Bits of my holidays .. Boda ride Kabale to Kisoro

Rather than trying to write out everything I did whilst travelling I thought I might write out little bits of my diary, as it all seems quite a long ago now and it won't be so fresh if I try to write about it now.

But, here's the schedule, so you can see where the little bits of diary are coming from...

14th, set off from London
15th, landed in Kampala, stayed for 2 nights in my big fancy house
17th, post bus to Kabale
18th- 21st Lake Bunyonyi for 3 nights
21st-23rd, Kabale, tried to leave on the 22nd, but had to go back as our motorbike broke
23rd, Lake Mutanda
24th, Kisoro
25th, Kabale again
26th, set off EARLY for the Ssese Islands
26th-30th, Hornbill campsite on Bugale Island
30th-2nd, Kampala
2nd, traveled to Kiwangala, my new home!

.. The next morning in Kabale we all got up to find motorbikes to ride to Kisoro. It took A LOT longer than we had anticipated. My first real taste of Afrcian time! But it did mean I got the chance to learn how to ride a bike, which was fab. It didn't help that Sam was set on getting a dirt bike, we waited for a loong time for a guy to come with a bike. Turned out the bike needed some maintenance  so followed a couple of trips to different garages. One of which trips resulted in my jacket ending up entwined in the chain of the bike. he arrived back, holding my jacket, covered in motor oil, with a line of holes down the back in the perfect pattern of the chain. A man called Vian, who made Sam and I pairs of trousers (I will post a picture) hapenned to be there, he said he knew someone who could clean it for me, so I left it with him. Finally, 3pm (5 hours later than anticipated) we set off on our dirt bike, Stuart on his, with John on the back, Calum on his boda bike and Al and Kelty (a Canadian couple we met at Bunyonyi) on another boda. We were a real Muzungu convoy! Really beautiful road.. we made it  30km, (out of 70) before our bike spluttered and cut out, I realised when we stopped that the burn I had got from a boda exhaust the other day had stuck to my legging, by which time, we'd gathered an eager crowd of children, who gathered round me to watch the Muzugu apply a dressing, with my first aid kit open, they were enthralled  it was really quite funny! By the end, the brave ones were literally peering over my shoulder! Al then rolled our bike down to the next village which was conveniently positioned at the bottom of the hill, where we gathered another crowd. The drunk chairman tried to join our convoy, asking for a ride to Kisoro, very persistently. Sam and I waited at the health centre for the boda owner to turn up to collect his broken bike. A man called Herbert stood and chatted to us, whilst it gradually went dark. Eventually he showed up, on the back of another boda! By which time we'd had enough of the bike, so handed over the keys, and managed to hitch a lift back to Kabale in a 4x4, a posh one. Not quite sure how the boda man managed to make it back with his broken bike. The next morning we were up at 7am, hopped on a bike and were off again, take 2. It was a cold morning, the wind on the bike was bitter, but we were happy to be off on a good bike! Everything was even more beautiful with the morning sun shining on it. Mist still in the valley. We stopped to say hi to Herbert on our way through his village. BEAUTIFUL ride. Over a mountain, we passed through the edge of a national park, and made it Kisoro by 11, as everyone was getting up. There are huge volcanoes that tower over the town here, the tallest is Volcan Muhavara which is 4127m, and well into the clouds.

That turned out to be a lot longer than I was expecting... Sorry if I'm going into too much detail! I have so much to write about, but I feel like I have to do everything I write about justice. I'll write again before I leave this place with internet!
Love to everyone