We are still stuck while B does repairs, but it's such a nice place. Today we've been alone on the campsite, the pied wagtails are always around, the black & white casqued hornbills with their kazoo-like calls and loud flapping wings, the green pigeons and Roross's turacos in the fig tree and the black flycatchers are taking food to their young in their nest hidden just outside our door!
Men at work in the banana grove next door, but they are quiet and busy. The view to the Rwenzori is always changing with the light and the mist. It's really very pleasant. I have been doing bitty jobs and domestic stuff whilst B has worked really hard again. He got sunburnt on the roofwhile doing the skylight. We haven't been able to test the new seal because although clouds have built up and moved over and we've had lots of thunder rumbling away, it hasn't actually rained here today. B's next job is to fix the air leak, which is proving to be a puzzle. He'slocated the source but not the cause, so has stripped and cleaned a valve and has now decided it must be an electrical problem, so is planning to investigate further tomorrow. In the morning, sun - so B set about fixing the bathroom skylight. The temporary fix proved rather better than expected and it took some time to remove the skylight before cleaning everything up and getting it all dry. B cannibalised some wood from the garage to improve matters, so all the tools had to come out. The wood was a bit too thick, so he had to file it - but we only have metal files so it was taking a huge amount of time. I had o go up to the lodge anyway so I asked without too much hope wheter or not they had a wood file. Two guys came back with me with a little round file but it obviously wasn't suitable. Thankfully one of them came back a little later with a rasp that was perfect for the job. Unfortunately the rain started before B was able to finish, so B got up on the roof again and fixed our tarpaulin - all in the rain and wind. It rained most of the afternoon, so B had a snooze to recover a bit - at least it's cool here.
Bird of the day : A juvenile black (great) sparrowhawk. Dinner at the lodge. We've got the iPad and laptop working on the mobile data, so I'm updating the blog based heavily on Sues diary. We'll be adding photos when we get wifi working
In the morning B stayed at the truck hoing to get the skylight dry whilst I went on a birdwalk with a guide from the lodge called Robert. In fact Robert also seems to run a lot of the lodge, acting as waither and reception etc. We were out for 2 hours in the bit of forest between the lodge and the papyrus, seeing 29 species and hearing 5 more. As I was the only guest on the walk, we were able to tiptoe and whisper and peer into the dense undergrowth trying to see things - some proper birding. A number of the species we saw were extremely difficult to find and it's no wonder B and I see many when we went down there. Bird of the day : White Spotted Flufftail!
B had had no sun, so had worked on the Mog instead. After lunch we went into Fort Portal to buy food. All along the 8km of dirt road there were clouds of insects - midges and flying ants we thought. They were so dense that it was like looking through water at times. People on foot or on bikes were screwing up their faces, it must have been difficult not to inhale them. In Fort Portal we easily found Dutchess Restaurant where we parked int he road only to find the truck hissing air from underneath - not normal. We went shopping anyway and bought bread and a brownie for B, cheese, roast ham (or rather pork), banana jam and some ice cream which we ate on the veranda overlooking the garden - a real treat. Back at the truck we found all the air pressure had drained and it took ages to build up again, we still went off to Andrews Brothers supermarket where we got other provisions, but at a price! Due to the air leak we didn't stop for anything else on the way back to the campsite where B started diagnosing the leak and emailing various forums etc to confirm his thoughts. We made dinner and ate the stew in the grassy space between the truck and a hedge with lovely views towards the Ruwenzori Mountains with the forest in between. We will have to stay here to make repairs, so at this stage not sure of the impact on forward plans, but it's a good place to be. We woke to the hornbills honkin and noisy flight. A morning of jobs.
For me this meant cleaning the inside of the truck and hunting out plastic bags ready for Rwanda (they banned them some years ago and we've heard various stories of them being searched for), plus making our lunch. B has done loads of outside jobs such as mounting the replacement foglight that has been taking up space in a cupboard for too long. We had planned to drive into town to buy food this afternoon but around 1pm a tropical downpour started and we didn't fancy the muddy side road or getting ourselves drenched so we closed some of the windows and settled down to some indoor jobs. The bathroom skylight seemed to be dripping rather extravagantly so B had a look and decided there was definitely a problem. When the rain slowed he went up on the roof and found that it may have been leaking for some while. He did a temporary fix but needs a few hours of sunshine to dry it all out to do a full fix. There may be a similar problem but to a much lesser extent with the main skylight. Dinner at the lodge including delicious roasted goat. On the way there I saw a tiny raptor - a little sparrowhawk I think. The internet/blog has started working again - not too sure why though!!! We've now been in Uganda for 2 weeks and haven't been able yet post anything yet due to a series of IT problems.
First of all we needed a SIM card - we got one quite quickly from MTN in Jinja. We chose MTN as they are the most widely used in Uganda. Then whilst at a nice lodge on the banks of the Nile we found that we couldn't access the Weebly website. It took two days for Weebly to let us know that they have blocked all websites emanating from Uganda as the majority are fraudulent! They unblocked our site but only just as we were leaving for the North and Murchison Falls. In the North the temperatures climbed to almost 40c so we weren't inclined to try to do much, however when we did we found that neither the laptop nor the iPad would connect to any websites. Not sure why but we are now in Fort Portal where it's cooler and we're going to take a rest so I'm hoping that we will be able to sort this mess out. Currently Ive discovered that by commencing a post on the phone and then editing it on the iPad the system seems to work - I'll find out if this post actually publishes! |
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