Lake Bunyoni

From Kampala we decided to head for Lake Bunyoni, which is quite near the border of Rwanda. Perhaps stupidly we went to the bus station the day before to find out what time we needed to arrive the next day. For about 1km around the bus station the streets were packed and chaotic to say the least and the bus station appeared to be something made out of nightmares. We did find someone who was wearing a jacket proclaiming him to be a guide for the bus station who told us we needed to be there at 6am the next day. Little did we realise that in Uganda buses don't have a departure time, they just leave when full... so the 6am was just a suggestion not a compulsory time to come. So we organised at large expense a taxi to pick us up at 5:30am and set our alarm for 4:15am to give us time to pack up the tent and all our belongings in the dark. (We have discovered that by using all our clothing we can make quite a nice pillow - but packing up does take a bit longer).

We arrived at the bus station tired and mildly disorientated to find the entire area empty and really quite peaceful at that time of day. Our taxi driver handed us over to another person wearing one of those guide jackets and we were led to a bus (accompanied by a couple of other people)paid our money and were given tickets that read Kampala to Kabale. There was only one other person on the bus which wasn't promising, so we settled in for a long wait. After about 20 minutes I decided to go stand outside the bus and stretch my legs. As per normal I was immediately approached by about 5 guys who started talking to me and asking where I was going. When I told them Kabale I was promptly informed that we were on the wrong bus. After much talking to everyone I could find and just a hint of tears as I explained we had paid all our money for the bus fair and now wouldn't be able to afford the bus ticket for the right bus I was taken to the bus station bouncer. This was a big African dressed all in black who was slouched by the entrance to the bus station. The situation was explained by my 10 supporters to him, I handed over my tickets and the group of us went to find the ticket seller for the bus we were on. Whilst the 10 guys who were helping me yelled, abused and shouted at this guy the bouncer just held out our tickets and kept getting into his personal space. Within another couple of minutes we had our money and were seated on what everyone in the bus stop assured us was the bus to Kabale. (During all this palava Jason had remained hidden on the bus, figuring as a lone girl I would get more help than if he was with me... undoubtedly an accurate assessment).

The bus journey was long, but otherwise uneventful. At the other end we joined up with the other two tourists on the bus to get a taxi to the Lake. There we met up with 5 more and the 9 of us headed off in a motorboat to the island. This led to a very enjoyable few days camping by the lake, eating too much food and reading. There was also the memorable vodka and amarula night when we played 'This is how I bang my stick'.... but I guess the details of that aren't really necessary.

A minor rerouting

We arrived in Kampala with an urgent need... to sort out air tickets. We had just recieved an email informing us that our flight from Kigali would now be leaving from Entebbe instead. With such scant information we urgently wished to get to South African Airways to find out how they could just decide that we would leave from a different country to what we had originally booked.
Arriving in Kampala at Red Chilli Backpackers, on the free rafting bus, we set up our tent for the first time in darkness, this turned out to be easier than finding a clear space between the tents already set up at the backpackers. The guard dogs kindly guarded our tent for the small fee of a chew of our thongs.
The next morning we made a bee line straight for the SAA office, where we were informed that SAA no longer flew from Rwanda, hence the change, however a flight and accomadation with food, would be provided but it would have to be issued by the SAA office in Kigali, Rwanda. Feeling a bit more releaved (a warning not to leave the Rwandan office till it is all sorted out preventing a total relaxation), we wondered why our travel agent couldn't have provided a few more details.
With that out of the way we had the opertunity to explore Kampala some more, we found the Garden City a wonderful mall obviously aimed at the Expats and tourists, the food including meat looked and smelt safe and wonderful, there was even a variety of cheese in the deli.
We had our first steak in 3 months at a butchery that also functioned as a restraunt, steak was never more appreachiated.

Dirt, rain and white water

Arriving in Bujagali Falls we signed up for an evening of quad biking along the banks of the river nile, ending with dinner in a local village. This was a heap of very muddy fun... although it was a little disconcerting stopping at each of the rapids on the way to be shown where the white water rafting is done. The dinner consisted of 6 different types of carbohydrate, beans and cabbage... but was surprisingly nice. It was also fun sitting in a locals house with her five kids eating by lantern light due to the lack of electricity, with a TV for decoration. The kids were sweet and as with all Africa kids treated us to some songs.

The next day we went back out into a different village to watch a movie. There's a charity organisation here called 'Soft Power' which sets up schools and medical centres and one of their fund raising activities is to have a weekly movie. They have a generator to power the laptop and projector, as again there's no electricity in the villages. This week it was Blood Diamond and it was a really moving experience watching it in Africa and we're both sure that our response to the movie was very different than it would have been back home. There were only four mzungus there the rest of the audience being local(primarily young children) and we were really disturbed by the laughter that was their reaction to all the violence and women and children getting shot.

The highlight though and the main reason that people generally come to Bujagali falls is for the white water rafting on the Nile. This was terrifying at least in the lead up. We had watched the DVD from the trip that ran the day before, and even Jason started to wonder if this was a sane thing to do. The day started with breakfast whilst we listened to the guides be briefed on all the important things (like, please put on your shorts before you leave so that we don't have to wait around for you?!) It was a bit like listening to a school teacher berate naughty children and did little for our confidence. We then piled into two buses and a couple of trucks and headed for the Nile.

After a few practice paddles, turning left and right we started to approach the first rapid and were promptly told to jump out to swim through it. The 7 of us in the boat looked at each other wondering if he was joking (Our guide was called Alex, but quickly got nicknamed Jaffar as his evil laugh distinctly reminded us of the evil villain in Aladdin). It turns out he wasn't joking and so we all swam through the first rapid. After clambering (or being yanked into the boat for those of us with no arm muscles... all but 2) back into the boat he promptly flipped it, so we'd know what that felt like too. At this point he was not our favourite person!!! Eventually we reached the first 'real' rapid of the day, meaning a grade 5 - the hardest grade that is allowed to be commercially rafted. The rapids here are totally different to those that we rafted in New Zealand. There it was about the height of the fall, here it is the volume of water and the waves!! You head down the rapid to be met at the bottom by a wall of water which the boat then attempts to go over or through... consequently it is quite common to get flipped out. In the course of the day we were only flipped once which felt like quite an achievement! The best rapid was Silverback which consists of four seperate waves. The first is actually two diagonal waves which meet in a point, we hit this dead on and the boat went completely verticle, we all thought that we were going over and to avert this Jason who was sitting in the front lent forward over the top of the boat to try and bring the bow back down (it worked). There is this amazing shot on the DVD of the bottom of the boat and Jason (from about the waist up) coming out over the top. Of course today he is complaining about the massive bruise on his chest from when we came back down and he slammed into the boat.