Napoleon Island and the BATS!

THIS IS NAPOLEON ISLAND!   CAN YOU IMAGINE WHY THEY NAMED IT THIS? 

YES... BECAUSE IT LOOKS JUST LIKE HIS HAT!   HAT RHYMES WITH BAT AND THAT IS WHAT 
THIS ISLAND IS FULL OF.

We took a boat across the lake to see this place.  This has been something Bruce has wanted to do since he heard about the place and that is one reason
why we came here to stay. 

It's a large lake and even with the hazy conditions it oozes beauty with the rolling Rwandan hills off its shores.

It took awhile to get across to the island and when we did we felt like Tom and Huck.... Our driver just pulled up to this tree.... tucked us in up to the rocks and we jumped onto the island.  

What happened next I didn't understand until later....  There were a few young boys standing near this spot and I wondered why they were there... Did they live out here on this
scruffy island?  Our guide must have read my mind...
He said - "They're the cowboys!"  To which we just laughed and went on following him up the side of the mountain. 

This wasn't his first trip to this island... For 3 generations
his family has run this boat taxi/tour to reach the the islands.  
By the way, there are several islands as you can see from the pictures.  We only had time to explore this one.  
It was quite windy! 

Thus creating a GREAT hair day! 
Bruce always looks so good.

Looking back to see how far we had come.  You can
only see the vague light blue outline of the hills 
we had come from.

These two guys passed us by on the boat... They were paddling standing up on something that looked like a surfboard but it was a lot lighter.  But in this picture
they were down on their knees.
It took them 6 hours to get across the lake....

Back on the island, we are making our way up the hill
to find the bats and suddenly they showed up. 

Our guide was making all kinds of noise to wake them since
they were asleep.. After all, they usually only come out at night. 

These were not like out little bats...
Some of them had wingspans of 2'- 3'.

They were flying everywhere around us.
The guide asked if he could take the camera and go get some video of them down further into the bush area.

I really didn't want to give it to him...but finally decided to
and I'm so glad I did.

Of course, i cannot get the videos to download... i really don't
understand the problem.  I've tried all the suggestions from google but to no avail. 

So, this is what they looked like hanging...

 I think their heads look like dogs...
check out the top right side of this picture.

And again here....I think a baby is tucked in the one on the right.

The island was literally crawling with bats.
Bats clawing for a place to "hang out".

And the sky was full of them each time our guide would whistle
an alert sound.

     We'll see if they work... They load and say proceeding to finish... and then nothing.

What do you think?    I think this must be a Mama in progress....

The guide even caught this Albino bat.

 Our last picture of them... and yes, it was quite a sight but a bit
creepy with these guys flying all around.   They apparently are a kind of fruit bat and they have settled here because there are so many fruit trees on the island...
and also a lot of cows!


The whole time we heard the bats screaching we were
also hearing cows mooing... Strange combo... But as we were walking back down the mountain we saw our first one. 

 Getting a drink from the lake...

I "mooed" at him and he looked up!  As we
continued down the path we discovered there
were cows all around us with big horns.

 But they knew our guide would feed them guava.

He explained to us that the cows SWAM to the island and will SWIM back at some point.
They were brought here by the Cow-Boys!
The boys who take care of the cows on the island--
thus the cowboys! 

Then we took turns feeding these almost tame cows.

"Wait, where are you going.... I want more!"

That's better!  Bruce just couldn't get over the cows swimming so far across this lake.. and yes... it is pretty astonishing.

By this time.... our guy at the water's edge had made his way up to see us, too.

 I loved this cow... He seemed to have so much character and wisdom about him.... 

Even gentle eyes for a guy with such huge horns.

 All things rise to the sky.. the horns and the hills!

Here, our guide gave him a lemon..  He licked and licked and licked and licked.... The video is cute...

All the other cows came over  for juice, too.

This "little" one looked like she was "with cow". 

She got in on the action, too! 

Time to get back into the boat but first it
had to be pulled back in...

.

 Lifting the 'anchor'! 

Bringing it back to the rocks.

On our way back to the mainland...
Napoleon in the distance now. 

This was our driver/captain's number so that when we come
back we can call him..  He had this written on the top of the boat.
Clever!

Lake Kivu is large and at this point a bit choppy. 

But our little inlet was fairly calm all the time.

This picture really give you the feel of just how high our
place was from the water.  The beach looks so small...
It seems so out of proportion.  

Love this shot of our boat now docked land side.

The rest of the day we chilled in the sun...
Guess that is an oxymoron.

But it was a very relaxing day.
Tomorrow we head back to reality but these last few days
have been very very nice.

There could only be two other things that
would make this day perfect.

A brilliant sunset....

and a full moon!

And the Lord provided both!!

love,
margie