Day 221
Sleeping location: Ruboni Community Camp, Rwenzori foothills, Uganda
Distance (km today/total): 73 / 14137
Estimated climb (m today/total): 1500 / 109600
Difficulty: surprising
Distance (km today/total): 73 / 14137
Estimated climb (m today/total): 1500 / 109600
Difficulty: surprising
Day in three words: Surface to air
After some standard faffing, including Rebecca realising she needed some actual shoes* as we were planning to do some actual hiking in actual mountains, we set off a little before noon. The road was a mixture of OK surfaces, shuffling between bumpy tarmac, gravelly tarmac and smooth-ish dirt. it was quite up and down but the views were usually nice ones, of green hills and the foothills of the Rwenzoris always looming on our right. Later on it became more downhill and there were some fun short descents, enlivened by the inconsistent road surface. For our first rest stop we accidentally sat within earshot of two pigs making furious and bizarre pig noises at each other. At the next rest stop I sat under a tree in a village and attracted the usual attention. A group of little kids across the street started constantly shouting “mzungu” and then waving furiously every time I looked over. A small crowd had gathered by the time Rebecca arrived so we had a little fun and told them that a strange little blue and white beetle was the “god of the mzungus”, then put it on a pedestal made of wood and prayed to it before we left. They seemed to accept this at face value.
Here we turned off the main road onto a dirt road towards the Rwenzori national park. The first 15km was on mostly a smooth, but very skiddy, dirt road that crashed its way over and down multiple very, very steep hills. It was hot and extremely hard work, and I had to push a couple of times after losing it on especially steep rocky bits. The scenery was of more beautiful green hills but usually I had to concentrate too much on keeping control of Maggie to appreciate them. At the end of this we dropped into a river valley, but Rebecca had got lost and I had to wait for her to find me again (via what sounds like a footpath through the forest) in a small town. Again I attracted a big crowd of kids, but they dispersed after realising I was actually quite boring.
By the time Rebecca arrived we were pushed for time, as our intended destination was 9km/400m up the river valley and sunset was only half an hour away. We were resigned to doing some of it in the dark, but then disaster struck and Rebecca got a puncture with about 4km to go. We decided not to fix it as there’s a high risk of losing something or messing up the repair in the dark, so together we pushed slowly up the road towards the dark shapes that were looming in the sky at the top of the valley**. We arrived at the camp very late and realised that it clung to a steep hillside and was 95% steps, and that the best camping pitch was at the very top, all of which was great news for us. It took multiple trips we got all of our gear up there, then we asked about a hot shower and were told that it was right back at the sodding bottom again. The bright side of our lofty position is that the views should be spectacular***. After tent setup and cooking (tasty coconut noodle curry courtesy of Rebecca) we ate dinner at about 11pm then went straight to bed. Insult to injury - Rebecca’s sleeping mat is not holding air so she has two puncture repair jobs for the morning.
*Her only “shoes” are Birkenstocks as she has now destroyed her third pair of cheap trainers
**Mountains, obv
***Of course I know whether they were or not as I write this, but I don’t want to give any spoilers away
After some standard faffing, including Rebecca realising she needed some actual shoes* as we were planning to do some actual hiking in actual mountains, we set off a little before noon. The road was a mixture of OK surfaces, shuffling between bumpy tarmac, gravelly tarmac and smooth-ish dirt. it was quite up and down but the views were usually nice ones, of green hills and the foothills of the Rwenzoris always looming on our right. Later on it became more downhill and there were some fun short descents, enlivened by the inconsistent road surface. For our first rest stop we accidentally sat within earshot of two pigs making furious and bizarre pig noises at each other. At the next rest stop I sat under a tree in a village and attracted the usual attention. A group of little kids across the street started constantly shouting “mzungu” and then waving furiously every time I looked over. A small crowd had gathered by the time Rebecca arrived so we had a little fun and told them that a strange little blue and white beetle was the “god of the mzungus”, then put it on a pedestal made of wood and prayed to it before we left. They seemed to accept this at face value.
Here we turned off the main road onto a dirt road towards the Rwenzori national park. The first 15km was on mostly a smooth, but very skiddy, dirt road that crashed its way over and down multiple very, very steep hills. It was hot and extremely hard work, and I had to push a couple of times after losing it on especially steep rocky bits. The scenery was of more beautiful green hills but usually I had to concentrate too much on keeping control of Maggie to appreciate them. At the end of this we dropped into a river valley, but Rebecca had got lost and I had to wait for her to find me again (via what sounds like a footpath through the forest) in a small town. Again I attracted a big crowd of kids, but they dispersed after realising I was actually quite boring.
By the time Rebecca arrived we were pushed for time, as our intended destination was 9km/400m up the river valley and sunset was only half an hour away. We were resigned to doing some of it in the dark, but then disaster struck and Rebecca got a puncture with about 4km to go. We decided not to fix it as there’s a high risk of losing something or messing up the repair in the dark, so together we pushed slowly up the road towards the dark shapes that were looming in the sky at the top of the valley**. We arrived at the camp very late and realised that it clung to a steep hillside and was 95% steps, and that the best camping pitch was at the very top, all of which was great news for us. It took multiple trips we got all of our gear up there, then we asked about a hot shower and were told that it was right back at the sodding bottom again. The bright side of our lofty position is that the views should be spectacular***. After tent setup and cooking (tasty coconut noodle curry courtesy of Rebecca) we ate dinner at about 11pm then went straight to bed. Insult to injury - Rebecca’s sleeping mat is not holding air so she has two puncture repair jobs for the morning.
*Her only “shoes” are Birkenstocks as she has now destroyed her third pair of cheap trainers
**Mountains, obv
***Of course I know whether they were or not as I write this, but I don’t want to give any spoilers away
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