Roaring out of Uganda

The 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 the outskirts of Kampala where our trajectory would intersect briefly with Young Denis, who was delivering Driver Denis’ passport so he could actually join us in Rwanda. As we were waiting for the rendezvous to happen, Jeff made a new friend (something he is remarkably skilled at!), a boda boda motorcycle washer along the exit ramp where the drop was going to happen. We learned that he washes boda bodas for about 4000 shillings (a bit over $1) and it takes about 45 minutes. He seemed to enjoy speaking with Jeff about the particulars while we all considered the economics ramifications of his situation.

Back on the road again with all necessary travel documents in our possession, we continued southwest towards Mbarara, our destination for the day. The terrain gradually shifted away from the flatter rolling hills to chunkier and steeper hills covered with banana farms.

We made a quick stop at the equator — our second land crossing of the trip, but the first with a full-on tourist-trap feel to it.

By the time we got to Mbarara, it was after 4pm and we were all ready to stretch our legs and settle in.

The place where we were spending the night was the Igongo Cultural Centre, which was a hotel and restaurant along with a small museum and some other activities. We were pretty much the only people staying there on that evening, so the staff was very attentive. We ate an excellent meal at the restaurant, including several local dishes such as matoke (a sort of banana mash similar to mashed potatoes, not sweet), chapati (flatbread), groundnuts (or g-nuts) sauce, along with some nice wines from South Africa. Unfortunately, because we had skipped lunch, we over-ordered and probably ended up eating a bit too much of the great food. Oh well, c’est la vie!

The next morning, Denis had arranged a special experience for Liz. Simply put, she got to go dig in a pile of poop looking for dung beetles.

The farm that had agreed to let three dumb Americans dig through their goat dung heap was only about ten minutes away, and as pleasant as the owners were, there was no doubt that we were a complete mystery to them. Nevertheless, she persisted. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to see the dung beetles actually rolling dung balls — that’s a mostly nighttime activity, but it was still an interesting little side trip!

After that, we had about an hour before the Denis train would depart, so TimB’Liz decided to take a quick guided hike to the top of a local hill called Eclipse Mountain. that was part of the Igongo Cultural Center. Dickson, our guide, gave us a nice narrated walk to the top of the hill that took about 45 minutes, where we learned about some local history associated with a notable total solar eclipse.

For many years, the eclipse was used as a calendar marker of sorts for people around Mbarara; events were known to have happened five years after the eclipse, ten years after the eclipse, etc. There were three intersecting stories involving three local kingdoms occurring around the timing of the eclipse. It was only recently that local astronomers determined that the events matched up with an eclipse that occurred in the year 1520, thereby linking these two calendar systems.

After consuming our fill of local interpretive lore, down the hill we headed.

Dickson seemed grateful that we were our inquisitive selves, sharing a lot of interesting tidbits. He was more than happy to pose with us for a group selfie with some crested crane (Uganda’s national bird) statuary in the background.

10am is our normal departure time, and depart we did. Today we entered the foothills of the northern-most Virunga Mountains, spending a lot more time winding around in switchbacks and crossing mountain passes. The population density began to diminish a bit, but still there were a lot of people everywhere.

We made good time, despite the windy roads and we reached the Rwanda border in the early afternoon. The border cross was uneventful, taking about an hour once all was said and done. Uganda and Rwanda are in the midst of some high-stakes political gamesmanship, so the entire checkpoint is very quiet. Occasionally we get passport checks and everyone gets a real laugh out of my dad and I having the same name. We’re starting to enter areas of Africa where ebola is a concern, so there is some temperature screening being done, but we are all healthy and breeze through.

Once in Rwanda, we notice an immediate change. There are far more pedestrians and cyclists. There isn’t any traffic to speak of, probably because the border crossing is so quiet and that’s mainly what the road is used for. Speed limits are enforced strictly in Rwanda, so we see a brand new, gentler side of Denis. So far, so good, Rwanda!

We get to our hotel in the Musanze region and check in. TimB’Liz walk down to the nearest “supermarket” (more of a corner store-type affair) and pick up some food and drinking water, and then we have a terrible meal at the hotel restaurant. I guess you can’t win them all! *spoiler alert* We’d make up for that soon!