Rubondo Island

Alice has arrived after a 40 hour journey from Australia via Hongkong and Entebbe. It is lovely to see her and catch up with all the news of the last 9 months including her 2 month journey around New Zealand with Amanda. There was much to talk about and we were so pleased to show her our life in Tanzania.
We shot off to Rubondo Island National Park (rather, rattled our way down the side of Lake Victoria) for a long weekend. It is an island a couple of miles offshore and very forested with many birds, hippos, crocodiles,bushbuck and a few elephants. We were the only visitors and spent the time talking whist watching the hippos in the bay, the weaver birds weaving , the fish eagles soaring and the black kites swooping. Occassional bushbuck grazed past the bandas and a few blueballed monkeys (I am sure that is not their proper name!) scampered past.

The bandas were very smart with tiled floors, lovely beds and even hot showers heated by a wood fire. Peter cooked us lovely meals which we would eat at the hippos snorting in the bay. Super took us on several walks and was good company.

We went on a boat trip and saw more than enough crocodiles, a family of hippos grazing who rushed for the safety of water, 2 elephants, a giraffe, otters, iguanas and of course lots of birds. It was not a place to score animals but a place to relax and enjoy.

Sitting sipping a beer looking over the Lake, watching the birds and hippos then later seeing the full moon rising (28 days after we had been to Mafia Island) was very special.



(If you double click on the photos they should enlarge).