Tales From the Chicken Bus

Day 285

We sat down for breakfast and ordered a rolex for breakfast, not as expensive as the watch but much more tasty.  A rolex is a Ugandan specialty, a roti rolled and filled with eggs and onions and such.  Simply put it’s an omelette wrapped in a roti and real good and a great starter for the day.  Today we were heading to Lake Bunyoni which is just outside the town of Kabale.  The region here is incredible lush, green and scenic.  It reminds us both of Southeast Asia and is one of the most beautiful parts of Africa we’ve seen to date, that combined with the lack of mass tourism here makes for a more authentic experience than anywhere else in  East Africa we’ve been.

We walked out of Edirisa, onto the muddy street down to Boonya Amagara.  A guesthouse that also runs a place on an island on Lake Bunyoni.  We’d read about Amagara from a small posting on the wall of the hostel in Kampala, it was started by a man from New York as a non-profit project that hoped to involve the local community in the management of the guesthouse.  It sounded a bit like Bulungula, the fantastic place we stayed at in South Africa, just not as developed yet.  It was only a few years old so it would be interesting to see the progress of the project and of course enjoying the beautifully surroundings.  We asked the Kabale location to call the island to insure they had a room for us and we also would have to arrange a boat to the island.  Everything was set and we headed back to Edirisa to pack up and head out to the lake.

I successfully avoided the piles of mud today and we hailed a taxi from the main street.  Once again our driver asked us about our wheat production when he discovered we were from Canada.  The taxi curved along the red dirt road with green terraced hillsides on each side of us falling down the mountainsides.  We stopped at the lakes edge at a small wooden building that was where the boat to Amagara was docked.  Did I say boat?  Well actually a canoe and a dugout one at that.  Jordana and I carefully stepped in the very rocky canoe for the 1 hour paddle to the island.  We could have opted for a motor boat but the self-paddle option was free and more environmentally friendly.  A young guy was at the back of the canoe to steer us, Jordana in the middle and myself at the front.  Since there was only one paddle between the two of us I elected to give Jordana some sun tanning time and I took the paddle.

The lake was incredible, so still and surrounded with green mountains, I was excited for our time here and instantly was already thinking we had to stay longer than our original plan of 2 or 3 nights.  We glided along the lake and arrived to a small hand painted wooden sign, “Welcome to Boonya Amagara”.  We climbed the steep hillside up to the reception area which doubled as a restaurant.  We were warmly greeted by the staff and shown to our room, we had booked a “geodome”, we had no idea what to expect.  We were led down a walkway and then up a set of stairs to a round grass roofed structure.  “Where’s the door?”  My first reaction and I think Jordana’s as well.  There was no front door, the dome was built on a large wood platform and the front was wide open to a stunning view of the lake down below.  The interior was large and we had a comfortable bed with a mosquito net draped over top.  Outside to the left was the coolest part, the toilets.  On one side was a toilet and beside it a urinal, the toilets are self composting.  On the opposite side was a wooden structure with a shower head at the top.  A beautiful rain shower that pumped lake water up here by solar power.  I’ve never had such a view from a toilet of shower before.  You might be asking yourself if people could see us.  Well no, the geodome is raised high enough and behind trees so that nobody can see in and there are strict rules that you do not walk up to one of the domes.  This was maybe the most unique and beautiful place we have ever stayed, it took about 2 minutes to completely fall in love with the place.

We walked up to the restaurant and enjoyed some amazing food for lunch, with good food and being on such a beautiful peaceful island it would be hard to leave one day.  Only a handful of families live on the island, which is really tiny.  There is no electricity and of course no cars and little motorised traffic goes by on the lake.  We spent the rest of the day just staring out at the calm lake, reading back at our room and doing laundry.  To think we almost didn’t come here, neither of us have felt so relaxed and at ease for a long time.  From Edirisa to Amagara it was great to be staying in such positive places, where tourism is trying to make a difference and not just a buck.

Day 284

We were up early and had arranged a taxi from the night before to take us to the post office for the bus to Kabale.  I was pleasantly surprised to find our driver waiting for us in the early morning light as we walked out to the taxi and loaded our packs in.  The air was refreshing cool as we drove into the city centre.  Kampala was just beginning to awake at 7am as people rushed off to work just as we were deposited at the post office to wait for our bus.  Without assigned seats we were told to arrive early to be sure of a seat for the journey, although when the bus pulled up it was just over half full so we had no problem getting seats for both of us.  We were off, finally leaving Kampala to the countryside of Uganda.

It took just over an hour to get clear of the snarled traffic of Kampala before we reached the lush green countryside.  We passed banana plantations, rice fields and small villages, the landscape in Uganda is beautiful, a nice change from the brown of Kenya and Tanzania.  It reminded me of Southeast Asia.  The post bus was pretty decent.  Sure I think it stopped every 2km to pickup someone and of course in every town to deliver or pickup mail, but it wasn’t packed and it slowly but surely was getting us to Kabale.  We met David, a young Ugandan aboard the bus.  Actually he sort of just moved around and sat next to us, I think he just wanted to chat with the foreign tourists aboard.  He said he was studying at the University in Kabale.  His English wasn’t the best, which is odd because most people speak great English here.  He was an odd character to say the least.  “Speed humps, up there, hold on.  It’s cold in Kabale, is it this cold in Canada?”  He repeated those words more than a few times, which we found amusing.  Fr one, it’s was not cold in Kabale, maybe cool but not cold and nowhere near as cold as Canada.  David couldn’t really understand what minus 10 Celsius would feel like.  His idea of cold was 10 Celsius. He was an odd guy but harmless and was just curious about where we came from and what we thought of Uganda.  Of course the one thing he did know about Canada was wheat, I kid you not once again we are known for our wheat production.

We arrived in Kabale about 9 hours after leaving Kampala and the weather was definitely cooler as David had promised.  Kabale sits at 1869 meters above sea level so even though we are just below the equator the temperature is quite cool and the dampness in the air made it feel cooler than it was.  We were dropped off at the Kabale post office and were looking for the House of Edirisa, an interesting museum/hostel we had read about.  We walked down the muddy main street and soon found the funky white and black front of Edirisa.  It stood as quite a contrast to the surrounding tin roofs and concrete buildings.  We were welcomed at the entrance by the friendly manager of Edirisa and shown around the place.

House of Edirisa is the sort of place that you hope you would find in more places in the developing world.  They are using tourism to benefit the local community and making local culture accessible to tourists.  One of the main reasons we travel is to discover different ways of life in far off lands, maybe nowhere is that way of life as misunderstood as Africa.  Edirisa was started as a museum by Festo Karwemera a local village elder of the Bakiga Tribe.  Around that cultural museum a hostel and restaurant were added and Edirisa has grown to become involved in several community projects.  Staying in a museum sounded like a pretty cool idea so we were sold on the idea and it was really the only reason to stop in Kabale.  After being shown to our room that was decorated with local tapestries we went out to explore the town.  Across the road was the Hot Loaf Bakery that was recommended and we went in for some decent but cold samosas, still nowhere near as good as Brampton.  From there we just walked down the busy main street and bought some water and a sim card for out mobile.  Kabale isn’t much to look at but the surrounding green hills with the low cloud were a welcome sight after the smog and noise of Kampala.  What wasn’t a welcome sight was when I tried to leap over a puddle to what looked like solid ground.  I leapt and landed into ankle deep mud, actually judging from the amount of cattle walking the main street this was probably a mixture of mud and cow shit.  My sandal was filthy, mud caked my leg to above my ankle and it absolutely stunk, that horrible mud smell.

We went back to the hostel, I washed my foot and sandal in the shower, although I made a huge mess of the shared shower and the water wouldn’t go down.  I was having a great afternoon.  Besides the mud I was having a great afternoon.  We both loved the idea of Edirisa, not only was our money going to a good cause but we were learning something about the local culture as well.  Edirisa is more than just a hostel and museum though and they are involved in several local programs, I suggest checking out their website to learn more about them.  Kabale it self is a relaxed town and Uganda is quickly proving to be our favourite African country to date.  We enjoyed a tasty dinner at the Edirisa restaurant before turning in for the night.  It’s great to see a place such as this in Africa, run by local people who are doing a good job at it and are passionate about their work.  A success story in the tourism industry in a place where tourism usually benefits a select few.

Day 283 Finally our last day in Kampala, I mean it has to be.  We’ve been here too long and really we’ve seen just about everything we have wanted to.  It’s been a good stay and both of us have enjoyed ... [Continue reading this entry]

Day 282 Rafting tired us out; we slept in our small double room till 10am before we made our way into the Red Chilli’s restaurant for breakfast.  The coffee here is fantastic.  It’s Ugandan grown and comes in a big French ... [Continue reading this entry]