Under the Ugandan Sun: Thieves in the tent!

We managed to get outside dusty Kampala last weekend by visiting lovely Lake Mburo National Park. It should have been a 4.5 hour drive, but instead it was 6 hours - a construction project had traffic jamming roundabouts and roads. Since the idea of side roads is laughable, there we sat. Luckily we had put A/C in our loaner car (thanks again Eric and Asia) so we didn’t actually bake.

We stopped at the equator on the way ...

We invited Asia along since it was her birthday and we had so much fun. She learned to float (yay! That one’s been a long time in the learning!) and ride a horse (now she imagines herself galloping along into the sunset, though we just walked – slowly – on the ride). It was a little weird to ride horses among zebras, impalas and warthogs, but no one seemed to care on either side of the equation.

Ugandan cowgirl

Mainly we relaxed, a welcome respite since we’ve been so busy at work. We stayed at Mihingo Lodge, where we had stayed three years ago. The “rooms” are tents built inside thatched roof structures carved out of the rocks above a water hole where animals like elands (truly amazing creatures with big dewlaps and a hump) and impala (with their black markings that make them seem to be wearing high heels) hang out. The lodge design is amazing – olive branches imbedded in rocks and curved plaster walls.

Cute, until ...

Our tent was down a steep stairway in the trees and monkeys were swinging all around the tent. Bill thought they were cute and took some pictures. But what they were really doing was waiting for us to vacate the room. We went to sit up above by the pool and later I decided to go get my book.

As I approached, I saw through the mosquito netting on the tent a turmoil of monkeys – probably about 10 of them – scrambling to get out at the sound of my footsteps. They tumbled out through the Velcro closures on the windows and leapt into the trees where they watched me yell at them.

The place was a disaster. Our toiletry bag was spilled everywhere: they liked the Pepto Bismol tablets, our malaria pills and assorted other medicines we always bring just in case. We’d brought the Uganda guide book with a picture of a gorilla on the cover and the cover was all twisted and torn (hmm). And the Skip-Bo cards – well, they must have had quite a game because the cards were everywhere and the box was outside.

They must have swung from the mosquito net over the bed because it sagged from a conglomeration of broken stuff and, uh, monkey poop. In fact, the place smelled like a zoo.

We had done what we were supposed to: padlock the zippers on the tent doors. But apparently they are wise to the tent structures. It’s been so dry here, said the lodge manager, that they are really hungry and the only place they can find food is the lodge. The staff cleaned it all up – they are used to it (we heard at least one other couple talking about how they’d gotten into their tent), and the monkeys disappeared from our area and moved along to some other doomed tent.

It makes for a good story, and we know the monkeys won’t get malaria. Now we’re back in Kampala, missing the cool, clear air of Mburo. But not the monkeys.