Caution: These vehicles make frequent stops
After yesterday’s mental and physical bruising on the volcano, we were ready for a day of relaxation. Where do the locals in Musanze go to chill out? The beach, apparently. We loaded up the van with all the dinner guests from yesterday, plus another one of Jeff’s friends, Bahati (our new arrival from Kigali, more […]
Read More Beach Day + Bonus CongoAfter our hike we were pretty hungry. Hungry enough, perhaps, to eat this many potatoes: My history isn’t that great, but one thing I thought I remembered was that potatoes were from South America. So I was bit surprised at the number of potatoes being grown in East Africa. Turns out they were brought over […]
Read More A Rwandan DinnerWoke up in Musanze to an overcast sky that warned of rain. Thinking back, we found it remarkable that we couldn’t remember being in rain even one time on the trip so far. It rained overnight in Kampala once, but otherwise it had been dry during the days and while traveling. Today we were taking […]
Read More Papa #1 or the Assault on BisokeThe 48 hour plan last night was to be in Rwanda by tomorrow night. This required a couple of days of driving, so we’re out of bed early, first in line to catch the 7am ferry back across the Nile. Not a day for lazy sightseeing, we were retreading our previous tracks and heading to […]
Read More Roaring out of UgandaMurchison Falls National Park is a 5-6 hour drive north from Kampala. We did that, and it took 5-6 hours! The park is 4000-some square kilometers (big) and has more in common with United States’ wilderness areas than it does our national parks, in my mind. Mostly gravel roads (being rebuilt by a Chinese construction […]
Read More Murchison Falls National ParkFor the sake of simplicity and because I’m writing this up a few days later, I’ll put our two-day (three night) Kampala writeup into a single, long post. Our arrival on Saturday evening started with ditching Jeff and Tim at the Sheraton Kampala, while Liz and I continued on with Denis to his house. We […]
Read More Our Kampala ExperienceI mean, sure, who among us can’t lay claim to an island on the Nile river? Our friend, driver and local guide, Denis, is among that group. He has a small island below the first major set of whitewater below the official source of river at Lake Victoria. Fun fact: Did you know that the […]
Read More “An Island on the Nile”Today we crossed our first African border into Uganda. No big deal, really. Fingerprints and some simple forms to fill out. Money changing. Our East African Tourist visa cost $100/pp and lets us cross borders between Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda as much as we want for a few months. Very organized and friendly! Photo dump […]
Read More Kericho, Kenya to Jinja, UgandaDay one on the road was a blast. We didn’t want to get going too early, because Nairobi traffic was going to be a problem, so we didn’t start driving west on the A104 until around 9:30. Traveling comfortably, with plenty of space between sweaty people. I took shotgun for the day, which is probably […]
Read More The Road to KerichoWe arrived in Nairobi at about 4:15 AM in the same time zone in which we left Turkey. This was a six hour flight, but we were hopeful that it wouldn’t require too much adjustment, although none of us got much sleep. For the record, it’s the first time anyone on team TimB’Liz has been […]
Read More Now We’re in Nairobi