Day 194
Sleeping location: Kaddo Guesthouse, Mbale, Uganda
Distance (km today/total): 72 / 13409
Estimated climb (m today/total): 700 / 101300
Slope: deep
Distance (km today/total): 72 / 13409
Estimated climb (m today/total): 700 / 101300
Slope: deep
Day in three words: Falls and descents
In the night I dreamt that loads of little children were wandering around my tent, begging and trying to steal things. Though perhaps this wasn’t a dream as in the morning I couldn’t find my Bluetooth speaker. I hadn’t used it since I’d left the last guesthouse so it was difficult to say when it had gone, but if it got nicked at this place it’s partially my own fault for leaving my stuff strewn around everywhere*. Despite the loss it was still a nice place to relax, so I rested my still tired legs over multiple coffees, some tasty breakfast and some blogging. I unpacked and repacked everything and asked the staff to keep an eye out, but by 11am the speaker still hadn’t turned up so I decided to cut my losses and go. The first 15km was seriously up and down, stiff climbs followed by fast descents, with badly filled potholes making for some fun/dangerous evasive manoeuvres. It was hard work but fun.
I arrived at Sipi Falls and was immediately set upon by guys trying to offer me guide services or camping. The falls were pretty hidden from the road and there wasn't much information on how to get to them online, so I asked around and eventually found a little entrance shack hidden down a slope (presumably so that the guides can get money for taking you there) where I paid to get in** and left Maggie to go for a little hike. It was a steep climb and the humidity made it sweaty work, but I managed to find a mini fall at the top to have a little shower in. The falls were an impressive vertical drop type thing and there was a fun cave behind them where I could frolic in the spray. After this I started towards the ‘upper” falls and a man appeared and started to follow me whilst telling me it cost extra for this one, despite the lack of any signage or previous information to this effect. I repeatedly told him this was bollocks until eventually he got the picture and left me alone. The top falls were some nice “tumbly” ones, but by this point I was worried that the whole area was scam central and that Maggie had been left unattended and unlocked, so I headed back instead of exploring some more. A shame as it was a pleasant spot. (I subsequently realised I’d entirely missed the main falls, which were the other side of the road, but they take hours to visit and I still had a good time and saw some cracking waterfalls, so I’m happy.)
Straight after Sipi was a road sign warning of “deep slope” which introduced an extremely fun descent. There were loads of wide sweeping bends and I went down at a terrific speed with minimal braking needed. It took 18 minutes to cover 12km and a drop of 700m. WHOOSH. This brought me out onto the low plains at about 1100m. It was very humid but thankfully overcast. The road was flat and smooth with a nice shoulder, and there were good views of Elgon’s lower slopes and cliffs on the left, with one beautiful waterfall tumbling off a cliff in the distance. This was the first easy pleasant riding I’d done in a while, and it was nice to relax and languidly keep the pedals turning. At one point I was stopped by a traffic policewoman called Janet and thought some attempts at bribery might be afoot, but she was just curious. Sometimes these demands for attention (especially the guys in groups who yell out “hey mzungu” so they can have some fun with you) are annoying but she had enough charm to pull it off.
I rolled into Mbale about 5pm without too much fuss, and picked up a huge bag of jackfruit and some tomatoes and onions as my body was crying out for some vitamins. I found a budget but pretty decent guesthouse on ioverlander, which as a bonus had a really nice cafe next door. So far Uganda seems to have way more mzungus than western Kenya, which means more of the associated luxuries that they bring. I went up to the roof terrace and had a couple of beers and a rolex whilst blogging and enjoying the view of distant green ridges. They let me take away two beers on the promise that I’d bring the bottles back the next day, so my bizarre dinner menu was:
-“Salad” simply consisting of six tomatoes with a sumac and chilli dressing
-6.5% stout
-Instant noodles with onion, tuna and loads of (too much) chilli
-A different 6.5% stout
-A lot of jackfruit
-Some squares of chocolate whilst lying on my back and panting as a result of being too full/hot
*A multicoloured ball was mysteriously left at the crime scene...perhaps the work of a kleptomaniac toddler?
**They still tried to charge me double the actual price
In the night I dreamt that loads of little children were wandering around my tent, begging and trying to steal things. Though perhaps this wasn’t a dream as in the morning I couldn’t find my Bluetooth speaker. I hadn’t used it since I’d left the last guesthouse so it was difficult to say when it had gone, but if it got nicked at this place it’s partially my own fault for leaving my stuff strewn around everywhere*. Despite the loss it was still a nice place to relax, so I rested my still tired legs over multiple coffees, some tasty breakfast and some blogging. I unpacked and repacked everything and asked the staff to keep an eye out, but by 11am the speaker still hadn’t turned up so I decided to cut my losses and go. The first 15km was seriously up and down, stiff climbs followed by fast descents, with badly filled potholes making for some fun/dangerous evasive manoeuvres. It was hard work but fun.
I arrived at Sipi Falls and was immediately set upon by guys trying to offer me guide services or camping. The falls were pretty hidden from the road and there wasn't much information on how to get to them online, so I asked around and eventually found a little entrance shack hidden down a slope (presumably so that the guides can get money for taking you there) where I paid to get in** and left Maggie to go for a little hike. It was a steep climb and the humidity made it sweaty work, but I managed to find a mini fall at the top to have a little shower in. The falls were an impressive vertical drop type thing and there was a fun cave behind them where I could frolic in the spray. After this I started towards the ‘upper” falls and a man appeared and started to follow me whilst telling me it cost extra for this one, despite the lack of any signage or previous information to this effect. I repeatedly told him this was bollocks until eventually he got the picture and left me alone. The top falls were some nice “tumbly” ones, but by this point I was worried that the whole area was scam central and that Maggie had been left unattended and unlocked, so I headed back instead of exploring some more. A shame as it was a pleasant spot. (I subsequently realised I’d entirely missed the main falls, which were the other side of the road, but they take hours to visit and I still had a good time and saw some cracking waterfalls, so I’m happy.)
Straight after Sipi was a road sign warning of “deep slope” which introduced an extremely fun descent. There were loads of wide sweeping bends and I went down at a terrific speed with minimal braking needed. It took 18 minutes to cover 12km and a drop of 700m. WHOOSH. This brought me out onto the low plains at about 1100m. It was very humid but thankfully overcast. The road was flat and smooth with a nice shoulder, and there were good views of Elgon’s lower slopes and cliffs on the left, with one beautiful waterfall tumbling off a cliff in the distance. This was the first easy pleasant riding I’d done in a while, and it was nice to relax and languidly keep the pedals turning. At one point I was stopped by a traffic policewoman called Janet and thought some attempts at bribery might be afoot, but she was just curious. Sometimes these demands for attention (especially the guys in groups who yell out “hey mzungu” so they can have some fun with you) are annoying but she had enough charm to pull it off.
I rolled into Mbale about 5pm without too much fuss, and picked up a huge bag of jackfruit and some tomatoes and onions as my body was crying out for some vitamins. I found a budget but pretty decent guesthouse on ioverlander, which as a bonus had a really nice cafe next door. So far Uganda seems to have way more mzungus than western Kenya, which means more of the associated luxuries that they bring. I went up to the roof terrace and had a couple of beers and a rolex whilst blogging and enjoying the view of distant green ridges. They let me take away two beers on the promise that I’d bring the bottles back the next day, so my bizarre dinner menu was:
-“Salad” simply consisting of six tomatoes with a sumac and chilli dressing
-6.5% stout
-Instant noodles with onion, tuna and loads of (too much) chilli
-A different 6.5% stout
-A lot of jackfruit
-Some squares of chocolate whilst lying on my back and panting as a result of being too full/hot
*A multicoloured ball was mysteriously left at the crime scene...perhaps the work of a kleptomaniac toddler?
**They still tried to charge me double the actual price
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