We researched that there was supermarket in Victoria Mall which was about a 15 min walk away so decided to take a wander and get some snacks to go with the wine we'd bought with us. On our way out I went and chatted to Hat Man.
He was a lovely chap, very gently spoken and I can't help but wonder why he set up his stall where he did as there was very little passing traffic. I didn't need another hat but as I'm trying to follow the "charity with dignity" philosophy I had to buy one from him but afterwards I realised it probably wasn't new so I won't be wearing it.
The road up to the shop although just a dirt track seemed fairly busy with vehicles and also people walking up and down. A group of labourers (male and female) were working hard to clear the deep gulleys of vegetation so I guess the rains are pretty heavy when they come. The houses all looked to be of the same design, single storey with possibly 1 or 2 rooms inside.
Some were also shops, like this one selling dresses.
Or this one; artwork.
This was a little kiosk, too small to get inside and one lady sitting behind the counter.
A beautiful little girl was playing outside so I guess she was the daughter - I checked with Mum in sign language before photographing her. As always I like to show my subjects their image on the back of the camera and she was delighted to see her picture.
Then the brother wanted his picture taken too.
This chap was buying something from the kiosk and did a bit of interpreting for me. We had a chat about our forthcoming trip and he showed me his card and asked that I get in touch when we came back at the end of the tour. I didn't read it at the time but it looks like he ran a cocktail bar.
Getting into the shopping mall involved passing armed security who gave my bag a cursory check and then waved us through, but all vehicles entering were thoroughly inspected. Inside was much like any other mall apart from security personnel carrying Kalashnikov rifles! We considered changing some US$ into Ugandan Shillings but the bank directed us to a money changer and we couldn't actually work out what rate we'd get so decided to wait and see if the supermarket accepted Mastercard, which it did. We knew we had enough US$ for tipping and so decided not to bother with any local currency - we weren't planning on buying souvenirs anyway. Suitably stocked up with crisps (and a couple of bottles of wine to take with us for the first few days) we headed back to the hotel and a rest.
We knew there was a lot of fishing done in the lake (tilapia being the most common species) so late afternoon we took a walk in the other direction from the hotel to see if we could find any catches being brought in. There were quite a few people in swimming.
As usual when we're walking around in a new place with expensive camera gear we were rather cautious but we found most people to be very friendly and keen to chat. I'm not sure what the long poles this guy had on his bike were for.
We didn't find any boats coming in but we did find a few stalls selling fish of various kinds. These ones we were told had been smoked for 3 hours earlier today.
And this lot is fresh tilapia
No idea what these are but you'd need to eat quite a few.
This lovely young lady was more than happy to pose for a photo.
Whereas these two scaling fish were less keen, but after a bit of negotiation I got my photo. I love the huge knife coming in from the left.
There were several Marabou Stork hanging around hoping for scraps and it was great to get so close to one; we were only about 3m away from this one.
This wall mural is of a Grey Crowned Crane, Uganda's national bird.
Back at the hotel and a few more shots from the balcony, it really is a great place to people watch.
For dinner we went over to the lakeside restaurant and had the most fabulous pizzas, only we made the mistake of order a portion of chips to share and the pizzas were huge. The wine was also delicious and very reasonably priced.
We certainly made the right choice coming early and booking into 2 Friends Beach Hotel - it's perfect.