Bullets to Boda Bodas: Two Rons on tour again - in Uganda

Ever since I found out that there were only about 800 mountain gorillas remaining in the world I've wanted to go to either Uganda or Rwanda to see them in the wild. So after our 2015 India trip one day when Ron and I had got together and were chatting about where we might go next, I suggested Uganda. Ron was OK with that, or at least he didn't say he didn't want to go to Uganda. So the more we chatted about it the more we got used to the idea of visiting a country where neither of us had been before or knew anyone.

After an uneventful 21 hour journey which started at an unearthly hour we arrived at Entebbe around 11pm. After collecting our luggage we changed some money into local currency – Ugandan Shillings (ugx). A tip – take big denomination notes or you will get a poor rate. For example a $50 note will fetch 3500 ugx per $ whereas a $20 note will only get you 2500 ugx. We got a taxi and headed to China Garden guest house which I was told wasn’t far from the airport.

We had arranged for the taxi driver who we hired from the airport to come back this morning to take us to collect the bikes from Charles. A short drive later, we were at Charles and Sumin’s place where we had a huge bowl of mango and pineapple fruit salad. Their two kids Bridget and Nathaniel were lovely and excited to see us. After we signed the contracts and paid Charles we set off on the bikes. We had one brand new one with only 161 kms on the clock and the other had done about 21000 kms. Both were Indian made Bajaj (BM100) Boxers.

Rudely awakened by a flock of Hadeda Ibis (probably the loudest birds in Africa) flying past our tents making a racket just after 6.30 a.m. Popped my head out of the tent to a beautiful red sky and remember thinking shepherd’s warning? There were lots of vervet monkeys around but they kept away and didn’t bother us. There were a few fishermen in their vessels on the lake too. Siphoned some petrol out of one of the bikes and fired up our camping stove (which was a great find as it worked with gas as well as petrol, paraffin and even diesel!).

Had a good night’s sleep and woke around 7 a.m. I rode to the Ranger’s office to charge my phone. I also found out that if we were to stay at the campsite for a second night we’d have to not only pay the camping fee but also the park entrance fee of $40 so over breakfast of porridge we decided to move on from here. It would’ve been good to go on the game drive (ride) without all our luggage but... As we were considering what to do we noticed some monkeys on my tent trying to break in! They were all over both our bikes too. Muddy paw prints everywhere but no damage done.

After breakfast of bananas, pineapple, papaya and a not-fully-hard-boiled egg and couple of cups of tea we set off hoping to ease our aching bones in the hot springs at Kitagata. One look at the water which looked like Castrol GTX was enough to put us off from going for a dip. We had to pay even to look so we quickly left. The landscape changed as we headed further south-west. The hills were green, the temperature was cool and roads were twisty. We could’ve been in Ooty, India. We stopped in a copse by the road for a rest and some biscuits before carrying on towards Kisiizi Falls.

The metal doors on the rooms banged every time someone opened or closed one which was pretty much all through the night! The music which was playing at 200 decibels in the bar around the corner till 3 a.m. didn’t help either. We loaded up our bikes and asked for the van which was blocking us in to be moved. They had lost the key! So they eventually pushed the van to one side and we had to unload our bikes in order to be able to squeeze past and load them up again on the other side. We still had about 90 kms of dirt roads to ride and we were already tired!

Gorilla tracking day! Very excited. See videos on our Facebook page I had set the alarm for 6.30 a.m. but fighting cats woke me up at around 6 so I got up and got ready to go se gorillas. After breakfast I collected a big bottle of water and the packed lunch, which the restaurant at the campsite had prepared for me, and set off to register for the trek. There were three gorilla family/groups in this area, which were habituated but still very much wild.

We wanted to set off early as we had another 90 kms of bone-shaking corrugations and butt-clench inducing sand and loose gravel roads to ride. Riding these kinds of roads day after day was getting harder and harder so we were looking forward to hitting the tarmac at Rukungiri. Just as we were starting the bikes up to get going the heavens opened and it rained hard for about an hour while we took shelter and covered everything up in waterproofs. We eventually set off just after 9 a.m. Couple of hours later we had some breakfast of chapatti and beans.

We had plans to go to Queen Elizabeth National Park so we headed north. After about 40 kms the landscape changed dramatically from hill forests to savannah. When we reached the turn off for the national park we were stopped by the police who check our documents and before waving us through asked for “something nice” “some dollar”. We said we didn’t have any and they just let us go. The park entrance was about 15 kms down a dirt road. We stopped after couple of kms for a break and when I tried to put my bike on its stand the spring broke.

Jason, one of the staff, drew us a map of the tracks behind the resort which would take us the scenic route out of there towards Fort Portal. As these tracks were not marked on our map it would’ve been tricky to find our way out that way. A little while later we hit a main-ish road which was probably the dustiest road I have ever ridden on. There was dust cloud every time a four wheeler passed us and we got covered in red. So many people in their Sunday bests out and about – on their way to church we guess. About 30 or so kms later we hit tarmac.

We set off this morning aiming to ride about 150 Kms which would bring us to the area surrounding Lake Wamala where we guessed there may be campsites. When we got here we found that there was nothing much to see. Apparently it’s a salt water lake and all we saw were swamps. I tried eating something which sounded like pushan – its basically maize flour mixed with water and made into a stoggy lump. That’s the best I can describe it. Taste wise, well, it tasted of nothing. Bland. Completely bland. So I chucked some salt and chilli powder on it and forced it down.

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.

I had slept so well that Ron had to wake me up at 7.30! We left soon after keeping the option of returning there for another night open. When we reached Jinja falls half an hour later we found a “proper” campsite called Nile River Explorers right by the river Nile of course. It was run by South Africans by the look of it and had everything a camper could want. We had a huge breakfast and set up camp. Then we thought we’d go and check out the falls. Except the falls no longer existed. About four years previously they had built a dam which had killed the falls and all the rapids in the area.

When I popped my head out of the tent this morning, I saw a couple of bicycles leaning against the hedge next to another tent. A couple were packing up. We got chatting and found that Megan from Canada and Evan from South Africa were cycling from UK to South Africa. They had already been on the road for 16 months and had another 12 to go. Ron joined us and we all chatted away for ages swapping travel stories. All the time Megan and Evan were packing up their stuff as they were keen to get going before it got too hot.

To be honest, I was slightly worried about riding on these bikes on these dirt roads. Ron and I do quite a bit of off-road riding back in the UK but we use trials bikes which are designed to be used off-road. These little 100 cc road bikes were not designed for these kids of roads. But then again, in hind sight, maybe they were. They coped fantastically well on all kinds of terrain – tarmac, mud, loose gravel, sand, corrugated hard-packed earth – the lot! We were both a bit apprehensive about the whole trip.