BUS-ted in Kampala

This is tale of travel in Africa that beats them all! However if this mis-adventure had not occurred then we would not have seen the Gorillas in DRC, so it was a blessing in disguise!

From Jinja, our original plan had been to go to Murchison Falls in Northern Uganda. We took an early morning bus from Jinja to Kampala, a journey of just 80km but it took almost 3hrs as this main road from Nairobi to Kampala is under construction. The many stops to pick up & drop off people added time to the journey too - there are no bus stops in Uganda, you just ask to be let off exactly where you want to be which means the bus can stop every 100yrds or so!

We got to the bus station in Kampala by 10:30am with plenty of time, we thought, to get to Masindi near Murchison Falls but how wrong we were! In Uganda buses leave when full, but usually that means a wait of 1/2hr to 1 hr at most. We bought our bus tickets to Masindi and boarded the bus, there were not many people on the bus so we prepared for a bit of a wait.

The minutes ticked by...........

We were kept entertained by the continual stream of street vendors walking up & down the bus trying to sell us everything from cosmetics to fluorescent lights. We could have kitted out our whole house if we'd wanted and even got a hot meal on a plate with cold drink into the bargain without leaving the seat of our bus! There were pots & pans, hats, socks, shoes, toys which surely we must want to buy!

The hours ticked by............

After 2hrs the bus was half full but without even starting or moving the bus, by some strange African mechanical divining, its was decided that the bus had a mechanical problem and we must change buses. We all clambered off the bus and onto a different but equally dilapidated bus. The mountain of cargo including a fridge, a TV, 30 boxes of ceramic floor tiles and 25 20ltr bottles of water were labouriously moved from one bus to the other.

After 3hrs the heavens opened with a huge tropical down pour. The bus was almost full but we foolishly thought that they were waiting for the rain to pass before setting off.

After 4hrs the rain eased and I got off the bus to investigate our still stationary status. There I found, to my amazement, that the front of the bus had been raised onto blocks (remember this is a fully loaded bus!!) and there are several men under the bus banging away at the engine or axle! Imminent departure was evidently not on the horizon but I was reliably informed that we would be leaving in 20minutes! The repairs we were told are for our safety and we were implored to please kindly wait.

We thought otherwise. So after 4 1/2 hours of sitting in the wondrously exciting Kampala bus station we abandoned ship, so to speak, and spent the night in Kampala. The thought of trying to get to Masindi the next day did, for some strange reason, not appeal to us. Plans were changed and we headed south to Lake Bunyonyi and hence how we happened to find out about the still available Gorilla permits.

As a side note another entertaining aspect of travel in Uganda is on the minibuses that do short journeys from village to village. They are called shared taxis in Uganda and matatus in Kenya. They too leave when full. The seating capacity stated on the side of the minibus is 14, but that certainly does not mean the shared taxi is full, oh no! There needs to be at least 20 people before it will leave. On such journeys, just for fun we would play the "how many elephants can you fit in a mini" game and count how many people there were in the shared taxi. The most we ever counted was 27!! On one occasion when we were crossing the Sesse Islands, I had just counted 26 people when we ground to a halt half way up a steep hill. Everyone had to get out and walk while the minibus chugged slowly to the top of the hill. Such is travel in Uganda!