Camping in Paradise

After two tough weeks of teaching, I decided to end it off with a weekend of camping on Peace Island (one of the islands in Kibuye). It was quite possibly the best weekend of my life....

Our campsite

Where do I even start? I mean this was the site right outside my tent:

The lake was sparkling and so refreshing to jump into. We more or less had the island to ourselves. The only other human inhabitants were the owners. There was a monkey on the island that had a tendency to steal our food. I named him Rafiki!! We also shared the island with a turkey and her chick and a really massive snake that I only saw once (thank goodness). There were hammocks on the island and Norah and I were pretty excited about that....

We usually started the day with a run around the island and then jumped into the lake. We took out canoes (but not like Canadian style canoes) - these things were handmade wooden little boats that consistently tipped. I managed to tip it twice in the span of 10 minutes. Good thing I can swim...

The boat ride between Peace island and the mainland

The views out here were unbelievable. On the first night we arrived, I noticed an orange haze in the horizon (this was night time so it looked pretty conspicuous). I laughed and told everyone, "hey look, it's a volcano in the Congo" - little did I know, it actually WAS a volcano in the Congo. It was unbelievable. It wasn't erupting but you could see the glow of the lava and I'm guessing this is from a very far distance. I mean we were close to the Congolese border but not THAT close. As you can imagine, I was super excited. And the view during the day was just amazing. There are little lush green islands with different shapes and sizes dispersed throughout the entire lake. 

So much fun!

Yoga on Peace Island

Peace island is, as you can guess, very peaceful. I almost managed to fall asleep a few times in this hammock!

Relaxing

The last day we were there, we swam across to another island. We then hiked to the top, barefoot. I felt so hardcore! The view from the top was the best thing ever. Unfortunately, I didn't have a waterproof camera so I couldn't get any shots. But trust me when I say it was AWESOME. The storms out here are also beautiful. Check out these storm clouds:

The last night I was on the island, the sky overhead was clear as could be and I saw millions upon millions of stars. I've never seen anything like that. It's like someone had splashed the night sky with white, sparkly paint! The craziest thing though is if you looked just to the West across the lake, there was a huge storm over the hills. None stop lightning illuminated the sky. And then to the North, there was the Congo with the orange glow coming from the volcano. Nature is magnificent and there are no words to describe the beauty of this place. Definitely a weekend I will never forget...