Hairy Lemon Weekend

I admit, I was not the greatest fan of the idea to spend a long weekend on a remote island. However, I loved it. It was a fantastic weekend with very nice friends. I enjoyed it very much. And since I am a bit busy today, I feel so free and copy the "report" of a friend instead of writing my own. I hope he does not mind sharing a slightly edited version with even more people (I wondered to whom that email went, since the number of primary recipient exceeded the number of "travellers" by far).

So, please find below, what my friend said about the weekend.

"Hello all!

Just got back from our weekend at the Hairy Lemon "resort" on the Nile River. Below is a picture of our intrepid travelers playing poker (Texas Holdem) around midnight on Saturday. Note that P. lost with his King and 7 of clubs showing so prominently in the picture!

Friday afternoon, the first four campers headed out from Kampala around 11. Well, actually, it was the kind of start that has driven dad's crazy since the dawn of time. Our TARGET start was 11, but we had to change cars, then oops L. wanted to go back home and drop off his wallet, then drover through a rowdy demonstration in support of changing the constitution (a move opposed by the West, so of course the 4 white guys in a car kept a low profile while inching through the marchers!),petrol stop, then gee, it's already 12:30, let's stop at Rwenzori Coffee House for burgers. Then 1:30 rolled around, and our lighter-skinned South African compatriots decided they needed sun cream, so off to Shop Rite. Finally, 2ish we were on the road. Found the very poorly marked Hairy Lemon with just 2 wrong turns (and a very Austin Power's like 56-point turn on a narrow dirt road by me). Moved into our comfy tents, then changed into swimming costumes (as the Britons would say) and into the Nile.

Someone has the brilliant idea - hey, let's jump in up here, so we can float down all those neat looking white caps in that narrow channel there. Surely there can't be loads of jagged rocks just under the surface causing all those cool waves! See, I'll go first!

20 minutes later we're up at the main lodge, putting betadine lotion over our many cuts and scratches that are bleading profusely (at least it's the Nile we were in, I mean, what could possibly be in an African river that could cause an infection!). True justice - L. got the worst of it. So we spent the rest of the afternoon wallowing like hippos in the shallows off the island, then dinner, many rounds of the card game Bullshit (thanks to my nieces, who jsut taught it to me last month) and a game similar to poker but surely not poker because we could never quite remember the order of the hands (does a straight beat a full house?) Bed at midnight (and up at 3 for jet-lagged L.).

The rest of the gang arrived in the afternoon on Saturday, so more time in the Nile (the OTHER rapids, the ones without the rocks), then volleyball in about 3 feet of water in a still bend in the river. Dinner, then many cocktails, beers, more poker, more bullshit, then 2 hours of steadily detiorating drinking games (all secrets revealed must die with the participants). Capped off around 2 AM when an extremely drunk, belligerent Scot (didn't catch a WORD he said) joined the party. That was our cue to break it up and hit the hay.

Up early today for the drive back, and now taking it easy. (More so for the South Africans, as there 3 o'clock flight home this afternoon has become a Thursday morning flight due to a general strike at South African Airways!)

Never a dull day in Uganda!"