Finally Arriving at Uganda Lodge

After leaving my house at 2pm on Thursday 1st, I finally reached my destination, Uganda Lodge, in a remote part of South Western Uganda at 10:30pm Saturday night!!

I left Bristol bus station, expecting my nervousness to rise as I made my way to Heathrow, but instead I just felt more and more excited. Not being a fan of coach travel, I would have to say that it was probably the most enjoyable coach journey I’ve ever had.

After arriving at Heathrow, I took the flight to Amsterdam where I spent several hours in central Amsterdam window shopping before heading back to the airport where I got about 3 hours sleep before my 10:40am flight to Entebbe, Uganda.

I spent most of the flight catching up on some sleep and arrived in Entebbe at 7:30pm local time, feeling more awake then when I had left.

By 8:30pm I was through immigration and had picked up my bags and started to look for my lift to my accommodation for the night in Kampala. After receiving many offers of taxis and cheap accommodation from the throng of touts outside the airport, I eventually found my guides, Zaki (Who I discovered later is related to the Bugandan Royal Family) & Raphael, who were extremely welcoming and put me at ease. I was not able to see much in the dark on my journey into Kampala, but I did see scores of people walking down the street as well as a few that we had almost knocked over as they crossed the unlit road from Entebbe to Kampala. There were people hanging about at the side of the road chatting, huge tailbacks of cars, motorbikes, taxis and buses overtaking and undertaking and appearing from all sorts of strange angles. There was a lot of beeping of horns and flashing of lights at anything that was in our path. Zaki and Raphael took me out in Kampala for food and a few beers before taking my back to my accommodation.

The plan the next morning was to have breakfast, change my money and get on the bus around 10am for my “4hr ride” to my final destination Uganda Lodge. In the end I was given my first view of Kampala in the daylight. I was taken to a market where everybody stared at the only white man, some waved and gave friendly greetings in Bugandan, English and other local languages. Some of the small children looked frightened of the Muzungu (White man). Next we went to Lake Victoria and watched the fisherman fishing (Illegally as they had no permit), before they came to the shore and we bought our Tilapia breakfast, which was cooked and eaten at Zaki’s house with Chapattis (Similar to pancakes). Then we fought through the chaos of the Kampala traffic to get my money changed and get me to the bus station. I saw a man with polio that had turned his legs to twigs lying at the side of the road, people sleeping on the pavement, bikes being ridden pilled high with matoke (savory green bananas), 10 seater taxis holding about 20 passengers, rickety shops and house built in corrugated iron, mud bricks and straw. But despite the chaos, disease and squalor everybody looked happy and were smiling and laughing. This filled me with mixed emotions of sadness, confusion and awe. I started to think of the UK with everybody looking miserable and not having even half the problems that are faced daily in Africa.

I was put on the bus and my destination was explained to the driver and one of my fellow passengers who were to ensure that I got off at the right stop. Two hours later we had still not left the bus station, during which time vendors had been selling their wares along the inside of the bus as well as through the windows. The range included drinks, food, clothes, watches, mobile phones and practically anything else that you could think of.

Finally just after 3pm, the bus set off, surprisingly with some of the vendors still on board continuing to sell their products. On the bus I got chatting to the lad next to me, Moses, who was going to his grandparents for a family meal for Easter. I asked him about the spiders and snakes that I might see, he said that I wouldn’t see many snakes, but plenty of big spiders. As we stopped in each town, more vendors ran up to the bus selling food and drinks, I purchased some BBQ bananas, meat on skewers and a coke which all cost me about 50p. After three hours there was an explosion just below where I was sat and the bus came to a rapid stop. It turned out that a tyre had exploded on one of the many pot holes in the road. Everybody on the bus took the opportunity to get some fresh air while the tyre was fixed.

We set off on our way again and Moses informed me that we were still only half way, a little over an hour later we were traveling in darkness. I started to think of the government’s advice on not traveling at night in Uganda due to the threat of ambush and robbery. Moses said to me that he was surprised that a Muzungu was traveling alone at night. Finally I was approaching my destination, some of my fellow passengers reminded the driver and conductor that my stop was approaching, however due to the increasingly frantic calls it appeared that the driver was reluctant to stop, until finally he trod down hard on the brake pedal and I was able to struggle off with my bags, almost forgetting my huge rucksack which was stored in the luggage compartment. Both my hosts (who met me at the roadside) and I were able to stop the bus and retrieve the bag before it was taken off to Rwanda.

Two and a half days of travel and I’d finally made it!!