Camping on Mt. Wanale

When we were up Mt. Wanale last week, we were chatting about how much fun it would be to go camping up there for a night.  Then on our Thursday night/date night, we thought, "why not go camping?  And why not this Sunday night?"

So we did.

And it was a great time!  We went with the Magalas, Ezekiel from next door, and Timothy's friend, Daniel.

And about 50 other locals who wanted to watch the Mzungus do unusual Mzungu things...like camping!

They were polite though, and sweetly kept out of our "camping bubble" and it was great too, because they were so helpful.  We were able to hire someone to slash (cut the tall grass with a machete) the camping area, fetch us water, and sell us passion fruit, onions, and bananas.  By the time night fell they all wandered back to their homes...my children tell me that it may have had something to do with daddy telling them that at night Mzungus children turn into monsters...

The girls had great fun inside their own tent...

Daniel and Timothy (who slept outside with Eric)

Paul and Martin

The very first time we went up Mt. Wanale, we met a sweet Christian lady who's name is Silvia. We visit with her now, every time we go up.

This is her daughter Peace.

The sunset was pretty

This is Ezekiel.  He came along to help guard (along with Paul and Martin) our camp site and vehicles during the night.  He looks nice enough during the day.

 But pretty tough at night!  Is that a gun?  Well, no...that's the jack to the Land Rover that they carried around at night to make people think they had a gun... and it worked as they over heard people talking about it...haha!

Sunrise in the morning...

It was cold!  It normally dips down into the upper 50s at night in Mbale.  But up on the mountain the wind was blowing hard!  I'm sure with the wind chill factor it felt more like 40s.  And of course we way underestimated how cold Uganda can be at night, so it was a bit of a long night.  But a beautiful night...especially when the power on the radio towers went out.  The whole Milky Way was lit up and we saw lots of shooting stars.  So lovely!

 For breakfast, we introduced our Ugandan friends to bacon.  We can buy bacon in Kampala, but most people here have never had it before.  I had the most awesome kitchen view as I cooked breakfast.

Eric let the kids ride on the roof of the land rover for about a kilometer on the way down.  Hooligans!