Day 237 / 2

Date: 5 December 2022
Sleeping location: Sawa Sawa hotel, Kisoro, Uganda

Distance (km today/total/total Part 2): 90 / 14979 / 142

Estimated climb (m today/total/total Part 2): 1500 / 120700 / 2700

Mood of the day: hustle

Day in three words: Mzungu ad infinitum

I was woken from light slumber by the pitter patter of rain on the tent, which got a lot heavier shortly after I’d dashed out to take in my clothes that were “drying” on the bike. This was especially bad because there was 30km of dirt road back to the tarmac and we all know what happens to dirt in the rain, and especially especially bad because I had somewhere to be - I wanted to make it to Kisoro, 85+ km away, by nightfall. I sat around waiting for it to clear and taking advantage of the free tea and coffee, but it just kept going so at 11 I packed up my sodden tent and set out into the rain at about 11.30.

Thankfully the dirt road had held up and only had a thin layer of greasy surface mud, so I took it steady, inched up the ups and eased down the downs and made serene progress back to tarmac, stopping only to take pictures and admire a worm that was the diameter of my finger and longer than my foot. At the top of the climb out the rain stopped, the sun came out and view turned to lush forest wreathed in low cloud, which was very beautiful. Was Bwindi worth the effort overall? I didn’t see any gorillas (obviously) and for a rainforest my animal viewing was limited: loads of small birds, two big peacock things, some kind of chicken, the mega worm and a monkey’s arse. But it was a cool place and a good challenge so yeah, probably it was. 

I reached the road a bit before 3 and decided to push on for Kisoro, now about 50km away but with a big old climb of almost 500m along the way. This didn’t leave time for a lunch stop so I opted to quickly buy bananas, biscuits and a 2l bottle of Mountain Dew which will become relevant later on.  The road was again decent and quiet but there were a lot of people around and I attracted a LOT of attention. It breaks down by age group: young kids would be genuinely excited and wave with a big grin (cute), older kids would generally and repeatedly ask for money/a “sweetie”/Yoshi* (annoying), young adults in groups would shout something funny for laughs (ok if I had the energy to engage), and old adults would offer a nod or a friendly “how are you” (nice). Almost every interaction was prefaced by the word mzungu, said repeatedly if I didn’t acknowledge them straight away, which after a while I stopped doing for everyone because it was exhausting. I must have heard the word mzungu close to 1000 times. The kids here seem to ask for money way more than anywhere else in Uganda, and this is the most touristic area of Uganda…coincidence?

Just before the big climb started I passed the north end of Lake Bunyonyi, the place in Part 1 where everything started to fall apart. This was very pretty, calm water surrounded by steep sided green hills and some impressively organised terrace farming. The big climb was tough though; like the day before I had underestimated my soft legs and weak lungs and it took longer than expected, although the views back over Bunyonyi were spectacular. Things were made more difficult by a few kids jogging alongside for ages repeatedly asking for money/sweetie. One young kid carrying a plastic bottle on the end of a stick (a tool? A toy?) ran with me for ages and I told him that he could have 5000 UGX if he came with me all the way to Kisoro (about 30km), to which he excitedly replied “Yes!” but gave up after about 500m. Kids just don’t have the necessary drive these days.

I got my reward at the top in the form of a glorious, glorious, glorious sweeping descent which wound down the side of steep valleys, punctuated by a couple of short climbs for some extra spice. Near the top I came across a few baboons by the roadside, one of which made a strange noise at a passing car so I slowed right down to avoid antagonising them, but after that I sped up to the point that I was apparently the fastest thing on the road, overtaking a bus, two lorries, a pickup and a few motorbikes. I got into Kisoro just before sunset and was informed by a sign that “Mega Bread welcomes you” which was nice to hear. Having set off at 11.30, 90km and 1500m of climb is really good going and it will only get easier as I acclimatise. One advantage of travelling solo is that I can hustle sections like this and not have to wait or worry about someone else.

I was knackered so instead of shopping around I just went to hotel listed on ioverlander, which initially seemed promising but the shower in the room didn't work. I negotiated a discount to use the communal shower instead, but the joke was on me as the hot water in here didn't work, and then it flooded. I am going to have to get used to African hotels again. One disadvantage of travelling solo is that accommodation costs twice as much, which means I'm going to have to suck it up either on price or quality. I couldn't be arsed to move at this point but as I was planning to spend a couple of nights in Kisoro I then did a little tour of several nearby options and picked my favourite for the next day. This was not the one offering a bath with no shower and no hot water, which is surely a form of torture.

Kisoro seems a cute little town and the nearby 4127m Mount Muhabara is very impressive. At sunset hundreds of bats flew overhead on their “commute” to wherever they get food, which is always a sight that fills me with awe. From the place I had dinner you could see hundreds of bat-like shapes flying around above a big light on the hillside, and I asked the owner if they were bats but she insisted they were grasshoppers even though you could see them from 100m away. I think they were bats. 

*And in one instance, I think, “Guinness”, to which I replied “Guinness is for adults!”. Another kid referred to Yoshi as a dog which is wrong on so many levels.