A 5.00 am wake up, and a 6.30 start, we
were finally on the way. We were all very excited knowing that in a few hours
time we would be crossing the border of our neighbouring country Uganda and would
embark on an adventure of a life time. By 9.00 am we had reached Nakuru and
were finally out of the early morning mist as we descended through the
escarpment of the Great Rift Valley. After a brief stop in Nakuru, we continued
onwards and reached Eldoret in good time. Only a few meters before the Nakumatt
turn off, and stuck in traffic we witnessed an accident with a pick up and a
boda boda (a motorbike). The Boda was overtaking and the car pulled out into
it. The boda passenger fell off and hurt herself, and the car drove off- we
hope to the police station. There were a lot of people around, and the injured
lady seemed to disappear off. Not a particularly
nice event to witness.
The popular border crossing for busses and
trucks is Malaba, but we had been advised that it gets quite busy there and we therefore
crossed through Busia. It took us approximately 45 minutes going through
immigration and having our facilitator sort out the documentation for the car.
The Kenyan side had lovely new buildings, and as normal I had a very friendly
immigration officer. Onto the Ugandan side, and the building was small and
dirty. I was also faced with a grumpy security guard! Despite that, everything
went smoothly and we were on our way.
A friend of mine had estimated 10 hours
between Nairobi- Entebbe, which wasn’t too bad. He had hoped that we would be
back for sunset so he could take us to a place called Carpe Diem. Looking at
the time crossing the border, we knew we wouldn’t make it, but thought we would
be with him around dinner time. How wrong we were! The speed limit in Uganda on
the Highway is 80km, and because we weren’t sure how the police were, we didn’t
want to have any trouble; therefore we predominantly stuck to the limit. The landscape
in Uganda was phenomenal; it was so green and lush with so many different types
of plants. Despite how tired I was, I couldn’t stop looking. We reached Jinja
when the sun was setting and got a beautiful view as we crossed over the Nile.
We knew we would have more time to admire it in a few days when we returned to
go white water rafting.
If you look on a map, Jinja- Entebbe is not
far at all; but when you are stuck in traffic it’s a nightmare. Before we even
made it to Kampala, it was dark and we were stuck in an endless traffic jam.
Driving through Kampala itself was nerve racking. The boda bodas there have no
fear. They seem to have control of the road, and there was an endless wave of
them pouring in-between the cars with no helmets, no fluorescent jackets. The
matatus (minibus taxis) have a bulbar on the front, which meant they were even more aggressive.
I did not envy my dad driving through that at all!
As we approached midnight, and after 3
hours in traffic we were finally in Entebbe. Hot, exhausted and hungry. Instead
of the presumed 10 hours, it took us almost 18! When Ian greeted us with big
smiles, a candle lit table, wine and delicious food we were so happy and
appreciated it so much! It was a delicious and amazing spread that he had spent
all afternoon cooking. We were all very impressed. Unfortunately due to the long drive, we were
all so sleepy that we pretty much had supper, a shower and went straight to
bed! Another long, 10 hour day was in store for us in a few hours time! It was
so nice though to have a friendly face be there for us, with no stress at all :)
No comments:
Post a Comment