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Published: July 10th 2009
As instructed by the Horizon bus company man the previous day, I arrive at the bus stop at 7AM in order to catch the service linking Kampala to Kisoro that passes through Kabale. This is also where the shared taxis depart from and one of the drivers tells me, in tones so solemn I assume he's BS-ing, that the bus passed through 2 hours before. I wait for 15 minutes but there's still no bus, and the shared taxi guy then tells me he's about to leave if I want to go with him. I look inside his car and discover that the stars have aligned for me - not only is he going to leave without a full complement of passengers, but the two women with whom I'll share the back seat are small and thin. We eventually reach full capacity about 20 minutes down the road but even the newcomer is scrawny. Africa has never seen a more comfortable shared taxi.
The road to Kisoro is described as "murram", which I can only assume is Swahili for "fairly crappy but not necessitating 4WD", and the ride is bumpy. This early in the morning, the view is ethereal, with
mist-filled valleys refusing to reveal their contents until the sun has climbed higher and burned off their protective covering.
However no amount of mist or cloud can obscure the Virungas, a chain of dormant volcanoes that heaves into view as we crest the last ridge before the descent to Kisoro. Three of the chain are in Uganda, the highest Mt Muhuvura being named "The Guide" in the local language. The range continues into Rwanda and DRC and this single ecosystem contains the three national parks, one in each country, that represent three of the four places in the world where mountain gorillas can be viewed.
Before this year, if someone had told me that they had spent $500 for the most exciting hour of their life, I would have assumed it involved them removing their clothes and hiring a couple of workers from the sex industry. However, in this part of the world, for that money you get to spend an hour with some of the ~650 remaining mountain gorillas on the planet. I don't think the rules prohibit you doing this naked and in the company of a pair of hookers, but it certainly isn't included in
the price.
Now $500 is a lot of money, representing 1-2 years' wages for many people in the region and - insensitive though this juxtaposition may be - 2-3 weeks of my travel budget. I spent $4 to visit the giant panda breeding centre in Chengdu. Admittedly there are 3 times as many giant pandas in the world as mountain gorillas, and I didn't get to sit just metres away from them without a barrier in between, but it seems that the price for gorillas is $500 simply because that is what people are willing to pay (and supposedly it's doubling in the near future). After considering the many experiences I've had in my life for free or close to free, I decide that this one - so emblematic of the region - will have to wait for the future (gorilla extinction notwithstanding).
Thus mountain gorilla tracking is scratched from my dance card.
I arrive in Kisoro at the weekend, finding the only activities available to me are getting a haircut or buying paint. I am the only guest in my hotel, though Jackie the cat and her three young kittens provide some amusement in lieu of
Congolese mask
Traveller's Rest Hotelhuman interaction. Ominous rumbles of thunder from the leaden sky precede a torrential afternoon downpour, an act to be repeated on subsequent days. In the early evening, an enormous thunderhead to the east pulses and glows with the energy of the electrical storm hidden within.
I dine at the Traveller's Rest Hotel, which goes one better than my own by having precisely zero guests. The barman assures me that they are fully booked from July until Christmas. I sit in the empty bar amidst an impressively scary selection of Congolese masks. The hotel was started by Walter Baumgartel, the first man to recognise the potential of mountain gorilla tourism to help conserve these endangered creatures, and its most famous regular guest was Dian Fossey, of "Gorillas in the Mist" fame. Having not seen the film or read the book on which it was based, I had assumed Fossey was some kind of tree-hugging hippie. However a perusal of the many coffee table books in the hotel informs me that she preferred spam and corned beef to local food, smoked like a chimney, and had rather a dim view of Africans. I guess you probably have to be a little
touched to spend years in the company of mountain gorillas.
The weekend passes and Monday brings a number of familiar faces. First up are David and Bridget,
overlanding from Exmoor to the Kalahari. I recognise their Landrover from way back in Aksum and am astonished that anyone can be travelling as slowly as I am. They claim to have met no other overlanders using public transport, apart from myself. Soon after, Erik and Ellen from Holland turn up, also in a Landrover. Their route has been down the west side of Africa then up to Kenya on the east side, and now they're returning to the south down the middle. They already know David and Bridget from Kenya, and I remember seeing them in Kampala. I'm jealous of the four of them, for having the flexibility and comfort of their own vehicles. They're jealous of me for simply having a backpack to care about. Interestingly, all three groups of us have had laptop failures, mine in the stupidest circumstances, though Erik and Ellen's ant infestation comes close.
Even with its shops open, Kisoro is a frustrating town for purchases. The smallest shampoo bottle I can find would barely fit in my rucksack, let
alone my washbag. And for an area boasting amazing landscapes and world-famous wildlife, the postcard selection plumbs the depths. The Ugandan Wildlife Authority, which must get 99% of its income from mountain gorilla tracking, has just one miserable postcard specimen - a blurred, poorly-framed shot of a silverback.
I head to Mgahinga Gorilla National Park for golden monkey tracking (blogged separately) and, on returning, meet three young NGO workers at the hotel. Most of the youngsters I've met on this trip have gushed about the work they do, believing it to have a significant positive impact both on themselves and on the local people they're interacting with, however these three are different. The American has been working in eastern Uganda for nearly a year, and is scornful of the people who come for one or two months and honestly think they are doing anything useful. He thinks that the vast majority of NGOs are operating a "something for nothing" policy, creating the dependency relationship that they should be avoiding from day one. He also suspects that, culturally, there is not a strong commitment to education in most African countries compared with many Asian nations that have progressed rapidly over
the last fifty years.
The Irish girl has been disenchanted by the vast amounts of "aid" money that get thrown around at NGO conferences - the free flights in, the Hilton rooms, etc. The Irish guy says he can spend the whole day surfing the web, a sign that perhaps his job in Uganda isn't the most critical.
I'm surprised at their honesty but feel their views may be closer to the reality than the glowing testimonials I've heard elsewhere.
Kisoro marks the end of the line for me in Uganda. After the disappointment of Kenya (safari aside), it's been a generally enjoyable five weeks (safari aside). I'll remember the unfeasible bicycle loads I've seen, the babies tied securely to their mothers' backs, the uniformly excellent teeth. I won't miss the awkwardness of having to ask after people's health before starting a conversation - though there were also many people who'd said "Fine, thank you" when I'd merely said hi to them.
I take pleasure in putting Uganda at number 2 in my list of "Friendliest countries that I've visited in Africa" and I think it would have to be number 1 in the "Most relaxing"
category, courtesy of the southwest.
But it's time for this westerly meandering to come to a stop and to head south again.
Dull but possibly useful info i. There's supposedly a Horizon bus originating in Kampala that passes through Kabale in the morning on its way to Kisoro, but what time it comes through is anyone's guess. I took a shared taxi, costing USh10,000 and taking about 2 hours 20 minutes.
ii. I stayed at the Hotel Virunga, paying USh22,000 for a twin room with shared facilities. Note that the hot shower (slightly too hot, in fact) and the toilet with the Western loo are in the camping facilities, not the ones attached to the main hotel building. The restaurant serves decent enough food but the service takes forever.
iii. The food at the Traveller's Rest hotel is good and not massively overpriced, and the decor is excellent - plus you can browse their selection of gorilla books.
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bill
non-member comment
great stuff
another excellent set of entries! if only your journey would never end!!!