Blogs from Western Region, Uganda, Africa

Our transfer fromTanzaniatoUgandawas one that I was a little bit worried about, because we planned to take an overnight bus fromArusha,TanzaniatoKampala,Uganda, passing throughNairobi. This meant two border crossings, into countries that we didn’t yet have visas for (KenyaandUganda), in the middle of the night! I had heard horror stories of people being left behind by their bus (luggage still on board) as it takes longer to get tourist visas than for the Africans to simply have their papers stamped. Unfortunately we did see a French girl to whom this had happened, but we had no problems at all. An employee of the bus company, Kampala Coach, even told us that he’d watch for us on theKenyaside of the border. For those of you who haven’t travelled outside North America orEurope, it seems that in most other ... read more

Or maybe you can translate the word ’mist’ into German and you can get the real meaning of the heading.. This really is how about things can go from bad to worse with the help of the Ugandan Police Force. To start things off we got mugged, all our cash was gone from backpacks etc. Fair enough since we are travelling in Africa and these things happen, and maybe would be strange if it didn’t happen since we are travelling with locals and making own path through Africa. Now come in the police and something that seemed should take a day or two to figure out turned into a weeklong nightmare. It turns out that the police are very keen on bribery and as we got to go further into this and got talking to more ... read more

We dragged ourselves away from Sipi and set out on a hot, rainy and torturaous journey to Jinja, famous for being the site of the source of the Nile. We went on a second boat trip on to Lake Victoria to view the source, but there wasn't actually much to see, other than a few rapids. The views at Bujagali were alot more exciting, especially watching the Bujagali Swimmers, who jump into the rapids holding nothing but a jerry can and swim right through the rapids. It was also amusing when an asian family asked to take our photo. Initially we thought they wanted us to take a photo for them but it turned out that they wanted to be in the picture with us as they were very excited because we were the first mixed ... read more

A short history of the Rwenzori Mountains The Rwenzoris is the highest mountain range in Africa with Mt. Margherita at 5109 as the highest summit point and third highest mountain in Africa. It's situated west in Uganda on the border to DRC. You can actually walk across to DRC on the summit day if you do the Margherita peak. Unlike the two higher peaks, the Rwenzori Mountains are not of volcanic origin but rise directly from the Rift Valley floor. The formation is linked to the geological upheaval that created the Rift. Rwenzoris several altitude zones has their own distinct micro climate and flora and fauna, including 70 mammals and 177 bird species. The Rwenzori Mountains are thought to have been the source of the legend of the Mountains of the Moon, the snow-capped range cited ... read more