Day 217
Sleeping location: Westend Motel, Fort Portal, Uganda
Distance (km today/total): 109 / 13974
Estimated climb (m today/total): 1200 / 106700
Types of monkey: 2
Distance (km today/total): 109 / 13974
Estimated climb (m today/total): 1200 / 106700
Types of monkey: 2
Day in three words: Rolling but rewarding
For breakfast I tried to make ugali/posho, but it went very wrong and just turned into more of a grey sludge than ugali/posho usually is. It was made borderline edible by the addition of lots of jam and peanut butter. The ugali packet has to clarify that it is “for food”, which says it all really. We rolled out with very stiff legs, but thankfully my expert bike knowledge (guessing) had sorted out some of Rebecca’s setup issues and she was in a more comfortable position again.
The riding was more of the same rolling hills, but with more forest and views which made things more enjoyable. Late morning we went through a big forest section, with loads of huge colourful butterflies flitting around our bikes, then I spotted something interesting in a tree and we stopped to look more closely. It was a big group of B&W Colobus monkeys, the same species I shared my campsite with on my last night in Kenya. They are wonderfully charismatic things, with white “beards” and big fluffy tails, and they were having a great time in the trees, eating fruit and frolicking and leaping around, sometimes apparently just for fun. We watched, enthralled, for about 15 minutes.
After lunch, which we took at a lovely little cafe/hotel/wildlife conservation centre/fishing spot, things started to get more and more beautiful. The hills were very green with loads of trees and tea plantations and not many people about. The road was very quiet and very smooth with a lovely wide shoulder, and the air cooled as we gradually climbed, so the cycling was pretty nice despite tired legs. In another section of forest I zoomed past a baboon sat not a metre from my bike; he seemed completely nonplussed but I was very startled and stopped to check that I’d actually seen what I thought I’d seen. It was only when I circled back for a closer look that he lazily sloped off into the undergrowth. That was just the first of many baboons on this stretch, all of whom were quite happy to let me cycle within a few metres of them.
Fort Portal was the biggest town since Kampala and there were lots of people about for the last 10km or so. The kids were again very happy and friendly but shouts from adults were hard to distinguish between genuinely nice and “mess with the mzungu”. One man started to run behind me to impress his friends, so I dropped back and bopped him lightly on the head before speeding off with a friendly wave, which got lots of laughs. I arrived at an ioverlander-recommended hotel just before dusk and got us a room, but they weren’t sure if they had one the next night - we had our fingers crossed as it was nice. Rebecca arrived a little later as a result of spending ages filming the baboons doing various funny/naughty things. It has been a surprisingly tough three days from Kampala; we thought it would just be a gentle prelude to the “proper” cycling in western Uganda but it hit our softened bodies hard. To celebrate we had two beers/wines and some very decent pizza before retiring to bed to play Pokemon.
For breakfast I tried to make ugali/posho, but it went very wrong and just turned into more of a grey sludge than ugali/posho usually is. It was made borderline edible by the addition of lots of jam and peanut butter. The ugali packet has to clarify that it is “for food”, which says it all really. We rolled out with very stiff legs, but thankfully my expert bike knowledge (guessing) had sorted out some of Rebecca’s setup issues and she was in a more comfortable position again.
The riding was more of the same rolling hills, but with more forest and views which made things more enjoyable. Late morning we went through a big forest section, with loads of huge colourful butterflies flitting around our bikes, then I spotted something interesting in a tree and we stopped to look more closely. It was a big group of B&W Colobus monkeys, the same species I shared my campsite with on my last night in Kenya. They are wonderfully charismatic things, with white “beards” and big fluffy tails, and they were having a great time in the trees, eating fruit and frolicking and leaping around, sometimes apparently just for fun. We watched, enthralled, for about 15 minutes.
After lunch, which we took at a lovely little cafe/hotel/wildlife conservation centre/fishing spot, things started to get more and more beautiful. The hills were very green with loads of trees and tea plantations and not many people about. The road was very quiet and very smooth with a lovely wide shoulder, and the air cooled as we gradually climbed, so the cycling was pretty nice despite tired legs. In another section of forest I zoomed past a baboon sat not a metre from my bike; he seemed completely nonplussed but I was very startled and stopped to check that I’d actually seen what I thought I’d seen. It was only when I circled back for a closer look that he lazily sloped off into the undergrowth. That was just the first of many baboons on this stretch, all of whom were quite happy to let me cycle within a few metres of them.
Fort Portal was the biggest town since Kampala and there were lots of people about for the last 10km or so. The kids were again very happy and friendly but shouts from adults were hard to distinguish between genuinely nice and “mess with the mzungu”. One man started to run behind me to impress his friends, so I dropped back and bopped him lightly on the head before speeding off with a friendly wave, which got lots of laughs. I arrived at an ioverlander-recommended hotel just before dusk and got us a room, but they weren’t sure if they had one the next night - we had our fingers crossed as it was nice. Rebecca arrived a little later as a result of spending ages filming the baboons doing various funny/naughty things. It has been a surprisingly tough three days from Kampala; we thought it would just be a gentle prelude to the “proper” cycling in western Uganda but it hit our softened bodies hard. To celebrate we had two beers/wines and some very decent pizza before retiring to bed to play Pokemon.
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