My old uni pal Rosie has travelled all over this little planet of ours, she’s always been a zoologist on a mission.
Rosie’s job is director of the Tropical Biology Association.
Now Rosie doesn’t post on Facebook or use Twitter, but she does send ‘Tweetless Tweets’ by carrier pigeon email to her friends. Here’s her short but sweet – and illuminating – news from nine days in Uganda.
Tweets from Uganda
Day 1: every journey starts with a muddy footstep
My journey started at the friendliest City airport in UK. It’s so relaxed and friendly here, though it is full of besuited business men with smart brief cases and shiny shoes. I’m wearing my mud-spattered boots due to a rushed packing decision to travel light. Which I am now regretting. My neighbour on the Schipol to Amsterdam plane commented on my footwear. Like everyone else, he was in a suit but said he believed that every man should shine their own shoes.
Day 2: In Uganda
Spent most of the day watching the significantly slower world of Uganda go by while waiting for things to happen. Clouds of lake flies coming off Lake Victoria looked like mini tornadoes and Uganda’s brand new fighter jet disturbed our peace by flying round in circles.
Day 3: every journey ends in a break down
Our journey from Kampala to Kibale forest was brought to an abrupt end with an ominous noise coming from the wheel. It turned out that a crucial piece of metal that holds the brake plates together had come off and after a quick whip round for available material, someone’s key-ring holder was dismantled, re-shaped, and applied to the wheel. We drove the next 200 km on that.
Day 4
I’m in Kibale forest. The smells and sounds are so evocative that I reckon I could identify each of our field sites blind folded.
Day 5
I’m sitting on my balcony watching black and white colobus, listening to a great blue turaco and sipping the last of my airline wine and glimpsing a bright orange pink sunset through the trees.
Day 6
Was kept awake by rampaging elephants. The workshop participants said if they are fed at 7pm they are hungry again at 9pm.
Day 7
Monkeys everywhere today. We saw black and white colobus, red colobus, red tailed monkeys and blue monkeys. As you can see, they colour code their primates here for ease of identification.
Day 8
Met up with Phiona whose school fees I am mainly paying. Her father is the main reason. It is well known in his village that girls are less good at concentrating than boys. And he spelled her name Phiona.
Day 9
Driving back to Kampala I was extremely tempted to stop at some of the road-side shops. Here are my favourites:
The Inspirational Chapati Shop
God Cares Phone Accessories
Don’t Be Cheated Hardware Store
God is Love Pork Joint
And so back to the office in Cambridge for Rosie. It must seem very dull by comparison. The ‘burbs of Sydney certainly do.
I loved reading Rosie’s mini slices of life from her trip.
Hope you enjoyed them too.
