THE ADVENTURE EXPERIRIENCE, BEST OF UGANDA (Day 2)

Briefing, excitement, laughter were some of the few verbs explaining the trip as we proceeded down to the southern part of Uganda. I decided to use the northern bypass to connect to the highway  to beat up morning rush hour traffic to masaka that would lead us to lake mburo national park about 250 kms, but this turned out interesting than i thought for Simone and Gadi. The fresh beef meat displayed on the roadside was stunner for them, they never see this in isreal so i went ahead to explain, in Uganda, if you need to sell your product you need show it to the clients/public, Ugandans prefer buying what they see with their own eyes. “we prefer this fresh beef than the freezed beef sold in supermarkets” We proceeded down to the highway, we stopped at the small beautifull African stools made out of African traditional material, we stopped at the drum makers and had an idea how we Ugandans make our most amazing traditional sound producers, had an idea how we do it here in Uganda, the different animal skins used here to produce different sound including the Monitor lizard skin used to produce a sharp peach sound, not forgetting the cow skin. This was stunner for them as well, we called it discovery as they had an experiment from the drum maker, yeahh these guys expect something small from “muzungu”. And so we did give.

As we proceeded south, I kept briefing them on different things to expect on this trip, though i left out a lot for them to discover. I however asked them for this trip to be a success, we needed to be a team, after many name suggestetions for our team name, simone combined the three names, Gadi, Guma and simone to get one name, (which was in Hebrew and hard to pronounce), I hope she reads this and reminds me of the team name, it was fun as we mammerd about it. It was not long enough as we reached the equator. We stopped here so I could explain what happens at this place, as it is marked here “DID YOU KNOW?” there are three funnels that foreshow here and you may need to pop out $4 about 10,000 ugx for the experiment. Due to the different wind directions of the northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere. At the middle line of the equator, wen you pour water in the funnel and leave it flow out, it flows out with just gravity, there is no direction of water rotating out, and when you pour the same water in the funnel 5m left from the equator line, the water flows out rotating in an anti-clockwise direction and when you pour the water in the funnel 5m right the equator line, the water here flows out rotating in a clockwise direction. This one of the experiment showing the equator and the difference between the northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere. After the experiment you are awarded a certificate that you crossed the Ugandan equator. At this same place, are  beautifull craft shops to buy or do window shopping.

We proceed down through masaka  town had a brief stopover for lunch and then later proceeded south reaching to lake mburo national park clocking 3pm in the afternoon. Lake mburo is the smallest national park in Uganda but also one of the most interesting parks that it habours wildlife that may not be found anywhere else in Ugandan parks, it is always refered to as the “Home For the zebras and home for the eland the biggest in the Antelop Family”. So many activities can be done in this park among these include, game drives, nature walks, Horse ridding, boat cruises, biking. It is the only park in Uganda that you can do horse ridding and do biking for the bike lovers and get so close to the animals, these zebras come next to your horse to identify the new species in their locality, here you sit back silent and watch, for you the photography lovers, trust me you gat a deal for your self. This day we decide to do an evening game drive before we head to the lodge. We do a game drive that takes us to the shores of the lake mburo, it is cool here, the breeze, the hippos loaming around, the beautifull bird species here including the Pied Kingfisher diving for the small fish in the lake. We relaxed enjoying every scenery at this lake till it was time for us to go and check in at the lodge. Impalas, zebras, hippos, kobs, bushbucks, warthogs, losser buffalos, topis, water bucks.. so many to mention all we saw in this part of the park, and when I say many, I mean so so many wildlife in their natural habitants, As I got to my job narrating every detail about each animal we saw, the life span, gestation, behaviours and getting down to their questions, I only heard the words from simone, “ezi yoffiii, ezi yoffiii, uaii uaii”.. trust me I had no idea what that meant but I knew it was good word spoken in amazement.

Trust me this park has a great deal to offer for the wildlife lovers. We could not have enough of this lake though we did not do any boat cruise here, it was worth a stay at this place. As we headed back to the lodge, it was obvious for us to drive at 10km/hr due to many animals bumping into the pathways unkwowingly.  The max speed speed in Ugandan national parks is 40km/hr but with the overwhelming wild animals, you get yourself driving at less than 20km/hr. getting to the lodge, a wilderness lodge build at the topmost hills on the outscarts of the park, Eagles Nest lodge has a sence of touch to offer, it is an eco friendly lodge that offers more than what you expect, superb food and service. Our rooms were the luxury tents. Getting to this lodge is not easy with saloon cars, its rilly a steep slope that requires a 4*4WD, and with all the fleet at Auto Rental Uganda even with the Rav4 s on self drive, count that a walk over. “To be sincere the only problem with this lodge is the toilet system”, simone said. Some of us are not confortable with this kind of waste disposal though it is understandable of being eco friendly. Yes the banana leaves, down to the basin then a porter scooping off the basin for disposal, Noo, its not rilly confortable, they said, however they loved every bit of service at this lodge Simone gave this lodge its own name, “the banana lodge”. We all laughed at this.

The dinner here was a 4 course meal, starter, soup with bread, main course and desert. Me as an African, im not good with food names and arrangements but “I believe that what goes in the stomach doesn’t kill, but what gets out is what kills”. Gadi  adds to my statement while we all in laughters that “also if no stopness”  meaning constipation, So knowing the names isn’t my thing. We almost forgot finishing our food because we were always caught in laughters all time. Either Gadi threw in a joke or I did and simone would supplement to the joke. Simone tasked me at the beginning of the trip when I had just picked them from the airport that my biggest task was to make sure she eats papaya/pawpaw because she loved it passionatly which task was a walk over and interesting when I did it as i abruptly stopped at every spotting a papaya on the highway markets. so I made sure I bought a papaya on our way to the park along the highway on the roadside markets. I had given the papaya to the lodge chef earlier and asked them to please slice it and make sure we have it later after the desert, so it was more of a 5 course meal than the supposed four course meal. And yess here in Africa/Uganda, we eat, we don’t leave food on the plates, we follow economics, No wastage of resources.

We headed out to our rooms and just in the middle of the night, different animal sounds would be heard. It was a day worth the adventure. It can as well be worth the adventure whether you are on self drive or guided car rental service.