Day 192
Sleeping location: Guesthouse, unknown village 1.343N 34.694E, Uganda
Distance (km today/total): 61 / 13286
Estimated climb (m today/total): 1000 / 99700
Time apparently spent at the Ethiopia/Kenya border: two weeks
Distance (km today/total): 61 / 13286
Estimated climb (m today/total): 1000 / 99700
Time apparently spent at the Ethiopia/Kenya border: two weeks
Day in three words: Ugandan dirt now
I slept pretty well despite the amazing number of weird sounds coming from animals I never saw, although I was awoken at one point by the colobus making its weird frog noise. I woke up with the sunrise and lay for a little while staring up through the tent at the trees. During this a tiny yellow bird landed on the tent, and whilst I was marvelling at how wonderful this moment was it did two tiny poos on the fabric. I had breakfast looking out of the tent into the forest and the monkeys whenever they came into view; this took longer than it should have, because I thought my stove was broken and took ages to realise that the fuel bottle just had to be on its side rather than upright. The extra time was ok because this really was a great campsite, the best since northern Sudan, and it was a shame Rebecca wasn't around to share it with.
After setting off (not until 10am!) the road quickly turned into bumpy dirt and progress was slow. It took two and half hours to cover the 30km to the border. There was also lots of dust kicked up by passing vehicles and I had to put on sunglasses and a buff to protect my eyes and mouth. The scenery was mostly unremarkable but at times a bit like the Yorkshire Dales, which was fun. When I stopped to take a photo of this a man on a motorbike said hello and insisted that I took a photo of him too. I told him he would be famous on instagram (read: 7 likes) and he was very pleased. The border itself was one of the nicer ones I’ve visited, with thickly wooded hills and a gushing clear river marking the point where Kenya became Uganda. The Kenyan process was smooth as silk, my letter from Benson in Eldoret was accepted and the friendly man gave me the East Africa visa with no problems. The main issue was that he misread the piece of paper provided at the Turkana border and put my date of entry into Kenya two weeks later than my actual date of entry. He also had to put my “in” stamp as this border. This all caused some confusion when I tried to get into Uganda as the lady didn’t understand a) how I had entered Kenya at this border without having previously been to Uganda, and b) where the hell I had been in the two weeks between leaving Ethiopia and arriving in Kenya. She pondered this for a bit but eventually let me in.
Straight after the border was a small town where I changed some money and tried to get a Ugandan SIM card at a shop with bizarre religious tv playing in the background, but the guy couldn’t get it to work after multiple tries and suggested I try in Kapchorwa, the first big town. Initially Uganda seemed similar to Kenya, but with slightly less shy people and the kids say “bye bye” instead of “how are you”*. The dirt road quickly deteriorated and became very bumpy and dusty, which made for some skiddy moments. Into the small town of Bukwo there was a descent so long and steep that my left hand went dead from squeezing the brakes so hard. Here I stocked up on water in preparation for wild camping. There was a policeman in the shop who asked if I was staying in Bukwo, to which I said no, so he said I would have to make it to Kapchorwa but that this should be fine. Kapchorwa was 76km down the steep and bumpy dirt road and it was already 4.30pm, but I went along with it as I didn’t want to reveal that I was planning to camp. He said the bit in between was “forest” which sounded right up my cover-seeking street.
There was a long and tough climb out of Bukwo, zig zagging up the hillside. Some bits were very steep and dusty but I didn’t have to push, just about. At the top the really beautiful section of this road began. The road is carved into the side of Mt Elgon, which gradually rises from 1000m to 4300m, at about 2000m, so on my right there were constantly great views of the mountain dropping away to the plateau below. The landscape was, however, conspicuously absent of any forest and in fact seemed to be one endless village. All of this together was terrible for wild camping because:
1. There was hardly any flat ground
2. What little flat ground there was had houses on it
3. There were no trees to provide cover (he lied!)
4. There were children bloody everywhere and they kept excitedly following me, making it impossible to find a spot in secret
Basically I was back in Ethiopia, and as in Ethiopia I didn’t want to camp in a village as I knew this would result in the entire population staring at me whilst I erected the tent and cooked dinner. Having found zero suitable spots in 2hrs it was basically dark and I was getting very stressed. Some asking around, involving asking at a place saying “Hotel” that actually only sold teas and chapatti) pointed me toward a lodge that I would 100% never have found myself, where I was pointed to an extremely basic and tiny room. At this point I just wanted somewhere to sleep safely so it was an absolute haven, plus it was only £2**. As the walls were made of mud I figured it would be ok to cook int he room and whipped up a bizarre but tasty noodle/coconut/fish/sweet corn thing. I really hope wild camping isn’t going to be this difficult all the way to Kampala; if nothing else, I have loads of “camp ready” food and want to drop the weight.
*This presents a problem: do I reply in kind and perpetuate the error, or say hello and risk them not thinking I’ve replied, or stop and give a 30 minute presentation on the intricacies of the English language?
**Taking number 1 spot in the “cheapest hotel room” charts
I slept pretty well despite the amazing number of weird sounds coming from animals I never saw, although I was awoken at one point by the colobus making its weird frog noise. I woke up with the sunrise and lay for a little while staring up through the tent at the trees. During this a tiny yellow bird landed on the tent, and whilst I was marvelling at how wonderful this moment was it did two tiny poos on the fabric. I had breakfast looking out of the tent into the forest and the monkeys whenever they came into view; this took longer than it should have, because I thought my stove was broken and took ages to realise that the fuel bottle just had to be on its side rather than upright. The extra time was ok because this really was a great campsite, the best since northern Sudan, and it was a shame Rebecca wasn't around to share it with.
After setting off (not until 10am!) the road quickly turned into bumpy dirt and progress was slow. It took two and half hours to cover the 30km to the border. There was also lots of dust kicked up by passing vehicles and I had to put on sunglasses and a buff to protect my eyes and mouth. The scenery was mostly unremarkable but at times a bit like the Yorkshire Dales, which was fun. When I stopped to take a photo of this a man on a motorbike said hello and insisted that I took a photo of him too. I told him he would be famous on instagram (read: 7 likes) and he was very pleased. The border itself was one of the nicer ones I’ve visited, with thickly wooded hills and a gushing clear river marking the point where Kenya became Uganda. The Kenyan process was smooth as silk, my letter from Benson in Eldoret was accepted and the friendly man gave me the East Africa visa with no problems. The main issue was that he misread the piece of paper provided at the Turkana border and put my date of entry into Kenya two weeks later than my actual date of entry. He also had to put my “in” stamp as this border. This all caused some confusion when I tried to get into Uganda as the lady didn’t understand a) how I had entered Kenya at this border without having previously been to Uganda, and b) where the hell I had been in the two weeks between leaving Ethiopia and arriving in Kenya. She pondered this for a bit but eventually let me in.
Straight after the border was a small town where I changed some money and tried to get a Ugandan SIM card at a shop with bizarre religious tv playing in the background, but the guy couldn’t get it to work after multiple tries and suggested I try in Kapchorwa, the first big town. Initially Uganda seemed similar to Kenya, but with slightly less shy people and the kids say “bye bye” instead of “how are you”*. The dirt road quickly deteriorated and became very bumpy and dusty, which made for some skiddy moments. Into the small town of Bukwo there was a descent so long and steep that my left hand went dead from squeezing the brakes so hard. Here I stocked up on water in preparation for wild camping. There was a policeman in the shop who asked if I was staying in Bukwo, to which I said no, so he said I would have to make it to Kapchorwa but that this should be fine. Kapchorwa was 76km down the steep and bumpy dirt road and it was already 4.30pm, but I went along with it as I didn’t want to reveal that I was planning to camp. He said the bit in between was “forest” which sounded right up my cover-seeking street.
There was a long and tough climb out of Bukwo, zig zagging up the hillside. Some bits were very steep and dusty but I didn’t have to push, just about. At the top the really beautiful section of this road began. The road is carved into the side of Mt Elgon, which gradually rises from 1000m to 4300m, at about 2000m, so on my right there were constantly great views of the mountain dropping away to the plateau below. The landscape was, however, conspicuously absent of any forest and in fact seemed to be one endless village. All of this together was terrible for wild camping because:
1. There was hardly any flat ground
2. What little flat ground there was had houses on it
3. There were no trees to provide cover (he lied!)
4. There were children bloody everywhere and they kept excitedly following me, making it impossible to find a spot in secret
Basically I was back in Ethiopia, and as in Ethiopia I didn’t want to camp in a village as I knew this would result in the entire population staring at me whilst I erected the tent and cooked dinner. Having found zero suitable spots in 2hrs it was basically dark and I was getting very stressed. Some asking around, involving asking at a place saying “Hotel” that actually only sold teas and chapatti) pointed me toward a lodge that I would 100% never have found myself, where I was pointed to an extremely basic and tiny room. At this point I just wanted somewhere to sleep safely so it was an absolute haven, plus it was only £2**. As the walls were made of mud I figured it would be ok to cook int he room and whipped up a bizarre but tasty noodle/coconut/fish/sweet corn thing. I really hope wild camping isn’t going to be this difficult all the way to Kampala; if nothing else, I have loads of “camp ready” food and want to drop the weight.
*This presents a problem: do I reply in kind and perpetuate the error, or say hello and risk them not thinking I’ve replied, or stop and give a 30 minute presentation on the intricacies of the English language?
**Taking number 1 spot in the “cheapest hotel room” charts
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