Fisher village of Butiaba, on the shores of Lake Albert, North Uganda, Africa
“Butiaba is the prime port for smuggling goods in and out of the Congo”, Paul confided to Heidi. This was back in Rwanda, where she met the Australian biker. Only a few words, but enough to awaken our adventurous spirit… Fate had it that weeks later we met Paul exactly in Butiaba. Our original plan was to join him in northern Uganda, where Paul was filming a documentary on former child soldiers. But time restrains and road conditions in the rain made it impossible.
But also the trip to Butiaba was not without obstacles! The road from Fort Portal to Hoima is in an extremely bad state. After our first flat tire, we teamed up with another car. Between the two cars, we had four (!!!) punctures in one single day. This is why we felt a bit guilty to ask Hamza to leave our escort and take the turn to Butiaba instead of continuing directly to Murchison Falls National Park. Besides, he probably wondered what we would do in this god forsaken cluster of wooden shacks and traditional Lua huts. Frontier town feeling would be the proper wording, if it was not so tiny…
Fisher village of Butiaba, on the shores of Lake Albert, North Uganda, Africa
But there are hidden assets. On a palm lined beach, stark – naked men scrubbed down their athletic bodies in ocean – seized Lake Albert, completely unimpressed with us stumbling through the sand, looking for Paul. We figured the beach would be the place to look for the “Mzungo”. Besides, to find the only one in this village seemed manageable. On top of that, Paul draws a crowd no matter where he goes…
With Paul, in the Fisher village of Butiaba, on the shores of Lake Albert, North Uganda, Africa
And this is exactly how we found him! His 3.000 Dollar camera was in the hands of a group of locals who were having a blast. That is when we discovered the other treasure: a fishermen’s village right on the shore, nets spread out on beach and canoes neatly lined up on the shoreline. We stopped in midstride. That is how beautiful that sight was! The attention we drew was overwhelming. Children went gaga and performed all kinds of poses to have their photos taken.
With Paul, in the Fisher village of Butiaba, on the shores of Lake Albert, North Uganda, Africa
It seems there had not been lots of tourists around since 1956, when Hemmingway’s crashed twice within two days in some miniature planes, in a narrow escape of death.
Gilles & Heidi in the Fisher village of Butiaba, on the shores of Lake Albert, North Uganda, Africa
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