Day 43 Kampala

Tuesday January 25th. Up very early and off by 6:30. It was another long day on the truck. As I've said before, it's a good thing I like driving and looking out the window. I wish I could do the driving, but that's another story. There is a lot driving on this trip, but it is the only way to cover the territory. The distances between places are vast and the continent huge. We have travelled the better part of 10000 kilometres and haven't yet reached the Sahara! And then there is west Africa too.

There was lots to see out the windows. We saw lots of fields of sugar cane and many small villages. If you could stop and take as many photos as you wanted you'd never get anywhere. There are photo ops everywhere. It's sometimes hard to believe what you are seeing. Sometimes you have to do a reality check and remind yourself of what you are really seeing and how lucky you are to see it.

After we crossed the border into Uganda we saw fields of rice, cotton and coffee and villages that appeared even poorer. The scenery changed a lot from fields, to hills, to jungle type forests, to flat lands. Everywhere as you are driving and seeing the poor standards of the people you see ads for cellphones, internet connections, investment companies, and lots of ads for manufactured foods. All of which seem quite incongruous with the surroundings. Things do appear to be a little more affluent in the cities, but they are really congested and when you look down sides streets you see more poverty. Obviously the countries are struggling to change from third world to something better, but there is a long way to go.

I forgot to mention that the last couple of days we have been very close to the equator and crossed it twice, but we've been cold at night! Apparently we are quite high up in altitude, around 2500 metres. Tonight is much warmer here.

John and I are still surprised at how many children run out and wave, yell and smile at us as we drive by. Many adults do to, but the young men tend not to. I think that maybe they are resentful of us, or can't fathom where we come from or what we are doing. Since Malawi we have seen very few white people anywhere, and I think that in itself makes us a novelty for the kids especially.

Right at the end as we got to Kampala we saw a bottles truck that had dumped its load in an intersection. There was glass everywhere! Surprisingly, as an aside and based on how everyone drives, this was the first accident we had seen.

We arrived at Red Chillies Campground just outside Kampala. Interesting camp, with a three legged cat, a huge fat german sheppard and a enormous sow as camp mascots. There are also vervet monkeys running around and large black ibis birds squawking in the trees.

They have wi-fi here, so I was able to update the blog a bit. Then dinner and bed time.