Tag Archives: Uganda

Buy me a soda

22 Nov

In East Africa you will come upon the phrase “buy me a soda” a few times (if me quite a lot). Africans love their soda but at this point they don’t actually want you to buy them one. This is a code word for a little bribe to either get things going quicker or to get yourself out of some trouble you may have gotten into. With all bargaining try to start low but when it comes to border patrol or people in government roles soda prices are generally fixed. Good luck with your soda purchases and even though everyone knows what is going on always be discreet.

Foggy

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The Black Market

12 Nov

Have you ever wondered where your nice camera or laptop goes after you’re robbed? In East Africa the black market trade is actually pretty sophisticated. Anything stolen in Kampala will immediately get sent to another major city like Bujumbura or Kigali so there is no way of tracing it. From there the goods are sold and whatever extra the seller gets for the product he keeps and then sends the rest to where the good came from. You can get almost anything for very cheap if you know the ‘right’ people but this traveler decided to keep Karma on his side and turned down the temptation.

Foggy

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Mzungu the Local Celebrity

3 Nov

While wandering through East Africa you will begin to wonder who is this Mzungu you keep hearing about. You always seem to just miss him as people always start yelling his name while you are around. Mzungu is obviously the word for a foreigner and as a white man in Africa you kind of stick out a little… Children run to the road side to shout out your Mzungu name and wave at you. It’s definitely fun but after a while this travel bum realized this is the closest he’s ever getting to celebrity status. Until next time my Mzungu’s.

Foggy

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When in Uganda…

2 Nov

Who wouldn’t want to beer bong on The Nile if you had the chance?

Foggy

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Fishing on the Nile

31 Oct

I met Peter and Warren rafting the day before who were up from South Africa selling wine for their wineries. Warren was the marketing manager at Guardian Peak and Peter’s family ran De Westhof Estate. That night we spent testing their products and they invited me along to go fishing the next day. We met captain Rob and set out to catch some *Nile Perch. It was a pretty sophisticated fishing trip as the boys brought some wine and cheese to enjoy out on the water. Lake Victoria has been extremely over fished and we were warned that pulling anything out would be difficult. That didn’t stop big Peter though from pulling out a whopping 20Kg Perch. I tried to pay the boys in the end for my part of the boat fees but Peter said no way as I had a lot longer trip in front of me.

Huge Cheers to you boys!

Foggy

*Nile Perch is a huge fish found in Lake Victoria and the Nile that can weigh up to 200Kg.

Lake Victoria

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Rafting the Nile

29 Oct

If you are looking for a little adventure in Uganda make your way to Jinja. It is the adventure capital of the country. I booked with Nile River Explorers and they came to pick me up in Kampala. $125 will get you a full day of rafting which also includes three meals. We got lucky on our boat and got the river manager of the company Jane as our guide. With over 21 years of guiding experience all over the world she definitely knew her stuff out there. We were a little sticky for her in the boat though as she kept trying to knock us off in the rapids and couldn’t quite manage, she eventually gave up and told us to jump out on the last rapid so we could swim through it. Until my next near drowning experience!

Foggy

Nile River Explorers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

28 Oct

Getting to Buhoma where I was to stay for my gorilla trekking was interesting to say the least. It involved many “shortcuts” of muddy terrain going up and over hills while dealing with heavy rain fall. I eventually got to my destination 11 hours after leaving Kampala early in the morning.

The next day my group set out to find the Mubare family of mountain gorillas in the National Park. I was an easy target for the rangers as I was the only person hiking in shorts (there was no way I was doing that in jeans). Once we set off you found out why they called it the impenetrable forest as it was extremely thick bush. Two hours and a few bug bites later we reached the trackers who had gone out ahead of us. The next hour we spent hanging out with these huge animals watching them lie about and snack on the vegetation. Here is some video of the massive animals deep in the jungle.

Foggy

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Dude put your camera away

27 Oct

I had met a couple from the UK in Buhoma on the gorilla trekking and we decided to cut costs and travel together. We were driving from the south to the north end of Queen Elizabeth National Park and our driver Moustafa informed us that there were some pretty rough parts of the road and he was not lying. When we got to the second bad spot there was a huge line up of trucks that we passed and then we saw the problem. There was a truck with its load on a 45 degree angle stuck in the mud and then another truck stuck next to it that had tried to pass it. It left only a gap on the one side and as soon as we got there two cars went from opposite sides went at the same time. They both met and a huge yelling match erupted. I thought this was a pretty interesting scene so I whipped out my camera for some photos. As I was trying a panorama shot of the whole scene I heard Abbas say “dude put your camera away” and I looked up to see a man coming at me with a piece of wood in his hand and rage in his eyes. He was yelling at me in Swahili and a group of other men were holding him back. He thought I was taking pictures of his driving as he was the driver of the big truck. The men eventually defused the situation by basically saying that I was a stupid white man. Here are my amateur photos of the scene that unfolded on that rainy day in Uganda.

Foggy

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Murchison Falls National Park

27 Oct

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Queen Elizabeth National Park

27 Oct

I did a quick trip through the south western part of Uganda and came across the Queen Elizabeth National Park. The park is definitely worth a look and try and stay in the town of Ishasha where you will hang out with the Ugandan army protecting the DRC-Uganda border which is 100 metres away from where you sleep.

Foggy

 

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