alaska in July.

The next morning after breakfast, we packed and drove around looking for game. We went to Plage Hippos (Hippo Beach), where we weren't disappointed for hippos, crocodiles, or waterfowl. We saw giraffes, roan antelope, cape elands, impala, a few other antelope types, a small family of baboons, and zillions of birds. We heard hyenas by moonlight, and saw spoor and tracks of elephants, but no such beasts. Maybe next time. When we returned home that night we were utterly exhausted but very pleased. Zoe has asked three or four times about the next time we go camping. I think for her it's all about roasting marshmallows, being together with friends and family, and seeing animals. Who's to argue with that?