Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Ssese Islands

         Two weekends ago, Renate and I went to the Ssese Islands in Lake Victoria. It was a bit of a last minute rush as her host mom couldn’t really make up her mind, but we made it anyway! We arose early and took a special hire (sedan) to the ferry terminal. We arrived at 8 (the time the ferry was scheduled to leave) and waited. And waited and waited for almost two hours while the ferry, which was there the whole time, got washed. The ferry was similar to the Albion Ferry with space for both vehicles and foot passengers. The trip to the biggest of the 84 islands, Buggala Island, took about 40 minutes and once we were on the other side, we boarded a mutatu (minibus) to take us to the other end of the island where the hotels are. After an hour on bumpy roads, we arrived in Kalangala Town where we had a rest while we perused our guidebooks for a good place to stay.

                Hornbill Camp came highly recommended for budget-conscious travelers but there were warnings in both guidebooks about the hippie-vibe it has. We figured we’d take the chance and caught a boda boda (motorbike taxi) to Hornbill. We were met on arrival by Tina, one half of the German couple who has owned the place for 19 years. She was definitely a hippie but she had a pleasant, no-nonsense, care-free attitude that immediately warmed us. We dropped our stuff into our banda (straw-roofed hut) and set about to explore. Hornbill is located right on the beach and has a number of buildings on the compound, each decorated with gorgeous paintings of different African scenes (all painted by the Tina’s husband). The beach was very nice with white sand and the water was pretty clear; unfortunately, however, swimming is not recommended because of risk of bilharzia. The only downside was the lake flies that are small but hovered in huge swarms to interrupt the peace. On the upside, there is a resident troop of black-faced vervet monkeys who entertained us for awhile. We wandered up the beach, past most of the other resorts and took in the wonderful views before heading back for dinner, playing with Tina’s month-old kittens, and ate at the bonfire.

                We woke up to a clear day but that soon turned sour and it became a torrential downpour before we were planning on leaving. We were originally going to take a boda back up to the main road and catch a matatu from there but Tina assured us she knew of a good matatu driver, who had connections to the ferry workers, who could drive us all the way back to Masaka. Pleasantly surprised, we agreed. We knew the schedule for the ferry said it was supposed to leave at noon and when we heard the driver wasn’t going to pick us up until 11, we were a bit worried because the drive from one end to the other was an hour by itself. We were assured that if we arrived late, the driver would call the ferry to wait for us so off we went. We drove around Kalangala town for an hour and started to get worried. The driver informed us the ferry would actually leave at 1:30, not noon, so we would still make it in time. We finally made it to the dock at 1:15 and the ferry was nowhere in sight.


                By 1:45 we were getting skeptical and met an Irish couple who had decided to take a motorized canoe back to the mainland. We went to ask our driver when the ferry would show up and he assured us it was on the way. The motorized canoe left…and the ferry arrived…at 4pm. Renate and I were beyond frustrated but in the end we made it home safely. Next time I go to Ssese, I’m taking a canoe!

No comments:

Post a Comment