Wednesday 2nd September

Hit the internet before we headed off to upload more pictures. Then we are going to meet Steve and Katie as they have left something behind at the campsite. Jackie thought they had gone to Entebbe which is not far, about 60kl. So, internet done off we went. Arriving we visited all the campsites but could not find them, rang there phone but no answer. (Found later we had been ringing the wrong number). Decided to stay at Entebbe backpackers which was a very nice site the other main one at the Zoo was not too good. But while we were at the site, Jackie was putting the kettle on when she turned around and saw a spider hanging from the top of the tent by the back door.

It had come down from the tree above. What a whopper!! as you might say. (see photo) Needless to say it went along the lines of “just get rid of it”. So it had to go,  this was one she didn’t want to keep it as a pet.

Thursday 3rd September

Decided to make our way nearer to the Rwanda border, we went to Masaka and pulled in to a campsite which had an amazing right up in the guide book.  The right up was so far off the mark, we don’t think they visited the site at all. But having limited options we decided to stay anyway. No sooner had we set everything up when a message from Steve and Katie came in on Jackie’s phone. We rang them back and discovered they were about 20km away sat by a lake and the description was super. So without further ado we packed back up and went to meet them. The setting of the lake is lovely, parked by the water, flat grass, camp fire, clean toilets and showers. And to cap it all Steve had brought a huge fresh fish from the local fisherman.  Now this was a big fish, about 8lb. Wrapped in tin foil with butter and lemons it went onto the fire alongside the baked spuds. That was a meal and a half thanks to Steve & Katie.

Friday 4th September

It’s nice here at Lake Nabugabo so we are staying another night. Steve and Katie headed off early this morning as they have to go back to Kampala to get another vacuum pump fitted. It was a beautiful day so we stripped out the sheets and sleeping bag and gave it all a good wash, ok so it was with cold water but we have got used to that. The remainder of the day we just sat and read and chilled out. Evening. it was time for the black pot on the fire with Pork and veg.

Saturday 5th September.

Woke up to a bright sunny day, the Lake was still with not a ripple in sight, birds twittering. The start of a nice day. I was up first and moved some veg boxes outside to access the fridge for milk to make the coffee.  I then went off for a shower leaving Jackie fast a sleep. Returning from the shower (cold by the way, it has an effect on you first thing in the morning. It wakes you up so to speak).  But returning from the shower I saw about 30 monkeys at the back of the land rover and all around it. Realising that I had left the veg boxes out I started to run.  Too late. The little blighters (I can’t put what I called them) had had the bread, eggs, veg and the fruit out on the floor. All half chewed. Did they run but not until I was almost on top of them.  They were professional scroungers, stayed as long as possible without getting caught.  Chasing them off they only went so far being reluctant to leave the feast. They turned and looked to see if they could get back to the food. I loaded the catapult and let fly. They knew the sound of the twang of the elastic well enough.  All the veg and fruit was ruined, dustbin material. Half eaten, half chewed. Jackie meanwhile had come down from the tent wondering what was happening.  Breakfast was a very quick meal now for us as the monkeys had eaten most of it. So we now needed to do some shopping as well. Packing up we were continuing on towards Rwanda, slowly. Our destination was Mbarara, some 100kl. Not far but far enough as next day could be a long one depending on how it went.  The road while it was tarred was total Cr**!! (Can I say that?) Full of pot holes, in fact is was how to dodge the holes. One car had a wheel off. Not removed by man, it still had the half shaft on it at the side of the road where it had come off.       

We wouldn’t mind but the holes were brown. (Colour of the dirt) OK easy to see on the tar but no. They fill some of the holes in with dirt!!!! of all things, so you can’t see if it’s a hole or not.  Pick your point, drive and hope is the theme. But our camp site was a nice hotel by the town centre. Arriving for lunch time it seemed a shame not to make use of the restaurant before shopping down town.

Sunday 6th September.

Today ended up an interesting long day, we are going through the Queen Elizabeth Game Park en route to Ishasha camp site which as a matter of information is right by the Congo Boarder (DRC). We had to go this way as Jackie wanted to see the Tree climbing Lions and this was the closest camp site. The first part of the day was nice and easy, all tarmac.  Good tar at that. We saw a camp site for monkey tracking. Thinking this looks good we drove 3kl to the site which was a fantastic location. Facilities rubbish but what a view. Alas they don’t do camping. UH, why call it a camp site!!! The mind boggles some times. Having seen a site further back at a Lodge we retraced our steps. Following the signs through the bush for a further 11kl we eventually arrived. Another nice place but with all the facilities. Swimming pool, bar, sauna, Jacuzzi, boating, it had all the right bits. But $110 US dollars a night. They would have allowed us to camp but the site they had in mind was not what we had in mind at $10 US each. (Bear in mind this is Africa and the economy is not even close to Europe. The local price would be about $1US.  If you pay it once then everybody is expected to pay it) No matter we still has Ishasha Camp in mind and a fall back after that. But what we could not find out is if the camp site was in a National Park. On the map it looked outside but maps are not OS maps so you always have an element of doubt. Continuing on towards the park we came to our left turn when Jackie let out an almighty scream, go back, go back, go back, quick go back. Stopping I reversed up the side of the road. What she had seen was four Lions hanging about in a tree about 100mtrs from the road. What a sight they were. Viewed through the binoculars you could see every detail. Unfortunately they were too far to photograph. They were quite big and very capable of eating anything that dared to go too close. Watching them lounge about was great. Eventually they climbed down the tree into the bush. We continued onwards and came to a couple of Elephants. Unfortunately apart from some Impala (deer) that was all we saw. The road was now a gravel road and quite a good one at that but it soon deteriorated.  We were now running about 2kl from the DRC boarder parallel so we were being careful with the navigation.  Arriving at a park gate we found out that our camp site was inside the park. Being 4pm we did not want to continue further unless we had to. However after being told that to go to the camp site a mere 8kl would cost us $110 US for  park entry fees we decided to continue to our fall back camp site at Lake Bunyoni another  120kl further on a dirt road all the way except for the last 20kl. Continuing on we saw quite a lot of trucks coming towards us all fully loaded, very, very heavy probably at about 70 to 80 tonnes each. All Mercedes, double drive heavy duty trucks with big four axle trailers. Due to the road being dirt and only the centre being usable we had to pull over every time we met one. Far, far too big to argue with. Not really thinking to look at registration numbers, had I have done I may have twigged on and saved a problem later.  About an hour later we came to a village and driving through we were stopped by a barrier across the road.  The police and the Army came out of the check point and we asked them to lift the barrier so that we could continue. They asked us where we were going.  Once we had told them that we were going to Lake Bunyoni they then told us that this was a cargo crossing into the (DRC) Democratic Republic of Congo!!!!!!!!  Do we want to continue? Not a chance was the quick reply. The smile on their faces said it all. (One smart arse caught out).  We were at the boarder of one of the most dangerous countries in the world.  100mtrs further and we would have been in.  Thanking them for keeping the barrier down we started to back up the road.  Fortunately they saw the funny side and then told us that a short cut existed through the village but it was a track.  Looking now at the nav unit (yes if we had looked sooner we would not have been here) we could see that the road we wanted was some 25kl off to our left. (away from the Congo). Now Jackie thinks I am unfair as my stance is I was driving so going off track was down to her not watching the nave unit and looking for animals. She thinks I should have been watching. In truth, both knowing where we were we should have both been watching. Lesson learned for both of us I think. Using the Nav unit we headed off. What a track, we can only assume that this was a loose term. We passed through distant villages, tops of mountains, (2600mtrs high) through a gorilla park (none seen) and eventually we hit tarmac. Albeit an unfinished road and it was dark! They had put piles of gravel across the road with only one part cleared so one car could go through at a time.  People were driving without lights, with just high beam, on both sides of the road both ways. In the end we had all lights on, all eight and stopped dipping them. We now know why we don’t want to drive at night. Eventually we found the turning for the camp site and headed once more up a step track. Now in the day it’s bad. But at night after driving for 10hrs it’s horrendous. But we made it to Lake Bunyoni.  Lo and behold as we parked up we saw a Toyota, Roy and Sandy our Dutch friends. We parked up, put up the tent on the grounds that we were going for beer and food and climbing on the top of Sandy with beer in you when tired was not a good plan.

Monday 7th September.

Woke up to a view of the lake. Not able to see it last night in the dark but what a nice view. Decided to have a chill day today. Feet up and rest.

Tuesday 8th September.

Roy and Sandy headed off to Rwanda. We went down to town to get supplies, bead, milk etc but don’t want two much as we are going to Rwanda tomorrow and with very little camping  it looks like hotels for a week to 10 days. Need to plan what we are going to see and do. The Gorillas are top of the list followed by the Genocide memorials. Also we have to start planning Tanzania as it’s such a big place and we could do with a week by the sea chilling out.

Thoughts on Uganda.

See Rwanda.