Bad Roads and Bananas

---

We had a reasonably easy border crossing into Uganda wish I could say the same for the 'roads'. We could easily have been driving through the middle of fields judging by the speed we could go and the pot holes (some the size of a large dog). The difference between Kenya and Uganda was immediately obvious and incredible. The houses were round thatched mud huts in the middle of banana plantations, people on the side of the road seemed more aloof with only a few waving at us as we went by. Our first stop was Kampala, the capital. Our first big town since Nairobi it was a change in culture. Most fascination was the huge storks all over the place like pigeons. Just sat randomly on billboard and roofs you can imaging the amount of poo!!
Our campsite was a bit of luxury compared to the first days and had a bar and (very small but who cares) pool. We had great fun getting drunk in the bar and playing in the pool. Pat threw Flops (James, trainee tour leader) into the pool fully clothed and dive-bombed. We couldnt get him in!! We headed to an Irish bar in the evening where everyone was dressed up except us!! We danced like idiots and laughed at the Elvis wannabees! There were a lot of prostitutes and Murray and Kimi were chatted up by one, they claim not to have realised she would need paying!!!
From Kampala we headed to Lake Bunyoni. On route we got a flat tyre (hardly suprising given the roads) Not easy to change a huge truck tyre so it was (nearly) all hands on deck. We then crossed the equator for the first time. The truck journey was hilarious in celebration of Jon's birthday we downed 2 bottles of Sambucca (red and black) between 6 of us. Putting the tents up at the campsite was fun after this, mine managed to collapse a couple of times! Lake Bunyoni was stunning, from there we visited a local school and orphanage. The children were amazing the performed traditional dances for us and then we got to spend some time with them. Marti a sweet little boy aged 3 came up to me and took my hand. He kissed my fingers and kept hugging me, he was gorgeous and I just wanted to take him home. From there it was to Kabale and preparing for Rwanda and the gorillas!!!

---