Special shout-outs to you: you left me out, you didn’t tell us, you didn’t invite us; next time go with my crew because I know you actually won’t show up even when invited a year before the event. We all use the internet for the same thing: to look out for fun activities around the country. If you can afford it, just hit the road and love on God’s creation.
Okay, enough of the rants with buzzing texts I got from people I know can’t even walk 100 meters.
So before all the lockdowns happened, there was a calendar for places to visit, hike, and diversify our culture. Due to the unforeseen pandemic, my kuzunga legs were cut off. I had to ignite the spirit of staying home to follow social distancing guidelines. That was not a fun part at all; I was drained mentally and emotionally.
A golden opportunity hits my inbox for a hike spillover because apparently, slots were over in the first bus Huh, sad indeed but the getaway spirit just ignited and got ready to move at whatever cost.
Destination: your guess is right as mine: Lake Albert. (Before you go to a place, make good use of Google to estimate how far it is and what people to meet.) Located at the border of Uganda and DR Congo, Buliisa District in the Bunyoro region has a diversified culture of people who stay there.
Due to the oil mining that will soon start, infrastructure is top-notch; besides, our country will be rich from oil export.
There is a mix of tribes in the region: Alurs, Banyoro, and Congolese, and this makes the language spoken hard to grasp. The economic activity is fishing, cattle rearing, and farming. The beauty of having a game reserve near a lake is indescribable.
As usual, excitement got to my high nodes, and I packed everything crucial for the hike, not forgetting enough candy for power charge-ups.
Community
The houses in the community are not fully constructed or I should say the mud grass-thatched houses on the lakeshore that serve as the fishing village. The business is the normal village of people having utility shops around.
The most exciting residential houses are the way the pit latrines were constructed. There is a zone out strictly for pit latrines, a whole lane of pit latrines. To my surprise, every person in the house has their own pit latrine; daddy doesn’t share the children’s latrine.
And because not everyone knows latrine manners, of course we found some good human manure littered all over the place with a fully constructed lane of pits.
Did I forget to mention that the trail where we were supposed to pass was waterlogged (I should say full of water for sanity)? We encountered a puddle swamp and hell broke loose when we were assured of removing our beautiful shoes and using our feet to cross a 500m puddle swamp.
My head had all imaginations of crawling water animals or reptiles that would tag along my legs or just one mistake to fall in the dirty water full of all fecal products. I conquered my fears; it was all team spirit because I held onto someone’s hands and thought about the Maldives as I crossed; my mind was off it. But hey, that was a breather to make our feet cool down for another long walk in the desert.
As we moved like warriors who escaped from Sobibor, we encountered another long stretch, hot as Kalahari, dry; we could not sit under trees to reminisce on the 90’s romance. As I counted the cows and goats that were grazing, not even my wildest imaginations would get me to slaughter one to the gods of the place.
All my jazz I had prepared vanished from my head as my throat was asking for more water to drink. Needless to say, we had a chef on the bus who packed for us lunch, and some things are not easily outgrown I ate my lunch as early as we hit the trail so I had no lunch, only my edibles I had carried.
The most tempting people in the world are the Boda Boda riders who kept on passing us, showing off how they can reach before us and looking at us like fools who just wake up to walk aimlessly. Truth is some people got on the rides and reached before us but when the hills call your name, you better answer with respect and walk until the finish line. Soldier on to the end; there’s so much potential in you.
Of course, there are sights and sounds to enjoy, though what would you expect in a dry land, a hydropower plant? We were told Kabalega Hydropower Plant generates 9 MW of electricity that is used by the locals in the community. The water used in electricity generation comes from a river that was separated by some barriers. Okay, guys, I don’t remember everything in this part but they generate electricity there.
And my absent mind was on for a long time until we got onto the Tonya escarpment that almost saw my kidneys fall off from my inside. The Tonya escarpment had me rethink my life goals again for the tenth time; my shoes felt heavy. I remembered the lunch I had eaten earlier; it had endless bends that made us joke about our legs. Walk with people who will encourage you to push on even when you know it’s impossible.
After conquering all the nine sharp bends, we were headed for one more last that broke everyone’s Achilles’ heel. The beauty is there exists a tree shade (whoever made it knew people would need it), designed with seats for cooling off after a heavy climb. This is the point where our medic on the group gave us some pointers on how to handle altitude sickness and keep skin and heartbeat in check only to tell us we had 2.5kms to go.
Huh! My heart skipped back to my ancestral village but I was more than ready to conquer whatever is ahead. Charged up with my last biscuits, water, and more sugars to level up. As we moved just after 100meters and we saw the end of the trail.
I’m so sad that I did not conquer my 2kms I had geared up so well for. But who does that that is the suspense I hate in my life? I will never get to see beyond 100meteres of that last bend.
The most orgasmic thing is that everyone finishes the hike; even those that use bodas to reach it are allowed.
It was a fun one. We initiated a theme song for the party bus and some people were baptized with new names. Now we have Uber, Moses, or Musa, and Ricky Rosy, haha, big up, guys. Unto the next one, every call from the hills, valleys, and mountains we shall answer with maximum respect.
