At 5pm on 24th February 2024 6 of the 9 travellers made their way to Heathrow airport to begin the journey to Jinja, Uganda.
A quick stop in Rwanda to change planes and we arrived in Entebbe to be met by Joseph our driver and the 2 local coaches we will be spending our time with, Samuel and Bryan.
Cases went in to the mini bus Ugandan style i.e. through the window, we collected the remaining 3 from a nearby hotel and we were off.
They say the beauty of travelling is in the journey and, my, what a journey it was.
As we travelled the road from Entebbe to Kampala we marvelled at the continuous outdoor shops that lined the streets each specialising in 1 thing. As well as the usual food stuffs (so many bananas and piles of fish) we saw pop corn machines, cement mixers, sinks, tyres, metal play ground equipment, 3 pieces suites and so many beds. I mean serious the whole population could have replaced their bed on the same day there were so many. As we slowed in traffic people came offering for sale pillows, toilet roll and car accessories like wiper blades, it was very random and all very good natured, no pushiness just smily faces.
We played a game to see who could spot the most people crammed on to one of the thousands of mopeds and what was the most obscure item they were carrying. The most people were 4 plus a baby and the weirdest things was up for debate but we saw a bed frame, a crate of chickens, doors and a mannequin that initially looked like a body to our tired brains!
Our first stop was the National Council of Sports in Kampala where we met David from the Ugandan Cricket Association who were kindly hosting us. I met 2 lovely ladies from The Netherlands and Czech Republic who were there playing field Hockey and we also saw some Brits playing Netball.
Lugogo Cricket Stadium, Kampala
In typical British fashion we brought the rain but it soon left and we settled down to watch a couple of Innings from Nyakasura vs Tornado Bee’s at The Oval with one of the National team players in at mid off. An exciting couple of overs it was too with 2 wickets taken and a 6 hit. There was a magnificent Marabu Stalk flying around who had a massive wing span and looked like he had a cricket ball in his throat. Yolanda had us all going saying they train them to peck the outfield for drainage – what can I say but we were very tired!
We then continued our journey to Jinja and our first hotel for food, beer and sleep – not quite in that order.
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