It was quite a road trip, over 1,200 km (760 miles) in 6 days. We visited a game park, crossed the Nile and the end of Lake Kyogo, followed abandoned railway tracks, climbed into the mountains, visited waterfalls and saw some beautiful old Art Deco facades. We drove on tarmac, decaying tarmac with lots of potholes, murram, stony tracks and waded through mud and water.
Day 1 we drove on good tarmac roads to Masindi and then headed north into Murchison Falls park. Our newly acquired residents pass got us into the park and we headed for the Red Chilli campsite where we had booked a banda. It took longer than anticipated as recent rain had made the murram road rather bumpy. So we decided against a detour to the top of the falls and went straight to the campsite.
Day 2 we enjoyed a bush breakfast of bacon and eggs before heading over the ferry and into the game area in the north of the park. Anyone who read my blog about the Easter trip to Murchison Falls will know that we had some interesting experiences with the ferry on that trip so we approached taking our RAV4 onto the ferry with some trepidation. However all was well and we were safely on the other side very quickly.
We drove across the park to the Tangi Gate with several photo stops en route!
Tangi Gate is near Pakwach so we had a coffee stop at the Italian run Bwana Tembo Safari camp before heading across country to Gulu via another murram road.
In Gulu we stayed with some VSO volunteer friends based there and I introduced Glen to the delights of a newly opened restaurant with fabulous pizzas and home made ice cream.
Day 3 started with a wander around Gulu as I never get to see the town or visit the markets while I'm there for work. We bought some fabric to make up some curtains for the kitchen and had a look for some Christmas presents in the craft shops.
Then we headed out of Gulu on the notorious Kampala road as far as the Bobi bump before turning off onto another murram road to Lira. We stopped at the Otino Waa Tower cafe for coffee and cinnamon buns before using the good tarmac road to Soroti. We arrived in time to have a wander around Soroti in the late afternoon as the day was cooling down.
Thursday was the Independence day celebrations and our wedding anniversary. We started fairly early out of Soroti on the road to Mbale but we turned off on the outskirts of Mbale to visit the Sipi falls. The falls are a well known tourist attraction in Uganda for good reason and the view back to the plains was stunning but unfortunately not well captured on my little camera.
The mountain sides around Sipi are a major coffee growing area and there were banana plantations with the coffee plants in between the bananas.
On Day 5 we spent the morning in Mbale where I finally found the dress I've been looking for, or rather 2 as I liked the style so much I bought 2 in very different fabrics. We were fascinated by the architecture of Art Deco buildings dating from the colonial period all around the town, particularly noticeable in the clock tower roundabout in the centre.
In the afternoon we headed up the road to Wanale Ridge for more stunning mountain scenery. This is definitely not a tourist area and we didn't see another muzungu all afternoon. However, we thought the scenery and the many small waterfalls are just as stunning as in the Sipi area. The road is a combination of murram and stones although there are remnants of an old tarmac road.
Finally on Saturday we drove back to Kampala and braved the Kampala traffic to get back to the flat, exhausted but pleased to have seen so much of Uganda.
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