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14 January 1999

The Kingsmill's Trans-Africa Overland Trip, Part 9: Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya

Geoff Kingsmill
2006-04-25 21:12:17

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the ship, we met two Kalgoorlie sisters backpacking through Africa and decided to give them a lift. We crossed into Uganda later that morning. The border proceedings as usual were straightforward. Kienny is getting very used to officials. They asked us what gifts we had brought them from Australia. Thus far we have been able to engage corrupt officials in other topics of conversation, so much so that they get tired of Kienny chatting and couldn't wait to wave us through.

We stayed our first night in Uganda just south of Masaka. Not long after we set up camp, an amazing thing happened. A Dutch couple arrived on a motorbike. Upon introducing ourselves, we realised it was Gertjan and Rita! We met Gertjan whilst touring Thailand on motorbikes in 1991 just near the River Kwai. A month later he visited us in Alice Springs. It was just so amazing to meet up with them in Uganda and spent the night exchanging trip notes and catching up with each other's travels.

Next morning we set off for Kabale and dropped off the two Kalgoorlie sister who managed to get a booking to see the gorillas at Bwindi. We spent New Years Eve by Lake Bunyonyi. The lake surrounded by mountains is beautiful and has a tranquil atmosphere about it. We watched otters swimming in the lake and people exploring and fishing the lake in canoes. Next day we drove to Kisoro through some of the most stunning countryside we've seen. Churchill described Uganda as the "Pearl of Africa". The countryside is lush green with acres of bananas, palms, coffee, mangoes, pineapples and gum trees. At times the gum and eucalyptus trees makes Africa feel just like home. The roads are a welcome change after Tanzania.
We stopped to buy one and a half kilos of beef at one of the villages. The butcher had a side of beef hung up and he used his machete to hack off the amount of meat we required. At first we were concerned about buying meat that was covered in flies but to date we have not ...