Roads: 4

Getting the bananas to market

In 1996, we dealt with a lot of construction on the main roads in the west. I’m sure that now they are completed which would improve this rating. When the roads were improved, they were well engineered and smooth. In the Southwest around Bwindi National Park, the roads were gravel, sand or dirt. These varied from good to poor. Again, we recommend a mountain bike for this destination.

Traffic: 7

The population around Kampala does create some heavy traffic but we were able to ride in and out of the city.  In the west, the roads were crowded with people not cars.  It's an excellent quiet ride from Fort Portal to Ishaka.

Weather: 8

Local market with banana vendor

In January, the climate was almost perfect, although the temperatures (on the equator) are about the same year round. There is rain year round also but this contributes to the green countryside. The humidity is fairly low if you’re not in the rainy season. The rainy season varies from place to place. In January, the Southwest, which is rainier, is pretty dry

Winds: 7
We experienced very light to no wind days. For this reason, it was hard to determine any patterns.

Scenery: 6
Uganda is quite flat except in the west. So the scenery in the west is far superior to that in the east. The tea plantations around Fort Portal are beautiful. The Majestic Rwenzori Mountains are a backdrop to the south. And finally, around Bwindi in the southwest, the gorillas are not the only attraction, the scenery in the mountains is excellent.

Information: 2

Riding past Zebras

Obviously, other than being directed there by some bikers we had met elsewhere, bike specific information was hard to come by. Even the fact that the road was under construction was only discovered when we arrived in the area. Many educated people speak English and try to help but they tend to be provincial.. Our best information was gleaned from the ex-pats. Our best guidebook was by BRANDT Publications: Guide to Uganda.

Road Safety: 7
In the west, the main impediments on the road are people on foot. There was construction here in 1996 so now you’d be biking a new well-engineered road. Car and trucks travel at a relatively low speed because of all the people walking on the roads. Of course, around Kampala, the traffic makes for less ideal conditions but even here the drivers seemed fairly courteous.

General Safety: 6

Riding into a small town for the night

There is a serious difference in your personal safety issues from Kenya to Uganda. As an example, we walked around Kampala at night where as in Nairobi, this would be risky. Of course, the countryside is even safer. The big issue is the ongoing insurgency in the northwest, especially around Murchinson Falls, denying you access to this purportedly beautiful area.

Value: 4

To reach a certain standard you are forced to stay in the tourist hotels and eat in the tourist restaurants.  Therefore, the value is about the same as in Kenya.  We did stay in some local accommodations but the quality matched the price......low.  Again, food was good if you paid the price.  Kampala offered few good values but we did have very good Indian food.

Fluids: 3

This is the traffic we share the roads with.

In the countryside, especially in the west, plan ahead for fluids since water is not always readily available. As you would suspect, buy the bottled water. There’s soda pop usually. Nile Beer is an OK light beer.

Food: 2

In Kampala, we ate ok.  There are enough International restaurants of good quality including the new Indian Restaurants.  After that, its basic but sometimes tasty food in the smaller towns.   Because of the resort type hotels we stayed at in the countryside, we were limited to their restaurants which usually serve boring Engish style fare.

Accomodations: 4
Nothing special but we stayed in a couple of older resorts that had some character. We stayed where all the tourists stay: resorts and tent camps so nothing was exceptional. Only in Kampala did we really have a choice.

People: 8

Culture: 7
On the highways, the everyday life was intact and very vibrant. The colorful clothes of the hordes of walkers and the swirl of the road side markets were fantastic. In the villages, life continues as it has for decades. The roads, especially in the west, pass right through them offering you the chance to see them up close.

History: 4
It’s so hard to get passed the negatives of Amin but in a way it’s interesting to see how people have dealt with this legacy. Only colonial history is evident and mostly in the resorts and hotels which were built at that time.

TOTAL SCORE 79

Kenya Border (Busia) to Jinja
115 Ks
Fine road, no traffic. At Iganga, the traffic picks up. It’s a fairly easy ride. Jinja is on the Nile River. They call it the “source of the Nile”.

Jinja to Kampala
80 Ks
There are more hills and the road is busier toward Kampala. We took the main road.

Kampala to Mityana
69 Ks
It takes a long time to get out of town and there are some hills. It poured just as we got to Mityana. We tried to go to the lake but the road was too rough.

Mubende to Kyenjojo
110 Ks
Road under construction and the tarmac starts after 23 Ks. New road very good.

Mbarara to Masaka
145 Ks
This is a good road with easier rolling hills and light traffic. The scenery is less interesting and with more population.

Masaka to Kampala
137 Ks
There is more traffic, more population and easy hills. It’s busy into Kampala.

Uganda Road Story

Did I mention that we went to see the mountain Gorillas? Well we did, and on our bikes.

Before we left for Uganda we checked for a reservation to trek to see the Gorillas at Bwindi  Park.  The limited slots had been filled for months but we were told that we could take our chances and just show up. 

As we drew closer, we met Steven, an English game guide in Fort Portal.  He passed us earlier in the day in his Landrover and spent the day setting up a camp in the wilderness for his clients and we saw him again at an old colonial hotel in Fort Portal.  So we had dinner.  He told us we could definitely find a place to stay in Bwindi and if there was a problem just mention his name.  However, seeing the Gorillas was a hit or miss proposition.

We were willing to take our chances.  As we rode closer to the Park the road got progressively rougher.  A group of Norwegian gorilla seekers in a tour van passed us and, just in case the other rare bipeds weren’t contacted, took videos of us.  They stopped to ask if we saw the tree lion, “you would have ridden right under him.”  “No, we missed him, obviously he wasn’t hungry.” Peter replied.  We saw a lion later in the day in a tree farther away from the road; it looks just like any lion but is a rare tree climbing subspecies unique to Southern Uganda.

We arrived late and sure enough, there was a tent accommodation for us.   The only accommodations here are tent camps for tourists who come to see the Mountain Gorillas.  The group we enjoyed dinner with had seen the Gorillas and a variety of rare birds.  They eagerly described their long trek.  Two different groups go out each day.  The groups consist of a guide and two armed guards and six tourists.  Each group tracks a different Gorilla family. You must wear a long sleeve shirt, long pants and can only take cameras without a flash. 

We had no luck getting on the tour the first day.  We decided to stay one more night and try tomorrow.  We were staying at the same camp as the Norwegians.  The tourist from the night before had the Norwegians so excited they were up before dawn ready to track the Gorillas.

We busied ourselves with doing laundry, hanging it out to dry and reading.  About 3PM, Nixon, the Ugandan manager of the tent camp came to us and said, “Follow me and be very quiet”.  We creped behind the camp where there was a small river.  On the other side of the river were four Gorillas.  Nixon whispered and pointed, “Mother, daughter, son and Papa.”  The mother and daughter were almost the same size and the son was smaller but Papa was huge and his black eyes kept returning to our spot.  We each felt like we had had direct eye contact with him. 

The rest of his family completely ignored us.  We sat very still, no sudden movements.  The workers at the camp silently and slowly joined us and were just as fascinated.  The attraction for the Gorillas was banana trees. 

Papa, deciding we were ok, plopped down under a tree and leaned against it.  So huge and manlike, then he raised his arm, with head turned toward us, stretched his huge furry arm up into the banana tree and his big fingers grasped the banana bunch where it was attached to the tree.  He twisted his wrist to snap the thick connection like it was a small matchstick.  He slowly brought the entire bundle of bananas down in one hand.  The boy came running over to him.  He just took his time, separating the bananas and handing them out to the others and then leaned back to eat his bananas.  He did not peal them just popped them into his mouth as if they were candy.

We had to leave when the guards had to return to camp.  Nixon swore us to secrecy.

The Norwegians returned at dusk, exhausted from bivouacking for 10 hours.  They never saw any Gorillas.  We were silent.  Finally, Nixon couldn’t stand it and took the group out back to see the Gorillas.  They got their videos and pictures and forgot all about their day of torture.