OUT&ABOUT: Onwards and on to Entebbe!

“Are you going to Entebbe?” asks the man on the side of the road that slices between one of the largest swamps in Uganda. Entebbe is derived from the Buganda word for the ‘seat’ of power. It’s where the Ugandan State House and the official residency of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is located.

The traffic is at a standstill. There are trucks, matatus, boda-bodas, massive 4-wheel drives and people. “Drive this way on the Entebbe Express,” he points. There are new bypasses under construction here just as there are in Kenya, and we whizz past the slums, swamps and tea plantations to reach Lake Victoria Serena Resort and Spa on the Lweeza-Kigo Road – between Entebbe (30 kilometres) and Kampala (15 kilometres) on the shores of Victoria, Africa’s largest fresh water lake. In the boot of our sturdy Toyota Crown Royal Saloon 1985 model (nicknamed Mama Safari) is my nephew’s golf kit.

Before a good game of golf, we jump into a luxury speedboat. I feel like a veritable diva, speeding against the waves of Victoria and the greener-than-green fairways to reach Paradise Island, a one-time haunt of the brutal dictator Idi Amin.

The first island en route, called Bird Island, is full of birds and has a gigantic monitor lizard – almost 15-feet long – that could be mistaken for a crocodile. Our boat captain, Patrick Aliaku, is a keen birder and points to African fish eagles, African darters, Pink-backed pelicans, Open-billed storks, and Long-tailed cormorants with just their heads sticking out of the water like swimming snakes, and more.

A few minutes later we’re at Paradise Island, Amin’s once-upon private island until it was bombed out. Nothing remains to show the lavishness of the dictator who plunged Uganda into the throes of despair while he lived it up. Stepping out of the boat, Aliaku guides us up the hilly island to the ruins. A local fisherman cleans a small Nile perch there. Until a decade ago, the lake boasted of Nile perch that weighed 150 kilograms compared to the one being skinned now – a mere 10 kilogrammes.

The plan to sail to the chimpanzee sanctuary on Ngamba Island is forfeited because the golfers’ tee-off time is approaching fast. The chimpanzees in the sanctuary are rescued from the horrendous trafficking in the great apes for the pet trade. 

We arrive just in time for the Sunday special African buffet at Lake Victoria Serena, where I indulge in the Ugandan dish of groundnut sauce (benyenoa) and bananas (matoke) native to central Uganda.  “The secret to cooking matoke is to use little water, boil and mash with a wooden spoon,” reveals Estesa Charles, the chef. “Then transfer onto banana leaves and wrap well.” It keeps the matoke hot and soft. 

Well-fed, it’s the nephew’s time to tee off. The course is next to the lake; a number of East African courses are also located near water bodies. A few balls land in the lake. An open-billed stork is rattled by one. By late evening the last hole is played.

Driving past the Entebbe Airport, I am reminded of Operation Thunderbolt when, on July 4, 1976, the Israeli army freed over a 100 hostages held at the airport following a hijacking by a group of Palestinian and German militia. A number of the hostages were Israeli citizens. Idi Amin supported the terrorists; the Kenyans supported the Israelis. Amin threatened to retaliate by killing Kenyans in Uganda. Thankfully he was overthrown in 1979 after the Liberation War.

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