This week I gave my lungs a well-earned treat and escaped Kampala for a day! I ventured out to Entebbe, the old colonial administrative capital of Uganda, which sits along the northwestern shoreline of Lake Victoria (pretty much on the equator). I must admit, as I sweated the 1 hour journey out - with my head virtually in someone's armpit - I did question how much of a treat the day trip was really going to be. But as soon as I disembarked the stuffy matatu (about 1/2 a mile too early - whoops) and felt the gentle breeze from the lake, I'm sure my shoulders visibly dropped in relaxation.
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| Section of Lake Victoria's shore |
On recommendation from both my guide book and friends living here, the place to visit in Entebbe is the Botanical Gardens (where the first Tarzan film was shot!) After walking around in circles with an inaccurate map, a questionable sense of direction, and really unhelpful instructions from a Ugandan policeman, I finally made it to the entrance (which I then realised I had actually already passed twice)! The consequent sweat and desperate thirst was so worth it though; the Botanical Gardens are really quite something.
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| Botanical Gardens |
Covering 16 ha with a 1.5-km stretch of lakeshore, the gardens were originally a natural forest used as research ground for the introduction of various exotic fruit and ornamental plants to Uganda. My favourite section was a small patch of virgin forest down close to the lake shore. 'Walking through this, you will experience lots of different noises and smells, and it's worth remembering that large areas of Uganda were once forested like this patch' (please excuse the lazy but inevitable quoting from my guide book).
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| Walking down to the virgin forest bit, looking for Tarzan... |
After being on my feet all morning, I stopped for a coke and snack by the lake, and suddenly felt like I had been transported to yet another film set! I'm not sure what I was expecting, but for some reason I was surprised to see sand, swimmers and grass-roofed beach huts.
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| Beach of Lake Victoria |
After a morning of beautiful trees, flowers and beaches, I thought the afternoon would be best spent catching up with some animals (to complete Phoebe's Day of Nature, Entebbe 2013). So I walked on to the Ugandan Wildlife Education Centre. UWEC was established in 1952 as an animal orphanage but today it is more of an education centre, replicating Uganda's ecological zones in miniature (i.e. savannah, wet lands, and tropical forest). Although more zoo-like than safari adventure, it is a really lovely place for kids and adults, Ugandans and foreigners, to learn about the natural world of Uganda, and meet her animals. I think the signage could do with reviewing though - whilst wondering though a relaxing woodland walk, my day-dream was disturbed when I came across a rather alarming sign 'you are now in the Leopard Zone. Look up as leopards like to climb trees'. That got my mind racing - have I somehow entered an enclosure? Where are the bloody fences!? (In fact, the leopards were not roaming free on the woodland walk, but in an enclosure much further ahead.)
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| Paul, one of the Chimpanzees at UWEC |
After a lovely day spent entirely outside in the fresh air, I waited for a matatu and psyched myself up for the voyage home. At which point my skin started to feel a bit sensitive and I realised I had forgotten to put any sun cream on that day. Needless to say, I am no longer a mzungu. I'm not sure there is a African slang word for 'red person who used to be white, but is an absolute wally'.
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