Lake Albert Cycle Safari

Lake Albert Cycle Safari

This weekend's journey to Lake Albert was super fantastic. Originally, I'd looked forward to spending the three-day weekend doing as little as possible in order to catch up on some well-dervered rest after the pretty event-intensive weeks/weekends I've been having. However, I could not pass up on such a golden opportunity as to be able to a) go to Hoima; b) cycle to Lake Albert; c) visit the Lake Albert Safari Lodge. A golden opportunity, I mean this trip had my name written all over it from its inception.

So now it's another Sunday night on the brink of exhaustion, but the memories gained make it all worth it.

We were a team of eight, braving the journey together, which turned out to be excellent for me since I don't know a damned thing about bikes, and I had three punctures on the almost-72 kilometer journey (on within the first five minutes!). I was pedaling on a borrowed bike, so there are few small repairs to complete before returning it.

The views on the route to Lake Albert are absolutely amazing, not exactly what you'd expect to see in Uganda. I shared my photos with a Ugandan friend tonight, and he was surprised by the geography of the area. That is one of the fantastic attributes of Uganda, there are many diverse environments in such a small country.

Also amazing at Lake Albert:

The sunsets!

While the wildlife might not have been too unique, what was unique was the proximity you could get to it.

My favourite component of any journey is great conversation with great people, and we had no shortage of it. I am so fortunate to have so many very interesting people from very diverse backgrounds in my life. The perspectives on the many issues we discussed were just as diverse. I was a bit of a Debbie-downer the last night at the lake as I did not join the crew at the campfire for the evening shooting of the breeze. Instead, I opted for an early bedtime, which I greatly appreciate at the moment.

Another highlight of the trip: doing little on Saturday but lounge, sleep and read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. The Hunger Games is a post-apocolyptic The Lord of the Flies meets Survivor. I, like Stephen King, thought it was violent and jarring and 'couldn't put stop reading'. I also agree with John Green of The New York Times and think that the book was 'Brilliantly plotted and perfectly paced.' It was very disturbing. I don't want to spoil the story for anyone, so I'll say I never thought the Games would ever begin; I had a whole other idea for where it would head.