Jeremy wrote this in stages en route:
Well here we are on the bus after a 6.30 start! Been stopped several times at police checkpoints. They are very interested in our kit bags – but we explain they’re full of cricket equipment and we are waived through! So if want to smuggle guns or drugs just put them in a cricket holdall!
And so we continue on our journey passing through townships with mud huts, straying goats, crater-sized potholes and mountainous speed bumps and naked children running around!
Surviving on biscuits and water until a picnic lunch in Kampala at the cricket club. Passed Lake Victoria and the sugar cane plantations. Over the Nile and the Dam on the way.
Chris who was poorly yesterday with tummy troubles perked up today and asked where do all the bananas come from as he hadn’t seen one banana tree! There hundreds everywhere so we all had a laugh as we pointed them out along the way!
We had to pick up one of the local coaches on the way, but he wasn’t there so we had to sit around and wait for 90mins until he showed up just as we set off! Pretty typical Ugandan efficiency.
Because we were running late we raced along overtaking on the brow of a hill, paying scant regard to potholes, pedestrians and oncoming trucks! The road just disappeared on many occasions causing mayhem with weaving traffic.
We crossed the Equator at dusk and eventually we arrived at Mweya Lodge at 8.30pm – too late for the sunset, but in time for a late supper.
Its been a very long day in the bus but spirits have kept high and we’re all looking forward to the game drive tomorrow.
Ps Helen the maribou stork stalker overcame all her fears and tucked into 2 pork chops, fish and chicken sagwaala but had a setback with the cheesecake and coconut tart!
Pps Jack excelled himself today with clean sheet despite missing breakfast, then let himself down insisting that he wanted a single bed – refusing to share a double with Chris!
Pps Chris survived the arduous journey and tucked into spicey Chicken Tortilla soup!
Ppps Helen our hon treasurer has mislaid her money and amazed us all with her story about tomatoes at breakfast and the pine trees en route. Perhaps the dosh is in one of the 15 pairs she brought?