Ethiopia/Uganda/Rawada Trip 2
THURSDAY, 10/14/10: Pee at 1:13AM, starting the tenth day of a twenty-day trip. At 3:14AM I wake feeling chilly, and decide against just getting a blanket, so I take the Neo into the bathroom and type the only remembered fragment of DREAMS:10/14/10, and then catch this up-to-date by 3:22AM, feeling almost normal except for a slightly sore throat. I should keep Fisherman's Friend in my dop kit or shoulder bag, both for me and for Ken, since it helped Ken's throat so well. 5:09AM: Glance out the window at radiantly bright stars in the black sky before coming to the bathroom to type various dream fragments and thoughts. Type to 5:35AM. Back to nap a bit and try a quick Actualism, then get up and read the first part of Ethiopia, finally, up to "Axum," and Ken's alarm rings at 7:15AM, at which point he gets up and announces he wants to go to breakfast at 7:45. I wash my hands and face and comb my hair and catch this up by 7:43, while he holds off on one of his stories. Sadly sunny but VERY smoggy out, after the star-filled 5AM sky. To breakfast, as desired, at 7:45. Quick service with fewer clientele, a pot of tea (no hot chocolate) delicious with sugar and milk, a great, perfectly sized omelet of chilies (not that apparent), tomatoes (also, gratefully, not that obvious), and onions and bits of meat, with lots of dark-toasted bread, butter, and jelly, with two extra glasses of mango juice being charged at 24.15B, for which Ken gave 100B and got change for 25B. Very much enjoyed the eagles circling past the dining-room windows. Back to room at 8:20, and catch up by 8:25. Back to read about Axum. Leave 8:44 and out of car at 8:54 at Gabriel and Raphael's Church at 9:04; guide Terre is breathing hard after climbing the small hill to the base of the church. I take pictures from all angles, and finally of my guide (whose name I never get but to whom I give 100B when Terre says we're leaving him)---I do ask him to sit between two soldiers---"for security" I joke---for a picture at the end. Get to Mercurius church at 9:35: all of these had formerly been connected by tunnel, but Ken would have refused to go through a "long, dark, narrow tunnel" anyway, so some of the drainage channels that were later carved into passages, with bridges and stairways, came in handy, particularly when we saw how STEEP the steps were coming out of the tunnel! Coming out of this one, I think, we encountered a gigantic French group we'd crossed paths with yesterday, including the VERY old lady with a VERY large camera and VERY unsteady steps. Ken made a hit by speaking such excellent French, but they sure crowded the stairways with their shoes, and possibly envied us our "footlers," if that's a probable cognate for "handler." Over to Emanuel church at 9:52, almost Art Deco in simplicity and style on the outside, Terre assuring us that the bottom hadn't been reconstructed in any way, only the top had been gouged when "some of the painting was removed." Someone before the Italians painted everything red, he said, and afterward it had some other protective covering. This was one of the first with interior details, maybe two centuries earlier than the 11-12th Century main constructions, and I pronounced it "my favorite." Then to Beta Abba Lebanos at 10:12, that leads to another Bethlehem with smoke-blackened ceiling and catacombs in side chambers and original entrances now blocked off. Terre even got permission to open a window so we could get a closer look at a pair of original frescos, one atop the other, the bottom badly "eroded," but with an amazing amount of color left. Some of the pictures just won't turn out, because the "bright" setting of some of the enhancements didn't seem to carry over to the actual photograph. This was the church whose description, using the word "strata," confused Ken, who later admitted to having heard the word "stratigraphy," and could see the differentness here with the ceiling and floor blending in with the top and bottom strata of the site. I carefully took pictures of all sides, and many from odd angles of the ceiling details, and an odd one of St. Emanuel, I think it was, knifing a suggestively phallused Justinian, or a name like that: a Roman Emperor who gave battle but had to be put to death because he was a pagan, and thus no better than the dragon that St. George killed in a very similar painting style. To car at 10:42, Ken hoping to find the Art Gallery that his guidebook recommended, but unfortunately it was closed, and since there was no other alternative, we came back to the hotel at 11, stopping to take a few shots of the graveyard and a distant view of the coverings of the churches, which were put up only a few years ago---the man of the French couple had been here seven (or was it 15?) years ago and said it was much different now (before, there hadn't even been electric lights in any of the churches). Note that we re-met the Florida girl checking out the breakfast at the Mountain View Hotel, where we're staying, and she introduced herself as Logan, named after "some guy my mother met on a plane once and liked the name [or look] of." I'm down to the room at 11 while Ken has a "private moment" with Terre, and it feels good to just lie down. Then get up at 11:11 to type, confused by talk of (I incorrectly thought) going to some restaurant IN TOWN to make sure we can get what we order in time to leave for the church that even Terre admits is the best of them all, but for which he had phoned Addis for permission to go, about which he warned us that there was a hard uphill climb of fifteen minutes to get there, not to mention the rough road there and back, which would go up the road visible from our balcony---but it's the restaurant HERE we're having lunch at, and it's DINNER we're having in town. Then about 11:14 the chambermaids knock on the door, Ken in the john, saying they have to clean the room NOW, since this is the last in the line and they go off duty when they're finished with us, so they can't possibly wait until after lunch, when we leave. I lug the chair back out to the balcony along with my shoes and my shoulder bag at 11:20. Leaf through the lavish Boutique Ethiopia: top lodges, hotels, and imaginative entrepreneurs," our hotel being photographed by its designer, Getachew Tebeke Marye, whose work is visible at www.mountainview-hotel.com as the book says. Read that to 11:29, and finish this at 12 noon, when Ken comes to get me. Very good mushroom soup and a HUGE container of fruit, and a good cold Royal Crown Tonic Water, all for 90B, somewhat less than $5. And KEN intends to pay ALL of the $600 for Beru's hearing aid until, to my REPEAT of astonishment, Charley says HE'LL pay half. I, no surprise, say to count me out. Back to type this at 12:54, hearing with sadness that Ken's listened to a long-range weather forecast and we'll probably have some rain in Uganda some of the time. But we've surely been blessed with luck so far. Due to meet the car for Yemrehanna Kristos at 1PM. [All 33 Chilean miners now out and some are still in hospitals.] Terre arrives at 1:10 and we start on a decent road, which gets worse and worse, until finally, in a village, it reaches its nadir of ruts, washouts, rocks (some deliberately placed so the driver has to get out to remove them), and slows-to-almost-stops to ease in and out of chasms across the "road." We go and go, stopping at one point at a one-holer that Charley uses while Ken and I pee to either side of it, and Terre says, "Seven kilometers more." We passed a "public bus" kind of car, and only one other tourist vehicle with an older man in front and three "farangi" (foreigners) crammed into the single back seat. FINALLY we reach a small village with many signs at 2:51PM! And of course, though I joke with Ken by asking whether our insurance would cover an emergency helicopter airlift back to town, we have to drive the same road BACK! He says we're at 2900 meters, and we proceed uphill, blessedly on a rock-paved stairway that Terre walks up the "railing" of, simpler than the agonizingly graded steps of the stairway itself. We sit on a bench early on to catch our breaths, and I worry about getting to the top, but we climb to the cave entrance by 3:18, passing a number of beggars, one of whom Ken gives money to. In at 3:21 and out at 3:55 after an extraordinary suite of photos: flash is allowed inside and out, it was built a thousand years ago and is still used by locals, and the priest is a RELATIVE of Terre's, and he actually pulls aside the screen to permit me to take a flash of the replica of the Ark, which Terre explains is alike in detail, but much SMALLER, being carried by ONE person, whereas the original Ark requires FOUR men. Take flashes of everything. Much easier down the trail, taking photos of flowers, passing even MORE moaning beggars, and getting to the car at 4:12. It actually starts to RAIN, smearing mud down the windscreen, and though I'm sitting in the front, I take few pictures, for which the driver usually pauses: Ken bitches about the ONLY time during the trip up that I asked him to wait, and I chew him out on his audacity. Can see, and photograph, the hotel from a distance, and we reach the better part of the road sooner than we would have thought, and for a while the rain holds down the dust, but by the end we're trailing our typical red-brown rooster tail. We pass the ordinary number of farmers, villagers with firewood on their heads, and herds led by children along the way, with one calf stumbling badly when panicked by the closeness of the car. [Dinner pickup at 7:30.] I sit outside on a chair and watch the sun set until 6:13, really tired, and lie and talk with Ken to 7:09, who wants to share Charley on trips HIMSELF as a pleasant double. I'm simply too lazy to take a shower, so I excuse myself by seeing that Axum has churches and we'll probably be sock-footed again tomorrow. Wash face, leave hotel 7:30, to Seven Olives Hotel, Terre leading the way past rooms and porches to the restaurant in the rear, rather plain, more tourists than locals, and I don't trust the steak to be tender (though Charley's is), and Ken's Ethiopian "fasting" (vegetarian) meal is enormous, and I take the chicken when Terre describes it as "only four arms," (later as "two legs and two wings"). It's seasoned with a red sauce, is rather stringy, and the "wing" is actually the wing BONE with some scrawny breast meat attached. Eat with my fingers, avoiding the splintered bones, and have to be content with cold green beans, cold rice, and "chips" that really ARE closer to potato chips (also cold) than to French fries. They don't have tonic water, so I order Merinda, finding a FLY floating in my first glass. They bring a new cold bottle of Fanta. Terre doesn't talk much during the meal, Charley almost clears his plate, and Ken begs us to take some of his, appearing to turn back more food than he got. Eat to 8:35, new customers arriving all along, and then leave to drive for nearby Tejj House, which, as I'd feared, sounds EXACTLY like the Azmari performance I so hated in Gondar. But we're in with Terre to a smaller room, lower ceiling, where he assures me I can take photos, even flash, and there are CUSTOMERS who are clapping and laughing and participating to the point of "pasting" money to the dancer's forehead. I video a few minutes and, terribly, get an "empty battery" sign. I try a few more times and get a few more seconds, and a few more stills, but then stop trying, while Terre looks determinedly at my camera. The "soft," non-alcohol, 12B Tejj is merely honey water, not actually very good. Have a sip of Ken's "strong" Tejj for 25B, and it does seem to have a kick [Charley later says he drank 3/4 of a flask holding about 1/2 liter, maybe a bit more, and felt as if he'd drunk two glasses of wine]. The dancer shakes her shoulders [Gondar has three shifts of entertainers, I'm later told: the second pair mans the drums and claps beside me as we watch the first pair] in front of a pretty woman, stretching out her hands to be joined in the dance, and finally the woman stands and shakes her shoulders; everyone applauds. Her boyfriend is more demonstrative, rocking in his seat, then standing and dancing in place, and later getting to the middle of the small floor and dancing with his girl in a typical "cock and hen" preening display. Ken keeps saying that the 8-9 people at the OTHER end of the small room must feel left out, since the dancer rarely faces them. Toward the end, she comes to me and urges me to dance, and I decline, but as we leave, she faces me and I stare her down and shake my shoulders and Charley, joking I think, says that the audience was still laughing with me as HE left. Terre tries translating some of the lyrics, saying they are mostly praise, rather than derision, of the audience. Everyone clapping and enjoying the show definitely adds to my pleasure in the hour we're there, leaving at 9:30, back to the hotel by 9:49. [Wake-up knock---the phones never worked---at 6:20AM.] Bed at 10:08, having only gotten my morning pills ready, counting that we have only three days' supply of Diamox left, which we'll save for Rwanda.
FRIDAY, 10/15/10: Pee at 3:34AM, type DREAMS:10/15/10, put Vicks up my clotted nose to 3:45, extracting great gobs of mucus, probably mostly dust and thus inedible. [Just leaned over and involuntary type about 150 spaces.] Drink water, too. Up at 6:15, just as the knock comes to the door and Ken goes into the bathroom. I look at the Africa map until 6:25, to find Lalibela listed at 2800 meters, Axum at 2100, and Lake Victoria at 1100, with Rwanda still a question: Ken's guide suggesting that treks might go over 3000 meters. I sure hope NOT, at least not for us wusses. Breakfast 6:45-7:22, same good-sized, -flavored, and -cooked "Special" omelet, mango juice, three cups of tea with milk, lots of toast---and Ken orders a large bottle of water for 17B, which he splits into two half-liter bottles for us. I start typing this, having already packed, and we get a knock on the door at 7:38 to say that our car's here! We load in, I in front, and start off at 7:43, pausing for the driver to get a call that evokes a call-and-response between him and Terre about someone who's left his ticket at a hotel a kilometer away and wants us to bring it, but it turns out we don't do it. Bright sunny morning, crowds on the streets (including blue-uniformed students bunched in front of their school), and get to the airport at 8:25. Straight in to security, not having to take off shoes, and checked in by 8:30, "free" seating. I turn in a second boarding pass that happened to be behind mine. Terre says it's a 30-minute direct flight to Axum. Find chairs to sit in with my back to the departure lounge, and Ken's just said that people [file 3 started 10/15/10: 9:09AM] are looking over my back at what I'm doing, which contains an incredible number of typos because of its awkward angle on my lap. I've now filled TWO files with only half the trip, so four or even five files for the trip, maybe two for dreams (though those have been light so far), one for notes, leaving a problem for "bag storage spare file." Finish notes with relief at 9:12AM. 9:15AM: Take out sudoku. Get in line for lounge 9:22; 9:28: flight is to ADDIS, not Axum. 9:30: But BOTH flights are at SAME time. 9:37: NOW to lounge; through security 9:46. Board plane, after worry they've forgotten us, at 10:13, at right-front window, and had to overlook a chattering mother babbling to her child behind me. Thirty-minute flight, and I pick the SUNNY side! Off at 10:43, same mountains below as yesterday. 11:02 move back to OTHER side, but no real difference in view. 11:06 start down. So many aluminum roofs look like solar collectors. Land at 11:16, and off plane at 11:22. Get bag and meet Yirga (which I first transcribe as Year-ga) at 11:37. Bus, capacity about 20, goes at 11:40. Pantelione Monastery sits on a distant mountaintop. To Yeha Hotel at 12:01, up to empty my shoulder bag in front of the television set and back to car at 12:20 to climb a metal viewing stand at Queen of Sheba's palace, the first one, underneath, from 950BC, partly uncovered under the second and last one, from 6th C. AD, which had been hidden under a mound until it was excavated by a Frenchman and then a German, and I have to ask my astounded question twice: "You mean it was JUST like this when they uncovered it?"---simply because it looks so SQUARE and UNDAMAGED and CLEAN. Yirga assures me it's true. #821 throne-room floor. #825 shower-room floor, with drain to outside. Cemetery across the road was used from 700BC to 0AD, for middle-class people who didn't inscribe anything on their stelae. Leave for lunch, Ken screaming with hunger, at 1:29. To hotel 1:38 and lunch 1:46 of soup, chicken (little) and veal (lots) stir-fry with veggies on the side, with a 25B Royal Tonic. End at 2:30, Ken paying 230B, and find no printer in the Internet room. Down for the next tour at 2:58. 3:01 to King's tomb, with Adowa-battle mountains in the distance. Cave from 6th C. AD, maybe a tomb. That's to 3:47. Then to stela garden: biggest is 33 meters, from 4th Century, broken and NEVER upright because the stone is too weak at the base to support the enormous weight of the column above it. Fabulous samples and pictures: hope I can find a book at the airport about it. Tomb-roof weighs 311 tons. Basalt-like "molten" tomb sounds hollow (guide insists that the makers somehow liquefied the stone); no one's ever checked to see what's inside. Leave stelae 4:55 and run into guard trouble at Cathedral at 5PM: ticket seller has gone to church so we can't get in. #892 first Christian church, in 333AD. Leave at 5:10 for the building housing the original Ark of the Covenant, guarded by a "prisoner" devoted to it, knowing when he's going to die, and helping to appoint his successor before he dies. Stop for Ken and Charley and Yirga to try Internet for boarding passes at 5:23, and I start from #902, my maximum, at the beginning of Ethiopia, down to 856 photos. [Dinner at 7PM.] To room at 6:05, where I further reduce pictures to 827, discarding ONLY 75, with 1434 left. Do money to 6:44, deciding to get $100 in shillings for Uganda. Dinner 7-8:40, awful beef cutlet is actually a hamburger, with spinach, hard potato pieces, and bread soup to start, green oranges for dessert, and a Merinda good tonic for 10B, for which our voucher pays. Back to shit smellily. Shower 8:20-8:45, frustrated by hot water shutting off when someone else uses it, but finally getting de-soaped and back to typing at 8:50. Ken goes to bed about 9:15PM and I finish typing at 9:25PM, just about right for a 5:15AM wake-up call. Bed at 9:32, comfortable sleeping under a blanket.
SATURDAY, 10/16/10: 1:31AM: Wake and am just about to get up to go to the bathroom, when KEN gets up and goes in, so I start typing on my bed. When he comes out, I go in to type DREAMS:10/16/10 and finish this at 1:40AM, making a note to take rainwear to Entebbe in my shoulder bag: raincoat and umbrella. 5:28AM, after hearing numbers of mosquitoes even THROUGH my earplugs, dozing on and off, dreaming on and off, I hear a knock on the door and shout "Yes." I call "Ken" twice, but have to nudge his shoulder before he groggily says, "I must have slept through my alarm for the first time." I pee, he pees, and he brushes his teeth as I type this at 5:33AM. Finish typing dream at 5:41, relating to Ken that I can hear mosquitoes THROUGH my earplugs. Wash face, pack raingear, get out photos and yellow-fever forms, change underwear, pack, and get to breakfast 6:05-6:48, buffet style. They assure me the special omelet is part of the voucher, and it's enormous and delicious, and I have corn flakes in lukewarm milk for the first time on the trip, and of course at the end they debate about charging me extra for the special omelet. Special BIRD, with an odd elliptical gap in its beak, sat for our observation on the back of a chair just outside a dining-room window. Back to the room for Ken to "sing" "You are my SPECial voucher." Do this to 6:51, quite comfortable. Out of room at 6:53, turn in key, and desk clerk INSISTS breakfast is NOT on our voucher: "Our hotel doesn't do that." Yirga goes in with his voucher and Ken's printing of itineraries on including dinner last night and breakfast this morning. Sit in front of bus at 7AM and listen to doves. Bus leaves at 7:03. Passport at gate 7:10AM. Through first security at 7:31. Bags checked and 120B Axum book bought (with 60B from Charley, who forgives the debt because he got more than that amount in change by using the 50s I gave him for the Uganda change, instead of his lower-valued 20s. That's to 7:42; I get out sudoku. On line for boarding at 8:10. Through second security, my glasses setting off the buzzer, at 8:18. Change money (his badly mangled) with Charley by 8:26. Do I shit? No. Sudoku to 8:48. Board 8:50, to find ALL front right windows taken. Settle for next-to-back. One-hour flight. Take off at 9AM. Above clouds at 9:07; good views afterward. Land at 10:03, dock at 10:11. To baggage carousel 10:20. Get bag 10:28. Bisrat meets us and helps with our luggage into his van, which he drives to the main international terminal, and I give him 4B, keeping only 1B for myself. Through first international security with shoes off at 10:46. Through Ethiopian exit 11AM. Buy great $19 Axum book at 11:12, getting a dollar bill in change for my twenty. In toilet to 11:20 for good shit. Start security screening 11:44; second security by 11:53. Board 12:13 for 1:35 flight. Move back at 12:24, off at 12:37. #840 Lake Rudolf. Much clouds, much clear, eyes closing. Pass over HUGE city that turns out to be Kampala, a fire, and part of Lake Victoria---and such a smooth landing I actually can't tell when the wheels hit the tarmac at 2:12PM. Off plane at 2:30, on visa line at 2:33, and fill form to 2:39. Ken demands double-entry and doesn't get it, only paying $50, which Charley did without question. Get bag at 2:55, with "nothing to declare" line not open. Pass through by 3:15, only bags screened. To bank to 3:30, meet Ronny at 3:31, car goes at 3:38, stops to pay tickets at 3:40. Long, crowded, busy roads to Kampala Metropole Hotel at 5:12. [Leave 7:30AM tomorrow, after breakfast buffet at 7AM; wake-up call 6:16AM.] Our room has only a king-size bed, and so we have to hold doors open while tables are taken out, chairs are moved, and, of course, luggage arrives, I get a sheet, till 6:28. Ronny tells Ken the taxi should be $10, and takes us to Pang Pang Restaurant, whose entrance is closed, but we enter hotel grounds, walk way the hell around, and get to a large quadrangle with restaurant tables on two sides and tiny dining rooms on the other two sides. They suggest we eat on one side, at a table for six with a large lazy Susan in the middle. We get menus, and they seat a family with at least two kids and one baby at the next table, at which time I give Ken permission to ask them to move us. We go to another room and endlessly talk about what to order, and Ken finally points to what he INTENDS to be pork and scallions (their specialty), thinking it's under the pork column, but what we actually get is tofu in some kind of sauce---and as a final irony they don't have the dish Ken ACTUALLY wants. We also order shrimp fried dumplings, sizzling beef (which REALLY steams), and chicken with cashews. I have two tonics, they have three beers, and none of anything is very good. Back at 9:20, the taxi driver parking in front of the hotel and knowing well enough to quote us 10,000S, which I pay, since Ken paid the first one. Financial matters get complicated: Charley gives me 1500 for his part of the 5000S tip I gave the porter, and Ken keeps the 8500S change from the 120,000S we each contributed 40,000S to for the 111,500S bill. How to note this in our finances? I decide if KEN gets 8500S out of this, I should get 8500S out of this, and the only way I can do that is to say I SPENT 17,000S! Wow. Ken says the shower sopped the bathroom floor. We argue about finances, I look at Ken's portion (which he doesn't want) of the Uganda stuff Ronny gave us ONE SET of, and find some good things in the map of Uganda. Type this to 10:08PM while Ken reads to me from the guidebook, and decide to get to bed as soon as possible. Charley's batteries are now fully charged, though we had to use Ken's large triangular transformer because we've left the "Africa" my African adapter works in. He lowers the blinds, fusses about on his bed, the air conditioner blasts the room with cold air, and I've got to sleep under it. Leave everything undone at 10:10PM. Bed at 10:25PM, aware I'm going to get under eight hours' sleep for the first time in a long time, and maybe for that reason it takes me a long while to get to sleep, primarily lying there feeling, intensely: I'm in Uganda, we've got our guide for the rest of the trip, and this is how it's going to be. Finally I drift off to sleep.
SUNDAY, 10/17/10: 4:01AM: Wake, just finish transcribing DREAMS:10/17/10, and am about to pee and get some Vicks for my very dry nose and some water. 5:52AM: Transcribe second dream, AGAIN after lying awake a long time, thinking, debating Actualism, but never starting it. Type to 5:57AM, almost ready for the wake-up call. It comes at 6:13AM, Ken coughs as usual, I read the Uganda book to 6:30AM to learn that 1) the falls Speke saw are now under the Jinja Dam, and 2) only 30 people per day are allowed to see the six GORILLA groups in Uganda, and Ken adds that in Rwanda we can only stay with gorillas for ONE hour. I use hotel's shower cap to wash my face---and have misplaced my blue comb! 6:50AM: Finish packing and closing my bag---and Ken reminds me I've left my North Face shirt hanging in the closet! I dig my blue rain jacket out of the VERY BOTTOM of my suitcase in case it rains on the lake or with the chimps. Suitcase STILL closes with remarkable ease. My SHOULDER BAG is the one that's getting bulky with raingear and papers. [My note 11, near the top, is completely incomprehensible without a magnifying glass.] Leave bag in room. Back at 6:51 for water and money. Pee. Leave 7:33. Get off at zoo near the lake at 8:20, go up the central path ahead of Charley and Ken, aim to see the vacant chimp compound, but find that's a dead end. Try doubling back, but somehow miss the trail and end up near some cabins, then skirt the golf course, then pass near a native village (where a man looks out at me with curiosity), and I'm in increasing desperation as I see it's 9AM and supposedly the boat LEAVES at 9AM. I feel like I'm in a living nightmare! I try calling aloud for Ronny, and pass the same intersection THREE times, once getting to a locked gate, another time dead-ending at the golf course, and finally find a BACK alley past the ostrich enclosure, after startling an antelope in some private area, and finally ask someone which way the exit is, and he points the way I was going. At last I see Ronny waving at me, and we rush past the exhibits I saw first, cross a road, and then down a set of steps toward the water, and he says the boat is WAITING for me, but that my friends are VERY angry. Get to boat and apologize to everyone for getting lost, and we take off at 9:26, getting to the chimpanzee island at 10:02. Ngamba Island in Lake Victoria has 44 chimps (300 bird species), with the purpose of rehabilitation of chimps for re-integration into the wild. LONG talk with only one attractive audience member to look at, and then he's joined by his ugly companion. That goes to 11:01, when we're led to the balcony over the fenced area into which the keepers throw food, sometimes causing squabbles, and one chimp walks upright for a surprisingly long time. A gray-haired one is only 25, with that as a random characteristic; the oldest, black-haired, is 40. View to 11:35, taking photos and videos. Leave at 12. Get out of boat without tipping at 12:44. To nearby restaurant, where we'd left our orders before the zoo, and I have good chicken bits with a fruit drink with a grape Merdina [GOT to leave that typo] Merinda, and Charley has little (his stomach is beginning to feel "off"). Leave restaurant at 1:31, and stop at Source of Nile at 4:35, after driving same way AGAIN for a long time, once Ronny jamming on the brakes and having to steer into the FORTUNATELY empty opposite lane to avoid crashing into the stopped car in front of him. I, strangely, felt no danger. Lots of pictures after I change batteries, walking along with Charley while Ken chats with Ronny. Jinja means rock; Entebbe means seat. Photograph to 5:21, including a dance by locals, it seems. Great falls. To Hotel Nile to check in in an elegant lobby (check photos for times) and get to room, and shit to 5:59. Find bathing suit and dash to pool from 6:07-6:33 to soak in cool water and gaze at birds flying over, water filling ears so I don't have to listen to televised sports programs. Shower longly to get chlorine out of hair and off skin, to 7, and plead with them to stall dinner to 8, Ken beseeching me to sit with him on the balcony and look down on the Nile as it flows past the Jinja Nile Resort. I'm hoping a late dinner will get all the kids to bed, which it does, but the exiting conference almost throws us out of our buffet: poor food starting at 8PM at large table meant for conferees, with good pork, interesting pumpkin, but lousy raw beef, sad green beans and beets, and two bottles of tonic for 1000S each, for which I pay, with 7000S for their beers, but the desserts are fabulous: a chocolate mousse, a Bavarian chocolate cake with cherry sauce, good meringues, Irish pudding of unknown ingredients but great taste, fruit salad, other creamy cakes and pies, and about five other choices, and have to forgo the cheese platter that I see only at the end. Back from dinner at 9:05 to air out my mysteriously wet umbrella (it lightninged but never rained); Ken sets the wake-up call for 6:15, an hour and three-quarters before our leaving at 8AM for the 7+-hour drive south. I take dinner pills and set up tomorrow's pills, and type from 9:24-9:58PM, ready for bed at last. Comb hair, take night pill, use deodorant, pee, Vicks nose, get out clean socks, and get to bed at 10:08PM.
MONDAY, 10/18/10: 5:34AM: Wake early and lie for quite a while before getting up, carefully negotiating the two steps down from the bedroom level to the entrance-table level, picking up my stuff, and sitting on the john to type DREAMS:10/18/10. Type till 5:42AM, nose somewhat stuffed (yet dry at the same time), leg-bottoms tingly as if with sunburn, back slightly sore from sitting in the car so many hours yesterday---not really looking forward (except for the views) to the seven or more hours on the road today to the first of two two-night stands, followed by a single night before the night in Dubai waiting for our 2AM flight back to NYC. Can now count the remaining FULL days of the trip on the fingers of one hand, always a pleasant landmark in any travel. Doze, and Ken's out of the bathroom at 6:45: he said he'd left a 5:30 wake-up call that never came, and left me a plastic bag for my still-damp bathing trunks. Close suitcase easily at 7AM and put my shoes on to go out for my umbrella. Great breakfast, after the cook misplaces my omelet---and I have to climb MANY stairs, until at 7:41 I return to room C2. Marvelous sun-filled view across the river, but sadly no birds or monkeys in trees or on grounds. Ronny pays the 90,000S bill in cash, and the car goes at 7:57AM. Ken now sits in front and fields questions to Ronny, taking up his attention (and maybe even keeping him awake: the drive must be quite boring to him by now), while Charley and I exchange occasional comments in the backseat, passing multiple bottles of water up to Ken, who's tormented by a sore throat with an insatiable thirst, about which he's so worried he even asks about the possibility of phoning a doctor when we later arrive at Lake Mburo Tented Camp. Charley takes some kind of pill, too; I guess I've been lucky so far. We remark about a motorcyclist with his view forward TOTALLY obscured by the yard-square board he holds immediately in front of his head. #975 Mandela Stadium at 9:21AM. Stop 9:55-10:25AM at the Churchill Tour Center on the North Bypass of Kampala, getting two cups of coffee, a book of Uganda hotels and a rudimentary map, and T-shirts for each of us, Ken having to settle for a large, as they don't have an extra-large size. This all completely overflows my shoulder bag. We stop 1-1:15PM at a roadside drum-making shop, where they demonstrate numbers of instruments: rattles, xylophones, drums---while shiny-skinned Blacks whack away at stumps with sharp-edged adzes (or whatever the sharpened hoe-type hewer is called). I take photos, ignore pleading looks for tips, and climb back into the car before anyone else. Fish caught fresh in Lake Victoria are prominent along the road both in sales booths and on the fronts of cars, and Charley comes up with the classic "Fish on the grille." Stop for photos at the circular arch that announces the Equator, where we chat with an improbable London family with three fair daughters and a very quiet youngest son, who also stop at an art shop with us. We order a cheeseburger and onion (and avoid tomato and green-pepper slices) lunch for which Ronny pays, and sodas and beers for which Charley insists on paying, "In exchange for the times you've treated me." Note that Masaka is 34 km at 1:34PM, which we reach (at least the outskirts of) at 1:54PM, which implies 34 km in 20 minutes, or 100 kph, which doesn't seem reasonable when, at what seems to be top speed, Ronny's speedometer reads 80. Lots of papyrus growing in marshes flanking the road; periods of great road, newly expanded to three lanes; periods of awful road, where they're building on each shoulder or just lacking in maintenance. It starts raining, just drops when we leave lunch, going from 1:50-2:30, laying dust, and even causing a small flood in a poor town that I photo from the moving car. Ronny says the gorillas are at 2400 meters, and the wusses DO get the chance to see the closest ones. At 3:13 we enter the National Park, Ronny stopping for necessary papers. Impalas possible from that point. Sign at 3:18: 25 km to Lake Mburo, and I almost debate stopping on the way to let me shit in the woods (savannah, sorry), but manage to hold out until the camp. At 3:37 we enter the park boundary. Told we'll see zebra, blackbuck, warthogs, and impalas. Two topis and LOTS of pictures on our way to camp at 4:25. We get a wet towel and a fruit drink and a welcome, and I say, "I really need a toilet." Down a rocky path to a clean room with a shit-filled toilet bowl, and shit from 4:33-4:39, flushing once to get rid of the smell, and the tank hasn't filled by the time I flush again, so I leave it almost the same as I found it. Ken (mainly) fusses in the tent to 4:50 and we get to car at 5PM, which goes at 5:02, for a ride down to the lake, with a hippo on the way, lots of impalas, and a few zebras, which Ronny says are MORE numerous in the park than impalas [which we see literally HUNDREDS of the next morning]. [Boat at 2PM tomorrow. Game ride at 7:30AM tomorrow after coffee---hot chocolate for me---and a full breakfast afterward, which we order on paper after we finish dinner.] Down to the massed tents around Lake Mburo, even including a small sales kiosk, with large warthogs kneeling to crop the grass: we're told we can get within five meters of them, and then WATCH OUT. No hippos at the lake, and a small boat leaves as we watch. Leave the lake at 5:44, more photos, no more hippos, back to our "Buffalo" tent-on-a-platform at 6:06PM. I sit on porch while Ken johns. "Magic time": small (and now loud) sounds mixed with UTTER silence. Tranquil view over cactus, acacia, bush, red-dust roads, and lake. Ken fusses with flashlight, which finally works so that I can use the one furnished with the room, which he says works only intermittently, but which I find completely serviceable. To dinner at 7PM, not yet totally dark, moon semi-obscured by clouds. A semi-tender steak (which I announce to be more tender than anything I had on the Five Stans trip) in a tasty red sauce, two enormous potatoes (one white, one yellow, though not a yam), and green beans. Ken hardly eats anything, even debating not going on the 7:30AM ride tomorrow. Charley eats everything, while I'm right in the middle with about half. End with a non-chocolate chocolate sauce for the lemon cake, and Ken and I have Bitter Lemons while Charley has a glass of red wine and, much to Ken's delight, it's announced that it'll all go on the tab at the end of our stay. Back to dark cabin (electricity not working) at 8PM, and I winnow pictures down to 964 shots, with 899 left of the original around-1009 at twilight. Sit outside in dark (as Ken creaks floorboards, muttering to himself, getting ready for bed as soon as possible) winnowing slides from 8:10-8:50, write this note at 8:52, prepare to wash face, undress, and go to bed at 9:18. Long time to get to sleep, pulling up the blanket when at first even the sheet seemed too warm. Have a dream that I tell myself will be easy to recall with two keywords, but forget the keywords.
TUESDAY, 10/19/10: Pee at 1:06AM, after Ken wakes me by peeing and putting on lights and rocking cabin with his walking around. Note DREAMS:10/19/10 at 3:01. Write to 3:04. 6:20AM: Ken hears, he thinks, someone unzip our front tent flap, but all I can see is that light is shining through the screened vents on each side of the still-closed zipper. I get up to shit. Breakfast comes on a tray from behind the tent at 6:59AM, and he points to the metal container for my hot chocolate, and the container for milk, and then he leaves, just before I reach across the tray, catch some edge of the milk container with my North Face shirt-cuff, and TOTALLY upend the container, spilling milk MOSTLY into the tray, but onto and under plates and other containers for coffee and sugar---and it even splashes copiously onto the wooden deck and spatters the blue plastic "carpet." Totally disgusted, I actually pour MOST of the milk from the TRAY into my cup, thinking (idealistically? fatalistically?) that the brevity of the encounter won't permit any pathogenic organisms on the tray to infiltrate the milk on the surface, since the tray is left with a skim of milk, which I shake over the side of the porch, which motion Charley happens to catch from his tent above ours. I have the rest of the chocolate with two coconut-flavored "Nice" biscuits, and Ken comes out to say that he certainly DOES want milk for his coffee, and manages to get about a dozen drops from the almost-dry pitcher. I scuff the curds of milk into the floorboards with my shoes, trying to erase the spots from the blue plastic. THEN try to clean my glasses and the right nose-piece breaks off! So I MUST unpack my luggage, getting out my omega-3 capsules for breakfast, which I had been willing to forgo, and find my spare glasses, carefully putting the new glasses and the plastic nose-piece into the firmly shutting case. Down to the car at 7:29AM, find the two sections of the roof raised, so I sit in the back and Ken and Charley share the middle seat. He drives off fast, but the top is padded, so I'm not buffeted much, and choose to sit much of the time, but it's great to stand and have a 360-degree view. #989 (I now realize THESE numbers are useless, should have gone by the 100-NNN series) is a tawny eagle atop a tree. #991 is a pair of wattled lapwings, #983 is a crowned crane from a great distance, and the horned cows are called Ankole Cattle. I see a flash of what might have been a meerkat, but Ronny says there aren't any here, so it was probably a slender mongoose. Lots and lots of pictures, missing only elands and baboons. Out of car at 9:28, actually rather tired, and up for a good breakfast of Weetabix, banana-pineapple-watermelon fruit plate, and scrambled eggs with toast and butter and jam, with another two cups of hot chocolate, and when I take my pills, including my weekly mefloquine and my first of three final Diamox, I drink a whole half-liter of water in my emptied chocolate cup, and get back to cabin at 10:08. Ken requests a shower, which has to be poured manually into a tank above our tent. I shit surprisingly OK, but my throat is still sore and I've taken the last of the Fisherman's Friend that I'd had in the old wrapper; Ken gives me two of the six I'd given him, saying he's feeling better, and I have to go into my Quies box to get the remaining FFs. Start deleting photos from this morning at 10:27, starting with 871 left (1001 on) and ending with 879 left (with 990 on) at 10:40, and then start catching up from the middle of note 11, putting on my sweater and using the bed quilt as a lap robe because my thighs are feeling cold, chatting with Ken, feeling sorry that the passing baboons never stopped to pose for a picture; Ken turns his luggage inside out looking for my FFs. I FINALLY catch up with this at 12:18PM, astounded it took so long, but then I DO go ON. It's gotten progressively hotter and hotter on the porch: a lizard crossed two or three times, an enormous bumblebee hovered around the railing, more baboons dashed past the paths, workers cleaned the tent below us, Ken fussed around, and I'll now go to my bag to find my remaining Fisherman's Friends, determined NOT to have a cold that would prevent me from seeing the gorillas tomorrow! [Next, today, is lunch at 1, a two-hour boat ride on the lake followed by an evening game drive, then dinner and bed for an early departure tomorrow.] Finish this finally at 12:20PM. Fuss finding (possibly shampoo-soaked) remaining 3-4 Fisherman's Friends, extra note cards, and the last two days of the scheduling (gorillas aren't TOMORROW, they're the NEXT day), and get my bathing trunks out of Ken's plastic bag for the final drying, and put tomorrow's omega-3 in my dop kit, all by 12:43, when I type this, ready to relax before lunch and our boat trip. Clouds begin to build over the lake, and we go for tomato soup, chicken in a red sauce, and a huge pile of rice (of which I eat about two forkfuls), followed by the tiniest diced fruit in a bowl, with a Bitter Lemon to wash it all down. Ken hadn't understood that we'd be meeting at 1:40, so he leaves his fruit bowl for me to finish as he goes to pee, and I follow him and get to the car just at 1:41PM. Drive down toward the beach in a few drops of rain, seeing what at first appeared to me to be a dead warthog lying in the gutter in a pool of mud-red water, but Ronny backs up to prove to us that it's alive. He stops at the office, but it seems to be closed, so he gets right back into the car and we drive down to the lake. The clouds continue to accumulate, the "captain" is to be consulted as to whether we go or not, but Ken right then decides that no matter what the captain says, he won't be going on the boat. Then it begins to rain in earnest about 2:10 and Ronny asks if we want to go back to the car, but I suggest the nearer grass-roofed restaurant. Unfortunately it houses, also, what turns out to be mostly a family: a mother from Allentown, Pennsylvania, who came to visit her daughter and three or four grandchildren, along with two adult women friends and any of their children that would make the total of the four extremely active kids who keep shouting around the place even after they finish their lunch. At first I think there's some machine rattling in a building at the rear, but it turns out to be the storm of rain pelting the aluminum roof! The rain makes absolutely no sound on our grass roof. Charley and I sit on a more-and-more wrecked sofa and chat about his two older brothers, while Ken talks about himself to Ronny. The rain continues to pour down, and the woman from Allentown talk to us for a while, and then Ken, primarily, decides that there's no reason to wait around here: even the warthog, greedily gobbling the wet grass, opts to take shelter under our building. So we dash through the red rivers to the car---I'd got out my flimsy raincoat, sorry I hadn't brought anything more substantial, because I fear that my sore throat, with this chill, might REALLY bring on a cold. So we dash back to the car at 2:59PM, spotting a hippo grazing on the way, and get back about 3:20 to find the staff waiting with umbrellas, one of which Ken takes. I have my own, and Charley doesn't want any. Ken invites Ronny to a drink at the bar, but I pass the entrance to the walk to the bar to have another rather soft shit, come out to find Apollo swabbing the almost totally wet blue plastic carpeting, and get out a towel on which to sit while I catch up with this by 3:47PM, figuring to do sudoku to pass the time; all the while thinking, "You might get what you wish for": just yesterday I was saying I wanted a day of vacation away from this vacation, and here it is, with only a possible game drive before dinner and bed on the menu for the rest of the day. Apollo asks if I want tea, and I think about it for my sore throat, but say no. Now all I have to do is stave off a cold until Thursday, Gorilla Day. Apollo warns me to watch the umbrella so that it won't blow off the porch, and I catch it between a table and a chair so it can't go anywhere. Birds and insects sound content in the diminishing rain, which Apollo says will last some time more. Will fish out Fisherman's Friend and sudoku now at 3:50PM. Ah, a last tremble of thunder reminds me of the increasing thunder (and the one bright flash at lakeside) that accompanied the storm. Then decide to GET the tea Apollo suggested, and Ken wants some, too. Even now, with little rain, the tent above the porch, thus above my head, flexes back and forth with the sound of warping aluminum. Ah, inside the tent to find the electricity on! Continue with sudoku, until Ken starts talking about tipping, then about personal data about Ronny, about which I express not the slightest interest. Incredibly, this seems to shock him, and I assure him that he's seen this side of me before, so he shouldn't be surprised at THIS late date. I even manage to say I'd have nothing in common with the Ethiopian woman he's reading about who established some sort of home for AIDS orphans. It's just not me. Finish tea and groundnuts by 6PM. Then Charley joins us, and we chat until I pee at 6:50, and catch up with this by 6:55PM, ready to go to dinner. The pork chops are tasty, though rimmed with fat and bone, and the starting hot cucumber soup is just bizarre until I add enough salt and pepper so that I'm having salt-and-pepper soup. Dessert of another odd cake. Back from dinner at 8:08PM. Ken leaves a wake-up call for 6:30AM. Fuss with things and get to bed at 8:57PM. Up to unzip everything (Ken insists, because he doesn't want "lizards crawling into the bathroom") and pee at 10:26PM and at 11:52PM. Note DREAMS:10/20/10.
WEDNESDAY, 10/20/10: Pee for the third time at 2:43AM and take two aspirin for my coming cold and present sore throat. Pee for the fourth time at 3:53AM, after Ken wakes me by clumping past to pee himself. Pee for the fifth time (breaking Ken's record of four?) at 5:05 and type NIGHTMARE, at end of DREAMS:10/20/10. Up at 6:30, when Ken gets up, and repack part of suitcase until Ken announces that the tea has arrived outside, so I go out at 6:40 to 6:50, go to breakfast at 7:01 for fruit, say I don't want the cereal I requested, have two more cups of tea, and have a plain omelet with one slice of toast. Drop the agreed-on 30,000S into the tip box, and TOTALLY WIND MYSELF by climbing to the Observation Point at the top of the hill on which the dining room stands. The view isn't that much different from what we get from our porch, just broader in scope. I repack my bag, put my white shirt into the shoulder bag, and drape my blue rain-type coat over it. Stuff the current two sheets of the final part of the itinerary (which get badly wrinkled in the process), my pillbox, and my Neo into my jammed shoulder bag, getting to the car late at 8:02AM, agreeing with Ken to take the front seat, and the car goes at 8:06AM. Record amusing "Fruits of Faith" emblazoned on the front of a passing truck. Stop in Mbarara for gas, and Ronny suggests I try that pharmacy for my cold tablets. Given the choice of simple lozenges and amoxicillin, I take the amox, for an astounding 2000S, somewhat under a dollar for 24 of them, and am told to take two every three hours. Tell Ken about this and he says, "No, no, no," and comes over with me to ask for some ingredient SEPARATE, which they don't have, tries a few other combinations, and settles on something that's taken one tablet every four hours, taking 20 of them in case HE might need some. They're pseudo-ephedrine (PS) with other stuff added in. Take the first PS at 10AM. The scenery gets grander as we stop for lunch at 12:14PM in Kabale at the Little Ritz of Africa, peeing, and selecting a table on the balcony overlooking the busy streets, but Ken and I order pizzas at about 12:20PM that don't arrive until about 1PM, at which time both Ronny and Charley are finished with their chicken dishes. Ronny says we can stop in the Post Office for me on the way back. Take 2 amox at 1:28PM. Leave at 1:36PM just as it starts raining, which it'd been threatening to do all morning. Stop at luxurious Traveler's Rest Hotel in Kisora at 3:30PM, which is where I think he says we'll stay near in two days on the way back north. The road has deteriorated, or never been repaired, and it's hours of miserable driving in pelting rain that obscures much of the surrounding terraced landscape. Leave hotel at 3:43. To border at 4:03-4:10, to immigration as numbers 4, 5, and 6, and out at 4:15. To Rwanda entry at 4:25, Ken luckily remembering the name of the hotel we're staying at. Take second cold pill at 4:30, 2.5 hours late, and two amox at 4:34, almost on schedule. Ronny has his own forms to fill out, including insurance (he has only one seatbelt in front, so if I use it, he can't wear one), to 4:49. Change two clocks back to 3:49. Leave 3:45. Get to Mountain Gorilla View Lodge, still in rain, at 4:45 and go out to record and look at some of the Rwandan singing and dancing for an audience of only four men and me until 5, when I leave, with only one spectator remaining. Check in to room 19, REALLY out of the way, and light a candle, since electricity is only on 4:45-7AM and 6-11PM. [Dinner's at 7, breakfast special-early for us at 5:45, pickup at 6:30---wakened by Ken at 5AM, thankfully 6AM old time.] At 5:23 I delete photos that end at 1059, starting discards with 990, and get down to 1025, with 809 left, by 5:35, increasingly dim in the room, even with the battery-powered electric lantern and the live, wood, crackling fire in the fireplace! Start transcribing in gloom at 5:37, electricity on at 5:55PM, at which time I move to the john, the brightest seat in the house, and finish this to date, with many errors and backspaces, by 6:35PM. The room is huge, the sink space enormous, but the entire storage space is four hangers above Ken's luggage, my suitcase on the fireplace mantel, and my shoulder bag emptied beside the coffee table where I started transcribing. Only a short time to dinner, reminding myself to take two more amox at 7:34PM, and the other pill at 8:30PM. Leave for dinner at 6:55PM, meeting Charley as we're the first diners, having consommé, obotie (a corn mush which, as I tell them, makes polenta taste like ambrosia by comparison), and some chicken stew with green beans that Ken insists are fresh but I can't tell from last night's frozen. Nothing's that great, but Ken says he can taste the French influence. I hold out hope for dessert, and the passion fruit is tart, the tomato fruit zesty and sweeter, but the chocolate mousse-cake, the vanilla sauce on the insipid white bread, and the other---whatever it is---isn't worth having a second serving of, until Ken praises, vaguely, the bananettes, so I finish my tonic (for 1000, while their wines are 3000 each) with one of those. Back to the room at 8:02PM, to be followed by a maid who bears hot-water bottles encased in blue fuzzies, and who resets the fire with lots of wood, crackling now as I finish this at 8:07PM. It's still raining, though lighter than before, and even Ken agrees with me and Charley when we tell him we decided at LEAST to go to the mustering center to see what the day MIGHT be like, even if it is still raining. I keep hoping it'll blow itself out by morning---reminding myself that I did NOT ask about the possibility of renting boots for the mud. I fantasize that the weather will be so bad that no one will show up and we'll get to see the prize group located only ten minutes from the center. Ken sneezes a number of times. I decide to take my pills at their appointed times, figuring they'll both allow for NOT taking them during the night, and will see how I feel in the morning: my throat isn't QUITE so sore, and I haven't coughed since I did a few times in the car. Chat with Ken at 8:10PM. Watch the fire, and dread missing the gorillas, to 8:30. Then wash my face, Vicks my nose, and get to bed at 8:45PM. Then, just as my feet unfreeze by wrapping them around the fuzzy hot-water bottle, I remember my pills, and get up to take PS, two amox, two aspirin, and a melatonin before going back to bed and almost immediately zonking out.
THURSDAY, 10/21/10: At 1:35AM I write "both" upside down on my note-page because the electric flashlight has burned so low I can barely see the page itself, indicating that I take one PS and two amox, but don't bother with aspirin because I wouldn't be able to distinguish them from melatonin. Had tried to put on the green plastic "house slippers," but they just don't fit, so I put on my shoes to protect my feet from the cold stone floor. Only the faintest light from the dying fire remains. Back to sleep rather contentedly, after turning on my bed-light slightly so I can tell when it's 4:30AM and they turn on the electricity. Wake to a faint light at 4:54AM, just as Ken calls out to someone who might have just knocked on our door. He pees and I request the john, feeling that I might want to shit a bit, but I just pee. Back to dress against the cold, listen to Ken complain and ejaculate, "I know what I want my next trip to be: fancy French hotels and restaurants!" I say this is paradise compared with the tented camp last night, and catch this up-to-date by 5:17AM, throat still vaguely sore, but feeling reasonably fit. Now to open the door and see what outside looks like, rain-wise. Fuss and wash, gather pills, take three recent pills at 5:35AM, and get ready for breakfast at 5:40AM. Finish good omelet by 6:15. To Volcanoes Park 6:25-6:42. Limit of eight people at a time going to each of eight gorilla groups, thus 64, and Ken reminds me that reservations had to be made FAR in advance for $500, so for 60 people, that's $30,000/day! Have a cup of tea, and pee in the bathroom. Leaders stand in a military group and tourists chat, mostly younger people. Note this as I sit at 7:07AM, having taken sweater off in the increasingly warming (and blessedly clear-looking) day. Start writing on a separate note and will leave previous notes in the car so, if it rains, they won't get wet, now at 7:12. Leader of leaders apportions groups, and Ronny tells us to join a fivesome of four Germans from Frankfurt and a French woman now living in Strasburg, to whom Ken speaks in French about our trip through Alsace. We're assigned the Sabyinho Group, nine gorillas ruled by the largest silverback of them all, with a number-two male, two females, three sub-adults, and two babies less than two years old. Number two turned out to be the son of number one. This is the closest group, implying it's the easiest, not least because we don't have to take box lunches, since we'll be back in time to have lunch in the hotel. The estimated time in is one hour, and we can only spend one hour with the gorillas, which Vincent, our leader, later says will move in a few hours to a new location, and yesterday's location was at a somewhat lower (and easier to reach) level. The largest silverback is 37, and number two is 20. 4PM is "break time" for the group, with much socializing and interaction between adults and younger ones. They go one-two years without drinking, relying on the vegetation to give them their required liquids. Babies are aged 1-3 years, children 3-5 years, sub-adults 5-8 years; above are adults. OUR silverback has been ruling for 17 years: Guhundo---"to beat," from his habit of beating his chest. Younger was born in 2009, youngest 2 months ago, not from the same mother. Sign forms, merely names and age, to 7:40. Then to car, Vincent riding with the five others. We drive past the road to our hotel, but turn off at another sign for Volcanoes National Park, lots of children on the road going to school. The "Easter" or "Pascal" flowering tree is here called "Angel's Trumpets." Car goes to "special parking lot" from 7:47-8:07, over bumpy roads, through villages. Sabyinho means "old tooth," since that mountain (on the shot I take of the painting of the range of mountains inside the entrance to the park office) looks like a snaggled-with-age tooth. We get walking sticks and contract for bearers, no one but Ken and Charley requesting them, I thinking that I won't need one (OH HO!). They "cost" $10 each. We start about 8:20AM. Walk through potato patches manned by village women and children, two of whom get into a squabble when one's cow attacks the other's, and Vincent interposes to tell them not to argue (and make bad PR in front of tourists). Individuals stop for pictures, the others chatting in German, but I'm determined to save my breath. Photo a few heaps of red potatoes. Cross a stone fence and stop for an orientation now that we're officially in (actually, waiting for another group to vacate the park's anteroom). Have to dig a hole for number 2 (as guide tells us) so animals won't eat it and spread disease; number 1 is OK if we tell guide we're stopping. We will go to 200 yards from the gorillas, leave all bags and sticks and everything but cameras, proceed to group, and speak in whispers, cough to the side, and don't spit. 8:59AM enter the park. Immediate narrow five-log bridge that everyone has to be "handed" over. Then into bamboo forest, with strict warning not to touch the stinging nettles, which come in three forms, all pointed out. Early on, the outside of my left little finger encounters something that irritates me [even as I type this more than ten hours later]. Start uphill at 9:08: Vincent says it would take him 20 minutes to get to the site from here; we'll take at least an hour. At 9:40AM I slip on a muddy slope and jam arms and hands against bamboo (severely dirtying my North Face shirt), fall on my knees (leaving black splotches that still haven't dried), and do a sideways split that AGONIZEDLY pulls my left inner-thigh muscle, making it terribly painful even to get UP, and I try NOT to think of what it will do to the rest of the day---or even the rest of the trip. Drop the bags off at 10:53, after impossibly long trail on which Charley's porter helps me more than he helps Charley, who isn't having any problem at all. Guide directs the slowest, Ken, to be in front with HIS porter, and the five others take pictures and try not to grouse behind us. At some side steps my ankles feel PERILOUSLY weak, as if the slightest jar might BREAK them, and my knees are beginning to give out, and I'm already breathing in permanent oxygen debt from our height of 2620 meters, 7830+ feet, roughly a mile and a half! Ken looks down the slope yet to go and says he simply can't do it; he must return to the car. I sit for a long time, get to my feet in AGONY, and start down on the arm of Alphonse, who helps and helps and helps, and I finally get to the gorillas at 11:13, catching Number 1 tearing down a stalk of bamboo and running off. Sit next to Alphonse, again with pain, and start taking photos, then movies, of Number 2 below, a mother and child right beneath our feet, the crashing of another and a baby invisible to the right, and the silverback way down to the left. Watch in fascination, taking pictures, aware of 8-7-6 minutes of film left, and then KEN appears, giving credit to Vincent for the final argument: "What are you afraid of?" "Afraid of falling." "We will hold you on both sides so you won't fall." And it was done. I give hearty congratulations to everyone for their dedication. Then Ken volunteers to start back early, and Vincent says I'm next, and with Alphonse on one side, and who I THINK is Vincent on the other until it turns out to be one of the guides at the site, walks me exhaustively back to the bags, where I sit TOTALLY out of breath, wondering HOW I'm going to make the rest of the way back to the car. Charley graciously gives me ten ones for my ten, and I give two to the unknown guide who helped me up, and three to Alphonse, because they were both remaining at the site. Leave with bags at 12:12. Pee at 1:04, and it starts to rain at 1:21, one of my fears: the whole group getting drenched because they have to wait for US. I'm in severe pain, Charley's porter Emanuel almost constantly holding my hand, catching me a few times as I overbalance, but thankfully my ankles are spared by NOT being on a slope that's down on the right, but more or less straight, even through the mud. When my left leg is forced into almost the same position into which I slipped when I tore my ligament, the pain is terrible, but I mainly avoid it by digging in with my heels and going STRAIGHT up or down, rather than SIDEWAYS in any direction. The guides have infinite patience, and I can't WAIT for the potatoes to come into view. Finally the last tourist crosses the bridge, and we start into the potatoes, everyone far ahead, umbrellas raised. Back at last to collapse into the front seat of the car at 1:40, and back to the hotel at 1:54 to drag myself and sit almost comatose in a chair at the table, eating VERY little lunch aside from the "coneflower" (corn) soup and two bottles of tonic, which my body seems to desperately need. [Leave 8AM tomorrow.] Take 3 pills at 2:10, waiting for lunch. Walk was to 2620 meters, 5 kilometers, 3.31 miles, 9,395 steps by various measuring devices. Soup arrives at 2:13. To room exhausted at 3:10 and undress and spread clothes out to dry and get right into bed while Ken showers. [Dinner is at 7:30.] Lie in bed to 5:30 (when I take 3 pills), lights come on at 6PM, and Ken gives me a Naprosin for pain at 6:05PM, saying "long lasting" without knowing whether it's 8 or 12 hours. Start transcribing notes at 6:20, Ken interrupting for what may be an Internet symbol in his Lonely Planet Guide. Back to work at 6:42. We bicker about renewing fire, call a starter in, and I take a Fisherman's Friend when I cough 2-3 times at 7:13. Feed fire again, wash hands, and leave for dinner after peeing at 7:30. Almost alone in dining room for Kinigi soup, veal chops, potatoes, green beans and carrots, two bottles of tonic, and banana crumble pie for dessert. Back from dinner 9:18. Somehow lose SECOND set of earplugs and spend 8 minutes de-cottoning an old set from my Quies box. Sit again to transcribe at 9:27, take three pills at 9:42, tell Ken to set out another Naprosin that I'll take when I wake to pee, and finish this up-to-date at 9:52, Ken having set a wake-up call for 6:30 and taken my last five singles toward my bar bill of $10, which I put onto debt sheet, he paying entire bill of $29. Naprosin seemed to work as the walk to and from the restaurant wasn't painful. Waiter reminds me to change to plastic shoes because it's POURING rain and my black shoes are drying in front of the fire from having been (only in jest) thrown into the washing machine to clean them, but are anyway very wet, as are still my jeans and two shirts from the trek. I'm now wearing my tan trousers and cool-weather long-sleeved blue shirt over clean underwear, being just TOO LAZY to shower here, hoping the hotel tomorrow will solve all my drying problems. The last of the fire burns brightly in the fireplace as I start to shut off lights, move my night-light from the fireplace mantel back to my night table, which I suspect ate my earplugs, and get to bed at 10:10PM.
FRIDAY, 10/22/10: Wake at a point when I can't tell the time by my watch, nor by the dim lantern in the bathroom (which I'd put on after Ken left it turned off when he went to bed before me). Guess that it's after 1:30AM, so I can take two amox along with his Naprosin, and I try to shit but can only pee. A few minutes later Ken gets up, berates me for turning on the lantern, and says it's 2:05AM, so my time guess was pretty good. "Then why is the lantern there?" I ask. "So I can see when I'm in the bathroom." "But how can I see to get to the bathroom if it's off?" And he doesn't answer: probably would merely complain that I hadn't brought my own flashlight for nighttime navigation. Back to sleep with my desk lamp turned on, and I'm wakened by its faint light at 4:45AM. Start to type, but Ken gets up and says, "Bob," through my earplugs. "What?" I ask with my earplug out. He doesn't answer. "I assume you want the bathroom?" I say. "Yes, I said so," he tells me. "I only heard 'Bob,'" I retort. He goes in, pees, and comes out to say, "Thank you." I go in, type the above to 5:03AM, type DREAMS:10/21/10 to 5:05AM, and get back to bed. Can't sleep, and keep thinking of so many things to do before we leave that I get up at 6:15AM, take a cold pill, wash my face, start gathering up wet clothes, set up pills to take during the day---almost out of water---and decide to put on my still-damp shoes to let the heat of my feet dry them out, I hope quickly. Type this to 6:35 as Ken shaves. The wake-up knock on the door comes at PRECISELY 6:30AM, and Ken says he asked Ronny to request our lights be left on past 7AM, although it's certainly bright enough outside to see clearly even without electricity. 6:52AM: take 2 more amox, finishing my water. Take a Toridol (ketorolac) at 7:38 after a good omelet, juice, cereal, hot chocolate breakfast from 7:02-7:32AM, asking at the desk and finding that they "still" (as they didn't last night) don't have stamps. Ken takes a cold pill in exchange for his Toridol, and insists I use a glass to drink of his water. Go back to packing at 7:39AM. Ken calls for porters as I finish packing my suitcase at 7:45AM. Now for the shoulder bag. Porters leave with bags at 7:50, and Ken leaves, too, taking the key. This Neo is the last item into my stuffed shoulder bag, but since I'm sitting in the back, it won't be underfoot. Now my "file protect" file is file 7. Last room-check, last pee, last drink of water, and leave cabin at 7:56. Car goes at 8:07AM, and Ronny stops at a Rwandan post office where I try (and he helps with his cash) to get one of each stamp, getting a lot for 810F (and four lovely coins of change from Rwanda from Ronny, amounting to 1000F, something less than $2, which he freely gives me). I thank him and show the stamps and coins to the other two in the car at 8:40AM. Up INCREDIBLY rutted road to Virunga Lodge for the view at 9:11-9:33AM, getting small folders of the chain for each of us, being told that it's $500/night "for everything," but presumably not including the helicopter ride that would avoid the almost impossible road. To the border surprisingly quickly at 10AM. Through two passport offices at 10:22, paying another $50 each to the cheery officer. Ronny takes longer, worrying us, as it threatens to rain. Car goes at 10:28AM, when we change our clocks to 11:28AM, final change before the eight hours' adjustment to NYC time. Stop again at Traveler's Rest 11:50-12:09 to pee, while Ronny seems to be eating some meal. I take two amox and a cold pill at 12:10. Stop for roadwork about five minutes, much busier today than when we came over in the pouring rain, and much more traffic today, and Charley starts unpacking the bag with the lunches Ronny has provided us: two pieces of fried chicken without skin, a tomato-fruit that cuts nicely in half with the teeth and can be reamed out easily, and a passion fruit that spills a stain on my pants when it crushes, rather than splits, when I bite into it. Passion fruit juice in a cardboard box, and a nice piece of banana bread finish it off: Charley not eating the fruit, Ken digging out one of his FOUR rolls (at which Charley at least raised his eyebrows) of toilet paper to supplement the single napkin in each bag. All this parked at the side of a road being constructed, cars splashing past, a magnificent farmland stretching in terraced crescents below us, raining harder and softer over the afternoon. This goes to 12:58. Reach the Kabela city limits at 2:30, and then up ANOTHER long, twisting, rutted, lined-with-waving-or-throwing-mud children, potholed road to Arcadia Gardens at 2:53. Walk across the wet grass to our rooms, cottages on the brink of the cliff overlooking Lake Bunyonyi, with tables set outside (where some are still lunching), and I ask for the plans for the rest of the afternoon. Ronny allows that they had included a boat ride on the lake, which Ken immediately says he doesn't want to do, but Charley joins me enthusiastically and we start down the rutted road again at 3:07. Ronny negotiates through the THRONGS of people around the local market at the boat dock, and leaves us in the car while he makes our arrangements for a boat, saying we'll get "an hour or an hour and a half," and though there are storm clouds on the far horizon, we start off in the boat at 3:32 to a bright narration of fish and trees and island sizes and owners by the boatman, and lots of nice pictures, until he starts insisting we go to "the bridge and the village and dancing," which we both don't want, but he persists in moving forward. Clouds gather more darkly as we reach a far shore at 4:07, kids running down a path to greet us, and Charley says he DID see a bridge somewhere up a trail, but I INSIST we start back, and just about when we start our return it begins to rain. I get out my raincoat, then my umbrella, and Charley sits shivering in his velour pullover, having left his umbrella in the car! We'd previously settled on a tip of 5000, but when we finally reach the dock, drenched and sopping, at 4:33, we say thank you and dash for the car, which is beginning to back down the road toward us, all the people now hunched under roofs. To car at 4:33 and back to hotel over still-rutted road to 4:47. Shower 5:10-5:30, astounded at the purplish-blue bruise that encompasses my upper leg, my left scrotum, and my left upper abdomen. Discuss Ronny's EIGHT-day tip, everyone putting their money into envelopes that I keep in my bag, since the others are paranoid about being ripped off. Fuss with EVERYTHING to 6:09, finally collapsing into bed until 6:50. Try to shit: nothing. Dinner (partly in dark when generator goes out because of overloading by heating units, which we now can't use) from 7-8:28, crayfish curry with rice and cold green beans and carrots, and we pay for our drinks with much backing and forthing with money. Then return to room, doing NOTHING about tomorrow, at 8:37PM. Pee #1 at 10:52PM, taking 2 amox.
SATURDAY, 10/23/10: Pee #2 at 2:16AM and shit ONE tiny turd, to 2:26AM. Someone comes to the door, waking Ken, who wakes me, and Ken says that it's only 4:14AM, so he wants some more minutes of sleep. I tell him that my watch says 4:22AM, but he says that makes no difference to him. I type DREAMS:10/23/10 until 4:29AM, content in having gotten something very close to eight hours' sleep. Pee, still without shitting, wash my face in the hot water, and take the penultimate two amox at 4:38AM, Ken getting up, saying he'd asked for the wake-up call at 5AM. I finish the last of my water. Put on my still-damp tan pants (hoping they'll eventually dry ON me), white shirt over Churchill T-shirt, and sweater, and start transcribing yesterday by 4:44AM. Ken gives me another Naprosin, with some of his water in the house's glass, at 4:55AM. He takes one of my cold pills in exchange. Transcribe to 5:14, when Ken reminds me that bags are to be picked up at 5:45AM. So I set to packing, hoping that the damp of my shoulder bag doesn't ruin anything I put into it. Finish packing, waiting for breakfast, Ken outside chatting with Charley, at 5:33AM. They decide to go up to office for breakfast as I finish this up-to-date at 5:40AM, reluctantly ready for LONGEST day. Actually shit a yellow-brown shit to 5:42. Come out of the bathroom to find all the other bags but MINE (tell Ken he set the standard for carry-on size, so they assumed that this was my CARRY-ON bag and left it for me) gone. To breakfast, already set out with Ken and Charley eating, and tell the porter to GET my bag. They give us packed lunches. Gobble a Spanish omelet, VERY tart passion fruit juice, and a piece of toast to 6AM, when Ronny arrives. Car goes at 6:06AM, quite dark and very foggy in places, sort of Addams Family gloomy. Take last amox and a cold pill at 7:42AM. Beautiful scenery when it gets light enough (took a picture of what might have been a full moon through clouds from the side of the truck at 6AM), and at times the sun actually pokes through multiple layers of clouds. Few people on the roads to start, but they do begin even before it gets light; children somewhat later. It'll be a sort of relief not to wave anymore. Ronny drives skillfully as usual, and I develop an irritating cough that water doesn't stop. Pee stop at 8:06AM, when I get a shot of the pine tree I wanted. Ronny later stops so I can shoot a pyramid of tomatoes. My leg is SORE. Leave Mbarara at 8:15. Kampala is 120 km at 10:04AM. Stop 10:43-10:54, at the painter's place, for a john break, and cross the Equator. Lunch break on a college's grounds, and I open my suitcase and get the WRONG itinerary---return flight on Sunday---but at least it lists me with KEN, who has some kind of PERSONAL confirmation with Emirates. This goes 11:45-11:57, and I take three bites of the huge tuna on toast and decide to leave the rest for later, having to get it out to give the black bag to Ken for the garbage. Stop at the Churchill office 12:27-12:33, where Ronny wants us to go in and fill out forms, but Anna comes OUT, and I moan about my painful leg, and she asks how the trip was, and I praise Ronny, and she says, "Are you saying that just because he's sitting next to you?" and I assure her I'm not, and Ken keeps saying he's going to write a complete report to Poonja. Leave Kampala, decorated for a visit by the King, at 12:50, at a sign saying that the Entebbe Airport is 32 km. Finish tuna 1:04-1:15, airport now 8 km. Into Post Office 1:20-1:28, ending with a surprising total of 9900S, so I dash out to the car to offer Ronny $5 for 8000S, and he gives me a 10,000S bill, for the dozen or so stamps, and I unload my ratty 1000S note on him, leaving me with only two DIFFERENT new 1000S notes. To airport car-check line 1:30-1:35, mainly for parking allotment. He brings two carts at 1:40, and Charley loads my bag on his cart. Through door at 1:52. Check-in to 2:02PM, agent still not really questioning my ticketing, but asking my phone number, as she did Charley. Through immigration by 2:12, just not very crowded this early. Pass SECOND security at gate 4 with more difficulty: not only shoes, belt, and watch off, but she checks my laptop AND the four spare batteries in the side pocket. Start typing 2:44 and finish at 3:10PM---just think: in only twelve hours there may be a chance to grab some sleep. (At noon I announced that we had 14 hours left before our 14 hours' flight.) No boarding time is noted on my boarding-pass stub, only the flight time of 1615. Odd Indian music plays over the loudspeaker. Decide to start proofreading file 1. Board in a LONG WALK 3:37-3:47, carrying unproofed laptop to finish on plane. Finish file 1 at 4:15, seeming to go on FOREVER. We back out at 4:21, off at 4:30, 1:38 to Addis. #100-1529 at triple point: Sudan to northwest, Ethiopia to northeast, Kenya to south, as Omo River makes delta into Lake Rudolf. Land in Addis 6:01PM after great views over desolation below. Transit time announced as one hour, but it takes just over TWO hours. Start watching Iron Man 2." Back out at 7:53PM (8:53PM in Dubai), and off at 8:03. 3:09 flight. Then start Heaven Can Wait, with Don Ameche and Gene Tierney, and land at 11:18PM (12:18AM Dubai time) after ENDLESS circling and photos. We're told it's 30°C outside, and we have to get to gate 201. Dock at 11:26 and off plane at 11:38. Through immigration at 11:45, and pee at 11:48. To gate 201 at 11:54PM. To THIRD security check at 11:58. SIT at 12:01AM (1:01AM Dubai time) SUNDAY.
SUNDAY, 10/24/10: Board at 12:25, EXHAUSTED. Plane really fills up! My music won't play, but then I somehow fix it. 13:26 flight announced. Move back at 1:23 and off at 1:30AM. Take two Ambien at 1:45. Note something about Clash of the Titans at 6:10, and "stop at 8:47 to shit." But I don't think I watched it? Ambien Amnesia? At 9:15 change clocks to 2:15AM. Start Shutter Island at 3:07AM and remember nothing of it. Start Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time at 5:36, vaguely remembering it as a kind of rip-off of Indiana Jones, though without a real romantic "click" between Gyllenhall and his co-star. Finish breakfast, needing to pee, at 6:58, but it takes a long time for the carts to clear the aisle, and they announce seatbelts to be fastened as I go to the john at 7:21. All cloudy out, and fill custom form to 7:33. Temperature 52° in NYC. 7:50: Thirty minutes to arrival. Land at JFK, for the FIRST time---after AGAIN circling---from the WEST, at 8:25AM. Plane docks at 8:33, and long wait to get off plane at 8:45, glad we don't have to make any connections. Pee at 8:50, onto immigration line at 8:53, and get bag at 9:01. Take my forgotten house keys out of my suitcase at 9:08, still waiting for Ken to get HIS bag. At 9:20 I'm told, "You must wait outside, sir," and sit on a pipe, waiting, hoping Ken's bag isn't lost a SECOND time! Finally he comes out with it at 9:28AM. Into taxi at 9:36, gypsies pushing themselves into our faces right at the LEGITIMATE taxi line. Home at 10:16. Phone John that he doesn't need to water my plants. Take last two teaspoons of Tussin DF at 10:29AM. Only one phone message, from Shelley, going on vacation 10/17-11/2. Water plants to 10:40AM. Photo groin. Watch part of Macbeth, but phone HIP at Montague Emergency at 1:45PM. Lunch to 4:30. [That was the last thing I wrote on my last trip note, numbered 18.]
DUBAI SUMMARY
TUE,10/5: Fly JFK-Dubai 11:26AM-11:01PM (NYC time) (11:45 flight).
WED,10/6: Land 7:01AM (Dubai time). Ken loses bag. Emirates Tour 9:20AM-2:40PM: Sharjah 10-10:20AM, Ajman to 10:40AM, Umm al-Qaiwain to 11:30AM, Ras al-Khaimah to start of return at 1PM, back to hotel 2:40PM. Lunch at Four Points by Sheraton Hotel to 4PM. Lie down to 6PM, when Ken's bag arrives. Bed at 7:16PM.
THU,10/7: Up at 4:36AM, type notes, Ken up at 5:25AM. Breakfast 6-6:40AM. To Abu Dhabi at 7:05AM. Sheik Zayed Mosque 9-10AM, Falcon Hospital 10:25-12:14PM, then lunch there 12:25-12:55PM. 1:30 tour to Traditional Village 2:15-2:35, hot! Saadiyat (roller coaster) and Yas Islands to 4:47PM. Rest to Shabistan Iranian dinner 7-8:40PM, taxi back to 9:15, type to 10:04, bed at 10:14PM.
FRI,10/8: Up at 7:30AM. Charley arrives for breakfast 8:10-8:40AM. To top of Palm Jumeirah 9:30, Miraj souvenirs to 10:30, Burj Khalifa 11-11:35AM, boat ride 12:30, markets closed, hotel lunch, desert excursion 3:33-6:15 to camp, poor dinner, "Tanura" (Egyptian) and belly dance, back 8:26-9:26, bed 10:33PM.
SAT,10/9: Up at 7:07AM. Dubai Museum in Al Fahidi Fort 9:15-10:06. Shaikh Saeed al-Maktoum House 10:15-11:10AM. Two galleries 11:20-11:52AM. Mall of the Emirates 12:20-12:33PM. Burj al-Arab 12:45-3:30PM for GREAT tea for $125! To 5 galleries to 5PM, Gold and Diamonds Shop 5:10-5:25PM. No dinner; pack; bed 8PM.
SUN,10/10: Up at 4:51AM. 5:20AM breakfast; into car 6AM. Fly Dubai-Addis 9:10-11:24AM. Visa 11:42-12:22PM. National Museum 2-3:10PM, University Museum 3:17-4:09PM. Up hill, to hotel 5:25. International Hotel dinner 6:30-7:47. Bed at 8.
MON,10/11: Up 4:04AM, pack to 4:40, breakfast 5:04-5:16. Fly Addis-Lalibela 8:05-8:47; to Bahar Dar 9:05-9:28AM. Unpack at Summerland Hotel. Drive to Tisisat Falls 10:43-11:48AM. Hard walk at falls until 1:10PM. Back to Ghion sandwiches 3PM. To boat 3:15 across Lake Tana to Zege Peninsula's Ura-Kidane Mihiret Church, walking up 4:02-4:31, back 5:11-5:37; to Blue Nile outlet 6:08. Hotel Ghion dinner to 8:22PM, and bed at Summerland at 8:55PM.
TUE,10/12: Up 6:04AM. Breakfast 8:10-8:40, Gondar drive 9:45-12:20PM. No lunch. Atse Fasil 2:19-3:39, Debre Haile Selassie 3:45-4:20, and baths 4:35-4:54. Lammergyer dinner 6:45-7:42, Azmari music 7:52-9:02, hotel 9:29, bed 9:39PM.
WED,10/13: Up 5:57AM, breakfast to 6:35. Fly to Lalibela 8:52-9:17AM. To spectacular Mountainview Hotel 10:20AM, later lunch. Churches Holy Savior, Bethlehem, House of Mary, others, St. George, 2-4PM; hotel dinner, bed 10PM.
THU,10/14: Up 7:15AM. Gabriel and Raphael's Church 9AM, Mercurius, Emanuel, and Beta Abba Lebanos at 10AM, hotel lunch. Yemrehanna Kristos 1:10-5:50. Seven Olives Hotel dinner, Then Tejj House Azmari music 8:40-9:30PM, bed at 10:08PM.
FRI,10/15: Up 6:15AM. Fly Lalibela-Axum 10:43-11:16AM. Queen of Sheba's palace, Yeha Hotel lunch. King Besen's tomb, Stelae Park to 4:55, to Ark church, hotel poor dinner 7-8:40PM, shower, bed at 9:32PM.
SAT,10/16: Up 5:30AM. Fly Axum-Addis 9-10:03AM. Fly to Entebbe 12:37-2:12PM. $50 visa. Kampala Metropole Hotel by 5:12. Dinner at Pang Pang; bed at 10:25PM.
SUN,10/17: Up at 5:52AM. Get lost in zoo to 9:25; to Ngamba Island in Lake Victoria for 44 chimps to 12. Source of Nile at 4:35PM. Jinja Nile Resort pool and dinner buffet outside, with great dessert choices. Bed at 10:08PM.
MON,10/18: Up at 5:34AM. Great breakfast. Drive to Lake Mburo Tented Camp 8AM-4:25PM, seeing impalas, warthogs, zebras, topis, blackbucks, Cape buffalos, hippos, vervet monkeys. Dinner in camp, lovely evening tranquility, bed 9:18PM.
TUE,10/19: Up 6:20AM; spill hot-chocolate milk. Morning game drive: eagle, lapwings, crowned cranes, Ankole Cattle; breakfast 9:30-10AM. Lunch at 1, rain cancels lake-boat ride. Afternoon tea, dinner 7-8PM, bed at 8:57PM. Many pees.
WED,10/20: Up at 6:30 for tea. Good breakfast, leave tip. Leave 8:06AM. Pills in Mbarara, lunch at Little Ritz of Africa in Kabale, to Rwanda 4:25PM, 4:45PM to Mountain Gorilla View Lodge, dancing, dinner 7PM, fireplace, bed at 8:45PM.
THU,10/21: Up 4:54AM. Good omelet breakfast. Gorilla trek starts 8:20AM, I slip and break blood vessel at 9:40AM: AGONY! Gorillas 11:10-11:50AM. Painful walk out by 1:40PM. Rest. Dinner 7:30-9:18PM, bed at 10:10PM.
FRI,10/22: Up 4:45AM. Bed 5:50-6:15AM. Breakfast 7-7:30AM. Leave 8:07AM, get Rwandan stamps, road to Virunga Lodge 9:11-9:33AM; back to Uganda 10:28AM, changing clocks to 11:28AM. Rutted road to Arcadia Gardens at 2:53PM. To boat ride 3:32 for rain, docking at 4:33, dinner 7-8:30PM in blackout. Bed 8:37PM.
SAT,10/23: Up 4:22AM. Pack to 5:40AM. Breakfast 5:45-6AM. Off 6:06AM, Mbarara at 8:15AM; box lunch; stamps at 1:20PM; Entebbe airport at 1:52PM. Fly to Addis 4:30-6:01PM; Dubai 8:03-11:18PM, watching Iron Man 2 and Heaven Can Wait.
SUN,10/24: Fly Dubai-JFK 1:30AM-8:25AM (13:55 flight), watch Shutter Island and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Home at 10:16AM; see Hip Emergency.