East Africa Day 12 - Road Trip Across Uganda

Today is a travel day. We are driving across the entire country of Uganda to right near the border with the Congo and Rwanda. We are making this drive because of Covid. When we originally planned this trip we would have drive from Kigali and crossed the border into Uganda. That drive would have taken about 4 hours. But with the land border closed we had to fly into Entebbe. Our drive today will take 8-9 hours.

The upside of the long drive is that we got to see a lot of Uganda. We started out driving through Kampala. It is a very diverse city. It was kind of like a mash up of Kigali and Arusha. There were areas that were quite modern and were full of well constructed buildings. Other areas were a mismatch of hastily constructed shanties with corrugated metal roofs. One interesting area had a large food market spilling into the side of the road. There were piles of produce everywhere - bananas, beans, onions, rice, and other veggies. Emma told us Uganda is the food basket of Africa. They feed many of the neighboring counties with their produce. This is primarily due to their mild climate. He also told us everyone eats fresh food, often picked the same day. 

We noticed other interesting things along the way. I kept seeing these small brick towers by the road so I asked about them. The towers are used as ovens to turn soil into bricks. This is one of the reasons they are able to build so many brick buildings. There is also lots of industry is Uganda. We saw numerous large factories and industrial buildings. I also found the architecture to be quite interesting. Many of the hillsides in and around Kampala are dotted with red roofed houses and buildings. It gave the area a nice aesthetic. 

Our first stop of the day was at the equator. This is the first time we have ever crossed the equator by car. They had some signs marking the spot so you could stand on the north or south side of the equator. We will stay on the south until Thursday when we will cross back over to the north side. 

We also passed a river that feeds into lake Victoria. Near the river were a bunch of people selling large tilapia they caught in lake Victoria. 

We saw cattle all over the countryside. The cattle in Uganda are larger than the cattle we saw in Tanzania. They also had very long horns. We stopped at a spot near a National park to look at the cattle. In this area they were mingled with a dazzle of zebras. 

Our next stop was for lunch. Emma took us to a local buffet. They had a wide range of local dishes. There were many types of potatoes, multiple kinds of rice, mixed vegetables with unique spices, soup, and chicken and goat meat. It all tasted quite good. 

We saw markets like this all over Uganda

Then we hit the road again. We were making great time so we stopped by Lake Bunyonyi. Emma recommended it. It was a beautiful lake. We walked around for a few minutes and took some pictures before moving on. 

Before too long we made it to the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. We left the main road and drove onto a dirt road that went up into the mountains. It was such a beautiful place. The mountains are covered in thick forest and a light mist had settled over everything. It was everything we dreamed it would be and more. We traveled about 10 kilometers through the park before reaching the Ruhija community. This is a town of around 500 people who live in these mountains right at the border of the National Park. 

Our lodge was located within this community. We stayed at the Bakiga Lodge. It an amazing place. It has the most gorgeous panoramic views of the surrounding mountains. Our rooms was a little  cottage looking out toward the mountains. It is one of the more amazing places we have stayed. To top it off they are an NGO. They use the profits from the lodge to support clean water projects in the local community.

After we settled in Emma arranged for a walking tour of the nearby village with a local woman named Happy. We loved the lodge so much that we almost passed on the walking tour, but we are so glad we did not. Happy was absolutely delightful and she was thrilled to show us her town. We stopped by the shop of a local woman and decided to purchase a little hand carved gorilla. When the woman named her price we didn’t have exact change and she didn’t have any change. I did have exact change back at the room. Happy told us it to worry she would vouch for us and that we could take the carved gorilla now and pay later. 

We continued our tour with a stop by a group of Btwa. This is a minority group that used to live in the National Park, but were relocated out of the park by the government 30 years ago. These people are quite poor and the community is looking for ways to support them. One of the ways is by allowing them to share their culture with tourists like us. They showed us one of their simple homes. They also did a number of dances (with drums) and they showed us how they make fire by rubbing two sticks together. They also shared with us stories about what their lives were like before they were relocated (with Happy translating). They were a very nice group of people.

The pile of bricks is an example of a brick stove I talked about near the start of the blog post.

These kids were fascinated by us. 

A traditional Btwa home

Our last stop on the walking tour was to the Little Angels Orphanage School. This school was founded and is run by Happy. It used to house and provide schooling to 150 children. However, schools in Uganda have been closed for two years due to Covid. As a result they went from a staff of 14 teachers and 3 support staff to 1 teacher and 1 support staff. Many of the children dispersed into the local community. Currently Little Angels houses around 40 kids. Since they don’t have school they do other projects such as gardening or tending a small herd of goats. The children performed a little dance recital for us with some singing to go with it. They were quite enthusiastic to meet us. Before we left they each introduced themselves and told us what grade they were in. They sure are lucky to have someone like Happy to look after them. 

Then we came back to our lodge. We had a delicious dinner prepared by the staff. We seem to be the only guests at the hotel tonight. That is a strange impact of Covid. This hotel is only running for us. During dinner Emma told us more about what to expect with gorilla trekking tomorrow. We can’t wait.