Riyad and Sarah's Travels

Lake Bunyonyi, on the way from Kabale National Park to Rwanda, was was the logical stopping point on our journey through East Africa. Its waters were warm and safe for swimming, being free of hippos, crocodiles, and bilharzia – a waterborne illness found in other lakes in the region. After having traveled at a breakneck pace for four weeks it was the perfect place to settle down and relax.

Getting to the lake from Kabale was a major ordeal – we hitched a ride from two NGO workers to the town of Fort Portal, but then got stuck for a day waiting for a bus. A bus supposed to leave at nine at night didn’t show up until after midnight. It was clearly overbooked, as everyone swarmed the bus pushing to get on while the conductor literally beat them back with a stick. For some reason, Sarah and I and a Swedish couple had seats reserved for us when we did get on. It was a bumpy ride, packed with people sitting in the aisles, and neither of us got much sleep by the time it arrived at 7 the next morning.

It was well deserved that we found Crater Bay Cottages, on the lake’s shores. We had not only our own little cottage…

…but because it wasn’t the high season for tourists, we had the entire resort mostly to ourselves.

Claire and Cecilia managed the family owned business while their parents ran a pharmacy in a nearby town.  The young staff, ages 17-26, was there just for us, and we had a great time with them during our five days.  They cooked all our meals, and we hung out with them each day, chatting late into the night. 

The lake had been the talk of the country for the previous week as two Danish college students on vacation had presumed to have drowned. Efforts to find their bodies in the deep water were front page news each day, and they continued while we were there. Sarah refused to swim, so we went canoeing instead. We set out for one of the islands, but never got the hang of it and gave up after an hour of paddling in circles.

After that Sarah became the official photographer, watching me and the staff swim and kayak.

Sarah on dry land conducted chess lessons to the interested students who had watched us play with fascination.

A few other guests came and went, checking in one night and leaving the following morning, and divers did end up finding the bodies of the two Danish boys.

We relaxed without TV, internet, or the hustle of a city, and enjoyed the serenity of the lake.

Kibale National Park, Uganda

Kibale isn’t the largest or most accessible national park in Uganda, and finding any game animals or predators here would require quite a bit of luck.  What brings visitors to Kibale are the parks’ several species of monkeys, in particular its large chimpanzee population.

Twice a day, at eight in the morning and two in the afternoon, groups of six people are led into the forest by rangers to find and observe chimpanzees in their natural habitat.

A smaller, select number of people (i.e. those willing to pay more) are permitted to remain with the primates all day.  The day Sarah and I visited, we were the only members of this elite group billed as the “Chimpanzee Habituation Experience”.

Chimpanzees have a regular daily schedule:  They sleep in trees, climb down and find their friends, forage and eat, then climb a new tree, make a nest and go to bed.  As part of CHEX, we were to observe this entire cycle. 

The previous evening we arrived at the park’s gates following an arduous journey from Kampala involving a bus, a sedan stuffed with nine people, and the back of a motorcyle taxi. That night a massive storm broke out, with lightning and thunder keeping us from sleeping.  Lucky for us the skies had cleared up by morning.

We showed up at 6:30 to meet our guide, Silver, who had been tracking chimpanzees in Kibale for over twenty years. After having us pull our socks over our pants to avoid fire ants we set off onto the mud soaked path.

We walked for a half hour before Silver saw a set of tracks and told us to listen for forms of communication – either vocal or the sound of one pounding on tree barks. 

Apparently he heard something we didn’t and quickly left the path.  We rushed to keep up with him, trying to stay upright while avoiding streams of ants and branches and vines.  At the base of a tree he stopped and pointed up to a lone male. 

Not content with spotting just one, Silver found another inhabited tree. 

This one held several chimpanzees.

Silver radioed our location to the first set of tour groups.  About a dozen people arrived shortly thereafter and we all stood around angling for views and pictures. 

An hour later, the group’s time was up and they returned to the park’s entrance.

Sarah, Silver, and I sat down and waited.

“They’ll come down from the trees, I promise,” said Silver.

They did a few minutes later, one at a time, as if they had been waiting for the group of people to leave.

The female with her baby made it down first, followed by a male.  The three of them sat around, apparently just happy to be on solid ground.

We heard screams of distant chimpanzees – these two responded in kind and walked in their direction.  It was very unnerving at first but they were just attempting to find each other.  We followed at a distance until we came upon a dozen other chimps.

Silver knew the names of each of these chimps – males named Sebo, Mubende, Tabu; females named Safe, Safu, Ikuru. 

Chimpanzees are very strong and Silver scared us with stories of aggressive behavior: Fights between males last to the death ending with the victor tearing off the loser’s testicles.  Babies of rivals can be eaten.  But we saw nothing of the sort.

This group was sedate and didn’t pay us much attention. 

The split up a while later; we followed one shy male. 

Each time I approached him he walked away.

An hour or so later, he, along with his friends, began their climb back into the trees. 

And like clockwork, the second tour group arrived. 

Sarah and I stood back while everyone craned their necks looking up at the trees, not knowing what they had missed.

Jinja, Uganda

As we started to paddle down the Nile River in Uganda, James, our guide, attempted to prepare us for the difficulty of the first rapid.

“We do not want to get thrown from the raft on this one. The water is shallow and the rocks are sharp.”

All I could think of was that I didn’t want to get thrown out on any of them.

“And remember,” James yelled over the pounding water, “get down, look to the side, and secure your paddle or you might…..”

A wall of water crashed into my face drowning out all other sounds. I couldn’t tell if I was still in the boat or outside in the water, but either way I was completely submerged and seemed to be swimming. I managed to keep hold of my paddle and had an iron grip on the safety line, but I couldn’t remember what I was supposed to do. A few moments later, the raft bounced on top of the river and all five of us remained inside. We made it!

When Riyad suggested we spend a day white water rafting on the Nile River in Jinja, Uganda, I definitely had my reservations. Although Uganda is among the premier white water rafting destinations in the world drawing adrenaline junkies from across the globe, rafting can be extremely dangerous and I was not sold on the glossy brochure stating “They can’t hear you scream underwater!” Positive reviews and a solid safety record convinced me to give rafting a try.  Plus, we had taken a cramped 14 hour overnight bus ride from Kenya and I felt the need to stretch my muscles.

At the beginning of the tour, Riyad and I along with fellow rafters Pieter, Karl, Shamim were handed a paddle, helmet, and life jacket.  A larger safety raft and three kayakers would accompany us and assist in the event we get injured, thrown, or separated.

In the calm waters, James had taught us the basics of paddling and prepared us for every imaginable scenario.  He had us jump into the water and showed us how to safely help ourselves and each other return inside.  James kicked Shamim off our boat and put her on the safety raft when she refused to let go of the raft during our safety briefing.

“This is an easy one and we have nothing to worry about” James reassured us as we approached the second rapid.

Seconds later water hit the raft, folding it in half and flipping it upside down.

We were all thrown into the water and I still had my paddle in one hand as I surfaced next to the raft. I grabbed onto the safety line before I could get swept away. James surfaced next to me, but I was unable to find anyone else.

James righted the boat.  Underneath we found Karl gasping for air.  Out of nowhere Pieter appeared. James pulled me into the raft, followed by Pieter, and Karl. I was the only person who held onto my paddle and James took it from me in order to get us to calmer waters.

“Where is Riyad?” I asked.

“I think he might have drowned” someone replied.

A moment later, Riyad appeared in the distance clinging to one of the safety kayakers who was towing him towards us. He still had his waterproof camera and was happily snapping pictures.

We then had a long stretch of calm water where we took off our helmets, relaxed, and shared travel stories.

The next four set of rapids were equally terrifying though we managed to stay upright each time. While going over each rapid, James scared us with stories of broken arms, cuts, bruises, and chipped teeth.

“I know a great dentist!” he enthusiastically declared. “And he can replace your teeth at a fraction of the cost at home!”

Our luck ran out on seventh rapid. James attempted to surf it and the water flipped our boat in seconds. Riyad fell first, I landed on top of his head, and Karl again ended up trapped underneath the boat.  This time no one was swept away.

With one more rapid remaining, James gave us the option to flip or stay on the raft.

“This is the only rapid where I have some say in the outcome” he told us.

Pieter wanted to flip. But the rest of us felt we had enough adventure on the Nile. We stayed afloat and ended the day with the sun on our backs while paddling to shore.