Camping it up

When I was required to take a work trip to Hoima last Thursday we used it as an opportunity to test out our new tent (Liam's birthday present) and go camping for the weekend. Not too far from Hoima is Budongo Forest, a recommended campsite and good place to see a bit of wildlife. We left Hoima Friday morning for Masindi and then took a bus to Busingiro campsite in the forest. Having no car it was public transport all the way, which generally meant a game of how many people can we fit in this 14 seater bus. At one point the woman sat in front of us was asked to leave her seat. Just as we were thinking it was a bit unfair to remove 1 passenger to pick up another, the lady (thankfully quite small) was taken to the back of the bus and lifted up by the conductor to be pushed through the back window onto the back seats (technically onto the lap of another woman as there were already 4 women occupying 3 seats). We had now reached 23 passengers and 2 small babies on the bus – a record by anyone's standard. Every time we stopped the five women at the back found it hilarious to tell me that I was next to go through the back window and join them – thankfully I was saved this ordeal when we arrived at our campsite.
A very small and basic campsite with a very friendly ranger greeted us. With no one else camping there we had free reign to pitch our tent anywhere and were shown the area to build a fire to cook our food on – this pleased Liam greatly. The campsite was next to a small village consisting of many mud huts and very friendly locals with the forest surrounding us.
Following dinner cooked on the open fire – Liam was slightly disappointed that Arman our ranger took control of the fire – we went to bed wondering if the sounds of the forest animals would keep us awake. However, it wasn't the animal noises that disturbed our sleep but the party going on in the village. With solar power charging the stereo (no doubt donated to the community by a well meaning NGO) there was no stopping the African music being played all through the night. The party was an introduction ceremony which is like an engagement party that the bride to be family throw. The whole village is invited and they generally last for 48 hours straight – these Ugandans know how to party.
Amongst the music we did hear the sounds of the forest and were quite disturbed by a loud shrieking noise every few hours. It sounded like a child screaming. Thinking this must be some giant terrifying African animal we asked our ranger about it the next morning. He went through our wildlife guide book and pointed out the animal which was a tree hyrax – quite cute and about the size of a small cat – so no monster there phew!
A guided walk in the forest showed us many species of monkeys, birds, plants and trees. Our ranger told us about how elephants used to live in the forest but had to be moved because they were eating a type of fruit that ferments, getting drunk from it and crazily tearing down the trees – an interesting image!
Not satisfied with 1 walk we got Arman to take us on his motorbike to The Royal Mile which is a great bird watching spot. We saw beautiful kingfishers and many others that I can't remember the names of.

On our way back to camp Arman stopped at a Polish church on a hill. He told us about the Polish fleeing the Nazi's and a community settling in Uganda. The church is still in use even though no Poles remain there. It was in the most beautiful of settings; in the distance you could see the Blue Mountains and just behind them the mountains of the Congo, an impressive vista.
That evening we re-pitched our tent a little further away from the village party and our sleep was only mildly interrupted by a thunder storm. The tent held out and the next day we prepared for our journey home. Being a Sunday we weren't actually sure how we were going to get home. Envisioning a long wait at the side of the road for the public bus we were chuffed when 15 minutes later a pick up van stopped and for the same price as our bus fare offered us a lift. Jumping onto the open back we joined an old Ugandan lady taking big sacks of fish (like white bate) to Masindi and a young guy taking 7 very cute puppies. With fresh air (a slight fish smell), amazing scenery and puppies at our feet we thoroughly enjoyed our journey into town. Picking up the Kampala bus at Masindi we headed for home pleased with a successful camping trip and planning the next one.