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Mulala Saturday, August 19 These old wagon wheels were resting against a wall outside the Ngera Sero Lodge |
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Mulala Saturday, August 19 These old wagon wheels were resting against a wall outside the Ngera Sero Lodge |
| The next day, we slept fairly late and had a nice leisurely breakfast of fresh fruit, cereals, toast, eggs and bacon. While we waited for
everyone to get up, my son and I explored around the lodge and found a nearby
trout farm. They raise trout very similar to the fish we find in American
rivers. |
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The plan for the day was a "cultural visit" to a
small village near by. We met some very friendly people in the village of Mulala
and got a tour of "Mama Anna's" cheese farm and a local bread bakery. The
cheese farm was quite fascinating. Everything is done by hand, but the
process is fairly sophisticated and they were clearly concerned about
maintaining sanitary conditions. Methane for running the stoves comes from their
own cow manure. After the cheese factory tour, we hiked up the hill to the
bakery and got a taste of some of the fresh breads they made. Then back to a delicious lunch prepared by Mamma Anna and her family,
followed by a wonderful dance presentation. |
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Most of the women were dressed in Kangas, large rectangles of brightly colored cloth that is wrapped around the body. Mama Anna even convinced Diana to wear a Kanga and join the dance.
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| After signing an African song for us, we were asked to sing an American song for them. We decided on America the Beautiful since this was one of the few songs we all sort of knew the words for. |
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When we got back to the lodge, we watched black and white Colobus monkeys and blue monkeys swinging in the trees. The Colobus monkeys were particularly hard to photograph since they'd move quickly through the trees and were almost always blocked by branches. The photo shown here is the best I could do. |
| The lounge at the back of the main lodge includes an outdoor patio overlooking the river. This is a great place to relax, have a glass of wine, and watch the monkeys and birds in the trees. As the sun set, we saw numerous herons flying down to river. |
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A short walk down the river revealed a tree in out in the middle of a slow part of the river colored white from bird droppings with at least twenty herons perched on the branches. We decided that it would be interesting to check out the tree in the morning. |