Arrival in Kenya
30.08.2006
30 °C
Kisoro, Uganda
My first night in Nairobi was extraordinary, to say the least! It all started with an airport transfer in a rickety old Datsun where you could see the road through the floor, and troads where three cars regularly squeeze into a narrow dual carrigway side by side.
Add to this a drive around the darkened suburbs of Nairobi trying to find the backpackers camp with a driver who spoke little English, and you can sa it was going less than smoothly! Eventually I made it and got an awful nights's sleep after unpacking in the dark.
The group i'm travelling with are a great bunch of people- five aussies, myself and another Brit. Plus, mark the tour leader is an aussie expat- meaning lots of awful aussie music and I can alreay hear myself starting to talk with the dreaded aussie twang! Everyone seems to be on the same wavelength though, and are getting on really well.
We left Nairobi early after a quick breakfast, and were faced with a draining 12 hour drive to our first camp (which included a wrong turn that cost us an extra hour and a half). Even so, the drive was fun- driving through small villages on the way where the children run hundreds of yards just to wave at the white people!
This really sums up Central Africa so far to me- nothing works and no-one is ever on time, so logically it should be a nightmare to travel. But the entuhusiasm with which nearly everyone welcomes you is something that never fails to suprise you.
The only thing that slightly sours this is the dehgree of poverty these people face. In some of the older villager's eyes you snese a stare that burns right through to your core, as if to say "How dare you expect me to wave back at you as if you and I were born equal, just thinking that a wave will solve my problems". This guilt is something that Western travellers like us are never able to get over.
Nevertheless we've been on the road for four days now, making further camps at Kampala, Uganda's capital, Kabale, and today Kisoro. The drive today was spectacular through the Ugandan mountains, with children chasing us down the hills at full pelt in barfeet!
Although we've had some long driving days, they've been broken up by things such as crossing the equator yesterday- and anyway, it's all been in pursuit of a worthy cause- the highlight of the trip for most: trekking to find the endangered Mountain Gorillas in the Congo tomorrow...
Posted by gilchrs 3:43 PM Archived in Uganda Comments (0)