Houseboat
on Lake Victoria
August 5th 2013
August 5th 2013
The Long
Rains have started!
It’s Monday morning in Kampala and there already has
been quite a deluge, which now seems to have slowed down to a steady drizzle. This
is great for my herb gardens. The view from my hotel room shows people in the
street walking with umbrellas, brightly coloured rain jackets as well as a few
motorcycles (boda boda) tootling past
complete with passenger on back holding up an umbrella.
From experience so far, the rain tends to dry up after
a few hours giving way to sunny skies. The
rain is so welcome; Kampala has been very dry and dusty. So I am expecting rain each day now.
What a wonderful and different weekend we had. Bobby and I were lucky enough to be invited
to spend the weekend on a houseboat on Lake Victoria. The owners of such, Ena
and Neville are farmers originally from Zimbabwe, who moved up to Uganda from
South Africa where they had a game farm on the South Coast, right next to Oribi
Gorge. Sadly they suffered robberies and
shootings on the farm and decided to sell up and leave. I so admire their courage and determination.
Their farm is on the banks of the lake and they are currently farming sheep as
well as a very interesting fishing operation they have set up. Apparently Neville saw his Uncle doing this
on Lake Kariba and decided to give it a try in Uganda. He seems to be doing very well and has a
fleet of vessels to do the job. These
are minute fish, known as Mokweni,
caught in their tons daily, then dried and sold. They apparently have very high protein
content and are tasty when cooked. When
we were on the boat, the cook fried some up in batter with chilli, the guys
said they were delicious but I declined to taste, couldn’t face thinking about
eating them eyes an all!
As you can see from the boat on the right, there is a
circular net arrangement on the front of the boat. (By the way the fishing is done at
night). The boats travel far out into
the Lake and the fishing process begins by lowering the nets and then shining
lights into the water. The tiny Mokweni
are drawn to the light and then scooped up in the net. Each boat will collect about 7 nets per
night. From the net they are poured or
rather sieved into giant plastic square bottles and stored there, salted and
taken back to the farm where they get dried out on racks. Apparently they get
up to 3 ½ tonnes a day
Taken from the houseboat – the Farm showing fishing
racks at the front.
So now it’s about 11am Saturday morning and we are
setting off on the houseboat. Bobby and
I, Ena and Neville, Sandy and Dino, Sandy’s Mom, Sue and Pete, along with
skipper Jack, ex NRE, (driving us) and Peter who was the cook. Full steam ahead and off we go – speedboat in
tow for fishing excursions.
The water was very calm and what a great feeling
sitting up on deck floating along on Lake Victoria, many beautiful birds to
see. Skipper Jack took us for a spin in
the speedboat later on in the afternoon which was so enjoyable and we were able
to spot fish eagles, pied kingfishers and small colourful finches flitting
around.
Gin and tonics on deck and see the sun go down over
Lake Victoria – what could be better!
Ena and Neville did us proud with the tasty food they
served – finishing off with Ena’s yummy Banoffie Pie!
We slept well with the gentle rocking of the
boat. Bobby and I had a cabin downstairs
which was really comfortable.
Next morning the boys went fishing and to our great
delight, Pete caught really big fish!
Awesome!!
The morning was spent relaxing after our sumptuous
breakfast, Bob and Pete even had a swim.
We took a slow trip back to shore, feeling so relaxed
and fortunate to have spent a weekend on a houseboat – a first for Bob and
I. A really different way to spend a
weekend and totally unwind.
Thanks so very much to Ena and Neville for their warm
hospitality. A highly recommended
weekend getaway from Kampala city.
Neville and Ena Keith
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