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Published: November 15th 2010
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A new day, a new guide, hopefully a better standard of tour... Fidel is not meeting us today, instead the driver will take us to the border and we will switch cars again, we are going to Uganda through Rwanda, good job we get free visas on the border as this wasn't mentioned in the itinerary so we could have been paying double. At the border, the same Rwandan driver is waiting with a new bloke. We finish the border formalities quickly and swap our bags over, then we're off... After 10mins we stop in a petrol station and Fidel appears, he and the new bloke chat for about 20mins, then we get petrol and again we're off. Fidel had told us the Ugandan border is only 90mins away so it should be a short day of driving. After about another 30mins the new bloke decides to introduce himself at last, Gerald, our new guide. When questioned he tells us it's 4 hours to the border but that Lake Bunyonyi is nearby once we have crossed. We discover later, the reason that we are going to take so much longer is that Kennedy, the owner of Hakuna Matata Tours, wants to
meet Gerald to swap money and paperwork, so we have to drive hours out of our way. This change of guide has not brought better service. We travel quite quickly to try and make up time but luck is against us and the police stop all of the traffic coming up the hill. There is a wide load coming down and 2 lanes of traffic cannot fit, at least we can speed up once it has passed, the people behind it are stuck at its speed!
At the border, we arrive just after a long distance coach so the queue is huge. We are now used to the Rwandan process so have the form filled out quickly and are stamped out. We then make the short walk to the Ugandan side and fill out another form, a Ugandan visa is $50, there is an even longer queue but we get through quite quickly. Gerald and our driver are nowhere to be seen, we are expecting another change of vehicle as we have paid for 4WDs for the whole tour. Finally the driver turns up, he has been processing paperwork for a Ugandan car permit, which is when we realise Kennedy
has once again reneged on our deal and is not providing us with a 4WD! We then enter a fiasco of negotiations for currency exchange, Gerald is of no use, it's as if he has never done this before. We have both been on truck trips so are used to being told at each border and town, the average exchange rate, location of ATMs and Forex bureaus and roughly how much money we will need in this country, not the case with Hakuna Matata, we struggle daily just to get a vague itinerary from the guide!
Finally through the border and we change our clocks one hour, we are now on GMT+3. It's already late so not looking good for our afternoon walk and canoe ride. We arrive at the Bunyonyi Overland Resort at 4, so quickly have lunch, as quick as possible when it takes an hour to cook the most basic meal... then get a canoe at 5. The local man doesn't know many bird names but tells us any info he can think of, we are in a dug out canoe made from a eucalyptus tree. He is impressed with Andrew's knowledge of English, not realising that
English is the language of Australia, it amuses me anyway. We see lots of pied and malachite kingfishers as the sun is setting and a few other water birds. There are 29 islands in lake Bunyonyi and it is the deepest lake in Uganda, third deepest in the world after Lake Tanganyika which we have already visited. There is one island called Punishment Island which is recognisable as it has nothing except one tree in the centre, this is where unmarried pregnant women used to be sent to die, either from starvation or drowning while trying to escape. Some poor men would sneak there in the night and save a woman for his wife if he could not afford the dowry for a wife any other way. This practise luckily does not exist now. After the canoe tour we have some Ugandan beers and chat to a geologist from Britain who is here to work on the roads, I also get sucked into buying 3 masks!
Next morning we do our 'village' walk, it's actually an hour along a dirt track road, but there are some amazing views of the lake and islands and the guide tells us about village
life and points out some birds. We pass many children on their way to school, most very late as they are supposed to be there for 8am. Here the children have been badly affected by tourists so hold out their hands for money, not bottles and pens like in Rwanda.
We preordered breakfast as this can also take an hour to cook so it is almost ready when we get back from the walk. We then wait at reception at 10 ready to meet Gerald and be on our way to the next stop. Unfortunately, Hakuna Matata Tours disappoint again.... We call numerous times but no luck, Gerald and the driver and the non 4WD finally turn up at 12, 2 hours late! They are apologetic but cannot explain why they didn't call either us or the hotel to explain they were going to be late. The issue has been Kennedy trying to wire them some money, he has been in a queue in the bank for hours so they still don't have any, apparently. The fact that we paid Fidel the balance of $1200 only 3 days ago seems to have been forgotten. Kennedy calls to tell us that
the only way we can continue is to loan Gerald $400! He doesn't even apologise for them being late and seems to think this is a normal request, appalling behaviour! We want to carry on, and quickly so agree although don't expect to see our money again.
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