Our hire car

Our hire car was delivered to us at UWEC for 9am.  The boss man himself (Kizito) and Moses delivered it in person.  It turns out that Kizito whom I had been dealing with all this time actually lives in London and just by coincidence was in Uganda on business.

The car - a 4wd 2litre V6 Mazda Levante, looks like a total pile of crap.  Which was kind of what we had been hoping for, as we don't like to stand out too much.  It's done 160,000km and has some weird looking japanese stickers on it.

But it has just been serviced, the oil is clean, and all the various fluids are topped up.  The paint is peeling off, but the engine sounds fine.  I just wish I'd checked the tyres......

The fuel gauge reads empty, and Moses says this is because the fuel tank is empty.   This is the first time I've ever had a hire car that hasn't been full to the brim.  Also the first time a car hire company has not been the slightest bit interested in our licences or passports.  Paperwork seems to be too much hassle in the heat of the morning.

The air conditioning works and cools us down nicely as we head up the road to Kampala.

A troubled first night

We had booked a banda for our night at UWEC.  What we hadn't bargained on was it being close to a night club, which was intent on keeping the loud music going til 5 in the morning.

Our banda

Also hadn't bargained on there being a mouse (and or bat) squeaking loudly and pissing on my leg in the middle of the night.  There was also the steady pitter patter of poops landing on the floor from a great height.

My pillow also had a very funny smell.

On the plus side there was hot water in the shower room (not sure if we knew how much of luxury this was.......) and box with approximately 500 condoms sitting on top of the loo.

After the night club finally gave up on the music, the chimps in the enclosure nearby started their morning chorus of screaming and yelling.  So we gave up trying to sleep and got up to see the dawn over Lake Victoria.

It's hard to say whether I would recommend staying here - maybe on any other night of the week ie not a Friday, it may be quiet and peaceful, but not getting much sleep certainly clouded our view of the place.

We headed for breakfast, passing various animals in the sanctuary - including some giraffes.

Our first wildlife (ie actually wild) turned out to have arrived in Africa even later than us.  A just born vervet monkey, with its mother licking the afterbirth from its head was sitting just beside the path from our banda to the cafe.

Tiny baby vervet monkey and mum

This improved our mood no end, and after oohing and aahing over the tiny infant we headed for breakfast.  The cafe at UWEC looks out over Lake Victoria, where you can watch both humans and birds fishing. The cafe is the perfect play ground for the young vervet monkeys who seem to enjoy pushing the patience of the cafe staff as far as they can; knocking over chairs and stealing breakfasts from under the noses of unsuspecting and sleep deprived customers (eg me). Karen had a very nice omlette, we shared some crappy Nescafe coffee, and I had sausages, toast and some fresh fruit.  The monkey had some of my fresh fruit - didn't seem keen on the toast.

Entebbe airport arrival

First impressions of the airport - well it looks pretty much like an airport anywhere else in the world.

It's not huge, and there aren't that many planes on the ground.  Disembarking, it feels warm and humid but not oppressively so.  Lucky as we're wearing jeans and fleeces as Edinburgh was baltic this morning.

Immigration is fairly simple - they take your money for the visas, no need for passport photo as they take your picture with a camera on the desk.  They also take your fingerprint using an electronic machine - never had that before.

Immediately after immigration is a money changing place, so I got $100 worth so that we had some cash if required.  

Straight through customs with our bags - no-one interested at all. And out into the public arrivals hall.

I was expecting this to be a little difficult, but there was a nice man with a sign which had my name spelled correctly waiting to give us a lift to our accommodation.  There were one or two money changers wandering about, but no-one hassling at all.  Turns out the airport is very secure, and quite hard to get to.

The car park is a bit chaotic, due to the lack of lights and the number of drivers picking up clients.  Safari tours, taxis etc.  But we get onto the road within 40 minutes of landing.  Our driver stopped at a small shop, to allow us to buy some bottles of water - nicely chilled in a big fridge - then took us to the Ugandan Wildlife Education Centre.  

A security man made us fill out a book with our details - name, passport number, country, occupation, DOB,     mothers maiden name, inside leg measurment, favourite film star etc.  Then we were finally allowed to go to our banda, and head for bed. 

We were now starting to feel the humidity/heat.

Flights

Apart from the taxi arriving at 3.45 am to take us to the airport, everything with KLM was fine.  I had checked in on line so already had the boarding cards, they happily accepted our 3 piece of luggage including the case with all the camping equipment at 22.7kg. Allowance was for 4 pieces.  We were through the Edinburgh security system with about an hour and half to spare.

Coffee was had - not bad, but so expensive.  Captive market should not mean being completely ripped off.

Arriving at Amsterdam we found we had only a 2 minute walk to our next gate (remembering the last time we went through Gatwick - 2 and half hours to get from one flight to the next .. argh.)  So we wandered around the cheese and tulip shops til boarding time.

Then we found out something that may have been handy - our flight to Uganda was routed on a triangular route via Kigali, a city we are going to be visiting in a couple of weeks time.  Had we known this we might have been able to organise a holiday flying into Entebbe and out of Kigali, saving the long drive back to Entebbe.  Even our hire car company would have been happy for this as they operate in both countries.  At no point in my booking of flights was this mentioned.

Flying during the day gave me an opportunity to do something which I really enjoy - staring out of aeroplane windows at mountains (the Alps),seas (the Med), deserts (the Sahara), rivers (the Rhine, the Danube, and the Nile!!!).  Unfortunately it was dark by the time we landed in Kigali, so no views of Rwanda yet. Although after the very short - 45mins- flight from Kigali to Entebbe it was possible to see the lights reflecting  off the surface of Lake Victoria.

Been there done that

Got home to find that our estate agent had sold our house will we were in Africa, so we've a lot to sort out before I can spend much time on this blog.

Other than to say both Uganda and Rwanda are fantastic in their own ways.  And we have a few tales to tell, plus hopefully lots of useful information for anyone going there on holiday.

Last minute things

I printed off all the e-mails from places we have booked.  Printed google maps to help locate all the places we have booked! 

Printed a map on how to get to the Nakumatt supermarket in Kampala, to ensure supplies are bought.

Packed our stuff - you should see the drug cabinet - we could open a little pharmacy.

Checked the weather forecast - bugger - looks like wet and wild.  Why does the wet seem 

to follow me around?  I once spent 4 months in New Zealand and it rained 74 days.  I went to Namibia and it rained for the first time in 18 months as I got off the plane.  I even travelled in the Atacama desert and it rained there - officially the driest place on earth - the bus driver didn't know how to operate the windscreen wipers as he hadn't driven in the rain before.

Rain falling in the pool in the Atacama

I seriously hope the roads are going to be ok.  And that we don't have to camp in the mud.

Checked in on line, so boarding passes are printed.

Taxi arrives at 3.45am.  Oh my, oh my.

Nearly time to go

Less than a week to go - still haven't had a reply from the Ugandan high commission regarding crossing the border at Kagitumba.

Luckily however the people at Mihingo lodge have said we will be able to get across there and also be able to buy our visa as well.  However I have been told that we might be able to buy multi entry visas at Entebbe when we arrive - just hope we won't be too tired to remember to ask for them.

Car hire company will deliver our car to us around 9.00 am on Saturday morning, can't wait to see the old battered jeep they've arranged for us.

Last minute preparations include getting a first aid kit from a medic friend - including sutures, syringes, pick line(?) dressings etc.  Fingers crossed.

Charging batteries - spare batteries bought from ebay didn't arrive, paypal dispute going on to try to get the money back.  Lesson learned - don't buy batteries from Singapore and expect them to deliver within 2 months of purchase.  So we are going to have to cope with only one battery for camera and video.

Trial pack went well - managed to get all camping equipment into one large suitcase at 22.1 kg.  KLM baggage allowance is very generous - 4 bags at a max of 23kg each.  So loads of space left over - Karen may actually be able to take the 23 pairs of knickers she wants.

Questions remaining unanswered  - can you buy peanut butter in Uganda/Rwanda?