Day 222 - 223

Sleeping location: Ruboni Community Camp, Rwenzori foothills, Uganda
Distance (km today/total): 0 / 14137
Estimated climb (m today/total): 0 / 109600 
Hikes: thwarted
Day in FOUR words*: (What’s the story) Rwenzori?

*Increased to four to allow a pun too good to miss

A couple of days spent relaxing and gently exploring the deep forested river valley around where we were staying. Would have been one day if not for some bogus information, as we will see.

Day 1 we enjoyed the peace and quiet by sleeping in until 9am. As expected the view from our elevated camping spot was indeed spectacular, up a deep green forest valley with the huge jagged rocky Portal Peaks (4500m ish) looming above it. Initially there were just a few fluffy clouds floating around, but quickly they gathered, filled the sky and hid the mountains away. We had access to a nice balcony belonging to the adjacent (unoccupied) rooms and spent much of the day on it, doing bike/mat maintenance, reading and making/eating food. Amazing colourful birds flitted around us all day long. Sadly Rebecca was unable to repair her mat or her inner, meaning she now has nothing to sleep on and no spare inner, in a part of the world where picking up spares with the valve she has is not easy. Fingers crossed.

In the afternoon we moved to a room so as Rebecca is likely to be sleeping on the floor for the next couple of nights and could do with a soft bed in the meantime. Late afternoon we went for a walk/explore before leaving the next day. We had been put off the idea of going for a “proper” hike inside the Rwenzori NP as it was allegedly $100pp, but when we went to check out the entrance the guy on duty told us it was in fact $10pp and we didn’t need a guide at all. This news prompted us to commit to staying an extra day and going for a big hike. After this we walked down to the local village to spend the £2 we had on us on some chapatis and a plethora of fruit and veg. Apples were on sale but seem to be a luxury as a tiny sour one was 2/3 the price of a big ripe avocado. On the way down three boys walked with us until I did a dinosaur impression and they ran away giggling; on the way back up a girl walked silently alongside us up to her house. Everywhere we go were are a novelty.

Day 2 we again slept well; the room was so dark, cool and quiet that it was some of the best sleep I’ve had on the trip. We went back to the park entrance with our hiking gear (or approximations thereof) only to be told that yesterday’s guy had been totally wrong* and it was a minimum $65 for a day hike, which was out of our price range for a walk in the woods. By now it was too late to set off  on the bikes so we annoyedly decided to put together a hike of our own and set off down a random path into the thick forest. This was quite short but took us close to the raging river and was very atmospheric. We found a safe spot for a dip in the cold water, and as it was completely secluded decided to do it in the nude, which was very liberating. During this a horde of butterflies started landing on my shoes and headband, then on my feet, which was beautiful and weird at the same time. We then encountered a weird, smoking, slightly grimy pool, which might have been a hot spring but we were too scared to get in in case it was too hot or poisonous. On the way out of the forest we went through an army camp and were invited to play a board game with the soldiers. It was sort of like Ludo but with football teams for colours, and Rebecca absolutely fluked victory, although we think the soldiers let us win a bit. Then we went to a resort which advertised hot springs to enjoy a soak. We paid our £1 each and were shown to the weird smoking pool from earlier. At least it was only £1 each.

After a dip, then a cool off in the river again, I went to do some more exploring and Rebecca headed back to the hotel. There was no map information so I crossed the river and took a random path that looked like it went upwards. It did indeed go upwards, very steeply, and I went up 200m of elevation at a furious pace before reaching a spot with fantastic views up and down the river valley, and over the top of the opposite hills to the REALLY high mountains (the biggest Rwenzoris are over 5000m and have glaciers) which were sadly mostly covered with cloud. There were so many little houses dotted around the steep hillsides, and it must be a tough life living here and having to carry all of your food and water up from the river. After a long rest and internet session (there was no signal at the camp) I headed back down to the village to get more chapatis and veg. I had to wait a while for the nice chapati man to make the thirteen I requested, but spent the time watching a baby chicken unsuccessfully try to follow its mum around. On the way back to camp I attracted a crowd of 11 very excited kids and we walked back up the hill together before they diverted to their village. Back at camp I made a sort of weird vegetable stew in the midst of a torrential rainstorm and we watched a surprisingly scary episode of Inside Number 9 before settling down to sleep in the very dark darkness...

*Or, much more likely, was just after a bribe to let us in on the cheap.

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