Yesterday we said goodbye to Gulu and the Hotel Bomah. Johns final attempt to pass me off as his older brother ended in a dismal failure with our delightful host, Brenda. The speed coaching of the previous day had left the group on a high and the subsequent debrief meeting carried on long into the night. It has to be said that the timekeeping for the 10.00am departure was a tad more than shabby. Our route to our next destination, Arua, saw us retracing our steps along the road towards Pakwach. The sight of two overturned lorries on the edge of the road did not appear to overly concern the revellers who quickly sought to recover some of the previous nights lost hours of sleep. The scenery once clear of the town was compensation for those few of us who remained awake. The roads in Uganda are the arteries of life, people, animals and vehicles all sharing the same space and it is endlessly fascinating to watch our driver, Joseph, weave his way through all these obstacles and retain his sense of humour.
We took a break a Pakwatch, a tiny town on the edge of the Murchison,Fall National Park, where we crossed the Nile just to the north of Lake Albert. This is close to the border with the DR Congo which is open for local trade but not visitors. Leaving Pakwach we soon started the climb through the beautiful hilly region that signals the approach to Arua. We arrived at our Hotel, The White Castle just in time to see the end of Englands T20 defeat against the Windies.
Luckily our hotel has a more than modest level of hospitality