I'm struggling to decide what is slower. The Ugandan internet or Virender Sehwag running between the wickets – or perhaps more appropriately, our journey here to Uganda.
Yes, we have arrived. All eight of us, all just about in one piece and all very, very tired. We realised the outrageous duration of our journey when we found ourselves checking the South Africa-Pakistan Day Four Test score whilst waiting for our driver at Entebbe airport, having what seemed like an eternity ago at Heathrow, checked the Day Three score. We've had a rough guess that door-to-door, our journey took us about 24 hours, which considering a direct flight is just 10 hours, is a rather painful thought.
London to Istanbul to Kigali to Entebbe was our chosen route, and whilst sitting for close to two hours on Kigali airport tarmac wasn't exactly the most exciting way to spend an evening one silver lining is that we've all decided we can now tick Rwanda off as a 'place we've visited in our life'.
There's not a great deal I can tell you about the flight(s!)…Turkish airlines is less efficient than a BMW X5, but offers more films than your standard Blockbuster store, Nick was nearly crushed by a trolley of drinks, and the novelty of staring at the back of an aeroplane seat quickly wears off…
For weeks we've been told by ex-volunteers that in Africa, people work on 'African time' not normal time, and we were made brutally aware of this lackadaisical approach as our eight pair of eyes skirted the 20 or so Taxi-driver placards at 6am at Entebbe airport, hoping one said 'Cricket Without Boundaries' but we were to be disappointed. Almost three and a half hours, much grumbling and our first African sunrise later, our driver did belatedly arrive. 'Welcome to Africa' we joked…
In the afternoon/late evening we travelled to the Uganda National Cricket Stadium. Lugogo. A blog post focussing on this extraordinary visit will be posted tomorrow.
Freddie Wilde
6 comments
Sal says:
Feb 17, 2013
Epic journey team, passed the first test with flying colours. I can't wait to hear what's next. Hope you get some rest xx
admin says:
Feb 17, 2013
Turkish Airlines!!! Top effort team, just two weeks effort now and then you can catch up on some sleep.
Andy Griffiths says:
Feb 17, 2013
Nice one people the journey starts now. Enjoy making a difference.
From
Andy at Kent Cricket Board
Andy Hobbs says:
Feb 18, 2013
turkish airlines and 2 stop overs is a good effort! However after 2 weeks of coaching thousands of kids i am sure you will all be very happy to sit on a plane and stare at the seat in front for 24 hrs!
Andy Hobbs – Trustee
Alastair Broom says:
Feb 18, 2013
Its a shame you only saw the airstrip in Kigali and hope CWB will go back one day. RCSF is building a National Cricket Stadium there to give decent facilities to the thousands of Rwandans who play cricket. Take a look at www.rcsf.org.uk
Tracey Davies says:
Feb 18, 2013
Glad you all got there OK, despite a long and tiresome journey! the fun action begins now ๐ hope your day no. 2 is going well. Enjoy spreading the life saving & changing ABC message through the wonderful game of Cricket! Best, Tracey ๐