Welcome to Uganda, now pay the traffic police

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We woke up to a lot of mud and water underfoot in the aftermath of the thunderstorm. The mosquitos had also re-surfaced so we packed up quick and got on the road. However we soon had to stop to get Dan’s passport and yellow fever certificate out the boot as we headed to the border. Unfortunately we stopped on some biting ants nest and whilst amusing they did bite Alain quite a lot to which he got a tiny bit irate.

Our drive was relatively uneventful to the border save for witnessing 7 people on a motorbike and Dan also claimed to have seen two men and three goats on one too.

We made our way to the border not sure what to expect but we were pleasantly surprised to be through in under an hour. Yes we had to pay a few fees along the way and yes we had to have our bags put through an e-ray machine that nobody was monitoring but generally it was all very easy and we were quickly on our way.

As soon as we were through it became clear there were many more roadside checks in Uganda. There were the traffic police in white, the regular police in black and the military in blue cammo (unsure why?!). It turns out the traffic police were a bit of a pain and poor Alain was pulled over for overtaking a lorry going 10 mph because it was a solid line in the road (not visible as worn away). After some negotiating they backed down from taking us to a bank to get 100,000 Ugandan dollars (about £40) to buying them lunch for 40,000 Ugandan dollars in cash. On our way again not ½ an hour later Alan did it again but this time pleaded ignorance and we were let off with a warning. We finally took the view of assuming police were everywhere and to drive much slower (not that we were speeding!).

We also managed to stop and get a new SIM card so we can write this blog, though it did take about an hour and whilst Toby valiantly offered his passport to get the details, after they took photos of his Chinese visa we realised they were just making it up as they went. Eventually we did get a SIM card and were on our way. We also stopped by a metal bashing shop to get the one brake that wouldn't fit cut to shape.

We made it to Jinja which is where Lake Victoria starts to feed the Nile and we got to a campsite a little down the Nile where we had arranged to camp and go rafting tomorrow. We even managed to change and fit the final brake pad in under 20 minutes. Nelly is now good to go.

We enjoyed this amazing campsite overlooking the Nile with a pool, hard work.

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