We applied EAVT visa to Uganda. We wrote to the form when we would enter the country but we wanted to go earlier than the date. No problem… After approval the visa it doesn’t matter date for the East African visa. We entered Uganda from Gatuna / Katuna border. Just one thing keep in your mind everything is negotiable in Uganda 🙂
First stop Lake Bunyonyi
They told us Lake Bunyonyi is most beautiful lake in Uganda also in Africa. Listen people, go there and see with your eyes.
We found a nice place next to the lake. Negotiate started for camping 10 USD, 8 USD, 7 USD…etc we paid 5 USD pppn. J The lake is so big and has a lot of little islands in it. We went on boat tour but if you want to see how beautiful the lake is you need to go up the hill to the see landscape. We don’t know if Lake Bunyonyi is best lake in Africa but it is really amazing.
The village has little local market, some shops and restaurant as well but all price you need to ask first. How much “chapatti”? One says 1000 other says 500. Depend on who is selling. Some people think we are tourist we can pay more. So ask first the price!
We finished the day in a Police Station!
After staying two days next to the lake we hit the road again but not for Kampala. We would like to see local life, villages, mountain roads and landscape. We started to ride almost noon there for when we arrived to Kanungu it was already getting late and the rain was on the door because there where just black clouds around.
The road condition is not good for the rain therefore we started to look a hotel to spend the night in Kanungu but we couldn’t find anything with secure parking. We were just following the signs to find something one motorcycle was behind me and trying to stop me. I didn’t want to because I had no idea who he was. He passed me and blocked my road. That moment Ferry was already around the corner so no option to see me what was happening. I told him from intercom “Don’t go so far, somebody blocking my road.” And than I saw he has a uniform, which was look like military uniform. After that I saw his motorcycle, which was writing ‘police’. I told him “Don’t panic, he is a police.”
The police was asking where we are going because which road we took dead end. We told him to looking a place to stay tonight safe for motorcycles and us. He didn’t say anything more after a while he said that we can’t ride around like that we must follow him. We didn’t understand what was going on but we followed him.
We arrived to a police station. He told us that don’t put motorcycle in parking area put inside the station. When we entered there was a small door. We just fit with our side bags. We parked them next to cells 🙂
and than we started to talk with another police officer and told our stories where we started, how long we are in Africa, why we were there…etc. After that we showed our passports. They were so friendly and happy to find us. We put our motorcycles in the station after a while we leaved from there with three police officers to walk through the village to look a hotel for us. We went to biggest hotel in Kanungu, which is so new, nice and big. They told for the price 15 USD. Maybe, if we go alone we could take tourist price, we have no idea.
When they were leaving we asked them here is safe to walk around because it was only far 15 km from DRC border. DRC is one of our best country which kind of experience we had but always nice to ask because every part of the country is different. They said that no problem here we could go out any time.
After we had a shower we went out to walk around and find a place for dinner. It is a small town or maybe city and it has amazing views. People were so friendly and shy. If we didn’t start a conversation they never started. Funny thing was, everybody knows us, where we are staying and how we entered the town. We found some good street food, which we always like to eat and try. We bought some food and than turned back the room. We had a really good night.
Next day, we went to police station again, took some photo’s with the police and than left. We went to the same street food place to eat our breakfast, which is called “Rolex”. They make chapatti bread and than two eggs with some tomato and cabbage, rolling inside the chapatti. Therefore “Rolex” name comes from roll eggs. 🙂
We entered Queen Elizabeth NP free with our motorcycle to see wildlife again.
After Kanungu we ride to Ishasha and than we saw a sign “Queen Elizabeth National Park welcome to wildlife.” We were looking the map to figure out where we are. Because we didn’t want to end up paying a lot of enter fee or middle of the road somebody could tell us to we have to turn back. But nobody around.
So, we kept continue and started to see some deer’s, warthogs, impala’s. We came a door on our left hand. We went to talk with the rangers. They told that we are on the main road and it is the only road to Katunguru. So we don’t need to pay for it. If we want to go next to Lake Edward we must pay enter fee.
They told us be careful because they have animals everywhere. We heard before Ishasha is very famous for tree climb lions. The ranger said that lions climb to fig trees where next to the lake but if it is so hot and no rain. He just went there but didn’t see any lions. It means they move more up and could be anywhere.
After all info we said thank you and keep continue to ride and see something. We saw far away lions, some elephants and buffalos. We stopped before a couple of times but after we saw them we decided to don’t stop just keep continue because we didn’t know what can jump in front of our wheels. 🙂
We saw very dark clouds were coming. (It means heavy rain) And we saw buffalos were passing our road. We didn’t want to get close to them because we didn’t know their behavior if we keep continue to ride. And the rain started to go crazy, no option to sit on the motorcycle and wait them to pass.
We jumped from motorcycle and covered our bags with one of the footprints. With the other footprint we covered our self. We were looking behind it and thinking if lion pass here now or come face to face what we could do. We can’t run away or jump motorcycles.
We have no idea what happened to us because we are not scared anymore from wildlife we are more scared from human if they want to attack us (Maybe you remember how they attack us middle of the street in Namibia 🙁 ) We slept next to hippos, elephants also came face to face with rhinos. Some times we heard lions in the night or here something walking next to our tent in the night but wildlife/animals don’t attack directly. They are warning you if you respect them they respect you. It is unbelievable.
Anyway, we stayed there almost one hour to wait for the rain to pass and buffalos of course. They didn’t move so fast from the road because after the rain started the potholes had water on the road, so they were enjoying drinking water. 🙂
We started to ride 10 am in the morning and arrived to Katunguru just before sunset. It was only 117 km but it took us 8 hours. So, you can imagine how much we were enjoying riding and seeing animals on the road. 🙂 We went to one camping site there. They said 10 USD pppn but we paid 5 USD each. Nice thing was they have a roof, perfect for us if it rains we can collect everything next day morning dry.
Before off the dark they made a fire. We didn’t understand why when it is so hot. They said that it is because of lions. How can we believe that? We are next to a village and people live with lions! On the other hand Queen Elizabeth NP doesn’t have a fence around so animals can be anywhere.
Hot or cold, campfire is always nice. I just sat next to it and was waiting him to come. I heard something from the bush and some animal run but I didn’t see well because of the dark. After that we heard to lions. They can be 100 meters far or 2 km. when they roar you can hear it like you are next to them. I was screaming to him “ Please carry pepper spray when you are coming to the campfire.” It wasn’t comfortable to sit there so long with all sounds and you can’t figure out what they have behind the bush. When we were in the tent I heard something middle of the night but I didn’t want to go out, of course. In the morning we saw elephant shit close to the tent. It is just wildlife right!
Plans can change anytime on the road!
Our plan was go to Murchison Falls NP after that Sipi falls, ride motorcycle around Mount Elgon and than pass Kenya from the Suam border. But we didn’t because of rain season. It was rain almost every afternoon. One of our dreams is to see the Low Omo Valley in Africa. We can visit there until middle of March. Therefore we skipped a lot of things in Uganda. But we didn’t go to Murchison Falls National Park also for another reason. Because of the national park fee for us, motorcycles and we didn’t see what we could see. It was a lot of money for us. We were fine with our experience in Queen Elizabeth.
We left from Katunguru and went to Fort Portal. We found a camping site middle of the city, which was so peaceful and quite. That moment we were sitting and watching some cows after wildlife. 🙂 After a little search we decided to go Jinja where we can see the source of the Nile River from there we can enter Kenya.
Next day early morning we were on the road to Kampala. And we passed equator line. It means we enter again winter season. 🙂 We made 280 km and we were just looking around to find a hotel before Kampala because we don’t like capital cities with all the traffic.
At the same time we were so tired because I had flat tire, it was first time for me in Africa to i had it. So, it could be so much for us to stuck in the traffic. We were lucky to find a nice hotel with nice food and it was 20 USD for a room with terrace and living room, of course include breakfast. 🙂
They stole our tent bag from a very secure camping site in Jinja!
We went to Jinja to stay at a beautiful campsite right at the source of the river Nile the place was very nice and had amazing views; we ended up staying 2 nights.
When we wanted to leave early in the morning we figured our 1 of our bags was missing. We looked everywhere but nowhere to find. The campsite had security 24/7 and they where actually pretty close to where we put up our tent. we have no clue who stole our bag but we never see it back.
Now we don’t have our tent bag anymore, luckily this is the smallest bag we carry and we can still put our tent somewhere else but we are missing a few things as well, especially our 6 liter water bag we needed that for the hot in Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt. We will now carry bottles again. 🙁
After a late departure to try and find the bag, leave our details at the campsite we left and continued our road to Kenya.
GS
