Uganda with Jess

After a whirlwind tour of Uganda which involved excessive hours spent travelling by road (more than 24 in one week!), I am now typing this on my flight back to England.

During the week, I found myself constantly comparing the country to Rwanda and I was surprised by how much I preferred Rwanda and missed my African "home". Kampala is a hectic city, with an enormous volume of traffic resulting in a minimum of 5 hours' rush hour every day. Despite the size of it, it seemed the centre was not well-designed and all the main travel hubs are in close quarters resulting in gridlock which even the boda bodas (motortaxis) could not avoid. Unlike Rwanda, safe driving does not reach the same level in Uganda. It is rare to see a Boda boda driver with a helmet on, let alone one for a passenger (which all Rwandan moto drivers carry). Our taxi driver told me that there is an entire wing in the local hospital full of people who have boda boda accidents and I can't say I'm surprised. Our first taxi journey demonstrated this as they were driving up the pavements, tearing in between cars, travelling with 3 passengers etc etc.

Generally Kampala is a colourful city, similar to Rwanda, with  different coloured buildings advertising various products. A big difference I noticed is the number of tiny shack-shops and food stalls out on the road (something Rwanda has stopped in recent years, instead finding roofed areas for craft markets etc to set up). The people seemed friendly even though we were overcharged by our first cab driver who insisted he had agreed 20,000 shillings each instead of a total ride for 20,000 shillings. We were careful not to fall into that trap again and double checked everything from then on.

Source of the Nile

Having briefly seen Kampala, we headed out to Jinja and the River Nile. The place we stayed in (Adrift) was spectacular. It had a picture-perfect log cabin bar, which overlooked the Nile and even had HOT showers! Whilst there, we visited the source of the Nile, where Lake Victoria meets the river but most excitingly, we went went white water rafting down the Nile; exhilarating, scorching hot and totally incredible. I will remember the sensation of floating down the Nile next to our raft very fondly, holding hands with Jess as she floated alongside me saying "Just taking a quick dip in the Nile" - magical!



Front right = me, behind me = Jess

Whilst in Jinja, we also did a bit more souvenir shopping. Jesso commissioned a painting because the one she liked was too big for her house boat. So the painter, Mike, set about making a smaller version for her whilst we continued walking for a couple of hours. Here he is in his studio, amidst his beautifully bright artwork. The big painting on the floor is the original we liked. Prices were a bit cheaper than Rwanda on the whole, although their African fabrics tended to be more expensive (so no more dresses for me!).

Next on the Ugandan hit list was Murchison Falls which brought about a safari, boat trip and visit to the waterfalls. I think photos will sum this up better than words. Unfortunately the lions decided not to come out to play but other than that, we had a high success rate on the animal spotting. Highlights included staying in safari tents whilst a hippo grazed  a couple of metres away from us and a naughty warthog ripped through our neighbours' tent because the even naughtier neighbours forgot to leave their biscuits at the bar (the strict "no food in the tents" rule is there for a reason).

To minimise the disappointment of not seeing the lions, Jess and I spent our last night in Uganda at the Entebbe Wildlife Centre and after a stunning sunrise, we went to visit the lions, hyenas, zebras (zeblas as they say in Rwanda) and cerval cats amongst other animals. The Education Centre is a great place to stay and for the cost of the dorm room (20,000 shillings per person) you get entry to the centre which is normally 30,000 shillings on its own.

A wonderful adventure to finish off Jess' stay in Africa. I will be sad to return to Rwanda without her although we have some amazing memories and photos of our time together. And fingers crossed she's got the bug and will come again soon ;-)