All Over Uganda

daaaaa! dirty dirty.

Since my last installment I've covered a lot of ground. I've been enjoying Rwanda for about a week, and will attempt to sum up the past few weeks getting here.

After Dave and I returned to Kampala, from sipi falls we headed north to Murchison Falls National Park. Murch is famous because the river Nile pumps through a 18 foot gap in some rocks to form a massive and powerful waterfall. We had a terrible time getting up there, as there's limited transport options. Most people visit the park with they're own vehicle, but sadly we're not most people. We took a crowded bus for a 6 hour ride to the northern town of Masindi, spent the night at a nice little place with TV (and electricity, a nice treat). Spent the next day trying to figure out how to get into the park, which is another 100 or 200 kms north of Masindi. We decided to take a minibus taxi, known as a 'ma-tatu,' to a small town called Bellisi. From Bellisi, we were told we could get 'boda-bodas,' or motorcycle taxis, the final 33kms into the park, where there was a nice lodge waiting for us. Well, the taxi ride was wicked. A 14 passenger toyota hiace minivan can actually hold up to 26 passengers + a few chickens, and a roof full of cargo. I thought the wheels were going to come off, as dave and I were crammed into the last two seats in the back with people on our laps. It's all about profit maximizing on an African taxi, each person meant a good fare. No matter the comfort or delay to let on and off these 26 people, and nevermind the damage this does to the old hiace. The road was less road than pot hole, when it had pavement, which wasn't often. We finally got to Bellisi after a long long ride, but the fun was only about to start.

Bellisi is nothing but a few shacks at a crossroad. There are exactly two boda-bodas in the whole place, which is lucky i guess, but not when you're trying to negotiate a decent price. The drivers knew full well that they were our only hope. We couldn't walk, there are lions in the park, which might eat us. By this point I was smelling like a rotten goat, and was covered in dirt. Sweating a lot in the taxi, with open windows to let the dust in was kind of like getting tar and feathered. Well, we finally got a half decent price (still 3x too much) from these guys, after a pleasant 15 minute standoff. We were finally on our way, it was about 4:30pm at this point. 33km doesn't sound far, but on a tiny motorcycle (moped), on sandy dirt roads with a full backpack on plus the driver, it wasn't the most enjoyable journey. But I was still laughing most of the way, it was pretty comical. That all came to an end once we entered the park and were attacked by tsetse flies. These flies can kill cattle, their bite seriously hurts. They were laying into us without remorse, I would smash one and then watch it fly away totally unharmed. But we lived and finally made it to the 'Red Chili Rest Camp.' It was awesome, cool little huts, showers WITH WATER (not always a given), and great food. We had a couple cold beers to celebrate our arrival.




Lazy croc.


Ghetto zoom lens through the binoculars.


Hippos are not friendly, but delicious.


Mooven, these longhorns were all over the road on the drive back to Kampala.


Downtown Kampala, Uganda. A fantastic African city, my favorite thus far.

The next morning we booked a boat trip up the river to see the falls. It was sort of like a river safari trip, as the banks of the Nile are covered with crocs, hippos, elephants, buffalo, birds a plenty, etc... It was great fun, and was full of great folks. We met a really nice Canadian couple on a super 3 week safari around east africa. Barb and Scott were in their early 30's and remembered the days of backpacking on a budget. They felt sorry for us after we told them about our trip up and offered us a ride back to Kampala in their super sweet Land Cruiser. NOT ONLY did they give us a ride ALL the way back, they gave us a couple of cold beers, bought us lunch, a few drinks, and dinner back at their 5-star Sheraton, we topped it off with a swim in the hotel pool. Ahhh. awesome. Thank you Barb and Scott!!!! Dave and I got some hilarious looks walking in there with our packs on, totally covered in dirt. We rocked up to the bar and one of the bellmen came over to take our packs and hide them behind the bar. too funny.

We spent a 2 days in Kampala hanging out with the small group of friends we'd made at the hostel. On our last night we all went out for an Ethiopian dinner and then to a pub to watch the Real Madrid v Arsenal soccer match. Ugandans are huge soccer (football) fans and it was a wild night. The next morning we headed south to Masaka, a small city and jumping off point to the Ssese islands. The "Ssese's" are africa answer to the Caribbean. A small group of islands in Lake Victoria. We met up with two of our friends from the hostel, Carolyn and Becca. They're British medical students do a semester of study at a hospital in Masaka. They had a great group down there, and we spent the next day, 23 feb (Ugandan Election day) hanging out at the local pool teaching the locals how to land on their backs whilst attempting a flip (my technique). The election is Uganda's first presidential election with multiple parties involved. Meaning the last few elections had only one party, so it was no surprise who won. The current president, Museveni, has been there since 1986, and while he's done a very good job in my opinion, many people were ready for a change. All was going smoothly in the run up to election day, but many were worried there could be trouble on election day. We thought it wise to be out of the capital on that day, as did the State dept, who sent me a few emails encouraging I vacate the capital on election day, and "maintain a high level of awareness." So we made a strategic withdrawal, and hung out by a pool that day keeping up US-Ugandan relations with a few beers and a couple belly/back flops.

We made it out to the islands the next day on a car filled ferry, it was a beautiful trip. The islands are very lush and not so populated. We settled into the 'Hornbill campsite' which was great. Its run by an old dutch guy and serves some of the best food I've had, including a massive tub of guacamole. Becca and Carolyn met us out there for the weekend and we all had a great time lazing about and going for a short hike. After they went back to Masaka, Dave and I headed out to the infamous 'Banda Island' that we'd heard about from a couple of folks at the backpackers in Kampala. Banda is run by an old British-Kenyan who lives out there by himself sort of running a resort, but mostly making his own banana liqueur, drinking most of it. While he was nuts, he did cook up an awesome lunch and was very entertaining.

After Banda, we headed back to the mainland and continued our journey south, heading for Rwanda...


Sunset over Lake Victoria, Ssese Islands, Uganda


Our camp was at the bottom of this hill, right on the beach. The four of us hiked up for the sunset and beers. The fancy new ferry boat can be seen parked at the dock in the background, it was donated by the Dutch.


Oh yeah, self timer professional I am. The three Brits were very kind to put up with this yank for so long.


Luke, the Dutch owner of Hornbill campsite took us out to Banda Island on his old boat. It was a fine ride on the calm lake. Lake Victoria is massive and incredibly beautiful.


Lunch spot on Banda Island.


The boat returns to the beach at the Hornbill campsite.