The best Christmas present ever!

We received the best Christmas present ever from my family...
After driving on the motorcycle for 4 days and sleeping in a tent, we drove up to the Speke resort in Munyoni, all dusty and dirty, and demanded to be let inside the hotel!

We had a reservation!

My family had booked a Christmas offer of one night for us, which included a breakfast buffet, a lunch buffet and dinner. It was amazing to finally eat cheese, bacon, ham etc.

Somehow I think that they will reconsider their lunch buffet after our visit.... Me personally went six times to the buffet and you can just imagine how many times Vignir went!

We had some difficulties on the way to the resort.

But those difficulties were soon forgotten with the taste of cheese, ham, bacon, bread etc in our mouths.

On the road again

So we decided to take a little road trip after christmas and our motorbike was the chosen mode of transportation. Money being short we packed the tent, sleeping bag, two bottles of gin and 5 packs of instant noodles, a pot, a broken compass and head off.

The first stop was Nyero rock, pretty impressive piece of rock!

But the charm of the rock is not on the outside. So we had to do some climbing.The rock is most famous for its rock paintings, which are reputedly up to a 1000 years old. They were fairly impressive, but all the more impressive for the fact that the only other visitors were a pack of monkeys.
I also managed to persuade Harpa to climb to the top. She did not regret it.

We took a scenic route down to Kampala and saw some pretty interesting (and desolate) towns. Every other town seemed to contain some pre-Amin buildings built by the Asians. None contained any post-Amin buildings, meaning: all buildings in Uganda are built before the 70's.
Campsites really arent that common in Uganda so we asked to put up tent at the local police station. They were more than happy to oblige, the only price was having 20 police officers and friend watch your every move while you prepare for the night.

The road system in the north-east leaves something to be desired, we were told we had to cross a river on the way, so we put the bike on a carved out log and set sail.

No space was left unused in the dingy.

Turns out it was no river at all... more like a never ending swamp!

Then came time for another river crossing, and this time it was the great NILE! This guy was bathing on the bank, taking a bath and for some reason he was really adamant about us taking his picture. Well here is the naked guy, for your pleasure.The bike was again put on the boat.

We found this great getaway on an island in the middle of the Nile where we put up camp.

Pretty nice, apparantly islands on the nile aren't all that expensive!

Us bathing in the Nile!

We decided to do our version of the Blair Witch Project and visited a forest reserve on the way. On the campsite there was some giant concrete slab, resembling an altar... and there were some eerie people sitting in the darkness long into the night...

But the forest was mighty impressive and had some BIG trees and a few red-tailed monkeys that the insurgents somehow failed to kill (and/or eat).

And the forest had some 50 types of butterflies and thus many many many flowers to Harpa's extreme delight.

We bought some roasted chicken from the road. Very very cosy.

Harpa was very adamant about seeing me swingin in the vines as a certain King of the Apes did... (I was allowed to do it in my clothes.)

We went out celebrating with David and his cousin, and we all had a real good time.

David was facinated by the fireworks the Sheraton hotel put on display, but I must admit they weren't all that much compared to the madness back home.

We of course brought some Champagne. (Yeah yeah I know it wasn't made in France, but it all tastes the same to me!)

Happy new year everybody!

On the road again...

Holidays in Soroti

On thorlaksmessa we had some pork to uphoald some family traditions for Vignir. No offence mom, but it was the best ever!

Simon seemed to agree!

Our lovely christmas tree.

We decided to treat our Askari (nightwatchman) to a little christmas spirit and gave him a brand new bicycle for christmas. Poor Simon had previously been a victim of both Scrooge and the Grinch who collaborated in stealing his old bicycle.

Bring out the red wine and...

cheers everybody and merry christmas!

Given that the price per kilo of the duck was equal to a monthly salary here in Uganda, Harpa was a bit nervous in preparing it, and the funky smell did no favours either. Turned out that the smell came from the packaging, not the content. And the duck was so delicious that we savoured it for an eternety and didn't even think about the presents.

Instead we had some homemade Icecream (made by yours truly). I was not stingy with the vanilla drops, which apparantly gives a sour taste... But time for presents.

I decided that it was time that Harpa made the move from amateur photographer into the pros and gave her this vintage Canon film camera and a black and white film.

Harpa however decided that it was time for me to go native and bought me this special made local attire, with elaborate embroidery and all! As well as a local board game and a thumb piano!

On christmas day we went to a "jolabod" to Simon's place. He brought out a delicious meal for us and we brought soda's and beer. A truly heart warming experiance to be invited to his home for Christmas day.

They do however celebrate Christmas quite different than us Icelander, meaning getting pissed for the whole holidays. We of course joined in for some delicious local brew.

Which looks like this...yummy!

We ran home for our own special plate of goodies, not that the beer was that bad...

And perhaps the most special christmas gift of all: the gift of life. We now have 13 newborn chicken which are each cuter than the next. (Except for "Ljoti," who is the cutest of all.)

This is "Guli" for those who prefer the more traditional beuty.