Blogs from Western Region, Uganda, Africa - page 22

The day after my trek up Mt Sabyinyo, I decided it was time to leave Uganda and head for Rwanda. Rwanda has this curious system of only allowing certain nationalities get visas at the border, Ireland not being one of them. For some reason they insist we complete an online pre-application, before being allowed arrive at the border to get your visa. This is despite the fact that you have to fill in a from at the border, giving the exact same information. This wouldn’t have been a big deal except for the Rwandan Immigration’s website having been offline for the previous few days. It is supposed to take a few days to process and I rang the Rwandan embassy in Kampala to see what I should do. They helpfully advised me that there should be ... read more

After a great night’s sleep I got up fairly early and had breakfast at the Gorilla Rest Camp. After the journey I had on the boda boda to get to Ruhija from Kabale, I wasn’t exactly relishing the prospect of doing the same to get back to Kabale, particularly after the rain that had fallen in the past two days. So, when Wim and Annalise, the Dutch couple I had tracked the gorillas with, offered me a lift in their truck to Kabale, where they were going through en route to Kigali, I had to restrain myself from biting their hands off. Wim and Annalise had driven down from Holland in a seriously pimped out 4x4 truck that had a bed, cooker and pretty much everything you would need travelling through Africa. Even with the problems ... read more

Hello all, I think this is probably my shortest but most important entry to date. We had to say bye (for now) to the amazing KIHEFO (Kigezi Healthcare Foundation) and I wanted to do them justice. Their website (http://www.kihefo.org/) is fantastic. It’s very engaging and provides a great overview of the work they do. I’d really recommend taking a quick look if you haven’t already; they’re worth a few minutes of your time. I also wanted to say thank you to everyone who is reading my entries, and especially to those who have written to me recently about them. I write them to let anyone who's interested know what I’ve been up to and to help me remember my travels (the latter means I may put some uninteresting detail in them, so sorry about that!). Sunday ... read more

Hello everyone! So...I’m now in Africa! I’ve been slow (again!) with photos and updates because I’ve been behind with my Uni course, sorry! In my last update we were getting ready to leave Brisbane… in typical style it was pretty hectic which was good in a way because it stopped me from getting too emotional… L Tuesday 1st May - BRISBANE to MELBOURNE (Australia) and then onto DOHA (Qatar) We finished packing in the morning, not easy! I’d sent a lot home and to New Zealand but still had far too much. The challenge was packing for cold and warm climates (both in Uganda and back in Melbourne and New Zealand) and I wasn’t 100% sure on appropriate dress for Uganda – would vest tops be ok or would it need to be T-shirts? Gem & ... read more

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