week. I had a nice time visiting Uganda. It is a lovely country -
people are very hospitable, beautiful landscapes, and the logistics
are easy enough. I stayed three days at a guesthouse near Fort
Portal, which is a place where you should think about retiring. The
house was surrounded by well-kept tea fields stretch over the rolling
green landscape, which have a backdrop of the towering Rwenzori
Mountains. The panorama from the guesthouse also included a nice view
of the hard-edged forests of Kibale National Park, which is Uganda's
primary park (and most expensive!) for chimpanzee-tracking.
Tea and other agricultural fields are interrupted by over 30 crater
lakes, which result from volcanic activity which ceased only 10,000
years ago...another of the Albertine Rift's unique landforms. I spent
an afternoon with a guided mountain bike tour which passed 6 crater
lakes, which was just spectacular, fun, and tiring!
Its elevation of 5000+ feet keep days mild and nights cool. Western
Uganda is a birdlover's dream. From the guesthouse, I saw so many
birds that I made the decision to just leave my bird book alone,
because I had never seen any of them before and had no idea where to
start looking. They were mostly stunning...
After leaving the guesthouse, I found my friend Pat, who works for
World Harvest in Bundibugyo on the far-side of the Rwenzori mountains
near to Congo. I decided to find this solitary crater lake that I
grew to love when I was intern with World Harvest in 2005. My friend
Michael had taken all the interns there for swimming, boating, and
camping. At that time, a British man had purchased the property with
the dream to build a luxury lodge - Lake Kyaninga Lodge - so I
checked his progress. This crater lake is still the most stunning I've
seen. The large hills that hide this lake can be seen from several
kilometers away, and when you reach their crest, the lake seems like
it must be 200 meters straight down below. Also the progress is good!
The lodge is nearly ready, and when it is...I doubt I'll be able to
afford the view. Now, nine bandas sit atop the crest above the lake,
with the the highest part occupied by a main lodge, which will have
many nice sitting areas, and a swimming pool perched basically in this
cliff. It will be too nice when it is finished.
Pat took me back to Bundibugyo, where I had spent 5 months in 2005.
The view descending from Fort Portal and driving switchbacks in the
slopes of the Rwenzori is lovely. The Semuliki Valley spreads out in
the distance beyond the hills, and the snaking Semuliki River marks
the border with Congo. I have so many good memories from
Bundibugyo...where I lived in a special Christian community, the likes
of which are difficult to replicate! Other than the Americans on the
World Harvest team, I had no idea who I'd find or remember or who
would remember me. Most of the team is new from when I was there, so
I enjoyed meeting the new folks. I was pleased to find a few teachers
at Christ School who I had enjoyed time with before, and meeting
others who were new. It was nice to attend team pizza night, to hike
out past hot springs to the Semuliki River in the Semuliki National
Park with young WHMers Nathan, Sarah, and Anna, and to share TACOS
afterwards, thanks to the Myhres! It was also nice to attend a very
long church service with a melange of local language Lubwisi and
English, including Lubwisi hymns and raps.
After visiting for 4 days, it was time to dive back into work and
trying to speak French again. I crossed the border only 10km from
where my friends stay to get back to the big town Beni about 100km
away. This route is not frequented by muzungus (European origins /
white people), and road traffic is very rare...mainly just local foot
traffic. It was basically no man's land for a while for two reasons -
1) the ADF rebels who attacked Bundibugyo in the late 90s fled there,
and rumors continue about them still being there... and 2) before
2005-06, a few villages right over the border in Congo were not
connected to the rest of Congo, but by a "decroded" route/bikepath, in
fact they still use Ugandan Shilling currency. The road was recently
improved and now its possible to travel from Bundibugyo to Beni. I
was greeted by very thorough but civil bag searches in both Uganda and
Congo's immigration offices. The Congolese immigration officers
helped me find a hotel/restaurant in the little border town in case no
taxis came that day. Luckily, they even found me a shared taxi that
would traverse the northern sector of Virunga National Park and arrive
in Beni in 3 quick hours.
Lots more happened, but this post is long enough! More backed updates soon!
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