Sunday, June 27, 2010

Day 10: Fort Portal - First Free Day

It's Sunday and we have the entire day off.  We are all excited, deservedly so.  Some stay at the guesthouse to relax and catch up on reading/journaling, while a majority of us steal William and head to the crater lakes.  The majority of us being myself, Jessica, Hanni, Sheila, and Abdirisack.  William takes us into Kibale National Park and we decide to hike to the waterfall near the Amabere Caves.  

The lakes we passed on the way were beautiful and the terrain amazing!


Jessica, Sheila & Abdirisack





Our driver, and loyal guardian, William in the middle  :)

After getting our fill of the crater lakes, we place our lunch orders at a nearby shop and head for the waterfall.



We pay for the tour/walk guide reluctantly, then soon realize that there is no way we would have found the waterfall on our own.

Off to the falls!




Getting close now...




Both Hanni & Abdi climbed the falls.  The rest of us chose to stay at the bottom due to the very slippery rocks.  Hanni had the misfortune of "sliding" back down and continuing the day looking like this from behind:

Much to the amusement of everyone else

We hiked back up the huge hills to the van and dropped our guide back off at her home.  We continued on to our lunch stop.



Finally, our orders are up.  Most of us had chapati and guacamole, which was delicious.  Though the serving size was huge!  I'm not used to eating a guacamole portion that's larger than the area of my face.


After sending the bill back 4 times, it was finally correct and we were ready to move on.  William escorted us to a nice resort in the area owned by a British couple - the name of which is escaping me at the moment.  (If anyone knows this resort, please leave a comment with the name!) 

The place is very high end and a welcome respite.
The owner is shown above in the red shirt

I don't know who this couple is but it made for a nice photo




Great views!


Jessica, Hanni & I enjoyed a refreshing glass of white wine inside at their bar.


Unbeknownst to us, Sheila, Abdirisack, and William were waiting for us in the van outside - while we spent 15-20 minutes enjoying ourselves, drinking leisurely, and chatting with the owner.  We even looked at his wedding photos.


However, we were having a grand time and we all had a laugh about it once we got to the van.  Abdi had fallen asleep and Sheila seemed to be as amused as we were.  We really had no idea.

We finally pushed off and wound our way back down to the Ruwenzori View Guesthouse, home sweet home.

After freshening up - Africa does require multiple washings per day - we lounged for a bit and allowed our bodies to recharge.  

Later in the afternoon, Ellen, Bradford, and Ineke decided to head into town to watch the Netherlands (Ineke's homeland) play in the World Cup.  Hanni, Abdi and I decided to tag along.  Ineke sat a few rows behind us and added amusing commentary.  Her voice carried above the rest of the bar, "Yellow card!!!"  "Theater, Theater."  I was cracking up.  

During halftime Ellen took Hanni and myself over to Richard Toro's office to introduce us and have a chat.  He is the owner of Kabarole Tours, the van company we were using and Williams boss.  

We made sure to tell him what a great job he was doing.

Richard is a great guy and I'm glad we had the opportunity to meet him.  We headed back to the bar after our conversation and continued watching the game.  The Netherlands won and thus everyone returned to the guesthouse in high spirits.

Dinner was a lighter affair tonight, meaning it was one course instead of many.  Though they still delivered quite the spread.  Ah yes, I could get used to it here.

We went to bed at a reasonable hour tonight as Jessica, Hanni and I would have to wake up extra early the following morning.  The 3 of us were going on a chimpanzee trek and couldn't be more ecstatic!


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