Taking a breath

Last week has been just crazy with wildlife, rain and mud. We somehow managed to move around in a country in which the definition of highway dangerously merges with that of muddy path full of holes, we camped under sun and rain, and we got so wet that we didn’t get really dry until we got out of the Impenetrable Bwindi and back to the “civilization”. If I try to make a summary of all the things I’ve seen I am pretty sure I’ll leave something out. Depending on the moment one thing or another comes to my mind: animals, people – locals and as strangers as myself -  landscapes, means (and ways) of transport…

Camping among hippos and warthogs was something. At the beginning it was difficult to catch some sleep, but I think it was more the sleeping on the floor thing and the loud wind than the company. Seeing the King of the Wild walking around the savannah, stopping here and there to mate with his travel partner was… surprising; one never thought of Simba having such little resistance, if you know what I mean. The elephants, which from the distance and in the shade of a terrace made that simple breakfast a feast, and in the close distance from the boat, accompanied buffalos, hippopotamus and crocs making that one a memorable afternoon,  allowed us to see them one last time, just before we run out of light, right at the border of the road, as if we weren’t the species that almost finished them up. The hippos – yes, I need to name them again – playing the soundtrack of our trip, dropping by our neighborhood, swimming in the river that separated us from Congo or in the channel through which we enjoyed the boat ride. What a beautiful animal! The chimps that, comfy high up in the tree, didn’t ask for much of a walk for us to see them, but made us twist our necks. The antelopes, the gorgeous bushbacks and the others, more reddish, all around the savannah, alert when the lioness was near by, magnificent postcard under the tree next to our tents. About the stars of the week I better talk in another post since this one is already over the attention span of some .

I have been resting these days in the lovely Byoona Amagara, in Lake Bunyonyi, enjoying the views, the good food and the library (almost three books in two days!). Now I am looking for a quieter and, hopefully, more involved chapter of the trip. In the few days I am going to spend wherever I stop I doubt I am going to be really useful to anyone, but I hope to get to know some of the projects that are running far from the high spheres that I always hear associated with the same corrupted word…