We were up and packed by 7 as the cafe was due to open for business. Obviously we were the first customers. Nora made us coffee and American style pancakes with banana and local honey. After paying for the food we made a small donation to the project and left. It was hazy and cool so easier to ride in. Destination Jinja which meant we had to go right across Kampala which I wasn’t looking forward to as I’d heard about the chaotic traffic in the city. On the way I nearly got taken out by an Eagle swooping down to pick something off the road. It was so close to me that I felt the draft from it’s wings! We reached Kampala and it’s fabled chaos just after 11a.m. and it took us an hour and half to get out the other side. It reminded me of riding in India so we were fine. About 30 know outside Jinja, according to the map, we would go through Mabira forest reserve and we wondered if we could camp there one night rather than two nights in Jinja. A bunch of traffic police who were “resting” in their car told me that there was a place called the Rainforest Lodge and then went on to ask me for money. I wonder if it is standard practice here to ask for money for giving directions? We found Rainforest Lodge as directed where the manager Mr Ali Khan came out to greet us. When we asked about camping he told us to first have a look at what they had to offer and got a bell boy to show us one of their 10 log cabins. It would’ve cost us a mere $250 per night to stay there. More than we had spent the entire fortnight on accommodation, food, drink and petrol! Thanks but no thanks. Mr Khan told us that he was considering offering camping facilities in future and was curious to see how it might work and let us camp in their grounds for free. We could pick wherever we liked to pitch our tents. He even gave us keys to a cabin so that we could use their shower and toilet. Top man! He told us we could stay for as long as we wanted. Apparently a crew from the BBC were due to arrive that afternoon. They were filming a documentary in the area. After we pitched our tents it started to rain but everything inside stayed dry. There was a bit of commotion and we learnt that someone had spotted a snake! Possibly a cobra. Apparently there are lots of them in this area. Great. Tents zipped? Check. There were lots of monkeys too but they left us alone. There was a big fire pit by the outside bar where the BBC crew had gathered. After a very nice dinner Ron and I went to sit by the fire and the director of the programme started to chat with us. Soon we were all chatting away. There were 5 of them but as soon as I asked what they were filming everyone fell silent and started looking at each other. Eventually the producer told us that they were filming Who Do You Think You Are but we didn’t know who the star was. Anyway we chatted for quite a while and they were all very interested in what we were doing. Their dinner was ready so they left. The director came running back and whispered that if we were wondering who the star was it was Adil Ray (of Citizen Khan fame) and ran back! While we were chatting some animal was making a crying sound deep in the forest which grew louder and louder. We were told it was the tree hyrax (See video on our Facebook page) and that it’s cry could be heard up to 5 kms away. It sounded like it too. The crying went on all night and kept waking us up but nevertheless I had a good night’s sleep.

140 km covered / 6 hours riding