Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th August- Lake Binyoni

We all woke up, as expected, extremely hungover and confused about the previous night. Dec and I left our tent and headed to breakfast where we joined in on the mocking of the worst drunks of last night. During breakfast Pav, Dec and I decided that instead of getting the boat across the lake, which is supposedly one of the deepest lakes in the world at over 7 thousand feet, that we would take a canoe.

We left at about 12 aiming to get to the restaurant by 12:20, 12:30 the very latest. As soon as the 3 of us pushed off from the pier we suddenly realised that we don’t actually know how to row a canoe. After 15 minutes we were still a stone’s throw from where we had cast off spinning aimlessly in the water, by this point we were already yelling obscenities at each other, the lake and generally just everyone. One of the main phrases being thrown around was Pav yelling ‘WHY ARE WE SPINNING?’ I was sitting in the middle without a paddle as Pav and Dec had them, quickly remembering how much I absolutely hate canoes and regretting this decision to getting into the canoe. 10 minutes later and we have probably moved another 20 metres or so, I’m panicking as I think we are going to capsize and I’ll lose my phone, iPod and money, Pav is standing up still yelling about spinning. Eventually we manage to get some kind of system going where we would travel 50 metres before spinning around, then 50 metres again and then spinning. I got really frustrated and pissed off and ended up slapping the water, which covered myself and Dec in water. Dec wasn't all that pleased in this, and let me know by sufficiently yelling and swearing at me.  By this point Pav had stopped bothering and was just laying down smoking, having given up to the lake.

Getting saved by the 'Hero of the Lake.'

After being on the canoe for half an hour or so we were maybe halfway to our destination, by this point a local lad who had been easily canoeing around the area came over to our boat to save us. He gave me a paddle, as by this point I was using my hands to paddle and was trying to explain to us what we were supposed to be doing. Eventually, 45 frustrating minutes of ‘WHY ARE WE SPINNING?’ later we had landed at the other side of the lake. Without the lad who helped us, I’m pretty confident that I would still be there sitting on that canoe.

At the restaurant, everyone had already been there for half an hour as they had all taken a speed boat, we had a laugh and ordered our food, although not until after a well-deserved cold beer. After the meal, we decided to try out the canoe again, Pav had resigned his role and instead Tom took his place. After we had gone 20 metres from the pier we saw Sam running down the pier and then leap into the lake having decided that he wanted to join us. Personally I was worried that he trying to climb into our boat might capsize us, so I told Dec and Tom to continue rowing, which they did.

Pav had been replaced.

After a while I felt kind of bad about Sam swimming behind the boat and decided we should probably let him get in, thankfully we didn't capsize when he did. We continued canoeing to a pier near to where we originally started the day off at and made it there in 15-20 minutes, a distinct difference to earlier.

Getting kidnapped in Uganda.

When we arrived we were taken to a patch of green with the rest of the volunteers where we watched orphans dance, which was kind of weird. Every so often one of the children would grab a volunteer and make them dance which was always funny, until it happened to me and I had to awkwardly dance for 30 seconds. One of the orphans turned out to be the hero on the lake who had helped us to canoe so we spoke to him for a bit and thanked him again. Before we left some of the orphans invited me onto their canoe, which was pretty cool despite the yells of encouragement from the volunteers to 'kidnap Adam!' and 'Throw him over board!' to the children. Afterwards we went back to the campsite, yet again by canoe but by this point we had got the hang of it and were back in no time at all.

That night we continued drinking, not quite as heavily as last night as I was still reeling before going to bed to get ready for Sunday.

On Sunday we spent the morning trying to sunbathe down on the pier and swimming in the lake. At one point I was swimming by the pier, just minding my own business when Dec decided to sprint down the pier and jump on my head, landing on my shoulder, which everyone found funny. By mid-day, we had packed up all our stuff and were heading back to the lodge to do some lesson planning and get some rest before the new school week tomorrow.

My face says it all.