Uganda - Ssese Islands

beer on the beach

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After much deliberation over what to do with our last week in Uganda; do we go to Murchison Falls for a Safari? Do we hire quad bikes in Jinja? We opted to take a ferry across Lake Victoria from Entebbe and head for the Ssese Islands for some rest and relaxation. After a smooth and on-time crossing (3 hours) we docked at the main island of Buggata and knew immediately that we had made the right decision, a secluded white beach with nobody in sight. We decided to stay at a rough and ready campsite called the Hornbill and took our chilled Bell beers and watched the sun go down.

The following morning I lazed in a hammock as Becs washed the clothes…life doesn’t get much better than this and I really did milk the moment before Becs morphed back into Emmeline Pankhurst mode.

Whilst I lazed in the hammock the serenity was broken by furious squawking as twelve chicken tore through the campsite weaving in and out of obstacles as they chased the rooster who had a large piece of bread. I then lost them for a moment behind a bush on the beach before they tore back through the campsite but with a new leader furiously running with the ever-decreasing piece of pastry dangling from its beak. The chicken habituation experience was ended abruptly when one of the gay dogs pounced on the chicken……………….and took the pastry. I was relieved not to be charged $50 for the experience.

Becs taking a well earned rest after her domestic chores

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The camp is owned by Luke (a Dutch ex truck driver) and it was fascinating listening to his opinions of how some donor countries are raping Africa of its natural resources. He also has two healthy castrated dogs that spend most of the time grooming each other as their love for one another has grown over the last few years.

We stayed at the Hornbill for two nights and even ventured into the main village of Kalangala for some lunch before walking along the picture perfect shoreline and enjoying a dip in the Lake. It was at this point that Becs admitted to me that she had been carrying a whistle for the ferry crossing in case we had to attract attention whilst it sank. I realised that all-in-all it had been quite a stressful time for Becs as before boarding the ferry we had had to take a boda-boda (motorbike) to the fishing port and she was forced to squeeze her eyes shut and cling for dear life to Fred and chat incessantly in his ear as we weaved through the traffic at 10mph.

this is a chicken

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We might have stayed for a further night but we discovered a hornets nest in our Banda (that was on top of having a load of shit all over the top of the mozzie net!) and at 7:30am said our goodbyes as the beasts began to unfurl their wings and detach themselves from the cocoon in an Alien-esque way (I can categorically state that Larium had had no effect on my imagination).