View Around Uganda in 16 days - Part III. as a larger map
A) Simba Safari Camp
B) Crater Lakes
C) Kibale National Park
D) Hoima
E) Masindi
F) Gulu
G) Kitgum
B) Crater Lakes
C) Kibale National Park
D) Hoima
E) Masindi
F) Gulu
G) Kitgum
Day 9.
This was the day we were going to meet with Óscar, the Spaniard who has a touroperator here in Uganda, and with whom we were going to do the rest of the trip. This was the day when travelling in public transport would end, from then on we would travel in a comfortable 4WD safari van, with our own seat for each of us!
But before that there was one more bus left, the one that would take us from Simba Safari Camp to the crossing where we would meet with Óscar. We were told what time the bus usually passes by the entrance of the hostel (even though they also told us that it could come earlier or later), and how long it normally takes to reach that crossing. We imagined the bus would be late, of course, but we thought it was better not to take any risks and before the supposed arrival time we were already waiting at the gate.
As expected, the bus arrived 20 minutes after the time we had been told, and after all the experience we had accumulated in Uganda, I called Óscar to tell him that we were already a bit delayed, and that we would probably arrive about an hour and half late.
Experience certainly helps: after a smooth journey, sharing the seat from time to time, we arrived at the crossing indeed one and half hours after the planned time.
We got off the bus, and Óscar was already there waiting for us with his splendid new 4WD van. We put in out bags, made ourselves comfortable and continued our journey like kings in our new transport.
We left behind the main road and turned onto small paths in the area of the crater lakes. This is a small region in the west of Uganda, close to a town called Fort Portal, which is full of hills of volcanic origin with several small lakes that fill what had once been craters of volcanoes from the formation of the Great Rift Valley.
We stopped in a few quiet places close to two lakes to have a beer and enjoy the view, take photos, talk...
Someone has seen the butterflies?
We would have liked to take a walk around, but it was getting late, and there was a chance we could still do it the following day.
We continued across the area of crater lakes, crossing first big plantations of matooke (a variety of banana very common in Uganda, about which I’ll tell you some other time), and afterwards large tea plantations. Finally, the path lead into Kibale forest, in the Kibale National Park, a home to more than 1200 chimpanzees.
But there aren’t just chimpanzees in Kibale. You can also enjoy the baboons.
Those don’t need to be habituated like the chimps, they already get used to the presence of humans by themselves. Obviously, they are not shy.
We arrived to Primate Lodge, and it was nice after the journey to be received with a fresh juice and a towel to clean your hands while they check your reservation.
The Primate Lodge Kibale is a higher-standard place, perfect for those who want to be in the middle of a rainforest without sacrificing being comfortable. You can sleep in cottages or in tents. We were going to try the tents, I had seen them during another trip and I was curious to check them out.
Sleeping in a tent in the middle of a rainforest has the advantage of feeling more in the middle of the nature than if you are in a cottage between four walls. You can hear better the birds, the insects and in Kibale, if you are lucky, you can even hear the chimps calling. It is understandable that not everyone feels like camping during their holidays, which makes this type of lodges a good option: you sleep in a tent, but as I told you before, with all the comfort.
And when I say with all the comfort, I mean it: even with your own bathroom (with warm water, of course) at the back of the tent.
Besides, in this lodge the tents are far enough from the common area and from each other, so that you don’t see your neighbours, and you can feel like the king of the jungle.
After having a shower, during the dinner, I mean, during a nice dinner at candlelight, we started planning with Óscar the rest of the trip. We had a reservation in the lodge for two nights, but the main activity around was chimpanzee tracking, and Zuzana and I had already seen them and Tomáš wasn’t particularly interested. The other options were a forest walk or hiking around the crater lakes, which is nice and pretty, you can swim in some of them... but the problem was the huge amount of kilometres which we had ahead. And so finally we decided to cut out one night in Kibale and continue our trip the following morning.
Before we went to bed, Óscar, who is a nice guy, had prepared a surprise for us. He had talked to the director of the lodge and arranged for a choir of local children to come and do a small performance of traditional songs and dances from the region. Thank you for the touch.
And so, after the dinner we went to our tents, taking a short walk on the path leading towards them, illuminated with small lanterns, while enjoying the sounds of the rainforest.
Day 10.
Again an early breakfast and we hit the road.
We left Kibale National Park and we took a small road between the tea plantations, where we stopped for a while: inevitably to take a few pictures.
And also to answer questions of the curious locals.
We continued the journey and, after a few kilometres on the road connecting Fort Portal and Kampala, we turned north in the direction of Hoima, on what is without a doubt one of the first "roads" that the Ugandan government should repair to help tourism. It is 145 kilometres, most of it on a perfectly irregular dirt road. But well, the journey is also part of the African experience, so here we go.
Óscar told us that close to Hoima there is a point from where you can see an impressive view of the Albertine Rift, the western branch of the Great Rift Valley, and he proposed we go could there, then take a road leading down to the valley and spend the night camping at the shore of the Lake Albert, close to a nice lodge which is there. We had ahead of us a long day on the road to reach the viewpoint close to Hoima, but with friends, the journeys aren’t all that long. Let’s enjoy Africa.
But the African experience had prepared a surprise for us. After a few kilometres of endless bumps and potholes, from time to time we started to smell something burning, and Óscar said he felt as if the brakes didn’t work completely well. We stopped and saw that the rear right wheel was hot, and decided to stop in the next village to look for a garage to repair the brakes.
As soon as we reached the first village, which fortunately wasn’t one of those with only four houses along the road, we asked and quickly found the garage. Óscar told the mechanic what was the problem and he immediately started working on it.
It seems that the brake shoes were a bit loose and were touching the drum, so it was only a question of adjusting a small wheel to tighten them a bit.
In half an hour the wheel was again in its place. The mechanic asked us to take a picture with him...
...we put the jack back, we jumped into the van and continued ahead, everything solved. In the end it was not so bad.
Until a few kilometres further... the same smell of something burning, Óscar with the same feeling in the brakes... and we checked that the wheel was again very hot.
We stopped in the next village to re-repair the brakes, but this time it really was the four houses along the road. As soon as we stopped, someone came saying "I am the engineer here". What? "The engineer"? What do you mean, the engineer? Finally we figured out that he wanted to say he was the village mechanic.
We took out again the jack and the engineer started to take apart the wheel and repair the brakes. This time the engineer also dismantled the rear left wheel to check that both were the same. Very professional.
Immediately everybody understood that the best place to control the situation was where Tomáš was sitting.
Zuzana and I decided to sit a bit further to observe the surrealistic scene in front of us.
After a while we started to talk with one man from the village about the differences between Uganda and Europe, about who has more or less, about who needs more and who needs less, and, all in all, who is happier in life.
In the meanwhile, the rest of the village, especially the children, came closer to watch the event of the month: the muzungus.
After having a shower, during the dinner, I mean, during a nice dinner at candlelight, we started planning with Óscar the rest of the trip. We had a reservation in the lodge for two nights, but the main activity around was chimpanzee tracking, and Zuzana and I had already seen them and Tomáš wasn’t particularly interested. The other options were a forest walk or hiking around the crater lakes, which is nice and pretty, you can swim in some of them... but the problem was the huge amount of kilometres which we had ahead. And so finally we decided to cut out one night in Kibale and continue our trip the following morning.
Before we went to bed, Óscar, who is a nice guy, had prepared a surprise for us. He had talked to the director of the lodge and arranged for a choir of local children to come and do a small performance of traditional songs and dances from the region. Thank you for the touch.
And so, after the dinner we went to our tents, taking a short walk on the path leading towards them, illuminated with small lanterns, while enjoying the sounds of the rainforest.
Day 10.
Again an early breakfast and we hit the road.
We left Kibale National Park and we took a small road between the tea plantations, where we stopped for a while: inevitably to take a few pictures.
And also to answer questions of the curious locals.
We continued the journey and, after a few kilometres on the road connecting Fort Portal and Kampala, we turned north in the direction of Hoima, on what is without a doubt one of the first "roads" that the Ugandan government should repair to help tourism. It is 145 kilometres, most of it on a perfectly irregular dirt road. But well, the journey is also part of the African experience, so here we go.
Óscar told us that close to Hoima there is a point from where you can see an impressive view of the Albertine Rift, the western branch of the Great Rift Valley, and he proposed we go could there, then take a road leading down to the valley and spend the night camping at the shore of the Lake Albert, close to a nice lodge which is there. We had ahead of us a long day on the road to reach the viewpoint close to Hoima, but with friends, the journeys aren’t all that long. Let’s enjoy Africa.
But the African experience had prepared a surprise for us. After a few kilometres of endless bumps and potholes, from time to time we started to smell something burning, and Óscar said he felt as if the brakes didn’t work completely well. We stopped and saw that the rear right wheel was hot, and decided to stop in the next village to look for a garage to repair the brakes.
As soon as we reached the first village, which fortunately wasn’t one of those with only four houses along the road, we asked and quickly found the garage. Óscar told the mechanic what was the problem and he immediately started working on it.
It seems that the brake shoes were a bit loose and were touching the drum, so it was only a question of adjusting a small wheel to tighten them a bit.
In half an hour the wheel was again in its place. The mechanic asked us to take a picture with him...
...we put the jack back, we jumped into the van and continued ahead, everything solved. In the end it was not so bad.
Until a few kilometres further... the same smell of something burning, Óscar with the same feeling in the brakes... and we checked that the wheel was again very hot.
We stopped in the next village to re-repair the brakes, but this time it really was the four houses along the road. As soon as we stopped, someone came saying "I am the engineer here". What? "The engineer"? What do you mean, the engineer? Finally we figured out that he wanted to say he was the village mechanic.
We took out again the jack and the engineer started to take apart the wheel and repair the brakes. This time the engineer also dismantled the rear left wheel to check that both were the same. Very professional.
Immediately everybody understood that the best place to control the situation was where Tomáš was sitting.
Zuzana and I decided to sit a bit further to observe the surrealistic scene in front of us.
After a while we started to talk with one man from the village about the differences between Uganda and Europe, about who has more or less, about who needs more and who needs less, and, all in all, who is happier in life.
Photo: © Tomáš Kazda
Photo: © Tomáš Kazda
In the meanwhile, the rest of the village, especially the children, came closer to watch the event of the month: the muzungus.
I don’t know how many of these children had seen themselves on a photo before, but it was quite funny taking pictures of them...
...and showing them to them.
Photo: © Zuzana Kazdová
Photo: © Zuzana Kazdová
We had a good time. It was quite funny.
Photo: © Zuzana Kazdová
After a while the engineer finished repairing the brakes and, after trying them, he gave Óscar a guarantee of 6 months. All this of course with the whole village watching carefully.
We got again into the van, said goodbye to everybody and continued our way to Hoima.
We were a little bit tight on time but still had time to reach the viewpoint and going down to the lodge to camp and sleep by the lake.
After a while we though that, maybe, what the engineer told Óscar wasn’t 6 months of guarantee, but 6 MILES of guarantee, because Óscar started to feel again that the brakes weren’t working properly.
A few minutes later we stopped to find out that the engineer not only didn’t fix the right brakes, but also managed to achieve that the left wheel also started to overheat and the handbrake stopped working. A wonder of the engineering profession. Now you know, if you stop in a village and someone comes saying that he’s the engineer, you run away.
Since the "highway" we were on didn’t in reality permit speed above 40 km/h and the brakes were more or less working, we decided to go slowly and reach Hoima to find a real garage. Of course, accepting that we would leave the viewpoint and the lodge for the next visit, what can we do.
We arrived to Hoima just in time to look for a place to spend the night, and another one to take the van. We found a hotel and then we went to a garage to re-re-re-repair the van.
In the garage in Hoima, which is a bigger town, they seemed to know more what they were doing. A good thing is that here nearly all the matatus are the same (or a very similar) model of a van, and many safari vans are the same as the taxis (just that they are well maintained and not falling apart), and so it’s normal that nearly anywhere they can repair them.
After a day of African experience we took a well-deserved shower, a well-deserved dinner, and went to bed.
Día 11.
Our journey continued north, towards the Kidepo Valley National Park (also known as Kidepo National Park), where we wanted arrive in the evening. On our way we would stop in Gulu, the most important city in the north of Uganda, to pick up Steven and Emmanuel, two friends of Óscar who would join us during the rest of the trip.
A bit later we left Hoima we realised that even if in the garage in Hoima seemed more professional and seed to know what they were doing, in reality they didn’t have much idea about what was wrong with the brakes. At least now the handbrake was working and the left wheel wasn’t heating up, but the right wheel was still the same.
On the way to Gulu we passed through Masindi, another relatively big town, and we stopped there to re-re-re-repair the brakes.
We stopped in a garage on the main road, and after removing the wheel the group of engineers that had gathered around wasn’t able to do anything, and we decided to continue and ask for a different garage. Somebody pointed us to another place to re-re-re-re-repair the brakes. In a few minutes we found it, but shortly after they removed the wheel it was clear to us that we came across probably the worst garage in the whole of Uganda. The man had no idea at all. After a short while we told him to leave it and put back the wheel, but he was so useless, and who knows what he did, that he couldn’t even put the wheel back in its place.
Fortunately Masindi is close to the Murchison Falls National Park, and practically all the travel agencies pass through there with their cars, and so Óscar made a few phone calls and after a while got a name of a reliable garage.
We told the useless mechanic not to touch anything again, and Óscar took a boda-boda to fetch a mechanic from the other garage, a young guy with dreadlocks who moved quickly, something not common in this part of the world. After a while the wheel was back in its place and we could take the car to his garage.
That garage looked much better, I mean, within the African standards, it was much bigger than a small shed with piles of oxidised spare parts outside, which is what is a standard garage in Africa. It seemed that this time finally they would really re-re-re-re-re-repair the brakes.
After a good while there we left towards Gulu, finally on a normal road again and with a van freshly out from the garage… wonderful.
We stopped in Gulu to pick up Steven and Emmanuel and we continued towards Kidepo. After Gulu the road is again just a dirt road, not as bad as the one going to Hoima, but you have to go slowly. Besides… You wouldn’t guess... Again that burnt aroma on the right side... Ah well, we assumed we wouldn’t reach Kidepo on that day, and we were glad we decided to stay only one night in Kibale and that the African experience wouldn’t ruin our trip.
We reached Kitgum where we had a cold beer in a hotel, and then we looked for a decent place to stay for the night. Kitgum is a small town in the north of Uganda, and the accommodation offer is limited. There are places which are nice, but you have to pay for them. Fortunately we were told about another place which we found quite appropriated: decent, good price and it was clean. It is called Timbo Hotel, even though I would better call it a hostel. If you ever come this far and you need a place to stay at a reasonable price you can stay here (to know how to reach there, just take a closer look on the map at the beginning).
We got again into the van, said goodbye to everybody and continued our way to Hoima.
We were a little bit tight on time but still had time to reach the viewpoint and going down to the lodge to camp and sleep by the lake.
After a while we though that, maybe, what the engineer told Óscar wasn’t 6 months of guarantee, but 6 MILES of guarantee, because Óscar started to feel again that the brakes weren’t working properly.
A few minutes later we stopped to find out that the engineer not only didn’t fix the right brakes, but also managed to achieve that the left wheel also started to overheat and the handbrake stopped working. A wonder of the engineering profession. Now you know, if you stop in a village and someone comes saying that he’s the engineer, you run away.
Since the "highway" we were on didn’t in reality permit speed above 40 km/h and the brakes were more or less working, we decided to go slowly and reach Hoima to find a real garage. Of course, accepting that we would leave the viewpoint and the lodge for the next visit, what can we do.
We arrived to Hoima just in time to look for a place to spend the night, and another one to take the van. We found a hotel and then we went to a garage to re-re-re-repair the van.
In the garage in Hoima, which is a bigger town, they seemed to know more what they were doing. A good thing is that here nearly all the matatus are the same (or a very similar) model of a van, and many safari vans are the same as the taxis (just that they are well maintained and not falling apart), and so it’s normal that nearly anywhere they can repair them.
After a day of African experience we took a well-deserved shower, a well-deserved dinner, and went to bed.
Día 11.
Our journey continued north, towards the Kidepo Valley National Park (also known as Kidepo National Park), where we wanted arrive in the evening. On our way we would stop in Gulu, the most important city in the north of Uganda, to pick up Steven and Emmanuel, two friends of Óscar who would join us during the rest of the trip.
A bit later we left Hoima we realised that even if in the garage in Hoima seemed more professional and seed to know what they were doing, in reality they didn’t have much idea about what was wrong with the brakes. At least now the handbrake was working and the left wheel wasn’t heating up, but the right wheel was still the same.
On the way to Gulu we passed through Masindi, another relatively big town, and we stopped there to re-re-re-repair the brakes.
We stopped in a garage on the main road, and after removing the wheel the group of engineers that had gathered around wasn’t able to do anything, and we decided to continue and ask for a different garage. Somebody pointed us to another place to re-re-re-re-repair the brakes. In a few minutes we found it, but shortly after they removed the wheel it was clear to us that we came across probably the worst garage in the whole of Uganda. The man had no idea at all. After a short while we told him to leave it and put back the wheel, but he was so useless, and who knows what he did, that he couldn’t even put the wheel back in its place.
Fortunately Masindi is close to the Murchison Falls National Park, and practically all the travel agencies pass through there with their cars, and so Óscar made a few phone calls and after a while got a name of a reliable garage.
We told the useless mechanic not to touch anything again, and Óscar took a boda-boda to fetch a mechanic from the other garage, a young guy with dreadlocks who moved quickly, something not common in this part of the world. After a while the wheel was back in its place and we could take the car to his garage.
That garage looked much better, I mean, within the African standards, it was much bigger than a small shed with piles of oxidised spare parts outside, which is what is a standard garage in Africa. It seemed that this time finally they would really re-re-re-re-re-repair the brakes.
After a good while there we left towards Gulu, finally on a normal road again and with a van freshly out from the garage… wonderful.
We stopped in Gulu to pick up Steven and Emmanuel and we continued towards Kidepo. After Gulu the road is again just a dirt road, not as bad as the one going to Hoima, but you have to go slowly. Besides… You wouldn’t guess... Again that burnt aroma on the right side... Ah well, we assumed we wouldn’t reach Kidepo on that day, and we were glad we decided to stay only one night in Kibale and that the African experience wouldn’t ruin our trip.
We reached Kitgum where we had a cold beer in a hotel, and then we looked for a decent place to stay for the night. Kitgum is a small town in the north of Uganda, and the accommodation offer is limited. There are places which are nice, but you have to pay for them. Fortunately we were told about another place which we found quite appropriated: decent, good price and it was clean. It is called Timbo Hotel, even though I would better call it a hostel. If you ever come this far and you need a place to stay at a reasonable price you can stay here (to know how to reach there, just take a closer look on the map at the beginning).
It seems that after all, the trip is not being exactly as we planned, but... relax, it doesn't matter... hakuna matata, enjoy your journey through Áfica.
Hakuna matata - "no problem" in swahili.
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