It was February and my dad and I wanted to escape cold, grey London so we headed south to Uganda. We landed at Entebbe and got a taxi to our hotel The Sheraton - I wanted to stay somewhere more African but my dad did not. The airport had huge piles of dead mosquitoes on the floor and other strange bugs - the reason it is particularly bad at Entebbe is because it is on the huge freshwater lake that is Lake Victoria. The weather was hot, humid and cloudy, which was better than the cold and cloudy weather in London.
Because Kampala is a relatively small city we decided to walk the dusty, crumbling streets until we found a small café to drink in. Women lay in the hot weather selling bananas and sugar cane from baskets while the men often slept under the big shady trees that lined most streets. Huge, mangy looking storks lurked about on the tree tops where they had left what looked like a gallon of splattered white paint on the pavement.
The best area of Kampala for food is Bombo Road which, before Idi Amin, was the area with the largest Asian community. Nowadays there are still some Asian shops and restaurants however most Indian food is prepared by native Ugandans - so it tastes more like a spicy African stew than a curry. All meat is free-range and in the shanty towns there are butchers that hang huge legs of beef and other meats in small shacks - the food isn’t always brilliant, often it is simple and bland tasting, but it is edible. A good place to eat is a small café called Kula Kula which is a mixture of African and Indian foods. In Kampala itself there are a number of Nandos and other western food chains however they are all presented in an African style and cater for what Ugandans think is tasty. Another common thing you see in Uganda, like in many African countries, is small hairdressers usually doing trade in a small shack. On the outside they have posters of the different hairstyles they do - they all seem to do a Mr T haircut.
Unlike anywhere I have ever been, the traffic in Kampala completely ignores any kind of authority and will ram into people if they don’t move quickly. Because petrol is too expensive most people use poor quality diesel which splutters out black fumes that makes much of Bombo Road polluted. One afternoon I walked up to an art gallery in the rich suburbs that are reserved for corrupt politicians and their families. I got lost and found myself wandering around Kampala in the hot sun, luckily the Sheraton is on one of the tallest buildings in Kampala so I managed to get back. Amazingly there was no hassle whatsoever, except for a small area near the taxi park, which was good because you could wander round Kampala at night more safely than in London. Most Ugandans are very friendly if a bit shy, which was nice compared to some in-your -face people from other African countries. In the second part of the trip we visited Semliki National Park in the west of Uganda near the D.R.C, unfortunately most of the big game was killed during Amin’s time because he enjoyed lavish hunting trips.
However the area is beautiful and is far lower down than the rest of Uganda - because it is in the Rift Valley - and consequently much hotter and full of disgusting bugs that fly around at night. During one night we experienced a mini earthquake, it happened in the middle of the night and I woke up thinking there were monkeys shaking our tent. Because of the heat and local farmers leaving lit matches on dry grassland there were huge fires that spread all over the plain, there were patches of singed grass everywhere and our driver drove the 4-wheel-drive through a patch for some strange reason. The nights were extremely loud due to the small patch of forest behind the lodge where there was a small troop of chimps and hundreds of Colobus monkeys, there were also a few leopards and the odd lion. Because of the lack of game compared to the Masai Mara the area is still not touristy at all, so you can walk through the jungle or get one of the lodge staff to take you out on a safari for however long you want.
On the way there from Kampala you drive through a small town called Fort Portal which is surrounded by huge tea plantations built by the British in colonial times. The town itself has a market with lots of variety in vegetables, honey, fruit, clothing, footwear and meat, and there are also several pharmacies there, so it is a good place to stop if you are travelling in that direction. A two hour drive from Fort Portal is the second largest lake in Uganda after Lake Victoria. Lake Albert marks the border between Uganda on the east shore and D.R.C on the west. You can pay fishermen to use one of their boats and sail around the lake or you can visit the small town, N’toroko, which has a good market that sells lots of African music and good food - there, many of the people are Congolese refugees so there is a difference in culture.
If you are travelling from Kampala to Fort Portal it is a good idea to use a reliable strong car as the road goes from being brand new smooth tarmac to pot holed and crumbling in some parts. Also if you want Ugandan currency it is best to get it beforehand because there are few banks in Kampala and there are only a few hotels you can change money in. Unfortunately the only place you can safely swim in Uganda are chlorinated pools because most lakes and rivers are ridden with bilharzia and dangerous creatures. However if you go high up into the Rwenzori mountains the water is that of melted snow therefore it is extremely clean and disease free - in fact the countries most common bottled water comes from here. Out in the countryside most people live a very sustainable life of growing their own fruit and vegetables and raising their own animals. Many people also have banana and papaya orchards so they can eat and sell their own food. Hopefully Uganda will not get as touristy and commercial as neighbouring Kenya, however more and more tourists are starting to visit Uganda now that it has a better reputation than 20 years ago.
Recommended reading:
ITMB Uganda map and Bradt Travel Guides' Uganda. And as a little pre-trip reading, try Giles Foden's The Last King of Scotland, since made into an acclaimed movie.
Author: Angus Lee
Date: 8 June 2007
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