WAKA TO EAST AFRICA (UGANDA)

Disclaimer - Those bags don't belong to only me

From the moment we touched down Kampala, the similarities between Uganda and Nigeria wasn’t lost on us. Even the airport had a Nigerian feel. Ijeoma made a comment that finally she has seen an airport that Nigerian airport is better than. Though, of all countries visited, it was only the Nigerian airport that didn’t have wifi available.

The travel operators in Uganda took us out for a welcome meal. We once again decided on local cuisine, which this time around was a delight. Definitely a breather from all the matoke and ugali in Kenya, though we still saw them on the menu. This time, we were wise enough to avoid them.

Our menu was as follows, as recorded by @aijayc and @faithastic. (I was too busy trying every single item to jot down the menu) –

Semutundu mu binyebwa – Cat fish in groundnuts

Oluwombo Iwe’mbuzi – Goat meat in banana fibres (don’t ask me why they keep using banana as cooked food)

Oluwombo Iwe’nkoko – Chicken in banana fibres

Omuchere – Rice

Matoke – Mashed banana

Ejjuni – Yam

Akawunga – Posho

Lumonde – Sweet potatoes (this one was bae)

Ensujju – Pumpkin

Sikumawikyi – Greens

Ebijanjalo – Beans

Just like in Kenya, the food was neither spiced nor salted. Though this definitely was an upgrade. My favourite was the rice with beans, potatoes and then the groundnut sauce (yes ke, I ate them all). The goat meat was definitely well enjoyed. Though after all this combination I was the only one who needed to down tablets of Imodium as my fragile stomach decided to show itself. L

Selfie after a nice meal

We had a mini tour of the city during our drive to the hotel. Kampala has so many similarities with Nigeria. It felt like characteristic features of several states in Nigeria are immersed in Kampala. Some parts had the red soil as you have in Edo State. There was a part of the road side with mainly craft men and their shops, this reminded me of some parts of Benin City.

There was also a settlement with brown roofs that gave me a nostalgic feeling of Ibadan. As we drove by, we saw a car park with bus arrangement that immediately took my mind to Panseke bus park in Abeokuta. Then there was this market that’s almost a replica of Balogun market.

Our hotel (Ivory Castle Boutique) felt like one of the best kept secrets out of Uganda. I never thought I’d see such beauty in Kampala. It was more of a vacation house tho. A mansion turned into a hotel and the best part was, we were the only ones lodged at the time we visited. While the others went out to see a cultural show, I decided to stay indoors to relax. I learnt from my Zanzibar trip the importance of having one day off to relax during the trip.

Next day we were off to Mabira forest (located 10km off the highway between Kampala and Jinja) for the forest walk. There I was thinking I was done with hiking for the year after my one week of chasing waterfalls across Five States in Nigeria. The Mabira forest is the oldest and largest forest in Uganda. According to our guide it has 35 species of bats, 3 different types of monkeys (the Magipey, the Velvet and the Colombus monkeys). There are about 318 types of butterflies in the forest and 58 species of snakes inhabitant there. Again, don’t ask me how they counted the animals.

At the heart of the forest was the Griffin water falls. The water sadly has been polluted from the waste emanating from a nearby sugarcane factory. Did I forget to mention the amazing view of the sugarcane farm we took in during the ride to the forest? menh, there’s so much out there to see and explore!

The hike took about 1hour, 30mins and it was total fun all the way. There was also a zip lining facility in the forest, though none of us was in the adventurous mood as our energy was already far spent hiking.

        

On our way back to Kampala, we took another route. The highway held such reminders of the Ore-Ibadan express way. There were even street traders just like you see at Ore. 

I was excited with the similarities till I caught sight of what looked like Lekki-Ikoyi link bridge under construction. The way I drew everyone’s attention to it eh…I told the driver we have to get closer so I could see it well, even if it meant taking a detour.

They don’t have joy o, an exact replica and damn…their own is going to be a twin suspension bridge. See how they have want to take one of the fancy Landmarks of Lagos from us? *Sigh

We later had a boat cruise on Lake Victoria where we got to see the source of the River Nile. The Nile River is the longest river in the world which flows through the north-eastern part of Africa. The Nile starts in Jinja, Uganda at the shore of Lake Victoria and flows northwards over Ripon Falls into Lake Kyoga.

The remarkable feature of the source of the Nile is how the water emanates from underneath the ground evidenced by the bubbles that can be visibly seen on the water surface.

The next day we had a brief city tour around what I will call the highbrow areas of Kampala. This one felt like they practically created a prototype of CMS axis. So much similarities. We hung by their independence layout (funny, it was designed by a foreigner).

Five days away from Nigerian food and we were all having withdrawal symptoms. We didn’t have any major activity for the day asides the city tour and craft shopping, so we hunted down Nigerian restaurants. Luckily, we found one and it was worth it!!

I’ve had the opportunity of visiting eight African countries and I can bodly say Nigerian food stands out. Is it in taste? Appearance? Aroma? We got it all! This one I can argue to my last breath even though I run from confrontation.

                           

We gave our tour guide Nigerian food to taste and we made a believer out of him.

We arrived the bus park in time to board the Trinity bus to Rwanda. We unanimously agreed to do a road trip to Rwanda from Uganda while we were still back in Nigeria. This was my second road trip across African countries.

At that time, the border experience left a sour taste (wasn’t funny standing out in the freezing weather for almost two hours) and I vowed never to do road trip across countries again but now I’m all settled I’m definitely open to trying it again.

All passengers had to alight at the border to enable the immigration officers check every luggage in order to ensure no one was carrying polythene bags into the country. Rwanda runs a strict green environment policy. The bus seats were so comfortable, I slept like a baby all through the journey I didn’t even know when we arrived Rwanda.