We wake up. The sun glints off the mercurial water in front of the tent. We stroll down the muddy roads to breakfast. Our chapati-and-beans man greets us by name by now. He also feels a need to shout whenever numerical values are involved. "FIVE THOUSAND SHILLINGS!'. The pineapple lady gives us our daily, child-sized pineapple over the bizarre din of Bad Boys II dubbed into Lugandan blaring from the local cinema behind her stall. We almost lose the pineapple to the islands sole - and therefore overconfident - donkey. We placate it with a paper bag. We head to the pier to find out if any boats are heading out to any of the other islands today. As with every other day, no one has a clue. Not even the man from the governments fisheries department, who enforces local maritime law through the aggressive use of a spear and a life-jacket. His side-kick is packing a more substantial AK-47 as well as an impressive geographical knowledge. "Northern Kenya has low population density as a result of its semi-arid climate" he informs us, unrelated to any previous conversation topics.
We mosey back to our accommodation via some pristine rainforest that we try traverse as a shortcut. We lose the trail, panic and discuss the use of smoke-signals. We eventually break out into sunlight where the configuration of nearby islands tells us we are not far from home. We dodge a psychopathic scooter driver and arrive back in one piece. The rest of the day is spent reading in hammocks to the relaxing calls of fish-eagles and the less relaxing helicopter-like wing flutters of the local hornbills. An impossible sunset is ruined only by the heartburn caused by the local 'Bond 007' whiskey.
And so another day on the Ssese archipelago in the middle of Lake Victoria draws to a close. Much the same as the one before it. And the one before that. Im pretty sure we had greater ambitions when we arrived here but neither myself nor Tough Guy can be sure. So we just go to bed.
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