In the Land of a Thousand Hills

In the Land of a Thousand Hills

We have journeyed far since I last wrote, from the banks of Nile, and it is now a whole week since we left Jinja. The first day was uneventful but interesting. The biggest attraction in the Ugandan countryside are the long-horned Ankole cows. The first time we came across them 2 were loaded on the back of a truck with a double bed frame piled on top! From then on there were herds everywhere and it was amusing to see a forest of metre wide thick horns appearing above the edge of a ditch where the cattle had been coralled. The journey to Masaka where we had identified a place to stay, was slow as once again the road was a series of fierce rumble strips: one small village had 10 in quick succession within a stretch of 500 metres, for no apparent reason. We have tried going fast over them but it rattles the fillings in our teeth so we have to slow to a crawl instead.  We braved the tumult of Kampala and a heavy rainstorm at the same time to go in search of a place advertised on the internet to sell helium. The pink tank we have had with us since leaving home in 2016 must be almost empty and it has been an essential for testing the wind direction with a small balloon. We wish we had bought a new canister when in South Africa, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. Unfortunately, once Chris had tracked down the Party Shop, they had no small containers of helium for sale so our battles with the crazy traffic in the city had all been in vain.     

Late afternoon we reached Masaka in search of the Lakeside Lodge (in the centre of town with no apparent lake on the top of a hill!). It turned out that the co-ordinates were wrong and the actual lodge was many miles away in Lake Mburo National Park! No matter, we found a delightful alternative at the Masaka Backpackers Tourist Cottage, again on the top of a hill out of town in a quiet spot. Our fellow guests were 2 Dutch entrepreneurs who had set up projects to help the local population, both in Uganda and the DRC. We were very interested to hear about their latest enterprise, already tested in DRC, providing refrigerated containers as morgues in the grounds of hospitals.

We left the Backpackers early last Wednesday morning for the slow journey to Kigali in Rwanda, keeping a good lookout for possible areas where we might attempt to fly when we return to Uganda. There were not many regions of open countryside which was not built up (villages merge one into another) or it was too wet, with no vehicle access.  We crossed the border at Katuna/Gatuna at 2pm. No problems there as we already had the East African Visa and the Rwandan road was so much better than in Uganda.  Although tired, Chris enjoyed the climb up through the mountains, The narrow valleys are planted with various crops: tea (the leaves were being picked and gathered at collection points in deep baskets slung on people's backs), followed by sugar cane, then rice paddies. It appeared that nearly the whole of the steep hillsides were terraced and planted with crops. It was stunning countryside and the downhill winding stretch from the summit of the NR3 road at Byumba (2000m) was easy (no rumble strips) with little traffic. 7kms from Kigali the highrise buildings of the modern city came into view in the late afternoon sunshine as if welcoming us. There is an hour's time difference between Uganda and Rwanda so when we arrived at 5pm it was in effect 6pm so we did not have as much daylight left as we would have liked. With co-ordinates obtained from IOverlander for The Tea House Bis Hotel, we were perplexed to find the described blue and white wall, but no answer at the gate, and on asking around, no-one knew of it. Eventually Chris found a man who knew where the Tea House was, and after a few wrong turns we arrived at the Hotel. However, the Enterprise was too high to enter the main gate, and after a lot of reverse shunting in the dark, Chris expertly wedged the Enterprise between the rear garden wall and the back gate. There was a party of English people, who had been visiting Ugandan villages, flying out of Kigali next morning, who were entertained by the manoevers and had many questions for us. It would have been impossible for us to sleep in the Enterprise on the steep angle it was parked at, so we were offered a double room, having been told previously they were fully booked. What a relief to sit and have a beer in the hotel, and order a meal, at the end of a very tiring day. It turned out that the Tea House Bis (under the same ownership) had been closed due to management problems.

Fully rested in spite of the noise from aircraft taking off and landing above our heads (only 15 mins drive from the International Airport) we made contact with Egide, a local tour guide for gorilla tracking. This was not our reason for calling him (exorbitantly expensive at $1,500 per person), but another balloonist had met Egide at a balloon meet in the Phillipines and thought he might be of help to us when visiting Rwanda. We arranged to meet for lunch at a nearby restaurant and set off back into the city. We had arrived in rush hour and it seemed a long way from entering the built up area in the valley to traverse the hills to the far side of town. We found a quiet street on the level to stop and sort ourselves out and eat breakfast, only to find that the Enterprise wouldn't start when ready to set off. This had happened on the previous 3 mornings - a sticky starter-motor. We have a spare but it will take some work to get it fitted. We had attracted a group of children while stopped, which proved a bonus as they were able to help me push the Enterprise on the relative level road, enough to jump start it. We have had no problems since, but just in case, Chris carries a wooden axe handle with which to tap the starter motor while I turn the ignition key. We went in search of a different place to stay in Kigali and found the Mamba Club, where they had an indoor bowling alley, swimming pool and children's play area, besides a restaurant, bar and dormitory accommodation. Chris negotiated a good price for parking with electricity with Englishman, John, and we spent a lazy weekend there enjoying the ambience and lovely weather. It was a popular place for the city folk to come to with so much entertainment for the children. Although busy, it was not noisy and we were able to people watch to our heart's content. On Sunday morning, groups of people arrived, changed into white 'robes' where they were baptised in the club's swimming pool.

On meeting Egide he was interested in our plans to fly and keen to help. So much so that he had already contacted a friend at the airport to get permission from the CAA and was having a meeting with him later Saturday afternoon. Our hearts sank when we heard this as we know from experience the answer would undoubtedly be in the negative. With that, we retired to the Mamba Club and await the answer. Kigali is a very modern town, exceptionally clean and organised. One day each month, everyone turns out to clean their own area, but this didn't appear to be needed as even the gutters were swept spotless daily. Rwanda has banned the use of plastic bags and it is illegal to bring them into the country. We expected to be searched, but thankfully weren't as we store everything in plastic to keep it clean. We decided to go for a walk to the nearby Convention Centre on Sunday morning and found the roads closed off to traffic. A policeman explained that it was the day of the bi-monthly 'Presidents' day for sport. We met a huge crowd of people of all ages and ethnicity walking together for health, so we joined them. There were plenty of people cycling and a few boys on roller skates, taking advantage of the traffic free boulevards. When we reached the Convention Centre, the walkers dispersed, many to the nearby cafes for pancakes and icecreams.

Having heard nothing from Egide on Monday morning, we decided to drive east towards the Tanzanian border as we understood the country is 'flatter'. It turned out that the hills were less steep, but that meant even more agriculture and a denser population, and plenty of lakes so decided that it was no better around Kayonza for balloon flying. We have enjoyed the touring though. Too late in the day to return to Kigali we spent the night in a vegetable garden belonging to the Ukugo Women's Opportunity Centre and had our first heavy rain in Rwanda. With no good news on Tuesday from Egide we have come to the north west of the country to Musanze and are staying at the Red Rocks Cultural Centre and campsite. In the next blog post I hope to have some interesting news, electricity and internet permitting tomorrow morning!