When the Lake is Angry

La  lac, c’est mechant aujourdui. When Bryan and I first arrived we were told the lake was angry today and we couldn’t cross. To us it didn’t look that bad, a few waves, some wind.  But, we were told that it was a large lake and if it looked like this from here it was worse on the other side. So when we were finally able to cross we were able to see the lake on the grand scale that it is. At any one place on the lake it is impossible to see at least one end of it. When the lake is calm she is very very nice and when the lake is angry she is evil. That first crossing was fine, and the return crossing under the light of the bedazzled sky was bliss. The lake was a mirror and she reflected the African night.

The next crossing was not quite so calm. The wooden hull of our large 30 foot flat bottomed canoe smashes and strains against the waves and staying dry is an impossibility. We have one conductoir at the back on the engine and one at the front guiding the way with sometimes intricate hand signals. The spray from the black lake eventually drenches us and the high waves mean what would normally be a 45 minute crossing is now 1.5 hours. All in a days work.

*written in March 2012