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There are two parts to this page: the Travel Facts section, and the Diary section.


Key Travel Facts - Details that other overlanders might like to know
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• Visa issued at border. • Red Chilli provides good accommodation and secure parking in Kampala. • Gracelands Hotel in Kisoro is new and friendly.

DIARY - How we're getting on, and what we've been up to
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Nights spent sleeping in proper buildings: All – the tent has been left with the mechanic in Nairobi Number of punctures: None Number of cock-ups: Getting locked out of the boot. Bumemr. Treating ourselves: Mwenge Tea Estate – thanks to the Loades! Slumming or Adventuring it: The Gnarly Wild White Nile! UGANDA NEW YEAR Arriving in Jinga in time to find a bed for the night, we cracked open some beers and a bottle of wine. You can guess who the bottle of wine was for, but hey, it was New Years. Our first New Year outside UK in fact, and to be more specific Gina’s first New Year outside Weymouth. Would it be a big one? We would find out… We signed up to our camp’s BBQ, excited by the prospect of all six guests gathering for a jolly old time. The others evidently had different ideas, as two jumped ship to the rapidly-building party across the street, and the other two opted for an evening on their own inside. So, we joined the owner for a BBQ out in the garden. The BBQ was good, and his conversation was interesting – as a well travelled ex-flight captain with Kenyan Airways he was able to provide a balanced view on the perception of tourists in Uganda, and also to provide interesting insights into his treatment when in Europe. We thought of friends back in the UK, probably now leaving The Pot to head along the street for The Dorset Tandoori, then the Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Edinburgh, and finally Hope Square in the rain but too drunk to notice. We pondered over what the fancy dress theme might be this year. African Adventurers perhaps? Sooner or later the time was going to come for us to also ‘jump ship’ and join the now pumping party across the road. We made our apologies (the owner had suggested heading into Jinga to see the Ugandan parties – with hindsight maybe we should have?) and headed over to join the party. The Overland Club were there (surprise, surprise – they had been stalking us for the last two months now) so we joined their posse, pleased to have our own Party Group. With three overland trucks there the party was going to be wild. Actually, at midnight someone stood on a table, shouted “Hey, it’s New Year” and we had another drink. Not a scratch on Weymouth, and no fancy dress. If a plan works, don’t change it. A bit of a stroll to walk off the (mild) hangovers and to ‘train’ for our looming Gorilla Trekking, and then on to Kampala where we spent the night and headed on towards the gorilla’s leaving Craig from Red Chilli to pay the balance on our permits – top bloke, thanks Craig! GORILLAS We had quite a bit of hassle trying to sort out the permits, but the details are not interesting. Put simply, the office had taken a long New Year break, and this would cause us plenty of stress. Anyway, we arrived two days later in Kisoro where we stayed at the new and cheery Grace Land hotel on the main street. We can thoroughly recommend this hotel which is definitely still shining with ‘enthusiasm’ as the staff beam energetically, keen to please. Gideon’s enthusiasm has to be seen to be believed, but picture a Ugandan with a smile from ear to ear trying to meet your every need. They were great. We hooked up with our trekking companions for the following day, and scabbed a lift out to the park for the following day. We would settle down for an early night, but actually get no sleep for various disturbances through the night. ‘Mosquito Drill’ spoilt the peace at least twice. Leaving early, we were at Nkuringo to start the trek at eight. Our party was made up of two friendly Collobus Monkey experts who had travelled up from Mombassa, and a slightly irritating older couple from South Africa who would expertly patronise throughout the trek. The walk in was long, and consistently (and worryingly) downhill. We knew the expression ‘what goes down must come up’ was not conventional, but for these purposes it would definitely hold true. With our trackers out in front keeping radio contact, we believed we were closing in on the family. After two and a half hours we left the trail and began to cut (quite literally) our way through the virgin jungle. It was not called the Bwindi Impenetrable Reserve for nothing. Clambering through the vegetation, clutching vines and roots, sliding down banks, being hauled up small cliffs, we continued to move in on the family, making a steady loop as we did so. Eventually we joined our trackers. The gorillas were close. We left our four armed guards behind at this point, and continued with only two trackers into the gorilla family. To start with we caught only fleeting glimpses of gorilla’s through the thick underbush as they retreated from our advances. However, with time we were rewarded with clear sightings of two silver-backs, a youngster, and several other family members. The silver-backs were awesomely big, weighing close to 200kgs as they crawled majestically through the bush. The youngster would often sit, staring right at us, whilst a mother would sit nearby, also eating and hiding her new-born suckling baby close to her body. The experience was quite incredible: we were definitely deep in their world and felt privileged to be there. The calming grunts of our trackers was a continual reminder that we needed to reassure and calm the family to avoid aggression or startle them into retreating. Our hour was soon up (each group is only permitted one hour to ensure that the gorilla families do not become over-habituated) and we delved into deep Question Time to prolong the stay just a little longer. Having exhausted all avenues for gorilla related questioning, our guide reminded us that we now really must leave. We set off on the fairly exhausting trek back to the base, rewarded en-route by two further sightings of large gorillas not very far from the path at all. They were apparently following us out of the jungle, and we were not permitted to stop for lunch for quite some time! We ended a quite exhausting day feeling very happy. UP TO SEE FRIENDS We had planned to set off early for a long drive North towards Fort Portal to visit the Loades, some family friends of my grandma. This plan was scuppered somewhat on discovering that the boot would no longer open. Tight security and careful planning meant that there was no other way in, and with all our spares securely locked in we couldn’t head on. We wouldn’t have even been able to change a tyre. So, the locals went scurrying off to find some help as we sat back and had breakfast, keeping only half an eye on the dubious youth who was now going at our boot mechanism with a crow-bar. After some technical input from Nigel (like “Look mate, there is just no way you will get in there like that, we need another approach”) we set off to the local garage to get it cut open with welding equipment. Only one hour later and the mechanism was pieced back together and in working order. Oh for the joys of car tinkering. The drive was spectacular, and we were especially lucky to spot an elephant right up close to the main road as we drove through Queen Elizabeth reserve. We spent the night at the XXXXX hotel at Kassase. A real treat for us, with great views over the Rwenzori Mountains. The next morning we set off to spend some time ‘looking round Fort Portal’ before heading on to the Loades. Now Coreen’s slight surprise as I had told her our plans the previous night made some sense. To Look Round Fort Portal would take all of ten minutes. It was great to arrive at the Loades, and as we had hoped they turned out to be the perfect hosts. We were shown up to the Tea Estate’s guest house where we would be staying, and were able to drop off our laundry with Olive. Coreen and John gave us a lovely dinner (our first good Roast since UK!), and we were joined by Coreen’s mum, their daughter Renee, and their friends Hugh and Denise. We had a lovely evening, and it was nice to be in someone’s house for a change, rather than another naff hotel. The next day Coreen and John had arranged for us to take a tour of the tea factory where we learnt everything we could have ever wanted to know about producing tea (did you know that tea is Fermented?) before heading over to Hugh and Denise’s for tea. Now, Hugh and Denise have a passion for travel and safari and were able to offer us many helpful tips and great places to stay. But, not of course before a good crawl around under Forbie to check for good health. Gina skipped this activity, enjoying tea and cake with Denise, but we were pleased to report no major injuries were revealed. Picking up our BEST EVER packed lunch from Coreen on the way out, we made our goodbyes and headed on towards Kampala. It was a good six hour drive so we would need to get a move on. CORRUPT COPS (Lengthly, so skip if you’ve been through corruption yourself.) Having joined the main road we began cruising towards Kampala. Passing through a village we noted a policeman gesturing the Slow Down sign, and did so (to a crawl) since he then ignored us and made no further motion, we continued. About one mile later he caught up with us in his mates car and flagged us down. The policeman went to great pains of explaining that Failing To Stop was a serious offence, and unfortunately we would now have to pay a fine. The fine would be a gob-smacking 200,000 Ugandan Shillings (120 USD). Yes, he understood we were tourists and may not have understood his signals, but in-between flirting with Gina, he explained that unfortunately that was the law and it would be wrong for him to flex it. He was very adamant on this, and we quickly decided that he was a cock. But first he would need to check our paperwork and get us out of the car. There followed a highly amusing scene as he reached in through the drivers window to remove our car keys from the ignition. Now, some smart chap in the Toyota Design office had the foresight to include a ‘key lock mechanism’ in the steering column, so to remove the keys one must first depress a button. PC Plod did not understand this, and so spent the next minute or two grappling with the key, grunting sounds of disapproval, and ‘you must help me remove your keys’. We both completely ignored his protests, and stifled grins of amusement. Thank you Toyota. Anyway, we said that we sympathised, understood what he was saying, and offered him 20,000. We apologised, but that was all that we had. This would apparently not do, and instead we would have to attend court the following week, where we would be ordered to pay 400,000. He was rather gobsmacked when we explained that if that was how it worked, we would just have to go to court. So, he wrote out his statement and I suggested that we should add our statement. I was careful to note his number in my statement though he was adamant that this was not important – I explained that I thought it might be helpful as we made a note in our notebook too. We explained how we would need to get our friends, who were not Lawyers in Fort Portal, to help represent our case. Suddenly he suggested that the whole incident could be resolved by us paying 50,000 now, in cash. After much deliberation, we agreed to accept the offer. Our paperwork was returned, we got into the car, and gave him the money. Then, before all was finished I (Nigel) explained that we would need to write a letter to the Tourist Commissioner explaining what had happened so that they could work with the Police to ensure that tourists were not treated like this again. PC Plod took on an expression somewhere between shock and extreme irritation, returned the 50,000 note, and explained that if this was our attitude we would need to pay the 200,000. At this point I said that we had had enough and would discuss this at the nearest police station. We drove off leaving him protesting at the roadside. Another mile and they had caught up with us and once again pulled over in front. They tried to make us get out but we refused. I explained that my letter would be truthful and accurate so surely that would be OK. He explained that I must not write a letter and would have to pay the full fine. Then he said that the 50,000 would be OK, but that it was a token for them being lenient to tourists. I must understand that they would not accept bribes, and in fact he (the policeman) would not take it, but rather his civvy friend who was conveniently close by. I insisted that if he wanted the Token, then he would have to take it. I was not doing business with his friend, and refused to agree not to write the letter. Eventually he took the money, but I like to feel that he at least spent a few sleepless nights worrying about it. Of course I know that he didn’t, but that’s what I like to think. The whole debacle took one and a half hours and now we would reach Kampala in darkness. RAFTING ROCKS After an early start from Kampala we arrived in Jinga for a day’s extreme Grade Six white water rafting. The white nile, along with the Grand Canyon, apparently form the largest commercially raftable waters in the world, and it looked huge. We were to join an Australian church group, and were only slightly perturbed when the arbitrary split meant that we would both be rafting with father-and-son groups, where the sons were rather small and not all that strong. It was going to be a gnarly day!!