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The Tent in the Forest

THE VAN parked in a small car park just inside the entrance of the Wagtail Eco Safari Camp in a remote corner of Western Uganda. The park was surrounded by small jungle trees. A man named Innocent introduced himself and after taking our bags out, he led us through a gap in the bushes to a small outside reception area in a timber pole building. We put down our bags and sat on the timber sofas while he checked us in. Turns out he was the unassuming owner of the ecolodge, but he preferred to only be known as "the guide".

Innocent introduced us to Emma (strange name for a man I thought...). He will be the main cook during our stay. Once checked in Innocent led us to our tents where we will be based over the following two nights.

My tent was at the end of the ecolodge. The encroaching forest made it feel very remote yet it was still only two minutes walk from the main building. The tent was pitched on a large wooden slat platform some three by seven metres. The entire platform was stacked on piles made from four layers high of bricks. The tent was positioned over the back two thirds of the platform with a large fly held up by steel poles covering the tent and the front of the platform.

I unlocked the front entrance of the tent and walked inside. There were two single beds constructed from knotted logs with nice mattresses and soft green bedding. There were a few flower petals placed on each bed for added effect. The logs used to make the bed heads were very twisted and knotted to amazing effect.

Beyond the bedroom was a partitioned off area with stone and concrete walls. To the right was the shower, to the left was the toilet and in the centre was a washing basin mounted on a rustic wooden cabinet. A solid slat timber door allowed access. The rendered walls rose to about two metres before being open to the elements for about fifteen centimetres to the ceiling. I could see out into the jungle but no one outside would have been tall enough to be able to see in. The floor and shower wall had flat rocks set into it.

To my surprise there was a single florescent bulb hanging from the top of the main tent. I had not seen any evidence of electricity in the last two hours of traveling along the gravel road since shortly after leaving Kabale. We were in a very remote area.

The safari lodge generated its own electricity through a diesel generator, and only operated between 5:00 and 7:00 AM and 7:00 and 11:00 PM. Otherwise there was no electricity here. There were one or two other eco lodges within an hour’s drive each with its own diesel generator, but otherwise there was no electricity at all around here.

The eco lodge was constructed very elaborately from timber logs. A log staircase ran out the outside to an upstairs deck. Downstairs there were no windows. The vertically set log walls ran up to half way up the walls. The top halves of the walls were open to provide an unbroken view into the jungle. The furniture was fittingly rustic knotted log construction in the communal areas and inside the tents where we stayed. Each piece of furniture appeared very elaborate until you sit or lie in them. The chairs were the most uncomfortable I have ever sat in, and the beds were pretty bumpy. Obviously the fine balance between aesthetics and functionality weren’t quite happening.

The jungle surrounding the lodge and tents had obviously been planted as there wasn’t as much chaos as you would expect in a jungle. There were rows of clemanthe and the occasional banana tree planted in for good measure. The plants were also well maintained. However the jungle effect here was very effective.

Inside the dining hall were four heavy wooden tables each having four heavy wooden chairs around it. The roof was held up by timber logs around the outside and two in the middle. An internal wooden stairway rose up onto the deck above the ceiling. At the end of the dining room near the entrance was a dark bar. Behind that was the kitchen and further behind was the reception area we had initially entered. The front entrance came in through a small porch.

Dinner finally arrived. We started with a very nice chicken vegetable soup. This was followed by beef, rice and a vegetable stew. Dessert was a nice assortment of diced fruit.

I was going to be very well looked after here.

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