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Tim in Africa and Asia
Since my last email I got quite lonely been the only white person in town and having no one to have a proper conversation with, and the rains were stopping me from doing much- I went up to Naharurru to see Thomson Falls and the rains meant we got there quite late and when we did get there it was cold and wet and I got soaking just walking from the bus park, so I gave up and had a cup of tea in a cafe and then went back. Since in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania you can move between each country without having to get a new Visa each time I thought I would go early to Uganda and then come back to Kenya when the weather had improved. So after an 13 hour bus journey I arrived in Kampala.
I had intended on only spending a day here before moving on but I got a bug and had a sore throat and was achey and sicky so stayed a few days. I met quite a few interesting people, two indians (who had hilarious Not the Nine O Clock News accents), who were part of the Indian army and currently working in the Congo as part of the UN peackeeping force there, a german who was cycling from Germany to South Africa and had taken 8 months so far, and an australian couple who had motorbiked from Australia, through South East Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa, not sure how long they had been or where they were heading, I think it changed a lot.
I eventually left Kampala and went down to Lake Buonyini near the Rwandan/Congo border. It is the deepest lake in Uganda at something stupid like 6000feet, I canooed round it which was nice, the banks are v steep and terraced, making them look like the hills or Rwanda or Nepal. There is a small island called Punishment Island in it, so called because women that became pregnant out of wed lock were deserted on it and left to die from starvation or from trying to swim to shore. There only chance of rescue was from a local man who couldn't afford a wedding dowry so would sail over and get a wife on the cheap. The islands occasionally come up for sale, apparantly an 150 acre island costs about 100 000USD if anyone wants an island. I stayed here for about two days, leaving behind some new zealnders I had shared a room with, they were going on to the Congo to see the Gorillas, not sure if they made it or not what with current events. I then meant to get the bus up to Fort Portal but wasn't paying attention and missed my change so ended up spending the night in Kampala, roughly 140 miles as the crow flies from my original destination.
Once I arrived in fort portal I went to Lake Nkuruba to this little campsite. The next day I thought I would hire a bike and cycle to Fort Portal to eat and get some supplies, thinking it was about 9km away. I got the bike, which was supposed to be a mountain bike and had been about 20 years ago, it was lots of lovely bright colours though and had coloured strings coming from each handlebar, ensuring I looked like a complete pillock, and very bad brakes and gears. But I started cycling to Fort Portal, and after about an hour asked a man also cycling there how far left and he said about 7 miles, which was when I remembered that my guidebook said it was actually 20km, so I'm not sure why I thought 9. I eventually got there, had something to eat and then was too knackered to do much so went back, pushing the bike up the hills and standing on the peddles down hill (my arse was too painful to sit down at this point). I then rested for the afternoon, basking in the respect of my fellow campers that I had cycled so far on such a difficult road, though I didn't tell them that I didn't realise how far or difficult it would be.
I checked out the next day and thought I would go to Murchison Falls in the North west, which is quite difficult to get to as most people do it as part of an organised tour as there is no public transport. I got the bus to Kagadi which was quite possibly the most painful and uncomfortable journey a person has ever experienced. My arse was incredibly sore, at one point we had 21 passengers when the bus is only licensed for 14 (we paid the police at the road check to overlook this), for a small part of the journey we had a goat with its two kids crammed underneath one of the seats, and the raod was in really bad condition so each bump almost bought tears to my eyes. Each afternoon at about 3 it downpours for about an hour. The rain seems to be only as much as a downpour in England but it actually chucks down about 15 times more water, making the entire place flood even though there are huge storm drains everywhere. Unfortunately the rains started while we were driving, and because some luggage was tyed to the roof and secured to a bar inside, I was unable to close the window next to me, which meant I got soaked.
Eventually we got to Kagadi and then I found the bus to Hoima, which was quite possibly the worst bus journey ever. Twice our bus slid into the storm drains either side of the road (the raod was a dirt track like most of the roads, but had thick mud all over it) which meant we all had to get out while about 20 ugandans pushed it back out, and twice we had to get out while everyone pushed it up two steep hills, since there was no chance the bus was going to make it on its on. Having to climb the mud covered hills by foot I eventually gave up with my flip flops and carried them while walking bare foot through the mud with my trousers rolled up to my knees, a spectacle which everyone in the village (they all seemed to congregate along the hill for an evenings entertainment of watching vehicles try to negoiate it) thought was hilarious. Tired, muddy, hungry and in a lot of pain from by bum I asked the person next to me if it was this bad the rest of the way and she said no, which it wasn't. Unfortunately though the amount of revving required to get up the hills had used a lot of petrol, which we ran out of and so had to sit in the dark for about an hour while the ticket collector hitched a lift to the nearest petrol station which actually had fuel to get some petrol. Eventually he came back, and at 10pm I arrived in Hoima.
The next day I got the bus from Hoima to Masindi, a painful but relatively uneventful experience and spoke to the Ugandan Wildlife Authority man about how to get in the park. He said the only way is to get a taxi for 150 000 ugandan shillings, about 60GBP, get a lift with one of the park rangers or share a taxi with other people going into the park, but as it was sunday there would be no rangers going into the park. So I went to a cafe where a lot of people go before heading into the park and asked about if anyone was going in, which they weren't, and then met two NGO workers. Apparantly Masindi has a lot of NGOs clearing up the mess left by the Lords Resistance Army when they occupied the area. One of them offered me her spare room if I wanted to stay the night, we I took up on, and am actually going to spend two nights, since she has hot water, a flush toilet rather than a hole in the ground, and electricity, which is nice, as well as other amenities in the town and so tomorrow I'm going to go to Murchinson Falls, hitching a lift with one of the rangers.
I've spent the last four hours and 23 minutes uploading pictures, my Egypt ones are finally up at www.picasaweb.google.com/tshaw99 as are some of my Kenya ones, though you can't look at these as they are not captioned. I will upload the rest on my way back down.
I'm going to get something to eat now, for breakfast I had goat stew and rice, which was nice, although included in the stew was some organ I couldn't recognise and the intestines, which were ok until some half digested food started oozing out of them.
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