Uganda - Lake Victoria

Thursday 3rd January

Well, up until yesterday all we really had in terms of news was our unusual entry into Uganda (of which I will tell you later) and then we went in search of the elusive Nile perch again, this time on Lake Victoria, when this happened:

...and even me:

All in all we managed to hook eleven Nile perch, apparently a record for this particular fishing boat. This good fortune was thanks to Neville and Ina, a South African couple who live on the Lake, who we met in our camp site on New Year’s Eve and who were intrigued by our adventures. South Africans being what they are in terms of their hospitality we were invited to spend the next day at their house on Lake Victoria for a braai and for a fishing trip the day thereafter. It was their son Shaun and his friend Jack who know all the good fishing spots on the Lake who offered to take us out on their boat. Well as you can imagine, it was a great day, the perch just kept coming. So finally, a  BIG item on our list of things to do can be ticked off. And a great start to the New Year!

Friday 4^th January,

Coming back to our exit from Kenya, we finally managed to tear ourselves away from Lake Turkana on 29^th December and headed west, taking what we reasoned was the shortest route towards Uganda. The plan was to cross into Uganda as far north as possible to enable us to explore some of the more remote northern parts of the country. There seemed to be no consensus between our maps, GPS or indeed local people whether there was an official border crossing point in the vicinity or not, so we decided to take the risk and headed out on a barely discernible dirt track in a westerly direction from Lodwar. The border crossing point that we had singled out was about four hours’ drive away and we reasoned that if there was a problem in crossing the border at that point we could always turn back and then enter Uganda at one of the established border crossings further south. Well, that was the plan anyway.

The track was reasonable initially, but then it became a very narrow and rocky mountain pass and after five hours of solid driving there was still no sign of a border post or much else for that matter. It was only when we received text messages on our mobile phones to welcome us into Uganda that we realised we had inadvertently crossed the border somehow.

Being European, where you can travel freely from one country into another, this didn’t particularly concern me but the boys were worried that we had entered a country ‘illegally’. What to do? By this time we had little appetite for re-tracing our steps because the track had been so difficult. We carried on for a little while longer thinking that we may still come across a border post and eventually we pulled up beside what turned out to be a Ugandan army outpost. The soldiers were incredibly helpful and seemed to understand our predicament. So a few phone calls to their commander later we were told to head towards a village an hour’s drive further into the country where ‘someone’ would stamp our papers. That we did and were met on the edge of the village by a very nice young man in plain clothes called Henry (the ‘commander’ we had earlier spoken to on the soldiers’ phone). He took us into an office where another army official (also in plain clothes) asked us to fill in the visitors’ book (!) and then we just sat there chatting, not sure what was going to happen next. Did they want a bribe? Did they actually have the authority to give us visas or stamp our carnets etc. It wasn’t clear but we all realised after a while that these guys could not possibly have the means or authority to sign us into the country legally.

Henry then offered to accompany us to the nearest official border crossing the next day which was a full day’s drive away and we agreed a ‘fee’ with him. We stayed the night at another mission station then headed off early the next morning towards the border. We weren’t sure how this would all work out, entering the Ugandan border from the wrong side without having been stamped out in Kenya.

So we made room for Henry, who turned out to be an army lieutenant, and left early the next morning. The road was mostly reasonable but there was a stretch of it which Henry was worried about and as we approached it we could see several trucks stuck in deep mud. The whole 300 meter stretch was a total mud bath!

We navigated our way through slowly, falling in and out of deep ruts with guys pushing and shoving us along and mud splashing right up to the top of the car. Eventually we made it, but Ian and Heather’s vehicle ended up with three punctures in the process.

Three tyre changes later and another rescue  (of another truck which needed to be towed out by us) we were on a better stretch of the road again and finally reached Malaba, our destination, where we were met by a friend of Henry’s who, for a fee, would help us get sorted. We then proceeded to walk across the Ugandan border into Kenya (nobody tried to stop us!) and handed in our passports to be stamped out of Kenya. Then walked back into Uganda and were stamped in. Meanwhile the third guy, who had also negotiated a fee with us, sorted out our car papers and about an hour later we were ‘official’. So not actually much of a story when you read it now, but Don and Ian were seriously worried at the time.

We ended up camping the night in the car park of a very run down hotel but which served up a delicious Indian curry and served enough cold beer for us to relax after such an eventful day.

Next day we made it to our current destination which is great camp overlooking Lake Victoria where we have been since NYE. We plan to spent another two days here then head up towards Merchison Falls game park.