Sarah and Wil returned by bus from Gisenyi on the Wednesday of Holy Week in time to have an enjoyable evening with Katy, they're talking of climbing Kilimanjaro next year and Katy's husband has a lodge there.
As you'd expect the next few days were mainly involved with church, also dealing with a flooded house. The rains here have been dreadful with over 200 killed. Our roof leaked quite badly so I'm glad I'm out of there now.
I did have some Easter things to put in the house so it looked quite joyful.
Sarah cooked a delicious roast chicken dinner, it was so very good! And enough succulent meat for sandwiches the next day when we headed for QE Park in Uganda with Peter Safari.
So another early start in the dark, I wondered where we were going as on the way out of Kigali I couldn't recognize anything! Turned out instead of driving to Musanze and crossing the border north of there, we took a more direct road north and crossed at Gatuna. Interesting to see the tea bushes run by local co-operatives, sadly looking rather poor compared to the big tea plantations. We drove by the largest company's plantations which stretch for miles, and they use electric sheers to cut the leaves...I'll stick with Sorwathe who pick the best leaves from each bush.
We arrived in good time at Bush Lodge, a staff turnover since I was last there, really helpful and friendly staff who showed us a hippo who'd taken up residence at the lodge.
He was fast asleep thankfully! Apparently he was the dominant male in the local pod, but
now injured and has been turfed out.
One of the staff took us for a wander to a hippo pool, lots of hippos enjoying themselves
Frankolin eggs, quite large for a small bird. Laid in open sandy rocky ground for camouflage.
So we settled into our tents then enjoyed some wine and crispy snacks on my verandah before dinner and watched the sunset.
It was raining intermittently so dinner inside the dining tent, then to bed with wildlife noises during the night....hyena, bush pig, hippos, lion,cape buffalo.
An antelope skeleton I think
Locals carry very wide things on bikes
After the early morning exertions we were taken to a village for some tat shopping, African tea and rolex...these are chapattis with an omelette containing onion, tomato and pepper in. Omelette rolled inside chapatti. Wil and I asked for one, Sarah stoutly declaring she didn't want one! A third was brought, she was still saying she didn't want one.... but scoffed it faster than the speed of light!
Rolex maker
After dropping Iris back at the office we drove down to the start of the channel at Lake Edward, parked up and went to talk with the fishermen. Hundreds of birds gathered along the shore snacking on the guts etc from the overnight catch.
Then back to Bush Lodge, a packed lunch and a quiet time before collecting Iris once again and heading back to the plains. Iris was looking unsuccessfully for leopard, so we gave up and looked for lions.....plenty! And we happened on a hunt between 5 lions and some buffalo. It looked as though the lions turfed the buffalo out of a wallow, but the buffalo turned on the lions and chased them, then the lions stopped and faced off the buffalo. They all looked at each other for several minutes before calling it a day for the time being. We watched them for ages.
Back to Bush Lodge encountering a number of elephants on the way.
We retired to the tents for the night, I was conscious of a chomping sound right at my tent, being alone I didn't venture forth, but when the chomping moved to the Wilcox tent Sarah and Wil went outside and found the hippo munching away. He was so busy grazing that he paid no attention to them even when they took pics and the flash went off
The following morning we had a more leisurely start.
A drive to the Equator , naturally.
Then to a place where the Queen and Prince Philip toured some years ago, it was tipping it down which was a pity as we couldn't see the craters too well on this crater drive, but saw lots of eles in the distance.
Lunch at nice resort then boat trip down the channel. Thankfully weather ok now, in fact hot and sunny.
The boat kept going in close to pod of hippos and we felt distressed them. This mum and baby took to the shore. We weren't happy about the tactic. Of course a number of tourists were cheering etc.
There were a lot of crocs on the bank, mouths open to cool themselves. We also say several monitor lizards.
Fishing boats ready to sail in the evening. Brown Ibis....noisy birds
Open Beaked Stork, yes that's it's name
At last dinner outside, very pleasant evening. The channel in the background. It's natural not a man made canal.
Next day it was back to Kigali, and on Friday some final tat shopping for Sarah and Wil at Abraham Konga, one of my favourite shops.
Saturday was the first day of Kibuka, the memorial period for the Genocide against Tutsis. We went south to a fish farm and delicious tilapia lunch. It's a very interesting place to visit, learning how they harvest the eggs, fertilize and grown them on.
Sunday church as per usual, then after coffee at the Marriott to show Sarah and Wil the house I'm moving to.
Sarah and Wil left late the next evening. So back to normal!
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