The Pearl of Africa

This weekend we discovered why Uganda is known as "The Pearl of Africa," and it was completely by chance.  Going into the weekend, we had absolutely no plans whatsoever.  In fact, Saturday morning at 11:00 we still had no idea what we were going to do.  We finally decided to head out to the village of Kilembe, about 30 km west of Kasese, to check out something we had heard about hiking and copper mines.  Jimmy (our host) stayed home, but his sister Joy and cousin John accompanied us.  John works at the school during the week and we have become good friends with him since our first day here.  In August he will begin his studies at a University nearby and hopes to major in, coincidentally, Tourism.  We were obviously his tourists for the day, and after experiencing a day hiking in the Rwenzori Mountains in Kilembe under the guidance of John, I would recommend him in a heartbeat for any Tourism job that comes his way.

John spent four years in Kilembe attending Secondary School so he knew the area quite well.  After showing us his school, he led us up and back into the foot-hills of the Rwenzori Mountains.  We hiked up through eucalyptus trees and banana groves, continuing our trek upwards with John.  The views were absolutely breathtaking – gorgeous, rolling hills and mountains everywhere you look with patches of sunlight beaming down at different angles.  Tucked into the mountains you can see tiny houses; apparently there used to be more but they were destroyed during the war.  The ones that remain, though, are fascinating, and the plots of land that slope along the mountainside even more so.

I took pictures everywhere I looked, hoping for at least one of them to capture the phenomenal scenery around us, but I was never satisfied with the image on my screen, only the one right in front of me.  It's so hard to write about it…I feel like you just have to see it.

After going on a safari last weekend and watching elephants, I wasn't sure how we were going to top that experience this weekend, but Kilembe far exceeded my expectations.  You can't find a single sentence written about Kilembe in our Uganda Tourist guide we brought with us from home, but I feel like I could easily write a book about it.  I guess sometimes the best things in life happen when you least expect them to…and are sometimes waiting for you only 30 km away.

 Jumping over rocks in the stream with John

 The village of Kilembe

John leading the way through the mountains

Evan sifting through the sand for some copper...