2nd February - To Lake Mburo

The event in the hotel last night went on to 11.45pm and was very loud with a thumping bass which made sleep impossible.  Chris complained to the management and in the end, they gave us a bottle of wine on the house.

Horrendous quarry

We left the lodge in pouring rain so decided not to pursue the scenic viewpoint.  Instead we traced our route from the day before and passed the numerous quarrying and stone bashing areas before town.  It looks a horrendous job - men just manually pickaxing rocks loose from the hillside or digging up sand from the side of the road washed down by the rains and the women and kids of all ages just bashing big bits of rock into smaller pieces.

Plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables for sale everywhere

We needed some more fuel at some stage so we pulled over into a garage.  There was a commotion going on on the other side of the road and a white car was surrounded by a huge crowd which was getting bigger all the time.  Shindishi told us that some thieves had stolen some chickens and were in the car with their booty.  The owner had caught up with them and basically, the crowd were literally baying for blood and wanted to kill them there and then.  However, the local mayor had turned up and was attempting to get the guys arrested by the police.  This is never popular as the criminals will just bribe the police and get away scot free.  Shindishi told us that thieves are hated and are often killed if they are caught - often by stoning.  He told us that he’d once seen the body of a thief who had been caught in a store one night and been stoned to death being burned by the side of the road.  We were shocked and asked about Christian forgiveness, but Shindishi shrugged and said that is life.

A brick factory

We drove through Mbarara, a large town in the south east corner of the country where the President and his wife come from. It was very obviously wealthier than anywhere else we’ve visited where the grinding poverty everywhere is inescapable.  There were lots of cars and new ones at that.  We saw a huge rose producing area, a large dairy and a humongous hotel all owned by the President’s wife although her name doesn’t appear on any of the paperwork.  However, she gets all the income and pays no tax on it all.  Having done some research on Uganda, I read that it’s the 14th poorest country in the world and also one of the most corrupt and I can see why.  It’s disgraceful that so few have so much and obviously don’t care about the masses.

Bananas on route to market

We eventually arrived at Lake Mburo NP, which is the 2nd smallest NP in Uganda.  We’ve been told it’s somewhere between 260 - 370km squared.  It used to be a lot bigger, but the President gave his tribe grazing rights to a lot of it, so inevitably, it’s shrunk.  This has impacted the wildlife too as there used to be lions here, but now there’s just one old male as the others have been culled as a result of man’s encroachment into the lions’ territory with his cattle.

This park is special as it’s the only place zebra and impala can be found in Uganda.  There are also some giraffe imported in from Murchison Falls NP to help control the Acacia, water buck, elands, lots of wart hogs and some leopard. 

Vervet monkey at the entrance to the NP

We’ve just arrived at Mantana tented camp which is up a hill overlooking the lake, so there’s a nice breeze.  This time we really are in tents with a big deck at the front.  We have a dressing area and shower, loo and wash basin behind the bedroom area.  There is only running water to the loo, but there are flasks of cold and hot water for the washbasin and we can order hot water for the shower at any time.  It’s actually lovely to end our trip at a more basic camp out in a NP away from it all.  No fear of a loud disco going on here tonight!

Boomslang snake hunting for gecko

We went out for an afternoon game drive.  We visited the lake first, which didn’t look very interesting so decided not to do the optional boat trip tomorrow.  On the way there, we had to stop at a ranger’s post check point.  Chris spotted a snake literally hanging along the top of an open window.  We went for a closer look and realised it was another boomslang hunting for geckos.  It was quite a bit bigger that the other one we’ve seen - we thought maybe 80cms but very slim, beautiful green/black colour and it has a huge eyes.

We saw all sorts on the drive - zebra, impala, topi, water buck, giraffe, a couple of shy bush bucks, warthogs by the dozen and some hippos in a pool.  The skies started turning an ominous black and the temperatures dropped and before long it started to rain.  We closed the top of the car and peered out of our side windows.  Eventually, the rain stopped and the top was opened up again, but it was cold and I regretted not bringing my fleece.  We also saw some brown parrots, a broad billed roller and some dwarf mongoose - all new to us.

Baby zebra

We got back just after 7pm so retired to the fire in the bar for some drinks.  We’d been there about 30 minutes or so when a German couple appeared and she stood glaring at us with her hands on her hips as obviously, they were expecting to sit by the fire and we’d nabbed their spot.  They went for their dinner and we were about 30 minutes behind them so they shot off to the fire after they’d finished eating, even though we’d been a bit Germanic and left some games and torches there to mark our spot!! 

We ended up playing rummy at our dinner table which worked out fine whilst the Germans basked in front of the fire.  Grrr.