After bathing on Friday morning we left on the 150 km journey to Lake Mbura National Park, about 50 km past Mbarara on the road to Kampala via Masaka. Before we even reached Bushenyi Connie’s bike quit – out of petrol. We rode in on reserve and filled up. You’re never quite sure how “full” the tank is but I think my more seasoned steed gets more kms per liter.
We made it to Mbarara without difficulty but there we encountered the suicidal boda-boda drivers and the roundabouts. We had a good pizza when we passed through with Stephanie, but will be darned if we could find it either time we passed through so settled for chicken and chips for lunch.
The entrance to Lake Mbura is 22 km off the tar road, rutted and bumpy but not too bad. The park costs $10/day plus $5 for each motorbike which put another dent in our diminishing funds. But our cramped banda (rondaval) cost only 1,500/= and two dinners (tilapia and chips and tomato salad, 4 beers and a vodka and water totaled only 23,000. That’s about $20 for a room and dinner. The restaurant sits on the lake where you can watch hippos watch you and marvel at the many fish eagles all the while listening to the warthogs. One cheeky vervet monkey jumped up on my motorcycle. Over breakfast (our muffins, their tea) we watched the fisherman collecting tonight’s dinner.
The infrastructure of the parks needs some work. No one has change, not for food, nor accommodations, nor tours or even the entry fee. You can go on a game drive only if you supply the vehicle. Motorbikes don’t count. You can also walk in the park but only with an armed guide. So we opted for cruising on our bikes, stopping for birds, and looking at the game. In addition to hippos and warthogs they have waterbuck, bushbuck, impalas, topi (tsessebe), zebras, spotted hyenas, and leopards. Not surprisingly, we never saw the later, but we did hear one late in the afternoon.
All along the ride in we saw herds of the strange Ankole cattle with their oversized horns curling high into the air. Some are at least six inches in diameter and nearly four feet long. When they load them into trucks for the markets they lash the animals together by their horns effectively creating a giant glob of beef on the hoof. And herds wander inside the park mixing with the zebra. I wonder why they allow this.
After dinner we talked with Dan from Arizona who, like other Americans we have met, has an interesting story. He is a water/sanitation engineer working for a small NGO in the northern part of the country. From his description it sounds very different than here; more poverty (hard to believe), refugees, armed bandits. We may try to visit him when we are at Budongo. We also talked to a couple from the UK who have been doing dentistry in Kabale for four years and their guests who arrived only that morning.
We stopped in Mbarara for gas and groceries, disappointed that aside from some tinned goods, it wasn’t much better than Jean’s. Connie left her keys in her bike and quicker than anything someone took them and held them for ransom. It’s a good thing I chained the bikes together or they would have stolen it. First demand - $100, then 50,000/=. Then I mentioned the police we settle on 20,000/= ($11) I realize they are poor but they are either (1) biting the hand that feeds them, or (2) killing the golden goose. Your choice of metaphor. This will pretty much end our joy riding in Kalinzu. We have visited all the accessible parks except the gorilla one and are down to about $40 of our own but we have Stephanie’s as a reserve. 