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The hell came to the fore under Idi Amin. Greed defines much of African politics and it was under him that Uganda rapidly deteriorated into chaos; a situation that is still mirrored today in many African countries. Uganda had just been on the verge of a civil war, when Dr Obote, Prime Minister of Uganda in the 1960s, carried out a coup to abolish the Bugandan monarchy, before setting about gaining absolute rule a few years later. Amin, then the Army Chief of Start, started to show himself for who he was when, accused by a Colonol Okoya of stealing government funds, this colonel was mysteriously shot dead with his wife. Amin bided his time, and when Obote went to Singapore, another coup was arranged, leaving Amin in power, a move ironically endorsed by the naïve British Government. The reign of terror began.

There's something about Uganda

Simon Wadsworth
2006-09-04 10:43:49

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than it used to be - aka, the kidnapped tourists!). Again, unlike most who pay for an expensive tour, Simon decided to take public transport there and back, which, although took around 2 days, allowed him to see much more of the region than he would have otherwise done, and experience local life.

For example, he somehow miraculously found the right matatu in the crazy Kampala taxi park (see photo above) and took it to a small, dusty, provincial town called Masindi for the night, away from the tarmac roads of the south - a small, lively but sleepy place, full of shops selling bread and lightbulbs, and street stalls selling BBQd chicken and corn on the cob. The next day, he got another matatu full of chickens and 27 people (officially, they hold 14), down the Rift Valley Escarpment to Lake Albert and the Blue Mountains of the Congo in the distance. He was quite happy about the beautiful views, even if he was a little squished in the matatu. Finally, he got a boda-boda 30km into the park itself, balancing on the back with his bag Mzungu!”.

Ok, back to 1st person. The Murchison Falls National Park was awesome. I arranged for a boat trip up the Nile to the Falls, a trip that took 2 hours, due to the nine South Koreans and I constantly stopping the boat to take photos of the amazing wildlife. There were literally 100s of hippos submerged in the river, or frolicking in the mud along the banks, and just as many crocodiles, peacefully living together. The crocs all had their jaws wide open, supposedly because of the heat, though I can’t help but wonder that they were actually greedily spying us, tasty human meat, sitting in the boat, that now started to seem futilely small… So we sped on, and eventually spied the Falls in the distance. From the incredible rumble, it wasn’t difficult. It’s a spectacular sight watching the water cascade through the narrow gorge, thundering to the river below, and I decided to get off the boat and explore ...