Adventures at the Hairy Lemon*

*A small island in the middle of the Nile river, about an hour away from Jinja, where you can camp, swim, tube, eat, play Frisbee, play water volleyball, lounge, and just relax. There is a variety of housing options (with differing prices) from bring your own camping stuff, to a small bunk room, to your own house, to your own bigger house. To pay for one night includes some sort of housing; a homemade, fire-cooked breakfast, lunch, and dinner; checkout at 10am, but hangout all day long; better shower pressure than here at home; no Internet or cell phone service; and absolutely beautiful scenery. Basically you an check it our if you want at hairylemon.com.

Anyways, one of my friends, Whitney, and I decided to schedule and take an adventure this weekend to the Hairy Lemon. We had heard that it was beautiful, relaxing, and really after last week we needed a bit of a breather from life here in Jinja - so we made reservations for Friday night. Two of the other volunteers here at Ekisa also got to come so it was fun with the four of us. We hired a driver to take us out there and he picked us up around 1:00 on Friday afternoon. After an hour of driving we arrived at this little docking station on the edge of the river where a long, wooden canoe was waiting for us. All excited we jumped on board with our suitcases, expecting a 20ish minute ride to this island! Well we were only a little disappointed when we realized we were headed right across the river and we were only on the boat for about 4 minutes haha, but we get off and go the what we think is the checkin area, and pay our room fees upfront of 65,000 shillings - $26!! We were pretty pumped for this exotic-like, island getaway for only $26! We were then shown around the island and then to our cabin for the night, which was a bunk room that fit 11 people, but awesome enough we were the only ones staying there for the night!  When our boat had first pulled up there was a table of maybe 7-8 guys and we laughed thinking, "well it's going to be awkward if we're living with them for the night" - luckily they were camping. Going through our tour, Whitney asked if there were snakes, which the lady laughed at us, and told us that we may see snakes, monkeys, lizards, and lots of birds. All of which we saw..a lizard about three feet long, three red-tailed monkeys, lots of birds, and an about six foot long snake, story to come!

Then after we had our tour, we got our bathing suits on and headed to their beachy area! Laid out, read some books, got a little sun, and swam in the Nile - absolutely beautiful, and so relaxing and wonderful! Then around 5:30 we headed up to get dressed, shower, and head up for dinner. Dinner was awesome, and so much food - soup, bread, beef pie (questionable), potatoes, and grilled vegetables! We bought a bottle of wine, and sat there for a long time talking and enjoying the time we had. After awhile, we went back to our cabin, got on our pjs, and walked to one of the little pavilions that they have set up with cushions, hammocks, and chairs for people to hang out in. Two of the guys that we saw earlier were there and we got to talking to them, and boy do they have an interesting lifestyle!? All of the guys we saw earlier were apparently kayakers and most of them didn't come together, but most had met before, because "the kayaker community is pretty small". It was pretty interesting taking to them, they were from England, but some other guys were from the Netherlands, and some were from other parts of Europe, and here there are in Uganda. They had been here for about a month and just go kayak during the day and stay at different island places like this during the night. Again, Whitney brings up snakes, and they assure us that if it's green, the bite will hurt, but it's not poisonous, but if it's a black or red one, it's poisonous so watch out. Hardly as reassuring as we wanted it to be haha. 

The next day we woke up and went down for breakfast at 8, which may seem early, but to be woken up by the river and crickets was the most relaxing, refreshing thing ever!! Breakfast was good, coffee was great, and then we went back, got our bathing suits on and went back to the beach, and spent the rest of the day relaxing, reading, and reenergizing! We really wanted to tube, but Paul, the owner of the island, didn't come all day and he was needed to work the generator:( Kind of a bummer but it was a wonderful weekend! We planned on leaving around 4, so around 3 we were going to go shower and get cleaned up, but around 2:30 some kayakers came back and we were talking to them, and we saw a huge snake come out of the water and onto the island!l it was terrifying and we were happy it decided to come right when we were about to leave! 

Wonderful adventure, and hopefully there will be a couple more to come:)