Drive to Fort Portal

This morning 3 other volunteers and I left for Fort Portal to go chimp trekking. Rather than take one of the “death busses” we decided to pay a bit more money for a special hire. Our driver was a friend of Leslie’s who drives many muzungu’s around. It was nice to have a whole mini van for just 5 people rather than the usual 20 to 24 people.

It rained the whole day and we almost got rear ended on the way up there. For what ever reason the Ugandan road authority feels it necessary to put very large speed bumps every 20 feet or so. This lasted for over and hour and a half so there was no way to sleep and we were all very tired.

6 hours later we arrived in Fort Portal which is on the boarder of the Congo. The town is very sweet, it’s in a very lush and hilly area so the scenery is beautiful. It was also nice to be away from Mukono because no one in Fort Portal was yelling at us or pulling at us to come buy something.

We spent the day just walking around enjoying ourselves and even managed to find a muzungu restaurant. The food wasn’t great but it was sure nice not to have posho and beans.

Our hotel was quite nice by Ugandan standards. Each room had two single beds with mosquito nets, a bathroom attached to the room with a western style toilet (that actually worked) and a proper shower. The water was of course cold but it was still nice not to be splashing water on myself in a bucket.

Tomorrow we drive another hour or so into the rain forest to go trekking.

Jenn