The 'Road' to Uganda

Hi Guys!

So Cairo was nice… I think I will definitely go back to Egypt on another trip and see more of the country, it seems a really interesting place. But that’s another trip. I didn’t do a lot, but saw the pyramids, the Egyptian Museum, the site of the bombing behind the museum that took place a couple days before I arrived, and took time to plan ahead a little. The pyramids were nice, although much different than I expected, at least in location. I had this vision of them in the middle of a barren desert, standing majestically, but the reality is much different. It’s very built up around them, and there’s even a KFC across the street from the Sphinx… interesting. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed them, but, just… not in the way I had expected. I went very early, as I had heard much about how they only let 300 people per day into the large pyramid, 150 at 8am and 150 at 1pm. I went to try to make the sunrise at 6am, and found a cloudy sky, so waited until 8 to get a ticket to the pyramid… along with the 1 other woman that showed up. It turns out we had picked a really unique day to visit the pyramids, as Laura Bush was in town and would be visiting them that day. Knowing that it would mean a nightmare of hassle and traffic, due to the secret service and all the security, everybody avoided going that day altogether. Which was great for me and my crazy old English lady friend, who had the pyramids pretty much to ourselves. So we sat for about an hour inside of the largest pyramid, which although very plain, inside, was hard to leave for some reason and completely fascinating. At least considering all of the attention and fuss that has been made about it, and that it all comes down to a tiny cement box, inside of this tiny room… possibly one of the most famous spots on Earth.

I flew to Nairobi last week, expecting the worst, as it has quite a reputation, especially for violent robbery, but arrived and survived without any trouble. I didn’t particularly like Nairobi, and so having met yet another British girl decided to travel on with her 2 days later towards Uganda. I had wanted to see the coast of Kenya, which sounds interesting, especially Lamu, but it was pretty out of the way, the opposite direction in fact, so considering I’ll see much coastline further south, and a couple of islands, I skipped it, and headed east with Lettie to the Kakamega rainforest, in western Kenya. It’s the only rainforest in Kenya, and used to cover a very large amount of land stretching into Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania, but has been destroyed, except for a relatively smallish area in Kenya, which is finally being protected.

To get there we took a bus from Nairobi to Kakamega, a matatu (a Nissan minivan that acts as a taxi and crams about 14 people inside, with a driver who only drives, and a doorman that directs him and collects the money) to Shinyalu, and then a boda-boda (a bicycle taxi, not the kind you imagine that pulls a 2-wheeled cart behind, literally just a pad on the back of the bike that you sit on) for 8km into the forest, with our bags on our back. And made all the more interesting by the very wet, and very very muddy roads, slipping and sliding all the way, which left us covered in mud and water.

We stayed at the Forest Rest House, which is a great little house built on stilts, sitting in the middle of the forest, and were as far as I saw, the only foreigners within miles, and certainly the only guests at the rest house. We were shown by a guide around the rainforest for a couple hours, and saw a lot of monkeys and butterflies, but most everything else hid from us. Supposedly 400 species of birds, a leopard, frogs, and lot’s more… you could hear a lot, but not see. You can also do night walks which we had planned to do, and is supposedly really magical, but it started pouring rain around 4pm, and didn’t let up all night. And shortly after our walk, back in our room, I hear Lettie say ‘Gee, I feel like I could faint… wait a minute, I AM going to faint!’. And as fast as I could get over to her, she fell over and was out for about 10 seconds or so, and was having trouble breathing. I got her to her bed, and she eventually started feeling better, but we couldn’t figure out what was wrong, and still don’t know.

I would loved to have stayed there for a few days, but Lettie really wanted to move on to Uganda and be more near a doctor if she continued to feel ill, and I both didn’t want to be alone that secluded in the forest, and didn’t want to leave her to travel back out by herself, as it wasn’t a very easy journey, and much easier with 2 people. So the next morning (yesterday) we started our multi-part journey to Uganda.

Since my ass was sore yet again, having just barely recovered from the camels in Morocco, and now in much pain again after the boda-boda to the forest, we decided to take a matatu back to Kakamega… and being that it was Sunday, there was only 1 per day, departing at 6:30am. So we were up at 5:30a, packed, and walked 15 minutes to the junction where it passed, and waited with 3 village women and their children. And waited, and waited. Boda-boda’s started showing up, and trying anything they could to get us on them, including trying to convince the village women to tell us there was no matatu coming today, and that we had no other option, and even trying to get them to get on them too and go down the road to convince us nothing was coming. I understand their desperation, as there are way too many of them, and they are probably lucky to get 1 or 2 passengers a day each, so probably make around 150ksh/day, about $2.00. Finally around 8:30a a taxi came down the road, which was a little station wagon filled with about 10 people. The driver told us that if we paid him 300 shillings he would come back for us after dropping off the other passengers. We offered him 200, and he agreed, so we waited, for another hour, while the village women gave up and got on the boda-boda’s.

To get to Uganda faster we decided to take matatu’s for all 4 parts of the journey, instead of trying to get on the much-less-frequent buses… by our estimation we should be in Jinja, Uganda by about 1pm. So in Kakamega, we got on one to Kisumu, where we could transfer to another one headed for the border, and were charged 150ksh each. On the way Lettie was watching how much the locals were being charged, and realizing it should only cost 100ksh, confronted the doorman on arrival in Kisumu, argued for a minute, and ended up having to grab 100ksh back out of his hand, before we walked away.

The next stage was getting to Busia on the border. We were getting a little tired by now, it was after lunch time, and as I had an upset stomach, wasn’t really eating. It was also starting to rain, so we were both a little irritable, but soldiering on. On this leg of the journey the doorman asked Lettie to pay for him to come to London to live, which of course started a little yelling on her part, as she doesn’t take much shit from people. We arrived in Busia, now around 4p, and happily walked towards the Ugandan border. “It looks beautiful and sunny over the border” says Lettie, as we crossed, noticing that there was almost a visible line in the weather right on the border. Happily we would be dry and in Jinja before long, maybe not at 1pm like we had hoped, but at least before dark…

Almost as soon as we were on the other side, the clouds quickly moved in, and it was pouring down rain. We took shelter in front of a bar, and chatted with the guys there and the kids sitting out front, waiting for the rain to pass. About 15 minutes later, Lettie’s impatient side took over and decided we should just walk in the rain… against my better judgement, I decided it wouldn’t be that bad, and we headed towards the matatu area. We were instantly wet, although luckily not the inside of my shoes… thank goodness I thought. And then the rain came harder, and harder, and rivers were everywhere, and, long story short, I was completely soaked, shoes drenched inside and out, and wading through filthy water nearly up to my knees.

Anyway, I know it’s not an interesting story, so I’ll stop going on and on about the rain, but just know that I was not very happy at this point, mostly because with a little patience we could have completely avoided getting that wet. So we were at last inside a matatu, which don’t leave until full (and ‘full’ is open to interpretation by the driver and doorman), so an hour later we set off towards Jinja.

“The roads are so nice here,” says Lettie, as we pull away… that lasted about 5 minutes. It was quite possibly one of the worst roads I’ve ever been on. They were hell-bent on making as much money as possible on this journey, and it was a popular route, so they were cramming more and more people in as we went along. They also are used for short distance by the villagers, so some were also coming and going. At one point, packed beyond belief, I counted 23 people inside the van, plus at least 2 babies, and possibly a couple more that I couldn’t see. Some were thin like me, and others were big Ugandan mama’s nursing their babies… one of which was in my lap for a while so that it could reach it’s mom’s breast at a comfortable angle… and so we continued, speeding down the “road”, dodging cows, baboons and villagers, and racing the other matatus to the next stop to try to get to the awaiting passengers first.

Did I mention the potholes? I call them that for lack of a better word… I’m not sure what you call something larger than a pothole, perhaps a pond? Yes, we were weaving in and out of ponds, large enough to swallow our minivan, slipping and sliding in the mud, swerving all over the place at about 50-60 miles per hour. It was, um, interesting. And getting dark… something to definitely avoid here. We passed 2 overturned semi trucks (completely unrelated accidents about an hour apart), and a matatu that looked like it had rolled about 4 times, crumpled on the side of the road, no doubt having been as full as ours was, which was really comforting to see. And by this time it was dark, most cars without headlights, others which would flash their highbeams right as we got in front of them, blinding and scaring the driver. Oh, and the windshield was covered in mud, and getting more difficult to see out of as we went on.

During all of this the doorman was pestering Lettie and asking her to buy him a soda, or give him the money to buy one, which of course set her off a little again. We had paid 5000 Ugandan shillings for this ride, which was the correct fare, posted on a sign before we left. As we neared the end, the doorman turned to Lettie and said that he needed 1000 more from each of us… which pretty much sent her right over the edge. She screamed at him about the sign she had seen, and the guidebook she had which confirmed the rate, and that she had also been watching everyone else in the van pay 5000, and so no, we were absolutely not going to give him more money. And that if he wanted a soda, to buy it his damn self, and that if she had extra money to spare she would give it to someone who needed it, not him. All of which had the entire van in hysterics, and the women cheering her on, and embarrassed the shit out of the doorman. When we arrived he looked at me and told me that he had been joking, which I thought was hilarious, considering he had been pondering a response for half an hour, and that was the best he came up with. But I let him save face, smiled and walked away… avoiding the temptation to demand at least 1000 back from him since our driver was a freakin’ maniac.

This may all sound negative, but it was actually really amusing, and for the most part I was handling it really well… or more to the point, Lettie was handling it all well, as I’ve had the pleasure of being passive for the last couple of days. I was expecting journeys like this and much more, but it still is fascinating when it’s happening. And comical, and scary. Our driver was completely insane, and it was far worse than any journey I took in India, which is saying something. I can see a couple of really really long train journeys ahead, so I’m sure this is just preparing me for what’s to come.

We arrived in Jinja last night, around 8pm, exhausted, filthy, soaking wet, 7 hours later than anticipated, and wonderfully happy to be in Uganda! And so now it’s just about planning what to do here. It’s a BEAUTIFUL country so far. Humid… warm… lush, green & tropical. Jinja is the source of the Nile, at the north end of Lake Victoria. Most people here go rafting down the Nile, which I thought I was going to do, until I was told that it’s some of the largest and roughest, category 5 rapids, which isn’t my idea of fun. And it’s expensive for what amounts to overpriced swimming, as I have no doubt you spend half the time in the water trying to get back into the raft. No thanks!

Anyway, on to Kampala in a couple of days… but for now, relaxing, drying my laundry, and getting my bearings in Uganda. And adjusting to a very difficult exchange rate… $1 = 1700ush. Try keeping that straight when you’re buying something and trying to make sure you get a good price. I’ll manage…

I’m also adjusting to my new Swahili name, Mzungu, which means white person. That started in Kenya, and has continued into Uganda, uttered by nearly every person I pass on the street. Some whisper it to their friend in a sentence and I pick that up… it’s remarkable how much they talk about you. If I didn’t know that word I wouldn’t know what they were talking about, but it’s amazing that it comes off the lips of every single person that sees me. English is the main language in Uganda, so sometimes they even just say it in English… “Hey, white man!!”

Anyway, thank you all for the emails, and I hope you are all well!

Wes / Mzungu

Essaouira

Still processing my thoughts, but yet another great day.

We got up today with the intention of walking down the beach, I thought for a little stroll, which turned into an all-day affair.

We walked and walked, past the little islands, and the ruined fort/walls or whatever they are... it looks like a castle melting into the sand and sea. Jimi Hendrix spent time in Essaouira, and had a house further down past where we walked today. I read that he wrote 'Castles Made of Sand' while in Essaouira, maybe he was talking about that... castles made of sand melt into the sea... eventually...

And past the castle we walked and walked and walked. As we were in the midday sun (for the second day in a row) I was walking fully covered up, with my hooded sweatshirt over my head... I felt like a gypsy wandering the beach... and then we met a gypsy, wandering the beach. Her name was Hannah, and is from England, but has been wandering for months, living in a car in Spain, and now drifting through Morocco, sleeping on the beach, and making her way south. She was a fascinating girl... she was working as an artist for about 10 years, felt it had run it's course, and she had contributed what she needed to contribute, and picked up and moved on. She had been living in a car in Spain, and now was wandering through Morocco. We shared our lunch with her (avocadoes, crackers & cheese) and chatted for quite awhile. I slept on the beach while the others swam in the sea.

Essaouira is a lovely town on the beach. It became really popular apparently after Jimi Hendrix and others spent time here, and on some days is a little overrun with tourist groups, but if you can ignore that it's a beautiful place. The light and the visuals of the city are amazing. Beautiful wispy clouds all day. A little too windy for my taste, but everthing else makes up for that. And the food has been incredible, not particularly Moroccan, but maybe that's what I love... After 2 weeks of only tagine & couscous, the delicious french and italian restaurants are a welcome change.

OK, now it's 2 days later than where I left off above, and a nice 2 days it's been. Bianca and I met two other people in our hotel, and the 4 of us met some really great Moroccan guys here in Essaouira. They've wanted nothing from us but to hang out and show us a good time, which is excellent and refreshing. They cooked us dinner at their house the other night, and then yesterday we brought them with us to Sidi Kaouki for the day (about 20km south of Essaouira) to hang out at the beach.

Sadly it was rediculously windy, and basically a sandstorm, which was pretty miserable... and made worse by the fact that we were on a BEAUTIFUL stretch of beach, which was impossible to enjoy under the circumstances. So they told us there was a cave about 15 minutes walk that would be sheltered from the wind. We walked for 1/2 hour south, and then ran into a guy coming back from that cave that said it was cold and windy... so we reversed direction for 1/2 hour, and then on for another 1.5 hours to a different cave... all in miserable wind, sand in our eyes, mouth, etc.

We had arranged for the taxi to meet us back in Sidi Kaouki at 6pm, but by the time we got to the cave it was 4:30, so we would have had to leave in about 15 minutes to walk all the way back. Being that it was beautiful and sheltered, and we were all feeling spontaneous, we decided to just stay the night in the cave.

We had our own little private cove and beach with a cave, which was all amazing, but no more food or water. There was a tiny little village nearby, so 2 of the guys decided to go get some supplies, and the rest of us stayed and enjoyed the beach and then the sunset. We were getting pretty worried around sunset when they weren't back yet, as it had been over an hour, but figured the village didn't have what they needed, so maybe they walked all the way back to Sidi Kaouki, which made us all feel really guilty.

Yet another hour later, we were getting pretty freaked out, and couldn't figure out what to do, or more to the point, couldn't agree on the solution... some wanted to go search for them, but the Moroccans wouldn't let us. Too many different routes they could have taken, so unlikely that we would have found them, and if we were to run into any police they could get a lot of hassle for being out there with foreigners, thinking we were getting taken advantage of. And to top it all off, a shopowner had been shot in Essaouira that same day during a robbery attempt gone horribly wrong, so the police were already on alert and out searching for the suspect.

Bianca and I walked a little ways up the hill to look anyway, since I had a flashlight (that's a 'torch' Andrew) and waited for a while, but no sign of them. So we retreated to the cave and the fire and sat nervously. I was beginning to think they had given up on finding the cave again in the dark and found somewhere else to sleep until morning, but finally they appeared (about 4 hours after they had left, now about 10pm) with arms full of food, water, and even a pot that they had borrowed from the local villagers. We sat around the fire peeling potatoes & carrots, and they cooked us the best tagine we've had in Morocco thus far. The guys had even bought saffron and salt and ginger to season it with! And bread and cheese for breakfast the next day.

So we ate around midnite, slept, and were up in time for the sunrise this morning. Nobody wanted to leave, we easily could have stayed there for a few days had we been prepared with food and water, and perhaps a blanket at least, but we decided to get back before the heat set in... so after much hiking and a cab ride we were back in Essaouira by around noon. Yet another excellent day.

Well, now it's another few days later, I just can't seem to get this email sent! I'm now in Cairo, for a long weekend, in transit to Nairobi, Kenya... will arrive there on Wednesday... let the adventures begin :)

My rough plan as of the moment is to go overland from Kenya to S. Africa, over the next few months. I don't have an exact route planned, but would like to go through Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Mozambique, Madagascar... we shall see.

Anyone that's been to any of these places and has suggestions on what I can't live without seeing or experiencing... let me know.

I'm also attaching a few pictures, but know that they are very random! I have some of the cave, but I couldn't find them, they were all in random order on the cd that I had burned in Morocco, so you'll see many more and better after my trip. And don't expect anymore any time soon, these took forever to get to you!

So attached you'll see... -The people that I was with in the desert... (Bianca is 3rd from right, we traveled together for almost 3 weeks) -2 pictures I took from my camel in Merzouga -Some guys doing capoeira on the beach (they were fantastic, but mostly stopped performing once my camera came out). 2 of the guys were AMAZING. -walking towards the first cave (notice the sand in the air, if you can... uugghhhh -A view of the sunset from the cave (but not the cave sadly!)

Well... sending much love from the road :)

Wes

Marrakech

Hi Guys!

Just a quick update... I've had a truly amazing week, in Merzouga, out in the desert near the Algerian border.
I met 2 English girls in Chefchaouen who I'm traveling with for now, and we picked up a South-African guy in Fes, who has just finished cycling from London to the south of Spain on his bicycle. We met another couple from London on the bus to Merzouga who are traveling by land across North Africa, making our group 6.
I'll spare you the details of our tumultuous journey to Merzouga, filled with hassle and long drawn out sales attempts, and say that we arrived early morning to a great hotel/ranch on the edge of the town, run by very nice and down to earth people...

We trekked out into the desert on camels for about 3 hours, and spent the night sleeping in the sand under millions and millions of stars. The next afternoon after the heat was dwindling we moved another 3 hours out past the dunes and stayed with some nomads this time far more secluded, and even more magical, and yet even more stars. Their goats broke into our food in the night, so we woke up to them eating our breakfast, which wasn't too special, considering we had about 5-6 hours of trekking in front of us.

Perhaps to much information, but my ass was way too sore to ride the camel back, so I walked back with another guy alongside the camels, which was quite interesting. The first couple hours were fine, as we were just walking across cracked earth and it was flat... but then we reached the sand and dunes again, as the heat was setting in, and I have to say it was one of the harder things I've done in life. Up and down endless sand dunes for hours, in the heat of the day no less, as we'd gotten a late start. I also ran out of water, so for the last hour truly felt like I was trekking through and endless desert in search of an oasis that just kept getting further and further away.

We spent another night at the ranch once we got back, and had an amazing dinner and party that night, with all of the friends of the guys at the hotel, who put on a little concert for us with drums and dancing, all in the middle of a sandstorm that erupted during our dinner. Yet another magical evening.

So, now in Marrakesh, just down to me and the 2 girls again, and trying our hand at shopping in the souqs... another fun adventure... And it will be another week or so before I get all of the sand out of my hair and elsewhere...

Take care, and much love from Morocco!

Wes