August 16 - Drive to Kibale National Park

We had a very long drive today.  We are driving to the other side of the country to Kibale National Park where we will be doing some Chimp trekking.  

The drive is pretty reminiscent of Asia and India with all the motorcycles, bicycles, trucks, and pedestrians...usually overloaded with stuff.  

It was interesting to see so many people walking or on their bikes and motorcycles carrying such loads. 

And we saw lots of cows grazing along the road, usually with someone guarding them and moving them by prodding with a stick.  Some of the cows have really big horns.

Mid-day Francis stopped in a town where there were a lot of walk-up vendors selling food.  He bought us some roasted plantains to try.  The roasting makes the peel edible, chewy but edible.  It was a nice treat. These vendors are selling to passengers on a bus.  Apparently the buses don't stop long enough for people to hit a restaurant (assuming there are any along the way) so these vendors supply quick eats.

We saw a pretty big brick making operation along the way.  The work is all done by hand.

This part of the country is a rain forest area so it is lush and green.  We saw large areas of papyrus, used for making paper, 

drove through a tea planation area

Tea pickers with their baskets

and a major banana growing area.  Our guide said that plantains (a less sweet type of banana that doesn't taste much like bananas) are eaten almost every day…it is a staple of their diet.  Francis picked up some fried plantains for us...you eat the peel as well as the fruit.  It was very tasty.

And of course there were tons of small shops lining the roads.  Most were vegetables and fruits and maybe chickens

but we saw a few butcher shops with carcasses hanging from the beams of the shop.

And there were shops with hand made wooden furniture

and brightly painted metal beds.  One had a triple decker bunkbed.

We stopped at a local vegetable market where we took pictures and Francis bought a pineapple for later snack.  They avocadoes here are gigantic, two or three times the size of those found in the US. 

And they had little green eggplants…

and tons of tomatoes and many other vegetables.

We also saw a lot of white corn being dried on plastic tarps that were laid out in the front of stores and homes.  Apparently they much prefer white corn to our yellow corn.

We eventually found a road into a tree plantation where he backed into the shade and we had our packed lunch.  We had veggie spring rolls (a bit soggy but tasty), veggie wraps and assorted other items. 

At one point there appeared to be two taxi’s ahead of us that were driving pretty crazy.  For a while they were passing each other and then were “racing” side by side, taking both lanes, up a blind hill.  Then one stopped in the middle of the road. 

What was really amazing is that we ended up ahead of them and at one point Francis pulled over to a Traffic Police stop where he gave the officer the license numbers of the two vehicles and told the officer that they were “driving crazy”…”really bad”.  He gave no details beyond that.  One of the taxi’s came up and the officer pulled him over.  We went on our way.  At another point in a nearby town the taxi pulled over at another police stop (apparently this was the headquarters and the police officer had called ahead regarding the driver.  Anyway, the driver was gesturing wildly as we drove by, while Francis rolled down the window.  They exchanged comments and we went on our way.

Francis said that the officer had given the driver a ticket and confiscated his license and the driver had to report to the headquarters to “explain”.  It turns out that the word of the tourist drivers, like Francis, is pretty much taken as gospel by the police and they will issue a ticket just based on the tourist driver’s word.  He indicated that the tourist drivers have to be very well trained and they are trusted to assist with traffic and such so that things will stay safe for tourists.  Pretty amazing.

Interestingly enough it turns out that Uganda, a republic, has retained a number of smaller tribal kingdoms.  The kings are ceremonial and focus mainly on cultural issues.  Our drive took us through the kingdom of Tooro and Francis pointed out the palace at the top of the hill.  It wasn't huge or ostentatious but it did have pretty unusual architecture.  From a distance it looked round.

Our destination is in the Kabala National Park.  Some interesting road signs.

We also had committee of baboons welcoming us to the park.  Apparently they have learned that the vehicles are often the source of free food.

The park is in a crater lakes region of Uganda.  There are a large number of small, very old, volcanic craters that are filled with water.  This makes for very picturesque drives.

After a seven hour drive we arrived at our hotel.  It is the Papaya Resort Hotel (see next post for photos), high on the rim of an extinct volcano crater and overlooking the crater lake.  The setting is beautiful and the room us lovely.  It has a large balcony overlooking the lake.  It is very peaceful and quite all through the area. 

Only downside is that, while there is power in the hotel room it only powers the lights…no outlets in the room.  But they have a charging station in the main lodge, so we went up there to charge up the phone and camera batteries and to enjoy the view.  The temperature is lovely and it isn’t too humid so we’d say it was just about perfect.

Just as we were going to bed the evening rain hit.  We are in a rain forest and it is during their rainy season.  Fortunately, so far it has only rained at night.  Unfortunately, our thatched roof leaked just over the spot where Paul was laying.  Not a bad leak but pretty misty.  Fortunately, there is an additional single bed in the room so Paul moved to that.  What a funny ending to the day.

Note that if poachers are caught inside a conservation area or national park they can be shot.