Thanksgiving everyone for the birthday wishes and sorry for the delay in publishing this, I wrote it last week but the internest has been a bit rubbish! I had a brilliant birthday weekend. It started on the Friday night when we had a little party. After a busy day at work I got home and Emma and Becky had decorated the house with some decorations that Ann had given us. Emma had been really stressed getting it ready in time and it looked lovely. We had Becky, Jess, Rita and a Ugandan doctor called Naomi over for supper. We made tapas- guacamole, salad, tomato and aubergine, home-made chips, eggs and cheese. We also dug out an oven from the stores and made birthday cake which was exciting! The oven's odd as it has a fan at the top and so the top cooked (and then burnt) really quickly whilst the middle took ages to cook, partly because it was full of chunks of pineapple. Emma decorated it with passionfruit buttercream and candles, again thanks to Ann! I was so touched and it was amazing to have cake! Rita gave me a card and a lovely bracelet, made out of rolls of paper formed into tiny diamond shapes, which is a traditional technique in this part of Africa.
The next day we got up early and left at 6 ready for our safari in Queen Elizabeth National Park (about 20 minutes drive from the hospital!). The driver, Suboni, took us. There were 5 of us, Emma, Becky, Jess and I and a British engineer called Paul. It got light about 7 and we spent 3-4 hours on safari. We saw loads of Ugandan cob, buffalo and lots of different types of birds. At one point we went to a village which is in the national park. Usually people aren't allowed to live in them but this is a fishing village on the shore of Lake George. We saw about 10-15 hippos there, all lying on top of eachother to keep warm as it was quite cold. People were collecting water a few metres away from them and riding past them in canoes to go fishing. It's so dangerous, but I guess they have to live with the risk. The week before we came a man died in the hopsital after being attacked by a hippo. We carried on and headed West towards Lake Edward and the lodge where we were staying. On the way we saw a big family of elephants right by the side of the road. We stayed there for ages and watched them. The babies were playing, the teenagers fighting and the matriarch and other adults eating and trying to get them all to keep moving. It was so entertaining and amazing to be so near them and watch them getting on with their lives! We were desperate to see a lion but the grass is very long because of the wet season so I think they were all hiding! We saw lots more elephants as we drove on, one with a very mishapen skull, probably from a fight. Suboni was great and told us lots about the animals. The buffalo usually live in big herds but occasionally you see one or a small group alone. They are called the losers, because they are males who fought the head of their herd and lost, and they are banished for the rest of their lives.
We arrived at Mweya about 11. It's a big lodge on a peninsula, surrounded by Lake Edward and the Kazinga channel which joins the two lakes. Emma and I were staying there as a special treat and the other girls were staying in a nearby hospital. We spent a lovely couple of hours sitting in the bar drinking a teapot of coffee and I opened some presents that my family had given me. I was so touched I kept almost crying! We then had our first meal of the 3 included in our full-board- a 4 course lunch! Afterwards we met up with the others and went on a boat ride along the channel to the edge of Lake Edward. The boat was really quiet and so we were able to follow the shore and get really close to the animals. We saw lots of buffalo, hippos, crocodiles and birds. The crocodiles were often sunbathing but as the boat got closer they would suddenly jump into the water, apparently because they are weak on the land and much stronger under water. We saw lots of baby hippos which were funny. They are such odd looking animals, so fat and ungainly but so powerful and dangerous. The birds were lovely too, some of them are so strange looking, like one we saw in the morning with bright orange legs and beak but black elsewhere. There's a village near the end of the channel and right afterwards we saw an elephant by the shore. I've taken almost all my photos with the camers fully zoomed in but we got so close to him and he was so big that I had to zoom out! It was great to watch him.
We headed back to the lodge and spent some time in our room. We chose a tent, which was the poshest tent ever. The sides were canvas but the back part with the ensuite was brick and the roof was thatched. In the front was a wooden balcony with a sofa, table end massive rocking-chairs. The biggest excitement was a hot shower- so nice to feel really clean! I sat and read on the balcony, with a brilliant view across the channel to the hippos and buffalo on the far shore. I could hear a hippo far below us on the shore as I read. Suddenly I looked up and saw a warthog looking at me from across the fence. He then disappeared under the balcony and later 3 other joined him. I could see the floorboards moving as they moved! Paul had headed back to Kagando with Suboni but the girls met us at the lodge and we sat and watched an amazing sunset. We then had another 4 course meal and cocktails- the first alcohol since we arrived as it's not allowed in Kagando. The girls had made me a lovely card. Then Emma gave me some gorgeous elephant earrings. I'd seen them at a place called Kingfisher lodge where we'd spent the previous Sunday and meant to buy them and then when I went back they'd gone. I was so chuffed that Emma had got them for me! All in all it was a brilliant birthday and I was very spoilt.
The next day we spent by the pool at the lodge, again with the same views over the channel to the animals on the other side. At one point a whole herd of elephants arrived, including some babies and they went swimming. It was a hot sunny day and I imagined they'd planned a day at the beach! We swam, sunbathed and used the internet to cath up with the world. It was really relaxing and fun. On the way back Suboni took us to the "buffalo hospital"- a salt lake where injured buffalo go to heal their wounds. We then stopped off at the equator for cheesy photos. All in all a very memorable birthday!
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