Rubondo Island National Reserve
Habitat Of Wild Rangers: "We will treat you like a poacher!
 

070917 10:00

S 0-1, We leave Dale's bay Northwestward and wait there for different wind. 11:00 East 0-3 changing first to variable directions, then to SE. We can head SW to the mainland, 45 degrees west of our course.

Rubondo, two or three days to go, is famous not so much for its wild life but for its aggressive rangers. One story is that they seized and destroyed a Mwanza cargo dhow spending the night on anchor in what they judged to be their territorial waters. Court sentenced the government to pay the damage done. Two Europeans trekking by canoe were rudely arrested, all their property seized and released only after a heavy ransom was paid. Many sources confirm that the rangers can not safely travel on the nearby mainland coast because they harassed local fishermen so severely that they are in danger to get killed there if recognized. From their side, local fishermen have greatly contributed to making the rangers wild by using all kinds of tricks to plunge their nets in the rich waters around the island. Earlier generations of the rangers are told to have killed the last rhino's on the island. Needless to say, we want to visit this unique habitat of wild rangers.

In daytime we do not make much progress but we continue in the light of a quarter moon reaching Maihega, the last island of the Bumbiri archipelago (we did 26 km). Every fishers' village on the islands 7 km East of us, even the ones where nothing is for sale has its own bloody loud disco where dancers acquire hearing damage while preparing for the exchange of their HIV, BOOM BOOM we go from one to the other.

070918 Sunrise. Headwind SE 4. We remain anchored, now in full lake waves. Two fishnets and our anchor get entangled. We help sorting things out and buy a huge Nile perch for TSh 1000 (60 eurocents).

Photo: 60 eurocents

16:00 NNW 0-2 but SE waves and former wind current stay. We set sail with speed 1-2 km/hr. Arrive NW shore of small island Luwire where we anchor, anticipating a firm SE breeze in the morning

070919 Indeed a firm SE breeze, perfect lee side anchoring, although big waves curve round the island from both sides to spoil captain's breakfast appetite. Who cares, bread is finished anyway.

Photo: Sunrise, long swell lee side of Luwire, I could not hold my chair on the deck, breakfast: coffee only

14:00 Wind veers to E, later even NE, off South to Rubondo.
18:40 We are approached by a canoe with a powerful outboard, in it a uniformed apparent private security with a gun on the floor before him and a pilot.
"Where are you going".
Since we clearly are no danger to fishnets, this is to try something. Unfortunately we are unprepared. Otherwise two of us could have jumped down on them before Mr. Where-are-you-going could have reached to his gun, have thrown both thugs in the lake to drown and acquired a handsome brand new Yamaha Enduro 40 Hp outboard. Now we had to limit ourselves to smiling back to the pilot, who had started to fear, and waved a cordial goodbye when he decided to open the throttle.
20:00 Since we deem an after sunset confrontation with the wild rangers risky, we moor at the lee side of Maisome the Eastward neighbouring island. Fishers from Maisome regularly fish around Rubondo. They pay one shift of rangers, who do not want to share with others, so it is essential for the fishermen to have left Rubondo before the next shift

070920 8:30 SE 3 freshening to 6 East while we head for Rubondo.
9:50 approach Rubondo Island. A fast ranger's canoe approaches us. We prepare for the worst. But they are just sailing out some rangers with their luggage. Handsome glass fiber boat, quality outboard. We approach the island beach..

Photo: spotting wild Rubondo rangers

A hippo feels uncomfortable seeing us, fears to plunge in the lake and starts trotting Northward along the beach. We anchor 300 m of shore. While still working, we see commanding gestures to come ashore. My crew gets nervous. After a while I go to the beach, my bad-year-of-issue dollars in my pocket, to meet them.

Photo GoogleEarth: Rubondo East coast, habitat of the wild rangers

"Hello my name is Captain Dr. Lambertus hamminga, ecotourist. The rest of us are normal. I came to see the wild rangers. Do you have a guide who can lead us to their present habitat?" No. I decide to skip that and simply tell them we are inquiring prices to see if we can afford a stay, for instance one night, where two crew go for a walk at sunset, and the other two tomorrow sunrise, since the dhow should stay manned. They put a shiny folder before me and show me my prices:

I am a Ugandan resident, isn't  that an East African?
No your have a Dutch passport. You are an "other".
Well, you see, I am not one of those rich whites who don't know what to do with their money, but OK. Now about this group walk fee: tomorrow morning you have two Tanzanians and you want TSh 500. At sunset you have a white and a Tanzanian. That is not a white group. It is half white half Tanzanian. So you cannot charge white fees.
Yes, mixed groups pay white fees.
But this is not in your rules. OK, so I pay TSh 3500 and US$ 30? Let us settle now.
The gentlemen have four books: one for Tanzania entry tickets, one for white entry tickets, one for receipts and one register book. They open and start to write.
Then you pay for your boat: TSh 25000.

Since I see in the shiny folder (English only, no Swahili) for a boat like ours, over 7 tons, and foreign registered, a fee of US$ 200,  10 times what they now asked, I quickly agree.
The gentlemen continued their writing.
Will you use our banda's for accommodation?
No, we sleep in our boat.
The gentlemen continue their writing.
You sleep in your boat. That is camping accommodation

Considering the risk that another ranger would come to say rightly that we are over 7 ton and should document our Tanzanian registration or else pay an additional US$200 - I already hear them saying "sorry for the small mistake sir but we have to follow our rules..." - I made my decision: I am sorry to have to tell you, gentlemen but now I see we cannot afford it. We have to refrain from visiting your island.
I stand up and waive to the dhow to collect me from the beach.
Meanwhile the gentlemen behind enter an excited conversation.
When I return to say goodbye, they say: Sir, you can go but you have to pay US$20 because you are already in the Reserve Area.
But gentlemen if I enter a shop to buy one piece of loaf, they charge me US$20, will I be charged to leave the shop if I do not want to buy?
You are here, you have to follow our laws or we treat you as a poacher!
This was "acting chief ranger" talking. Treating you as a poacher means, I had already been informed: towing the boat on land and destroying the precious mninga by using it for firewood. Also interesting is that the acting chief ranger knows we are no poachers, he knows we know he knows, but he does not care in the least, a criminal who even gave up to pose as decent. My counter intimidation clearly sorted not enough affect to make them back down. Even if we had decided to have guns on board, an issue of $20 would not have been enough for a command to use them. Moreover the hooligans did not know we are unarmed, and apparently were ready to cope with the eventuality of us having weapons (or, as I experience elsewhere, simply mentally too deficient to consider "eventualities").
Meanwhile Doi had arrived to collect me with the canoe.
Well gentlemen, I will go to the dhow and contact some people to decide what to do with you.
This is not negotiable.
I will contact some people for advice on how to decide on your position.
Doi clearly feared and refused to come. I took him by the arm but he vehemently resisted. I told him to come "this is an order!" but he refused.
I decide to leave Doi's education for later.
With Doi self-appointed hostage on the beach I reached the dhow. Told Philemon my plan to pay the US$20 and go. He agreed, and went with me.
Meanwhile the beach had decided we should also pay the boat fee TSh 25000 and entry for the Tanzanians TSh3000.
"Here they start adding again", I sighed loudly in Philemon's direction. But we paid the ransom, totaling now US$42.40. I made an attempt to have them sign a receipt "charged after visitors decided they could not afford entry to the Island under the tariffs proposed", but they refused. We paid anyway, as I already had decided: after all, US$42.40 is a small sum to pay to armed rangers with guns, fast outboard engines, double hull glass fiber boats, shortwave and no brains. A letter to the ministry of national parks reporting our near robbery incident and specifying the account on which we want our money to be restituted is not worth the stamp. This is Tanzania.
Thus we saw no wild animals other than the rangers, but we saved the remaining US$40 of their shiny folder extortion fee, and may be even US$200 revised boat fee. At 14:15 hrs wind turns N 3 and we set sail to Kahunda.