it is cold, damn cold!

the ugandian way of keeping time is slightly different from what it is in switzerland. we`re building a little banda for visitors and while i allready finished the preparation for all the timber, the builder is still working on the fundation. so i didn`t have any work for this week. and instead of sitting around i`ve choosen to make a tour to the rwenzori mountains (the switzerland of uganda). after a night in kampala backpackers (and meeting some cool people there) i traveled west to kasese from where i took a shared taxi (a normal saloon car shared by five to eleven people) to ruboni community camp on the slopes of the rwenzoris. the ruboni community camp offers good food, clean accomodation and stunning views.

river by ruboni community camp

water reservoir for coopermines

view from a hill to the snowy peaks of the rwenzoris (sorry for the clouds)

me (it was cold, i am wearing a t-shirt, a sweater and a jacket)

after a cold night i went on a walk into the steep hills around the camp. while i was sweating after five minutes of climbing (it really was more climbing then walking), my guide run up the hill without even breathing harder. the simple reason for that: the local people are used to walk up the hills, they use it as cultivated land. they grow potatos, matoke, passionfruits and beans on the steep hills on 2000 meters above sealevel. once more i had the luck to enjoy the ugandian hospitality. we passed by a hut on maybe 1900 meters when a young boy reached us to give us some fresh passionfruits. as we reached the top of the hill we should have enjoyed the view on the snowcaped peaks of the rwenzori mountains. but they where covered in clouds. climbing up took maybe three hours, but running down just one. back in the camp i enjoyed a bucketshower with cold water and then some wellearned beers and a good and filling dinner.

the next day i took a matatu from kasese to mbarara. the road crosses queen elizabeth national park, so we met some impalas and an elephant on the way. mbarara is a little, bustling town in the south of uganda (on the other side of the equator). on the first view it looked very disorganised, even more then kampala, but they sell tickets for matatus and the price and destination is written on the matatu (you won`t find that in kampala). but i didn`t want to stay in mbarara and the way to kampala was to long, so i took an other matatu to sanga and then a taxi to lake mburo national park, where i spended the night between monkeys and warthogs. again i went on a walk in the morning, in lake mburo NP it is possible to go on guided walks instead of sitting in the 4wd for spotting wildlife.

zebras (they are black with white stripes)

warthog (warzenschwein)

a long mataturide later i was in kampala and i went to speke hotels pizzeria mammamia (in hicking boots and dirty pants, unshaved since two weeks :-)) for a good galzone. the last matatu then brought me back to kawuku, and finally i arrived in my bed in kids of africa for a long long sleep!