Confusion, getting hangry and overpriced tea in Uganda

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Uganda day 5
Quite the to-do in Uganda

I’m exhausted from confusion today. Is that possible?
Let’s start at the very beginning.
At 4:30 I had to get up for a wee and there was a baby lizard on the bathroom door. Which was nice.
I then convinced myself that the alarm was going off at 5 and so struggled to get back to sleep before realising we were having a lie-in until 5:30.
At 5:30 Claire ignored the first alarm and stirred when the second one went off 5 minutes later. We packed up all our stuff and carried it across the field. On the way I noticed that the waterbucks had read my blog yesterday about them not having any babies and there were a few youngsters about. That was quick!
It was sad to leave that place as the staff have been fantastic, the room was great and the food was excellent. It was the Irungu Forest Safari if you’re heading this way.
The car started thankfully and we headed off to a section of Lizzy park that we hadn’t been to before-Ishasha sector. On the way we saw a number of baboons with some very young offspring, Zed says he saw a leopard cross in front of us, they saw a green snake, waterbucks, kobs, vervet monkeys, buffalo, elephants, a black squirrel and two huge woolly-headed storks.
Tree-climbing lions and leopards hang out in this part of the park but we weren’t as lucky as yesterday and saw neither. We had hoped to see hyenas too but they evaded us too. The only new thing we saw were some topi and the most amazingly coloured lizard I’ve ever seen which was blue and yellow.
We spent some extra time in the park as the car got stuck, not from breaking down this time, but because it was, quite literally, stuck. We offered to push but Zed engaged the 4WD and eventually, with a lot of noise, he got us out of there. There were lots of animals and a huge herd of buffalo so it was a nice drive round.
We had been travelling on an un-tarmacced road for quite a while prior to the park and we rejoined it again. At about 11:30 Zed said it was about 3 hours until our next destination and lunch, so we stopped at a shop for snacks. We both had some crisps just to keep us going.
On we went through villages and waving back at the smiling children. Most just shouted hello, slightly older ones twice added ‘give me money’ and some shouted something in Ugandan. Zed said they shouted ‘we love you very much’ because they know our coming here gives money to the country and its people. We weren’t quick enough to shout that they were very welcome.
We had some rain as we passed through Bwindi Impenetrable Forest and it got very dark as everything was so dense. No doubt there will be more mention of that when we venture into it in a couple of days. We then had passed through it and out the other side having stopped at a couple of viewpoints. You know those films with shots of jungle and mist, that was how it looked: awesome.
Then Zed said we were still 50km away…..what the hell?? We had already been going over 3 hours since he said it would be 3 hours. But we spotted a black and white colobus monkey then a L’hoest monkey so I was placated for a while. But I was getting rather hungry.
When we stopped at a petrol station not to get petrol but because he needed to speak to someone I was getting hungrier, when he then stopped and was picking a mate up I was getting hangry. His mate was showing him some land or something and did turn up a few minutes later when we drove to our next accommodation.
The welcome was a bit different than the last place but the room is lovely even if it does smell like a urinal and the bathroom door doesn’t shut. Zed asked if I was okay and I said I was hungry so we ordered food before we went to our room. When we got back Zed said he had cancelled our meal as they should have communicated with him before.
He took us somewhere else where we ordered food that arrived 10 hours after we’d finished breakfast. It was nice though and the people were friendly too. A Polish couple then spoke to us who had apparently been chimp trekking at the same time as us the other day. We didn’t remember them though!
Zed then dropped us off back at our accommodation where they apparently don’t have anywhere for him to stay. I think he is a bit annoyed about that too but his friend has a hotel so he is staying there tonight.
Then things started to go even more awry than a 10 hour gap between breakfast and lunch. So we went back to reception to order our breakfast and were asked if we wanted our dinner now. It’s been cancelled we said. No it hasn’t they said. When I asked if it was ready they said yes. Claire then went off to get the wi-fi so she could Whats-app Zed and the lady asked if I wanted my tea now so to make things easy I said yes. It was African tea with spices and was lovely. I later found out it was £3!! I wouldn’t pay that back home!!
Claire came back and messaged Zed. The lady asked if we wanted our dinner and insisted it was ready so, as I had been looking forward to it, and the other meal hadn’t been that big, I said yes. Claire was full so couldn’t manage anything-no idea if the company will be charged for that or not. I managed most of it and it was very nice so then asked about ordering breakfast and she asked if I wanted it now…..
Claire was pulling her hair out and I wished I still had some to pull out. Finally the hotel manager spoke to Zed, we ordered something and we hope it’s sorted. I guess we’ll see at 6am as yes it’s another 5am alarm call-or 5:05 for Claire.
They asked if we were having lunch here….we’re not sure if she meant now, well after we’d eaten a hearty (evening) breakfast….. We politely declined.

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