Well in a couple of days I’ll leave Uganda for Ghana and the start of my adventure real. Once I’m reunited with my bike, I need to do service and repair it, it’s been stood for 2 years so I’m not sure what I’ll encounter. I have most of what I think I need for repairs, a new exhaust, radiator fan and a few unique service items. Oil and and the like I’ll buy locally. I know that the battery will be dead but I replaced it in Senegal so I think a recharge is all it needs.
I stayed longer here in Uganda, hoping to get my Nigerian visa but despite promises of just a few more days by the Nigerian High Commission, I’m still without it. The rule is now that you can only get one in your country of residents. I really don’t want to fly back to the the UK just for a stamp. The Minster (Consulor) here had said because of my roots and the way I was travelling he would put a proposal to the immigration office in Abuja for their approval but clearly that hasn’t happened. It could just be the recent election that’s the reason for the delay, who knows, whatever the cause I need to move on. He did say if it comes once I’ve left he will pass on the information to Accra office, again I’m not holding my breath. If I don’t get it I will have to go around or over Nigeria. Non of the options are ideal as I wanted to experience Nigeria (for better or worse), but there you go. The choices I’m faced with 1/ going back home 2/ flying myself and the bike to Cameroon, 3/ trying to get a cargo boat from Ghana or Togo to Cameroon 4/ go the long way round (where have I heard that phrase before?) Bukino Faso, Niger, Chad, Congo. I’m not going to make any big decision yet, I’ll see how I feel and how things are once I’ve sorted the bike. I may take a short tour of Togo and Benin while I try to decide.
So what of Uganda? This is my second trip here and I will be sad to leave. The people are generally relaxed here, they’re not rich by any means, but there appears to be a steady carry on. Most seem to be doing something that enables them to put food on the table. There are fast food outlets all over the place so I assume that most have sufficient money not to need to cook.
The roads in Kampala are something else, but mercifully I’ve seen little or no incidents. How the Boda Boda’s (motorbike taxis) survive a day I really don’t know. There was one the other day coming towards me, on a dual carriageway, with a baby sat on the fuel tank, I was going to take a photo but 2 fools in the same place is never good. There are 2 rules on the road here number 1, here is that there are no rules, number 2, if in doubt refer to rule 1. Though the traffic is chaotic, heavy and slow, it moves and in a perverse way it works. But the one thing that you pray will not happen, is that the Traffic Police get involve. Their idea of traffic management is effing useless, its the one sure way of bringing the everything to a standstill. The other evening I was stationary for more than 30 minutes. I could see the junction but short of abandoning the car there was no way of getting to it. Don’t fool yourself that there was some sort of incident that they were dealing with and I was being impatient. This happens at any junction they are managing. Apart for beinng on their mobile to their girlfriends, wives,or wife’s girlfriend. There is one at each corner of the junction controlling the traffic coming out of that sector of the road but each allows his vehicles to enter the junction thus they all meet and block the road, nothing moves! Then each one of the officers blames the other. Although there is lots on horns sounding all the time here, I never see signs of road rage, no verbal or physical confrontations.
So while this is the worse aspect of what I’ve seen in Kampala, so it’s not really a big thing. Sadly the car that I’ve been using has not been up to travelling too far and while I’ve tried buses, they’re not a great way to get around. So I’ve left touring around until I return with my bike, assuming that we both make it back.
As I said I’ll be sad to leave, it’s really a nice friendly country to visit one I’d recommend to anyone.