R&R in the lake region

I don't know what it is, but in true Ryan fashion, I gave up writing in my journal after a major hike...this is now the 3rd time in a row that this has happened and I just realized this trend.  Thanks to my lovely wife (I knew I married you for a reason) I'll at least have another source other then my memory (annnnd maybe google)to go by...

After our extremely challenging hike into the Virungas we were more then ready for some relaxation at one of Southern Uganda's most popular lake, Lake Bunyoni. I had drank a ton of water and re-hydration salts in order to restore the fluids in my body after such an arduous trek. I also made sure to stretch before bed which might have been why I wasn't AS sore as Marlene.  The drive to Bunyoni was about 3 hours of winding terraced hillsides, once at the lake we could see why its been dubbed "the Switzerland of Africa".  As per Marlene its very beautiful but boring...and I suppose compared to all of our other experiences thus far, yes it is boring, but both needed and deserved.  We were staying at a western type resort (not wild west but western world) which had a combination of resort syle cabins and also options for tenting.  This was a very busy place especially since there were two buses full of Swedish tourists on an overland adventure.  When we arrived they seemed to have a monopoly on the best sunning areas (on the dock) but Marlene and I wormed our way in there when they weren't looking :)  We spent many hours on the dock and on the grass sunning and reading.  Marlene spent lots of time on the internet, I don't know if its because she missed the world back in Canada that much or if she was really that bored.  Either way it was very relaxing and a great place to recover. There were several tours that were available including a boat ride of the surrounding area, a canoe ride in a local canoe and also hiking tours, but we weren't really interested in the hiking at this point.  For today we were happy just laying around catching some sun.

View of our Resort on Bunyoni

One of the major drawbacks about this place is that a) the service is VERY slow and lacking and b) the food options are very limited.  Much like a few other places we've been to in Uganda so far, this resort had a HUGE menu with tons and tons of items...unfortunately they just seemed to be there for show and they didn't really have much aside from very simple things like pizza and pasta.  At one point all we wanted was a sandwich and were told they were "out of bread"!!! How can a resort hosting close to 100 people be out of bread completely?? No idea, I guess this is what Anne's friends meant by "Ugandan's are switched off for the most part".  At one point we had to find our driver Vincent and ask him to drive us into town to find somewhere to eat cause apparently somebody forgot to go shopping!  I don't know how this is possible and we were both very disappointed with this resort, the most troubling thing for these business owners is that we are not particularly demanding customers, but boy did they hear an earful from us! 

Marlene and the terraced hills of lake Bunyoni



The one tree of Punishment Island

The next day we engaged in a couple more activities (other then dock sitting!) and decided to go on a boat ride to see the lake.  This turned out to be something to help pass the time as there is really nothing too fantastic going on.  The view is spectacular and watching the locals come in via traditional canoe was interesting but the only landmark of any significance is one that most places would not want to known for.  Its a little place called "punishment island".  The idea was simple, the local people used to leave un-married pregnant women on the island to either die of hunger or to drown while trying to swim back to shore.  Although the island is not particularly far from the mainland in those days (and still to this day) it was rare for the locals to know how to swim.  The only other way they could survice was if an un-married felt he would not meet another woman, he would paddle out to the island in the middle of the night and snag himself a bride. Although this practice has been abandoned, apparently, it is still possible to find women who were picked up from punishment island today.  The island we were shown to be punishment island didn't seem like much more then a bunch of reeds clumped together, as in, it didn't seem like there was much solid land to stand on.



The boat ride didn't last too long, though it did last longer then our market visit that followed. The coolest thing about the market, by far, was watching all the locals bring in their goods by canoe.  Apparently a lot of these people spend all day paddling themselves to the market place in order to sell their goods.  This happens once a week.



The View of Lake Bunyoni from our Resort

Later that evening we decided to take a little paddle in a traditional canoe.  The plan was to paddle out of our little bay to watch the sun set.  Although we are both very adept at paddling regular canoes, unfortunately our experiences in the Canadian wild was little help paddling these hollowed out logs. These "canoes" were exactly that, a very large hollowed out tree, with no shape, making it nearly impossible to steer let alone balance!  There were quite a few near tips and I began to feel as though I couldn't even put my paddle in the water without risking an unwanted swim at dusk!  To make matters worse there were several people who had taken making entertainment out of watching people like us attempt to maoever their way out of the bay. We did finally get the hang of it (sort of) and managed to see a beautiful sunset in the process.

Although we enjoyed the rest and relaxation this lake provided we were also very excited to get moving the next morning...after all, we were going to see one of the most endangered species on the planet!

traditional canoe on lake Bunyoni