michnus

19th March 2011

Simply- Uganda Rocks!! 17/03/2011

The road to Uganda through Kenya took us to Suam river border post on the foot of MT Elgon between Kenya and Uganda. It’s a beautiful green area with lots of trees, forest-like. In Kenya the roads towards the border were either full of potholes or very dusty, in bad condition, the surroundings flat and vegetation dry. This lush forest welcomes you as the road descents to the border post at Suam.

By now we got used to custom officials utter idiocy and incompetence. I had to show the friendly customs guy at the Kenya side how to book our Carne de Passage out from Kenya and then the very friendly official at the Uganda site buggered up one page because he stamped it wrong. But, they are a friendly bunch and can be forgiven for not been taught as a customs official what a Carne de Passage entails.

As luck had it Neil and Silvie were also at the border post when we arrived they also wanted to do some of the route we are taking. It was actually nice to have companions that were going to do the type of dirt roads we were hoping Uganda would offer. They are South Africans who worked in the UK for 5 years and were on their way back to SA by road in their big ass Toyota kitted with a huge freezer box. We met them at Jungle Junction in Nairobi when we did the servicing on the bikes. Did I mention they have a freezer in the car … this knowledge made me and Elsebie smile, and hoped that they planned to route through Uganda sort of the same way than us. Trying to get cold beers are a mission and if you come across a freezer with a 4×4 for a few days, you latch on as good as you can.

Our first night in Uganda was spent in the small border town at the park facilities where it turned out cheaper to rent a bed for about R30 than to camp. Cold showers and pitted toilets are familiar to us by now. Toilets was a strange affair in Uganda. This was our ablutions at the local community camp site.

Before I carry on, I need to mention that it was election time in Uganda. Everywhere were posters, literary on almost every flat surface available obviously no bi-laws regulations in action. Speaker-equipped vehicles promoted their choice of candidates loudly and followers rocked up in bright yellow t-shirts and their Sunday’ best for the voting. All of this actually added to a wonderful visit for us – tourists were less and roads on election days quieter. Local food are quite good and tasty and you can have a decent meal at a local dive for around R40 which will feed two easily.