Adventure at the lakeside

Ok ladies and gents, our internet is back working again, hence providing you with several updates, and now, as promised in the last post – Adventure at the lakeside – be warned it’s a long one. As a brief aside, just a quick thanks to those of you who have previously left comments on the blog. They are appreciated and confirm/affirm that the overall tone, which during Mayhem's present absence has shifted to become more narrative than comedic, is still providing a source of interest/entertainment

Wow, that was amazing. The lake was a truly wonderful experience, there is so much to say, and all of it as wondrous as the next. So naturally I think the best place is to start at the beginning.

Lake Daluti takes a little bit of getting to, it requires a 30 minute walk along one of the main roads, to catch a Dala Dala mini bus for 20 mins to a stop near to my hospital. From there, a very enjoyable 3km walk down to the lake through the Arusha scrub. On the way we were treated to our trail passing through a farm that appeared to be growing a crop which would eventually become pepper corns. One of the disappointments was the lack of chameleons – we were told that it might be possible to see them – unfortunately the only two we saw were dead on the road, a real shame, as they were 5cm and the most vibrant shade of ultramarine I have ever seen.

As we drew closer to the lake we were greeted by the sounds of chanting and singing coming from a tribe which we had been told lived on the side of the lake. We paused for a brief rest and to simply enjoy the warm sounds coming from the edges of the lake. Continuing down through the woods which encircle the lake we came to the little bar on the lake side. Walking around the side of the building we got our first view of the lake. A beautiful jade expanse of water, bordered by steep hills and cliffs, densely wooded with equatorial forest.

Our time at the lake started with us simply stopping into the ramshackle bar, picking up three bottles of Fanta for 25p each and sitting in aged patio chairs, the white plastic discoloured to a tar stained yellow in the burning sun, and drinking in the view. We watched a small family, who had also managed to discover the lake, hire a dilapidated Canadian Canoe, and thought – that looks like the ticket for us.
While we waited for the family to return, we were treated to the site of a lizard, then type of which I have no idea, swimming across the edge of the lake and disappearing into the reeds. It swam in the same way as the Iguanas from BBC Natural World documentaries – its fore and hind limbs hanging limply by its side, while propelling itself forwards with its powerful tail. As the lizard disappeared into the reeds, a cacophony of noise broke forth from the sunfire yellow birds who had they delicate nests perched as if by magic on thin reeds, conscious of the danger that the lizard may pose their unhatched young

The little family returned to the dock and we exchanged our aged yellow chairs, for equally ancient chairs whose legs had been removed, allowing the passenger in the boat to sit with a few centimetres between their bottom and the thin, and damp, fibreglass hull. Myself and Carl, the other chap on the trip, Mayhem having taken the option of sun worshipping, instead of a big adventure, took up the oars fore and aft, and proceed to speed across the emerald water. Only pausing briefly near the centre of the lake, firstly to marvel that it had taken us 15 minutes hard rowing even to reach its centre, and then ponder how far the lake extended beneath us, and what creatures its fathoms might hold. I was almost expecting to feel some monster brush across the bottom of the boat at that point, but thankfully the only motion at that point was our passenger, Pipa, urging us to keep rowing.

We approached the other side of the lake, and began to turn the canoe. Our eyes alighting upon a isle situated in the far left of the lake which we had previously ignored. Our next goal acquired we set of at a clip to investigate this new land, or at least circumnavigate it.

As we approached the island, we realised that the island formed a narrow channel between the cliff walls and itself, and that it looked like navigating it would provide more than sufficient an adventure. After only a few moments of passing down the channel, we were out of sight of the main lake, and would have been hard pressed not to become confused with the tropically wooded cliffs and start believing we were in the Amazon. This feeling was amplified more as we had to slow the canoe to a crawl in order to navigate under the overhanging boughs of the massive trees. Their trunks dressed in suits of creepers, with similarly cascaded from their branches.
It various point we had to stow the oars in the boat and pull ourselves along using the branches of submerged trees. Skeletal branches reaching up from the depths to scratch along the hull of our little craft like spirits from the lake, inspecting this brightly coloured intruder. It was these moments, with the noise of our oars in the water removed, we could hear the calls, twitters and chirps of the animals and birds which lived, hidden in the dense foliage, only a couple of meters from our craft

After having completed our mini expedition around the island, giant smiles splitting our faces, we returned to paddling back towards the bar from which we had departed nearly an hour ago.

Back on land we ordered lunch of chicken and chips, and returned to enjoying bottles of Fanta on the lake side. When the food finally arrived, having taken 45mins, it coincided with the conspicuous disappearance of a couple of chickens which had previously roamed freely on the patchy brown grass around the bar. In spite of this potential Poultry-cide, it was surely the best chicken and chips I have ever had the pleasure of consuming, certainly this would have only been augmented by the ravenous appetite we have worked up while out on the lake, but the Colonel at a certain fast food restaurant could certainly take a couple of tips from the cook by the lake.
Our dinner polished off, we set back of, in search of the rickety Dala Dala which would take us most of the way home. Assured that our day had been spent very wisely, and that it is adventures like the “Amazonian” canoe trip around the island which are the experiences electives are made of!

TTFN
KAOS