Day 218 - 219
Sleeping location: New Fort View, Fort Portal, Uganda
Distance (km today/total): 2 / 13976
Estimated climb (m today/total): 0 / 106700
Fort Portal: 4 stars
Distance (km today/total): 2 / 13976
Estimated climb (m today/total): 0 / 106700
Fort Portal: 4 stars
Day in three words: Rest and rugby
Spent a couple of days resting and relaxing in FP. On Saturday morning at about 11 the hotel annoyingly said they didn't have space, so we had to pack up and move across town. This took way longer than it should have (it’s a hilly place) and we didn’t get settled in to a new place until about 1pm. We still weren’t feeling great so rested in the hotel all afternoon. I did some blogging in the hotel restaurant whilst trying not to be distracted by a bonkers Indian soap opera that was on the tv. There was constant epic music and random camera zooms in/out whilst the characters said increasingly ludicrous things; there were about 5 betrayals each episode. But the dubbing from Hindi to English was done in completely emotionless voices.
In the evening we went out for dinner at the same place as last night and had more tasty pizza and more beers. We wanted to watch the England Wales rugby but the owner told us the only place in town that was showing it was 3km away and it looked like it was about to storm, so we just watched it on my phone at the restaurant. This led to us getting carried away with the drinks menu and ordering limoncello, then a small bottle of “Uganda Waragi” which is a local spirit that we’ve seen everywhere but not tried. It turned out to be gin, or rather a “gin flavoured alcoholic beverage”, and for some reason we drank it neat with beer chasers and ended up quite pissed. At least England won.
On Sunday we woke up intending to do an 80km “fun cycle” but we still felt ill and had stiff legs, plus moderate hangovers, which would take the “fun” out of “fun cycle” and make the whole thing a bit pointless, so we decided to take another rest day instead. Over breakfast we read the local paper, which had some bizarre International Women’s Day features including “Women Who Scare Men” and a feature on Uganda’s sportswomen which had so little to choose from that it included a 10 year old golfer and Uganda’s first professional “woodball” player (perhaps she was the first because woodball is a sport she made up). In the afternoon we had a walk around town; FP is a pleasant place, quite spread out with lots of green space and a little bit of history here and there. There was maximum green space in the botanic gardens, which weren’t very garden-y but were beautiful and peaceful, with lots of nice woodland and birds. One palm tree had dozens of bee eater nests hanging off it and a couple had fallen down so we had a closer look. They are so intricately woven, it’s amazing how they make them with just beaks.
We went back to the room just in time for a vicious thunderstorm which kept trying to blow the window open and knocked the hotel power off multiple times. We snuggled up in bed and played some more Pokemon* then watched Scotland France rugby with a couple of beers. Delightful. Then popped out for dinner and to watch the Manchester derby, which the red bastards won AGAIN just like they did when I watched it in Ethiopia. I should stop watching them.
*Finally managed to get Magikarp to evolve into Gyrados. Perseverance pays!
Spent a couple of days resting and relaxing in FP. On Saturday morning at about 11 the hotel annoyingly said they didn't have space, so we had to pack up and move across town. This took way longer than it should have (it’s a hilly place) and we didn’t get settled in to a new place until about 1pm. We still weren’t feeling great so rested in the hotel all afternoon. I did some blogging in the hotel restaurant whilst trying not to be distracted by a bonkers Indian soap opera that was on the tv. There was constant epic music and random camera zooms in/out whilst the characters said increasingly ludicrous things; there were about 5 betrayals each episode. But the dubbing from Hindi to English was done in completely emotionless voices.
In the evening we went out for dinner at the same place as last night and had more tasty pizza and more beers. We wanted to watch the England Wales rugby but the owner told us the only place in town that was showing it was 3km away and it looked like it was about to storm, so we just watched it on my phone at the restaurant. This led to us getting carried away with the drinks menu and ordering limoncello, then a small bottle of “Uganda Waragi” which is a local spirit that we’ve seen everywhere but not tried. It turned out to be gin, or rather a “gin flavoured alcoholic beverage”, and for some reason we drank it neat with beer chasers and ended up quite pissed. At least England won.
On Sunday we woke up intending to do an 80km “fun cycle” but we still felt ill and had stiff legs, plus moderate hangovers, which would take the “fun” out of “fun cycle” and make the whole thing a bit pointless, so we decided to take another rest day instead. Over breakfast we read the local paper, which had some bizarre International Women’s Day features including “Women Who Scare Men” and a feature on Uganda’s sportswomen which had so little to choose from that it included a 10 year old golfer and Uganda’s first professional “woodball” player (perhaps she was the first because woodball is a sport she made up). In the afternoon we had a walk around town; FP is a pleasant place, quite spread out with lots of green space and a little bit of history here and there. There was maximum green space in the botanic gardens, which weren’t very garden-y but were beautiful and peaceful, with lots of nice woodland and birds. One palm tree had dozens of bee eater nests hanging off it and a couple had fallen down so we had a closer look. They are so intricately woven, it’s amazing how they make them with just beaks.
We went back to the room just in time for a vicious thunderstorm which kept trying to blow the window open and knocked the hotel power off multiple times. We snuggled up in bed and played some more Pokemon* then watched Scotland France rugby with a couple of beers. Delightful. Then popped out for dinner and to watch the Manchester derby, which the red bastards won AGAIN just like they did when I watched it in Ethiopia. I should stop watching them.
*Finally managed to get Magikarp to evolve into Gyrados. Perseverance pays!
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