Kampala

Sunday 20th May 2007 Kampala
In Tanzania the ‘taxis’ are standard mountain bikes, or Chinese bikes whose lean and fit drivers peddle away while the passenger sits on the metal carrier at the back. Women sit side-saddle (with their babies, groceries or wares on their laps), men sit astride. But in Kenya this mode of transport has evolved somewhat and they have included colourful padded seats (with fringes of multi-coloured plastic tassels) on the carrier to increase the comfort of the passenger. Some have added decorations in the form of lots of mirrors, wheel mud-flaps with catchy slogans written on them, and other brightly coloured decorations.
Give an African a bicycle and he turns it into a truck!! Everything and anything is piled high and strapped securely onto his carrier. We have seen everything from milk cans, charcoal, cattle fodder, furniture and corrugated iron roofing to crates of eggs, bags of tobacco, and sugar cane. Some piled so high and wide that you cannot see the bike itself. We estimated that some loads must weigh up to 200Kg. Make-shift bicycle repair shops are everywhere of course to cater for this widespread need.


Saturday 19th May 2007 Kampala,
The road between Jinja and Kampala was a comparative breeze!! Of course there were lots of bicycles here too. Tropical forests containing the odd 60m high straight trees (the kind exported to Germany to extract a chemical for prostrate cancer) border the road, interspersed with commercial cane and of course the subsistence farmers. Mini markets of colourful fruit and vegetables are set up at frequent intervals (either side of walking distance) and villages with their roadside shops line the road most of the way. Here in Uganda there is a neatness lacking in Kenya.
We are now at the gracious home of Terry and Rita Esterhuizen, friends of Brian and Maureen. Everyone except Maureen and me (I had a headache and didn’t feel like it) went to watch the Sharks vs Bulls rugby final in a pub in Kampala. I got rid of the headache, while the rest either celebrated or drowned sorrows, depending on whether they were Bulls or Sharks supporters because the Bulls beat the Sharks by one point after full time. Nev chatted to some South Africans who said we should definitely try to get into Rwanda. Most of the ex-SAs still speak Afrikaans, love it here and live the high life of colonialists. Most of them have chauffeurs, luxurious houses, many servants including the 24hour guards who open the gates to their high-walled properties, and state they would never go back to live permanently in SA again. They say corruption is rife, especially with the Chinese. The SAs being the ‘quality controllers’ (for the road constructions) are offered massive bribes to pass sub-standard work. The Chinese skimp on cement for the bridges, culverts etc whenever they think they are not going to be checked up on. Apparently the local Ugandans and Kenyans find it impossible to reject sub-specification work and tell people to do it again.
The road into Kampala was congested but orderly, and not jammed like Dar or chaotic like Nairobi. The roads are being upgraded for the commonwealth summit at the end of the year. New hotels are being built and the city cleaned up. According to the local saying, the ground is so fertile that even if you plant a banana tree upside down it will grow. Temperatures in Kampala are mild mostly between 12 and 26.


Friday 18th May 2007 Nile River Explorers Camp
We woke up to rain (again) which had started several hours before and we arranged to go white water rafting on the Nile River just as it comes out of Lake Victoria at Jinja (near the camp, which overlooks the massive river Nile). Fish Eagles call all the time. Willy and Maureen elected to stay in camp so six of us took the leap of faith.
Twelve rapids, four of them grade 5, five flips, laughter, near drownings, huge adrenalin rushes, courage-testing experiences were not for the faint-hearted. Ingrid was really afraid to go and it took lots of courage for her to come along. The first rapid was the worst for me. It was only a grade 3, but tipped four of us out and Brian and I came up underneath the boat. We had been briefed as to what to do: get into the ‘roast chicken’ upside down position and crawl along the underside of the boat till you reach the side. Well, the raft kept swiveling and by the time I got to the side, panic and claustrophobia had set in and my throat had closed and when I breathed in there was this terrible rasping sound which scared everybody including me. I was hauled safely on board and weak and breathless, I took a little time to recover. Then we tackled the rest of the course including a 3m high waterfall which we negotiated successfully. The last rapid, we girls elected to miss, as it was VERY strong. From the vantage point on the bank we saw the raft approaching the rapid. The oarsman threw his oar away, which looked like a matchstick, leaped out the raft and swam for the bank, and our men disappeared into the wave. Dave and Brian came up and were sucked into the next wave and the raft came up with Nev hanging on for dear life. The raft then pitched and flipped, and Nev disappeared for a long, long time and popped up on the other side of the second wave. Dave was sucked down and his cozzy got sucked off and when he was rescued he had nothing on, but he managed to retrieve his cozy somehow from the water. All were rescued safely and agreed that the girls had made a wise decision to miss that one. Afterwards Nev said that while under the water he was thinking about:” wondering how long he could hold his breath, what do we do for fun? What it would be like to drown, Shame, Lorraine will have to drive the Landy home by herself”, and other stupid things, but his life definitely didn’t flash in front of him and it was quite peaceful. We shared the cost of the video, so wait for it.
A South African from Eshowe, Jon Dahl, runs the camp and says he knows the Rosewalls and the Wijnbergs from Eshowe. Again, isn’t it a small world? Has been here 10years and loves it.

Thursday 17th May 2007 Nile River Explorers Camp
We went on a guided walk birdwatching and left at about 11am for Uganda. At Kakamega we had 3 punctures fixed from the damage of the potholes from the previous day (not ours- we haven’t had a puncture yet) which delayed un an hour. We took a shortcut on a side road which was far better than the main road but had to meet the main road again. The nightmare journey dodging trucks and heavy vehicles on the bad road was horrific. The over-laden vehicles had made the road sink into two parallel deep tracks and it was difficult to drive as the sump nearly touched the middelmannetjie and the tracks were a bit wider than those of our vehicles so it was hard driving, apart from the potholes.
We went through the border having already got our visas in SA, but had to pay $90 road tax which hurt!! Very friendly border officials. We were very glad to be on a lovely road again in Uganda…… for 50Km. Then WOW!!!. We will not describe this road as it is inexplicable and the traffic was impossible. Well, we survived that adventure and arrived at the campsite in the dark with three women hoarse from shouting WAAAAAAAAAAA at the close shaves and the three men couldn’t stop talking about the chicken runs they had to make when passing slow moving vehicles on eroded, (often, and unexpectedly, only to a single lane) tar with sharp edges and deep, potholed ditches on either side. Dave and Beryl in their Landcruiser with 4.6l petrol engine had zoomed in front, leading the way and our little Landys just didn’t have the acceleration required to pass the heavies safely in the face of oncoming maniacs who wouldn’t give way at all. They were quite cool about everything and couldn’t relate to our hair-raising experiences.


Wednesday 16th May 2007 Kakamega Forest camp
This morning we were visited by many different people before we packed up camp. Some pleaded with us to stay with them and advise them on farming, some wanted us to stay a year. The old man owner of the land insisted that Nev went to see his cattle when he heard that we farmed. He was full of questions and eagerly absorbed the info and advice Nev gave him. He wanted Nev to judge his cows which were small but had potential. The genetics are lacking, and they don’t feed them enough. This area seems to be a very intensive subsistence dairy area because as we traveled away we saw all sorts of containers from plastic containers to milk cans, with milk on the side of the roads being transported by donkey cart, wheel barrows, bicycles, heads and whatever could go (almost like the way we used to do it in the 1950s). This area has unbelievable potential for all kinds of farming because the climate, soil and rainfall are perfect. The colonialists planted a lot of wheat in this area but everything grows here from maize, sugarcane, bananas etc. There are no seasons, and mealies will grow at any time of the year. We see maize at all stages of growth. Some is 4m high at flowering.
Dave and Beryl took photos of the families and printed them out for them on their printer. The rest of us gave them odd gifts, and Brian and Maureen gave the children toys. We eventually managed to tear ourselves away and proceeded to Kakamega Forest, one of the last vestiges of natural forest left in Kenya with huge trees, blue, colobus and red tailed monkeys and over 350 different species of birds. We were right on the equator, had torrential rain in the afternoon and again during the night. We expected it to be warm on the equator with lots of warm rain. But the rain is cold (thank goodness) and it rains every night. (EVERY NIGHT!!!) at this time of the year.


Tuesday 15th May 2007 Farmer’s Camp
Left to go to Kakamega Forest but found Elementeita Lake covered in pink and white areas which through binoculars sowed us they were hundreds of thousands of flamingoes. We stopped there for a while and got a guide to take us nearer the alkaline shallow lake (max depth 1m). Apart from the algae, and flamingoes, nothing else lived in it. Here was a remnant of a small explosive volcano with pyroclastic rocks around. These rocks are full of holes, like fizzy cooldrink relieved fro the pressure of the bottle, the lava had the holes made from the release of the gasses as the volcano suddenly exploded. I couldn’t help but pick up a rock to add to my collection. There was also a little hot spring there.
We proceeded along the main road towards Uganda. Potholes in the tar and off the road made the condition of the road almost impassible and because t getting dark Nev insisted we made camp instead of driving at night I Kenya. Brian had a blowout which sealed the decision and while they were changing their wheel we had to find a safe place to camp.The area was heavily populated with subsistence farmers so we went down a side road and met a young farmer. When he heard that we were looking for a place to sleep he offered us his house. We explained to him that we only needed a piece of ground and he said we could park anywhere on his 20Ha property. The rest of the group joined us and we set up camp and before long we had 30 flabberghasted but friendly spectators, who were immensely interested in us. Everyone responded very positively towards these hosts of ours and it was difficult to cook. Fortunately a sudden very heavy thunderstorm got them scuttling for home, and we had a good night there