Lake Bunyonyi

I woke up the first morning to a beautiful rainbow outside our door. I think that this is the first time I had seen a rainbow in Uganda, something about when it rains, angle of the sun etc.

Bushara Island Camp is an eco-friendly tented camp that also trains hotel staff, 80% of the profits go into local community development programs. Eco-Friendly means they try to have as small as possible impact on the environment. So their toilets are composting toilets where you make your “deposit” then put down two scoops of ash.

There is no running water so you just tell the staff when you want a shower and they bring out water and fill the can. It is really about the same as the showers at home except you have to turn the water off while you are soaping up because you really didn’t want to run out of water with shampoo in your hair!

We spent the day relaxing, reading, playing cards and walking around the island. There was a beautiful trail all around the perimeter of the island.

On Easter Sunday we had a nice Easter breakfast and then left the island to head to Lake Mburu which is closer to Kampala. Unfortunately our car broke down an hour into our trip. The car was overheating so we stopped at a gas station where we found a mechanic and some of his friends to take a look.

It became apparent that they weren’t going to be able to get it fixed that day so now we had to figure out how to get the six of us either to the hotel we planned to stay at or even to Kampala. About that time a white couple pulled into the gas station so Jackie went out to ask if they could help us out. It turned out the lady was my hairdresser Sunel, she was coming from the same place where we left and was going where we were going! Unfortunately their car was too small for all of us so after some haggling we hired a car, somehow managed to pack all our stuff into the two cars and drove the 60 km to another tented camp.

Sunel had some friends at the camp who agreed to help us get back to kampala the next day. Unfortunately we couldn't all fit in the two cars so Jackie, Laura and I decided to go on public. So we hitched a ride with the hotel staff to the main road and waited for a bus or taxi to come by. Well, it was easter monday and everyone was heading back to town from their weekend so everything was full. I was starting to get a little concerned until I saw this white car in the distance. As it came closer I noticed that there were two white faces. I was like - I don't care if there are strangers I'm going to flag them down! As they drew closer I noticed that in fact I new them, Doug and Jacqueline a couple from our church in Kampala. I was jumping up and down - so excited to see them and the fact they had an empty back seat.

They gave us a lift to Masaka where we dropped Jackie and Laura but I decided to continue on with them to Kampala. They dropped me near the YFC offices where I cought a boda-boda and picked up my car and was home by 5:30.

Kristine, Coroline and Sally were not so lucky. They went on a game drive which was nice and was able to hook up with their car in Masaka but they ran into trouble again in Kampala. They ended up getting TWO flat tires! Luckily there was a guy at a gas station able to fix the spare tire. But they didn't get home till past 10pm.