Had actually planned a couple of weekends away for my last two weekends in Uganda, but I loved being around the community and with the people so much, so why go away? Instead I did some hikes around the area – great preparation for the Kilimanjaro climb which is now so terrifyingly close…
And the hikes are named with no humility whatsoever – two weekends ago it was Heaven (the only Heaven I will ever see!) and last weekend it was the Top of the World (which is so blatantly incorrect!) 😄
Picnic at Heaven was just a wonderful Sunday! Anna and I had taken over the kitchen in the morning to make a picnic which consisted of Guacamole (the avocados here are so tasty – and huge!), pasta salad and Chapattis. We started walked uphill, stopped briefly to ‘pick up’ Oscar & Demas and a few beers as well.
It is a very steep 1 hour climb, which we took slowly, thankfully…was tough going especially as the sun was baking hot but it was so unbelievably beautiful and when we reached the top, I totally understood the naming, the views were ace!
We had our picnic with the amazing views and onlooking cows – it was perfect!
The walk down was not as challenging as the way up, but some different muscles being used, so it’s all useful exercise…
But a greater challenge was to come last weekend… A long hike to the Top of the World and back… Almost 25km. This walk was less steep, but not at all ‘flat’ as Jeroen (the new Dutch volunteer) and I were told – because NOWHERE is flat in Uganda when you compare with both Denmark and Netherlands!
We set off together with one of the Bwindi Tourism Club guides, Kathleen (BTC is also one of Big Beyond’s community partners) and of course Oscar – he seemed to always be up for walk! And he is great company, and therefore also good motivation!
We spotted chameleon after chameleon – I say we…it was of course only the locals that spotted them…we also saw a poisonous lizard and caught a glimpse of a couple of baboons at the edge of the forest.
It was overcast, so a more manageable walk weather wise, but it also meant that it was inevitable that the rain would arrive at some point. We were only 15-20 mins away when the heavens opened, but we sought shelter and had our lunch as we waited for the rain to stop… the rain did however mean that the spectacular views we could have had at the top were covered by a huge fog. At one point we were struggling to see each other even though we were just a few meters apart. But suddenly the fog parted to just show us a bit of the forest for a few minutes… Stunning!
On the walk home we had a Coke Zero break (now that was heaven!) for another rain shower, and then a fast fast walk back to get to the pub for 6pm and a well deserved beer for us all.
I came away with two blisters (both healed now thankfully) and sore legs for the Monday, but was a great day!
In spite of this practice, I am still quite scared about starting the climb on Tuesday…will be trying to keep my phone powered for the six days (thanks to the solar panel charger presents I received – thanks guys!), so please do get in touch and encourage me – some funny stories should cheer me up at low moments.
BETINA IN AFRICA 