Kampala

Kampala is the capital of Uganda and in many ways it's like capital cities everyone and yet its also very much an African capital city. We like to go into the centre of Kampala sometimes at the weekend to have a wander around and often meet up with other volunteers for a coffee and cake.

The centre of Kampala is divided into two halves, the uptown parliament area with wide quiet streets, lots of trees and upmarket restaurants and hotels.

The golf course behind Garden City in the quiet leafy uptown area of Kampala.

Then there is the crazy downtown area with the taxi parks, lots of traffic, markets and street stalls.

Downtown Kampala on a Saturday afternoon

The old taxi park in the centre of the downtown area of Kampala. This is where lots of the matatus  (minibus taxis) leave for different parts of the city.

The two are linked with Kampala / Jinja road which cuts across the town centre. This is an extremely busy thoroughfare and causes lots of traffic jams in Kampala as it has to be crossed at some point every time you go from one side of the city to the other.

Kampala road in the city centre

There are still traces of some old colonial buildings around the city centre.

We found the old railway station now abandoned as no passenger trains have run in Uganda for many years. This is a lovely Art Deco building. We peeped into the booking hall and it looked like it was just closed up for the weekend.

Finally we walk back into the chaos to catch the matatu back to the flat.