Various meals, Byoona Amagara, Lake Bunyonyi, Uganda

Lake Bunyonyi is a small volcanic lake in the far south west corner of Uganda very close to the borders with Rwanda and DR Congo. I’d been informed by a few people how beautiful it was and a good place to go for a few days R&R, not that I need it.

After an aborted attempt the two previous weekends (I had a meeting to attend on Friday afternoon that ended up not taking place the week before and the week before that it wasn’t clear if I would be going back to Amuria for the quarterly meeting. I didn’t, as there was no budget for me to go and I wasn’t going to start paying to work).

So finally I had a long weekend to make the trip to see a bit more of Uganda. As there was no power at the flat, or all of Bukoto for that matter, it might have had something to do with the recent earthquakes, and because the bus terminal was at the other end of town, I decided to camp out at my old haunt of Backpackers.

Apart from the staff and one or two people I knew a little it was all change at Backpackers, thankfully the pizza oven was going so I had my first pizza in weeks. It was the same as usual. I hung around the place using the ‘leccy till a bit after midnight when I made my way to the Jaguar bus terminal near the Namirembe Road branch of Café Javas as my wonderful night bus was due to leave at 1am.

The bus terminal at midnight

Grabbing my complimentary pack of glucose biscuits and bottle of water I wound my way down the very narrow aisle to my pre-booked seat. These buses, like most in East Africa are the same width of coach you’d get anywhere in the world, but manage to cram five seats across (six on the back row). I’d also manage to pick one without an arm rest so had a 3 inch piece of square steel tube sticking in to my back. Still having set off only 10 minutes after 1am, I tried to get as comfy as possible and snoozed for the ride to Kabale.

Typical interior

Sleep didn’t come easily, but it did come, and a little after 8.30am after 7 and a half gruelling hours on the road I made it to Kabale. I didn’t have high expectations for the town (“It’s like something out of a Western” was how one person described it) and besides it was covered in fog / cloud, so I could have been in Silent Hill for all I knew. Some people got off the bus at the same time as me, but the rest would be going all the way to Kigali, Rwanda’s capital. A young German couple, the only other muzungus on the bus were also headed to Lake Bunyonyi, so it was as cheap to share the private taxi rather than jumping on a boda for the 30 minute drive.

Typical exterior

As the car winded its way up some mountainous roads we emerged above the fog / clouds to some glorious sunshine and great views. The driver was insistent on me booking him for a drive early on Sunday morning as he knew a way into Queen Elizabeth National Park that we could go without paying any park entry fees.  With enough time he reckoned we could see all the animals even the tree climbing lions. The German couple informed me that they’d been here before with their parents and had received the exact same spiel for the guy. Despite this offer I declined as he was unwilling to even give a starting price for negotiations, despite promising to be the cheapest and ignoring my very very low-balled offer. Eventually we got to the top of the pass and I caught my first glimpse of Lake Bunyonyi.

My canoe is the small one in the centre

I bid adieu to the Germans and my potential tour guide to go to the small shack that served as waiting point and jetty for the trip to the hotel. Byoona Amagara is one of a couple of hotels / lodges in the area that is situated on one of the many islands in the lake. The row in a dugout canoe is free (3,000 UGX on the way back, or there is a motor boat for hire for 20,000 UGX one way). Since I’d come all this way and it was early on a glorious Friday morning I opted for the ‘authentic’ i.e. free experience. The row out took about an hour and a quarter of constant rowing, my shoulders took days to recover.

Another view from the shack

 Finally about nine or ten hours after setting off I arrived at Byoona Amagara. It was really lovely and on my way to the dock, I could see a jetty with a couple of recliners and dotted around the side of the hillside that it was located on a few of the traditionally built geo domes. I’d tried to book one of these, but sadly they were fully booked so I went cheap and headed for the big dorm room. I was shown the “eco-toilets” and the cold showers, which did at least have a nice view of the lake.

The shower

Settled in, I went to the communal area / restaurant / bar at the top of the hill. I’m not in the best of shape, but I was knackered after the climb. Thankfully I saw many others younger and fitter than me arrive at the top in the same state. Whilst there’s no danger of altitude sickness, Lake Bunyonyi is situated just under 2,000m above sea-level. When I’d regained my breath I set about getting a nice brunch off eggs, bacon, sausages, toast, beans, the full works. Sadly this was not to be, I hunted through the menu for this staple of restaurant items only to work out that Byoona Amagara is mostly vegetarian with some fish / lake food dishes.

View of the lake from the shower

Undeterred I went for the Bunyonyi Roll Up. Basically a Rolex, but it was made with a generous helping of veggies and a potato chapatti. Well that was the plan, but I was still waiting for my now lunch a good hour after ordering. This sort of thing is fairly common in Uganda, food can take ages after ordering to turn up dependent on demand. In fact a Byoona Amagara they expect you to order well in advance detailing what time you’d like your food. Unfortunately everyone else around had been served ages ago and a veggie omelette doesn’t take that long, so after enquiring at the desk it was clear that my order had disappeared. Thankfully there was only another 5 minute wait after sorting this mix up for my food to arrive. It was like a really good Rolex, 3 out of 5.

At the top of the hill

So with lunch done I settled down with a good book (a collection of Neil Gaiman short stories) and chilled out looking out over the lake and islands to the terraced slopes of the hills on the far side. I’d missed out on the recliners on the dock to a group of Americans whilst waiting for my ‘brunch’, but undeterred after Hamish had arrived from penultimate week ‘teaching’ in a village outside Kabale we went for a swim. On the way over in the canoe I got splashed a reasonable amount, but was pleasantly surprised by the temperature of the water. It was a lot colder than I remembered, but still manageable and very pleasant after a short while. The water is supposedly bilharzia free and there isn’t much wildlife in it. There are small crayfish which are all over the menu, but that’s about it, no hippos or crocs.

Blair Witch

Suitably refreshed it was back to another gruelling climb up the hill to veg out on the sofas. Lake Bunyonyi means ‘Place of many little birds’ and sitting in the open-sided communal lodge you get to see loads of them. If you’re into birdwatching, this is one of many places in Uganda to visit. One highlight, was a white-banded crow type thing that decided to perch on the back of a chair and complete an elaborate mating call. When it was obvious no-one was interested it jumped to a nearby table an d tried to fly off with a back of rubbish. Many of the bird species here are similarly unfazed by humans, and there are some beautiful little humming bird type things that hover around some of the plants.

Sunset view looking towards DR Congo

There’s some solar powered electricity at Byoona, it’s mostly for the lights, but also the fridge so you can sometimes get a cool beer. When the lights go out it’s on to candles for the rest of the evening. Whilst we still had proper power I was starving only having had a glorified Rolex all day, so I went for Garlic Pizza Bread for starters and the Amagara Burrito for the main course. Thankfully I didn’t have as long to wait as earlier, but I did receive both dishes of equal size at the same time.

Another sunset view looking north-ish

The Garlic Pizza Bread comprised of two doorstops of pretty good crusty white bread, heaped with chopped tomatoes, garlic, onions, balsamic vinegar and cheese. It resembled Bruschtta, which was the next thing on the menu, but had cheese. The Burrito was also massive and was filled with beans, onions and was in a filling potato chapatti. Not for want of trying I only managed half. Hamish managed to finish it off after he’d eaten his own main course. Still all damn tasty, excellent value and apart from the portion sizes fairly healthy. A solid 3 out of 5.

Days 2 and 3 in the next overly long instalment.