Malawi: Lake Malawi to Zomba.

Tuesday 30th June: Malawi

We met for breakfast at 8am and I managed to update the blog, but not the pictures. Natalie joined us just after 8.30 and once we’d paid our bill & bade farewell to Chris & Sandi, we were on the road again.

It took 2½ hours to reach Salima, the town where we would leave Natalie. It was a very windy morning, the roads are narrow & driving was a bit of a challenge because it seemed the whole population of Malawi was out walking on the road. With the strong wind unsettling a lot of cyclists, it meant we had to be extra careful not to hit one. Later in the morning,  a cyclist came out of a field. We all expected him to stop but he actually rode across the road in front of us, a mere 20 feet away from a very strong & solid bullbar.  Evasive action was taken which resulted in him living to act stupid another day.

A couple of hours further on, we arrived at yet another roadblock. They appear with regularity so after a while, they don’t really bother you, if everything is in order. A little while earlier, we had been stopped by the army, who were carrying out a full scale search of vehicles. That went fine & we were on our way quickly. However, the next police stop was clearly set with the intention of extracting as much money as possible from motorists. In fact, so blatant was it that they had a cashier’s office right there. Our policeman was trained in the fine art of this and set about his investigation. First thing he checked was the Malawi insurance sticker on the windscreen. His face lit up, it had expired in March. I leaned out to tell him we had a blanket policy (Comesa) for most of Africa and he put his book of tickets away when I showed him the very dodgy Comesa card.

That passed, because most of them really don’t know anything about it, but it had the word ‘Insurance’ on it & our car registration number. Next, the drivers driving license, all in order. Now for the Warning Triangle: yes we have that & showed it. How about a fire extinguisher, yes again. Then they started a search of the vehicle, wanting to see the contents of our safe and a description of everything in the back as well as on the roofrack. Finally, when he looked all but doomed, he pointed at our front bull bar & asked where our reflectors were. Reflectors?? On the front of a vehicle?? He had us, though I did point out that it was a private vehicle and not commercial & didn’t feel that it was really a requirement. Was there a private car in sight to compare with, no there wasn’t. He wasn’t for moving so I asked him to write up his ticket so we could get on our way.

While we were in the cashiers, paying our 1,600 Kwacha ($12), another poor soul (a local) was being done for exactly the same thing & came in with his ticket. As I returned to Dusty, a car pulled up, overloaded with people and clearly creaking at the seams. What do you know, no reflectors. I quickly pointed this out to another policeman who shrugged his shoulders and waved the car on. I guess we just got the awkward one today. Nonetheless, we’re going to cut up two sticky backed bits of silver duck tape & stick them on today. If you wonder why they're so bothered about reflectors on the front bumper, it’s probably because so many drive around at night with no lights. Will they have a fire extinguisher or warning triangle? Doubtful. Some vehicles look like they’re kept together with elastic bands and others just have a sticker, asking for help from above, to stay alive. 

 

We headed for Zomba but only got about 500 yards down the road to another police check. This could turn out to be a long day. We mentioned our previous stop and the fact that this was a bit intrusive, and he waved us on our way. Now, perhaps we could make it the remaining 60 kms or so to Zomba.

We did, and when we got there, needed to visit an ATM to get cash. There were three in this town, two of them with very long queues, a common sight in Africa, particularly on the last day of the month when pay goes in. The third had no one but we quickly found out why. It was broken. We joined the queue for the Standard Bank, it was cold & we were dressed for the warmth of the lake we left that morning.

 

Only one of the two machines worked and we waited patiently with everyone else. At last, probably after about 30 minutes, it was my turn. Up I strode, went to put my card in and the slot locked. A message popped up on the screen to say the ATM was closed. Now what? Well, we needed money so we stood there for another 20-30 minutes while they were obviously working inside to repair it. The other one was actually already removed so someone stuck their head in the hole to tell them we now had none. It fired into life, I was very reluctant to be the first one to stick my card in so I went up & pretended it didn’t work, letting another guy in the queue then try his. Success. 

 

We all got our money out & set about finding accommodation. We finished up at Forest Lodge, which is really just a small cottage at the top of a mountain. It had been recommended to us by Sandi, at our previous hotel.  The owners weren’t there, there was no electricity, just candle light and it was freezing up there. The chef asked to speak to us and said he hadn’t been told about us, but had chicken. The other two guests, a UK couple, had placed their baggage in one of the other rooms but would remove it if we stayed. John, as always, was easy. He’d do whatever.

We headed back to town. We found another hotel, both of us got an upgrade to an exec room & it had electricity, but no food. We walked down the road to Annie's Lodge & had dinner there. The place looked good when we checked it out earlier, but it had no rooms available. The food was just awful, chicken curries and a beef curry. My beef looked like pellets; in fact it could well have been dried dog food for all I know. It was all cold but we munched through it. Finally, came the time to call it a night &  wish farewell to a day that went downhill from the word go.

Malawi: Ngala Lodge at Lake Malawi

Monday 29th June: Lake Malawi:

After a great sleep in a luxury king size bed, breakfast was served at about 9.30 after all our laundry was collected. I tidied up Dusty a bit, putting books and maps no longer of any use to us, in one of the storage boxes in the back. We’ll do more later, probably after lunch. We had a toasted sandwich for lunch at about 3pm, sitting in the sunshine looking out over a very still lake. Our laundry is already back, washed & ironed. Dinner will be chambo fish from the lake. We’re having a lovely relaxing and restful day. There’s still time and we’re going to have sundowners at the beach bar about 5.30.

 The dinner menu was presented to us while we were having a sundowner & it will be served to us at 7.30. I should mention that John & I have joined the non shavers club since we left Kenya, the weight saving by not carrying shaving gel has helped us enormously I’m sure!

The mosquitoes are out in force and there is a malarial problem here so we have to be careful, using sprays, long sleeves & trousers. Mary, a friend of Sandi, has returned to the UK, very unwell, as she recently caught it. Chris, the owner here has had it 3 times in less than a year and then there was Jim as well, who we’d met yesterday. That’s practically everyone we’ve met since we arrived in Malawi.

Our intention tomorrow is to head for Blantyre, at the bottom of the lake. It’s going to take us about 6 hours to get there. It’s a big lake and apparently it was nicknamed “the calendar lake” before the country went metric. It is 365 miles long and 52 miles at the widest point. We’ll spend the night in Blantyre & then on Wednesday we'll head for Mozambique and the beaches of the Indian Ocean.

We finished dinner at 8pm & adjourned to the bar for a beer, me still trying to access the internet as well. The system has gone down so the blog is updated only to Saturday last and no photos. If by a miracle it fixes itself in the morning, I will at least finish the blog and try to upload some photos.

 

At the bar after dinner, we met Natalie, a US aid worker. She was here in March when John & I passed through but we didn’t get to speak with her then. She is here for 2 years, unpaid. Tomorrow she is off to Lilongwe and was going to catch a bus at 5am to Salima, and from there she can hitch to Lilongwe.

She does this regularly & says it’s very safe. As we’re going past Salima town, about 2 hours from here on our route to Blantyre, we’ve offered her a lift which means she can meet us at 9am and still get there at the same time as the bus, which goes all over the place. We’re into early nights lately so we called it quits at 9.30pm & retired to our rooms. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that we’ll find someplace suitable to stay tomorrow night in Blantyre. I don’t think it’ll be too much of a challenge.Thanks again for all your messages, we love reading them.

Malawi: Lake Malawi

Sunday 28th June: Lake Malawi.

We rose early to a wonderful view out over the lake from our cabins.

We breakfasted at 9 and departed at 11, ready for the reasonably easy journey ahead. It was not to be. Our destination was to be Nkhata Bay, about 4 hours south. We stopped at the only major town en route, Mzuzu. We got some provisions as well as some cash from the ATM. Nkhata Bay was only 90 minutes away now and when we arrived there, we headed for Mayako Village, a lodge that has wonderful views looking down on the bay. This was recommended by Gus & Kina, from Sweden. They stayed there for some time and really enjoyed it. I can see why. Unfortunately, it was full although the owner did show us around.

We decided to head further south as Mark from Sangilo Sanctuary had given us names of other lodges he felt would suit us. The first one we pulled in at was owned by Jim, from Stellenbosch in South Africa. He came out to greet us on crutches and looked decidedly unwell. He told us he had malaria & was on day two of the treatment. He also had a very sore looking leg. The barman had just gone home, unsurprising as there were no guests there. I doubt there was food either and we’d hate to expose Jim to any effort. He was a really nice man & when I asked if he knew Sandi & Chris at Ngala Beach Lodge, he did. He was able to give us the telephone number and tell us that it was about 60kms further south.

John & I had stayed at Ngala in March & we liked it so much we stayed 2 nights. We set off for that & I called Sandi to confirm she could accommodate us. She was delighted & said she’d arrange for dinner as well. www.ngalabeach.com

 

We arrived at 7pm and were promptly shown to our very luxurious rooms. She had rooms.What a sport! After a couple of cold beers, followed by dinner, we retired to bed at about 10pm but John stopped off in my room for a nightcap, as we had a drop of wine to finish off. It seemed a shame to waste it.

Tanzania to Malawi

Saturday 27th June: Tanzania into Malawi.

 

We didn’t leave Mbeya until midday as we had to shop for provisions as well as trying to find an internet café that worked. When we did, it was in a hotel on the outskirts of town and the owner was really helpful. It was too slow to connect the laptop so I just did a quick manual update. It was a leisurely 2 hour drive to the border and the roads were quiet, although potholed in places. It was amazing to be driving on tarmac again. It was so quiet, we felt like we were riding in a Rolls Royce.

The exit from Tanzania was very smooth. This was the border post where John & I entered Tanzania on the 7th March. Back then, I bought the Comesa Insurance cover at a little hut just after we exited from customs, which would cover us for the rest of the trip. You may remember that I had my doubts about the authenticity of it at the time. I just felt a niggling doubt about the shady characters selling it to me.

Well, today that little hut is selling wooden carvings and when we crossed into Malawi I was approached by another person selling insurance. I told him I already had one & showed him my Comesa. He said they sell fake ones on the other side so I still don’t know whether it’s real or not. However, it’s good enough to show to a policeman and I’ve backed it up with extra paperwork I made them give me at the time.

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We exchanged out Tanzanian shillings for Malawian Kwachas with one of the numerous money changers at the border. What is important is to know the exchange rate in advance, so I would always check online before entering a country. They just walk up to you with wads of cash and you do the deal sitting in your car seat. There is of course a bit of negotiation involved. We then headed for the lake, with the intention of staying the night at the northern town of Karonga.
 

The hotels were unpleasant as well as being grossly over priced. The town was quite dirty with litter all around and it was not a welcome start to our first night in Malawi. We decided to push on because we knew this was not indicative of the country we'd passed through a few months ago.
 

We made it to the Sangilo Sanctuary, a small lakeside establishment, at 5.45. It was starting to get dark so it was hopefully going to meet our needs or we’d be back on the road, in the dark. Thankfully, it was. Mark from the UK was the owner and he had  rooms for us.

 

John & I took rooms either side of the communal facilities which were only a few steps away. We quickly ordered cold beers followed by dinner, which was very tasty. We were off to bed by 10pm & agreed to meet at 9 in the morning for breakfast.

 

Tanzania: Rungwa to Mbeya

Friday 26th June. Tanzania. Rungwa to Mbeya:

Having gone to bed around 10pm last night, we set our alarms for 6am. I read for a couple of hours, using a small travel head torch which didn’t disturb John. The alarm went off at 6, John said he wanted another half hour. What comfort on a camp mattress. I got up & used some of the bucket of water to freshen up, and then read again for half an hour. It was still dark outside. We stepped out of our ‘suite’ at about 6.45.

We did of course provide our own bedding, which does help. Dusty got a quick push start again, always parking on any available slope, & we were off, just under 300 kms to our next stop, the city of Mbeya. The road looked promising for a while & we made good progress. Then it deteriorated quite suddenly & we were back on the road of hell. We stopped for breakfast at 10 o’clock, 3 hours after departure. As always, we had our cereal, milk & a cup of tea. We were hoping to get to Mbeya at about 2pm but with the road conditions, that might be later.

At one stage, we took a direct hit on the differential when we hit a large rock protruding out of the ground. The crash shook the vehicle, and ourselves, to the core. Thank goodness we insisted on fitting a metal diff protector plate as part of the preps for this trip. It had done its job. You might never need it, but in this case, it was a good call. We knew that everything was taking a beating. When we were within 15 kms of Mbeya, on the most dreadful road of gravel & dirt, we heard a loud bang. The rear tyre had shredded, the sidewall ripped, no longer good for anything. You could shave with some of the rocks we had to drive over, they looked so sharp.

We jacked up & changed it, now we were putting the dodgy tyre back on, the one that already had a gash in it. But, it should get us to town. Once there, we quickly found the local land rover dealer & asked him about tyres. He took us next door to the main BF Goodrich dealer in Mbeya. He only had one tyre but it was the wrong size. As he also had a sign up for batteries, we thought we might at least get that job done. Wrong; no batteries in stock. Mr Land Rover was great. He went in search of a battery for us in town. When we took the other spare tyre off the rear door, we discovered it too had a slow puncture. He took that with him & returned a short while later to say air was escaping at the rim. We gave him a tube we carry for such emergencies, as they are tubeless tyres, and off he went again. He was back within an hour with a new battery, although 70amp was the best he could get. We needed 100amp. It would do, so it was filled with battery acid and given a quick charge.

The tyre was also fixed and that was put on in place of dodgy one. Now we only have one spare and it’s already ripped, but it’s better than nothing. While we were there, we took the opportunity to change the rubber bushes on the shock absorbers. They too were shredded so we replaced them. Proof, if proof was needed, that even the Old Man Emu shocks, designed for just this sort of punishment, was taking a beating. We carry lots of spare rubber bushes for this purpose although today the mechanics provided their own. A couple of sticky door locks were adjusted and we were on our way, with a total cost of just under £100, battery included. For all the work that was done, including the running around getting bits for us, that was remarkable value as we were in there for 3 hours.

Paradise Inn Mbeya

Now we needed to secure beds for ourselves. there would be plenty of choice. John & I remember seeing some hotels as we left Mbeya back in March so we headed out that road. Sure enough, we happened on Paradise Inn and it was just that. We got the remaining 2 rooms, all spotless, and with good bathrooms. Downstairs was a bar & restaurant & we’d be there as soon as we showered. We were filthy. I had to laugh when I saw my hair was now almost red, from all the dust today. Dust & Diesel was a very appropriate name indeed, copious amounts of both.

We had dinner in the hotel restaurant and it was very acceptable, a haven from the chaos outside. Dusty was parked in a secure car park at the back of the hotel & the night security guard was going to wash it for us. Shame we couldn’t let him inside to get rid of some of the red dust that is everywhere. Just too many valuables. One of the other attractions of this hotel was internet in the rooms. They connected me up before dinner so I was going to be all set to update the blog when I returned to my room. Unfortunately, two power failures in the hotel in quick succession rendered that impossible as it knocked out the service completely. It still wasn’t back when we checked out in the morning.

Tanzania: Tabora to Rungwa

Thursday 25th June: Tanzania. Tabora to Rungwa We had a leisurely start to the day, meeting for breakfast at 9am. We then plotted our course for the next leg and decided that the town of Mbeya was too distant for one days travel as we didn’t think the road would be very good. That was absolutely correct. In fact, our GPS system, Tracks 4 Africa, stated quite clearly the road was not recommended. All 287 kms of it. And this is an overlanders GPS, so all the more alarming!

Well, that would be right up our street then! The alternative route available to us is a huge diversion so we had little choice anyway. We were going to head for Rungwa, about half way. We also wanted to stop in at a house that David Livingstone spent some time in, during his travels in Africa. This was just 15 minutes outside Tabora, our departure point today. It was a dirt road again, the last 135 kms of our journey yesterday was also on a corrugated dirt road. The corrugation really shakes the vehicle around and we’ve found from our journey up that a speed of 65-80 kph irons most of that out. Before we left town, we had to use one of our 2 spare wheels as we had a very slow puncture, probably due to sidewall damage on the tyre where a small flap of rubber was hanging off. That took about 30 minutes & then we were on our way.. We also met a bunch of kids near Livingstones house & they were very excited to see us.

We found Livingstone's house and had a walk around, reading the history of the place.

It doesn’t seem to get many visitors, judging by the visitors’ book. We departed fairly quickly and indeed the road did deteriorate, sometimes to an absolutely dreadful condition that challenged Dusty and ourselves. It changed every few kilometres from corrugated with rocks and sharp stones to deep sand and then red dirt. It was very slow going and we had 265 kms of this. We are often amazed that it stays together with the rattling it gets. On this road we only met one vehicle in the entire day, so breaking down would not be a good option, if we couldn’t repair it ourselves. Also, given that we were in deep sand a lot of the time, stalling would be disastrous because we wouldn’t be able to push start it, which is our usual start to the day, due to two dead batteries. Keep the revs up boys!

Finally, just before sunset, at nearly 7pm, we reached our destination, Rungwa. It looked like a big town on the map but in fact we’ve seen far bigger villages. So, where was the camp site? We stopped and asked the lone person on the street and he actually worked at the reserve, which was just 1 km from town. He said he’d send the boss out if we drove ahead. There is a dirt airstrip there and we found out that people come to hunt & kill elephants & lions at this reserve. How awful. There is no accommodation available and a field that is called a camp site, with zero facilities. When boss man arrived, he explained all this to us. It was now dark so the option of setting up camp was looking less desirable all the time. We asked him what the building was & he said it was accommodation for government employees. 

We persuaded him to let us stay in them although he wanted to charge us $45 for the privilege. A figure I'm quite sure he just plucked out of the air, as it's not usually for rent. I knocked him down to 40,000 shillings, about $25 & said we didn’t need a receipt! Smiles all round. 

I should also mention that was no water and no electricity although John & I were presented with a bucket of water for the toilet. Once we’d got our few bits out of dusty, we sat outside for drinks and dinner. The room was really too depressing to go into. Dinner was quick; it doesn’t take long to eat an energy bar. Drinks consisted of a couple of cold beers. While we were sitting there, a woman came to tell us that it was dangerous as there were black mamba &  spitting cobra snakes here. She reckoned they could even be above us, on the low roof or rafters. We thought we only had to worry about the lions! Apparently, if the cobra spits venom in your eyes, you’re blinded for life. Still, we elected to stay outside a while longer. She also said we must close our windows as they would come in at night, for the warmth. We certainly didn't relish the idea of a snake snuggling up to us so we did just that. Oh, and we're sharing, I think for the first time.

Tanzania: en route to Tabora.

Wednesday 24th June: Tanzania (somewhere in the middle of nowhere to Tabora)

It was quiet outside for a while and then I awoke to the sound of a car in the middle of the night. John later told us that he observed someone trying to rob the place. A really stupid act, considering the chief of police owns it. The car arriving was actually someone coming to catch the burglar & John’s last sight was of someone jumping over the wall, with another person in pursuit. I just knew he’d get the best seat.

After that, it was back to sleep, imaginary creepy crawlies biting away at me. We had a long drive ahead of us again tomorrow so sleep was paramount. I awoke, still in darkness, to find it was 6.10am. We’d slept in! I quickly got dressed with the intention of beating any queue to use the single facility available to us all.  I got my bucket of boiling water from the fire outside & freshened up a little bit although there were so many dead bugs floating on the top of the water, it wasn't very pleasant.

By 7am we were on the road, after a push start, aided by Vincent, our young policeman friend. We stopped after 2.5 hours, had our breakfast and clean up and continued our journey to Tabora, still a couple of hundred kilometres away. Our aim was to get there by 3pm, which we did. It took 8 hours to cover 225 kms. The road was absolutely awful, corrugated a lot of the way and it felt like we were coming apart at the seams.

Dusty has just passed the 250,000 km mark today so it’s bearing up really well, considering the punishment it’s getting. Our trip since February has already racked up over 14000 kms. Once we arrived in town, we went in search of the Orion Tabora hotel. This town was the biggest town in German East Africa and a junction for the train line crisscrossing Tanzania and beyond, often necessitating a night stop in transit. It’s still a big town but there’s only one decent place to stay and that is at the Orion Tabora, an old German hunting lodge. We got our rooms, luxury indeed. We had a couple of welcome beers, a rest before dinner and a lovely curry. There was one suite and one small room, so John had the suite with my blessing. It was huge. We had a nightcap in John’s suite & then it was off to bed at a reasonable hour, ready for our cross country push tomorrow.

Rwanda to Tanzania

Tuesday 23rd June. Rwanda into Tanzania: We’d arranged to meet for breakfast at 8. I was up at 6, courtesy of the dogs finding their voice again. I tried to have a shower but no water. The shower head looked positively deadly with electric wires protruding just above the shower head. I went downstairs a little later & spoke with the girl there. Later still, she brought up 4 plastic containers of water, 5 litres per container. I thought she had some master plan, maybe fill the boiler above the sink but then she walked off. They were for me to wash. Fortunately, a short while later, the shower kicked into life and it was effective, if a bit nerve racking, due to the almost bare wires at the shower head.

We were gone from there by 9, after which I updated the blog in a local internet café. It was great to read all your messages as we’d not been near an internet café in almost a week. Thank you all for that, we love to read them. We chatted about whether we should stay in Kigali another night or head for Tanzania and the vote was to go.

We’d been around most of the city and there’s little else to do so we headed for the border. It is a small country & you could easily drive top to bottom in under a day. Most borders close at 6pm & I was conscious that there would be another time zone change in Tanzania so we needed to exit Rwanda by 4.30 their time as it would be 5.30 the other side. We made it at that time and passed through the barrier into Tanzania, formalities completed, at 6.10. We were also back driving on the left side of the road again. While I was processing the carnet at the customs office, John was clearing immigration. When I eventually got to that office, I could tell by the grins on his face that the laugh was on me. He can get in free & I pay $100. I was relieved of my $100 by an almost apologetic immigration officer who said it should reduce very soon. I offered to camp outside their office it was going to happen overnight, so fun at my expense over, we headed south.

Now the fun & games really begin! At 7pm, we approached a roadblock with the gates closed and the adjacent parking area full of trucks. We waited for a few minutes and then a van driver came over & said the road was now closed until 6am tomorrow morning. Hmmm, we thought, nowhere to pitch our tents, not a very savoury area so we walked over to the police office. The man there explained that as we were on the Rwanda/Congo highway and as it was bandit country, for security reasons they stopped traffic at night, from 6pm to 6am. The van driver was also keen to go and when I asked what the bandits do if they succeed in stopping you, was told we’d be robbed. Well, that makes sense. Killing would be a different thing altogether though. Mr Policeman said he’d let us go through and we discussed it quickly and agreed. He said it seemed quiet these days. Could it be a trap? We didn’t think so because there are a lot richer pickings than us, and anyway, I wasn’t going to stop for anyone.

It was about a 60km dash and we passed a couple of vehicles coming the other way. We got to the next town, Nayakanazi, to yet another roadblock, but this was where we were aiming for anyway. We stopped at the police roadblock, the road south was still closed, and a young policeman named Vincent announced that he would take care of us. It just so happened that his boss owned a guesthouse outside town & he’d take us there. It didn’t look like there was a lot of choice; we were after all in the wild west of Tanzania. He jumped in and directed us 1km down the road & sure enough, there was the guest house.

This was where we were going to spend the night, regardless of anything. It was full of off duty police &  soldiers, sitting outside, listening to loud music and drinking beer. They had 8 rooms but guess what, only 1 available. We went to have a look and quickly realised it was not good.

At my request they brought in a second mattress, which was foam. Well, the bits that were left of it were anyway. It was chewed, split, holes in it, and extremely dirty, so I said hello to my bed for the night and then John said he was sleeping in Dusty. Now he's being fussy:))  I decided my negotiating skill wasn’t needed for this and the price quoted was Tzs10,000, which is £5. We certainly didn’t want breakfast thrown in, because it would most likely have been thrown up, given the visible hygiene factor. There was no point going to bed at 10pm because the music speaker was right outside the bedroom window &  it didn’t switch off until midnight. We sat in Dusty & had a couple of beers, watching the action unfold before our eyes. The music was quite good, it was certainly loud. Slowly but surely, couples peeled off to bed or departed in cars. it was basically a knocking shop. When the music finally switched off, and the car park emptied a bit, we got our sleeping bags and pillows out.

John hasn't changed his mind and is still sleeping in Dusty, he's petrified it's going to get stolen or broken into. I tried to persuade him to come inside but I imagine he was wondering what we would do if it was indeed stolen. There would need to be a few of them, because they'd have to push it for a start!  It was indeed the least secure we'd been in terms of parking security on this trip.

So I adjourned to the room.  As for the communal facilities, it was basic, really basic, the smells from it didn’t entice you in. But, needs must. I had to pick my time carefully because there were a few inebriated locals darting around the place, in little or no clothing. I bumped into one lady as she exited a room next to me, wrapped in a towel 4 sizes too small & definitely the worse for wear. I can just imagine the amusement as she went back to her room & said she'd just seen a white guy. I'm sure her partner would have said it was definitely time for bed. At no time however, was there any feeling of risk & everyone else just had a good time. We were now probably going to clock watch until 6, which is when the road reopens. Thankfully, I nodded off quite quickly.

Uganda to Kigali, Rwanda.

Monday 22nd June: Uganda to Rwanda.

We had to push start Dusty again today, after breakfast. We are careful to leave it in a position that makes it easy. John, the chief mechanic for this trip, has been checking everything to find out what’s causing the problem with the dual battery system. It’s most likely they’ve just reached the end of their lifespan.

Lake Bunyoni Uganda

We set off from Lake Bunyoni for the Rwandan border, a journey of 2 hours. The Ugandan people have been so friendly & hospitable, always waving as we went through their villages and helpful in every way.

When we arrived at the border, the exit from Uganda was smooth and the entry into Rwanda equally smooth, although more officious and not very welcoming. Tourists are still a novelty in this country so that might be the reason. We also had to drive on the right hand side of the road once we passed through the border post. Once into the country we found very good roads, a rarity in this part of Africa. It is a country of endless mountains and beautiful scenery with a thriving agriculture; coffee being by far the largest exporter. Because the country is so mountainous and the population so dense, terrace growing is used on the hillsides and it all looks so orderly and fertile.

We wondered what awaited us in Rwanda, known more for the genocide of 1994 than anything else. The genocide resulted in the deaths of over a million people. But death was not its only outcome. Tens of thousands of people had been tortured, mutilated and raped. Tens of thousands more suffered machete cuts, bullet wounds, infection and starvation. There was rampant lawlessness, looting and chaos. The infrastructure had been destroyed, the ability to govern dismantled. Homes had been demolished, belongings stolen. There were over 300,000 children orphaned. There were thousands of widows. Many had been the victim of rape and sexual abuse, often by known HIV carriers and subsequently caught the disease. Others had seen their children murdered in front of them because the aim was to exterminate the Tutsi population by murdering the young people.

Memorial for 10 Belgian soldiers killed in this house on the7th April 1994

It took a couple of hours to get to the capital Kigali. Once there, we headed to the genocide memorial centre. We were there for about an hour and a lot of people just cried their way around, reading the background, the genocide and the aftermath to it. After that sobering visit, we needed to find beds for the night & set off in search.

Kigali Genocide Memorial

It’s difficult here, if you exclude the big hotels like the 5 star Serena. There’s very little in between that & really basic, due to nonexistent tourism. We really struggled and a few places were full. Finally, we happened upon the Rose guest house, which is mentioned in our east Africa Guide as a good place for expats. It may have been such when the guide was issued but now it was very basic, and very empty.

Still, we had a base if we got desperate. Food was a pressing issue too so we headed off to the Kabana Pizzeria and had one of the best pizzas I’ve had outside Italy.

Kabana Pizzeria Kigali

After dinner, we checked out a couple of more places but all were full. Finally, we came across the Romalo guest house and it seemed good from the outside. I went in to enquire & secured rooms at a good price. It was just then we discovered the time zone changed and it was an hour earlier than Uganda. We laughed at the rooms; they were huge and about as naff as you’d find anywhere. However, we had toilet seats although loo paper in my room would have been a nice touch too. The rooms were named after cities: John was in Tokyo & I was in Cape Town.

Romalo Guest House Kigali

It seemed a quiet location so we headed off to our rooms with the intention of an early start the next morning. Soon after drifting off to sleep, the neighbours’ dogs started barking and continued for what seemed like hours. We were awake now. Sleep seemed all but impossible & then they stopped, probably worn out themselves.

Uganda: Gorilla Tracking in Bwindi

Sunday 21st June: Uganda. Bwindi Gorilla Tracking

Tea & cookies were delivered to our rooms at the requested times. I had mine at 7.30am &  John was having a lazy morning, his being delivered at 8.30. When I went to start Dusty, it again refused to start due to a flat battery so I enlisted the help of 3 young men who just happened to be passing, and got a quick push start.

Gorilla trekkers returning to camp

 Each day, there are 3 groups, tracking three separate families of Gorillas, with a maximum of 8 people per group. When they finally encounter the Gorillas, they have just 60 minutes with them and not a minute longer. This area is home to half the worlds Gorilla population which totals about 660. The other 330 are in Rwanda & the Congo although they do cross over the mountains from time to time. People book up to two years in advance. The cost per ticket is currently $500 each and as each day is full, that equates to $12000 income per day, which goes towards conservation.

We now continue on our way to Lake Bunyoni. It was a really difficult drive on very bad roads and we had to get off the mountain before nightfall, as it’s just too dangerous on those bad roads. We climbed to the highest point of the mountain which was almost 8000’.

Ugandan village children

We reached Bunyoni about 6pm, with a bit of daylight left and found our little lakeside lodge. The setting is absolutely beautiful, overlooking the water and we sat and watched the daylight disappear.

Lake Bunyoni

Also, we were the only guests in that night. Dinner was had overlooking the lake accompanied by a few cold beers and off to bed early.

Uganda: Katunguru to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park for Gorilla Trekking

Saturday 20th June: Uganda. Katunguru to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. A good hearty breakfast was served to us at 9am & we were ready to be on the road by 11 am. Unfortunately, at that time we found out we had a flat battery; reasons unknown just yet.

Reuben was quickly to the rescue & he gave us a tow start. I think Dusty started within 20 feet so we were quickly on our way. I’m not surprised that Dusty throws a little hiccup every now & then because we’ve covered 11500 kms since we left Cape Town and a lot of it, as recently as yesterday, has been really punishing.

The journey to Buhoma Gate took us about 5 hours and we travelled through Queen Elizabeth Park, spotting Elephants & Impala along the way. We crossed over a bridge that had been washed away a few days earlier and had been hastily repaired, looking a little unsafe. We didn’t stop for a photo while on it, just in case! We reached Buhoma at about 4pm & met a guy called Godfrey.

We asked Godfrey about accommodation in the area and he guided us towards a couple of lodges in the forest park itself. We had now officially penetrated the impenetrable forest, but only by a few hundred metres. We stopped at the Gorilla Forest Camp, owned by upmarket travel company Abercrombie & Kent and I volunteered to climb the steep steps to make enquiries. Godfrey had said it was US$560 per room and when I arrived at reception I was told it was $500.

Sanctuary Gorilla Forest Camp.

Gorilla Forest Camp. A typical tent

 I asked for the manager & negotiated a hefty discount, for full board, including lunch for myself &  John on Sunday. We finished up getting each room for $150. It is considered the ultimate jungle camp in this area. The tents are huge and very opulent with two king size beds in each one and a very luxurious bathroom. We had dinner at 8pm and it was excellent cuisine, really well presented and very tasty. We called it a night just after 10pm. I returned to my tent to find a hot water bottle in the bed as the chill sets in during the night.

Uganda: Fort Portal to Katungura

Friday 19th June: Uganda. Fort Portal to Katungura:

We had breakfast at 9am & checked out at 10. We wanted to pay by credit card but the power was off so the machines wouldn’t work. We needed to keep our US$ for border posts so we went into town to withdraw more local currency from the ATM & returned to pay our bill.

Fort Portal

We had coffee in town afterwards and then plotted today’s mission. We knew we had to finish up in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park but that would take 2 days drive, so we set off for the Queen Elizabeth National Park, not knowing exactly where we’d stay. That’s not too surprising anyway because we do that most of the time. After about 4 hours, we saw a sign for the Queen Elizabeth Nature Lodge, just after we crossed the Kazinga Channel, which links Lake George & Lake Edward, outside the town of Katunguru.

http://www.naturelodges.biz/the-bush-lodge/

We drove 3 kms down a dirt track to it & discovered it was situated overlooking the river in a beautiful setting. It had in fact only opened 4 days earlier so the person who was there had to call the owner, who had gone into town to buy a spark plug for his generator, to get the price. A much higher price was hinted at before the call & I said it was too much, considering what we paid the night before in a 5 star hotel. We settled on an excellent rate for dinner, bed & breakfast and as we’d already had a look at the lovely cabins, we were very happy. There is definite bargaining when you want multiple rooms.

Reuben, the owner, arrived shortly after & he was most charming and welcoming. Of Belgian parentage, he grew up in Burundi, worked in Kenya &  has now launched a few lodges in Uganda with the emphasis on affordable accommodation. It looks a winner as far as we are concerned and we hope to stay in his other lodge on Lake Bunyonyi, below Bwindi, on Sunday night. We had cold beer for sun downers and a delicious 4 course meal. We sat around the camp fire for a few hours and John & I managed to force a few more cold beers down. A good sleep in our cabins soon followed, with the very loud snorting of the Hippos down at the river, or maybe wandering through the camp.

Uganda: Murchison Falls to Fort Portal

Thursday 18th June: Uganda. Murchison Falls to Fort Portal We were all packed up, me somewhat earlier, thanks to my restless night due to a flat air mattress. We had our usual breakfast of Weetabix & muesli along with a mug of tea & we were on our way by 9.30 am.

We had two routes to choose from to get to our destination. One would have had us backtracking to Kampala & onwards to Fort Portal, all of it on good tarred roads. That journey would take about 6 hrs. The alternative was a shorter distance but all on bad roads and we were advised not to take that as it was quite treacherous with a reported bridge collapse along the way. That would take about 8 hours but would be infinitely more rewarding & scenic. Naturally, we opted for the difficult one and it was really challenging in places.

We arrived in Fort Portal just after dark & the guest house we hoped to stay at was full, so we stayed instead at the Mountains of the Moon Hotel, but not until I had negotiated a hefty discount. It was quite luxurious, by the standards of the previous days. We had dinner there & as it was late, we didn’t get to bed until 11pm

Mountains of the Moon Hotel

Mountains of the Moon hotel.

Uganda: Murchison Falls

Wednesday 17th June: Uganda. Murchison Falls National Park:

We woke early, dined on weetabix, banana & cold milk, followed by a mug of hot tea cooked on our own stove, overlooking the Victoria Nile. We set off to catch the 10 am ferry to the other side, the crossing takes about 10 minutes.

Once there, we did our own game drive tour around the Murchison Falls National Park. We spent about 3 hours there and saw Elephant, Buffalo, Giraffe & Warthog, plus the usual Impala. At 2pm we went on a 3 hour round trip boat trip, to the Murchison Falls itself. Along the way we saw crocodile & literally dozens of hippos, elephants grazing at the waters edge as well as lots of different birds.

I enquired as to what would happen if anyone fell overboard and was told that a croc or a hippo would have you before you’d either drown or be pulled back in. I can quite believe it. We stopped for photos near the falls and then made our way back downstream. It took 2 hours to get to the falls but only one hour to get back, thanks to a fast flowing river. We made it back just in time for the 5 pm ferry and were back in our camp site at 5.30. We got a bit of a shock when we drove in because there was another vehicle parked and a tent erected.

The camp fire was lit soon after and our new neighbours joined us to say hello. Hannah, from Oxford in the UK, is a newly qualified doctor, doing a one month volunteer stint at a hospital in Uganda. Although critical of some of the NHS failings, she told us she had new respect for it after her experiences in Uganda. Johan, her boyfriend, flew out from the UK to have a week camping with her and they were leaving the next morning for Kampala & London.

We had an enjoyable time & they joined us later after they returned from the restaurant at the nearby hotel. Meanwhile, we set up our cooking gear & had pasta with tuna plus a few glasses of wine. We’d had a pretty hectic day; we were tired, and called it a night at about 10pm, with the sound of hippos snorting in the background. At 2am I was awake, feeling a bit uncomfortable. Sure enough, my air mattress was quite flat & I was now sleeping on the ground. It was about as effective as a sheet on the ground. At 2 am I was not going to look for the pump & disturb everyone, not to mention the possibility of meeting a hippo on the way to the car, so I just resigned myself to a rather uncomfortable night. Needless to say, I was up early.