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Cycle Tour 2025 - Western Europe and East/Southern Africa

Home Page > Bicycle Touring > Cycle Tour 2025: Western Europe and East/Southern Africa > Part 6




Part 6 - Africa: Uganda and Rwanda

We took a taxi to Brussels airport which was very closeby and waited to check in. We were asked at check-in for evidence of our Ugandan visa and return ticket. We have a return ticket from Cape Town as that is where we are flying home from. All other border crossings will be overland, except this flight from Brussels. Many countries, including Uganda will stipulate the condition of entry that you have proof of a return ticket, which we supplied when applying for our e-visa. This was validated by the visa being approved on this basis. It was the airline who took issue with this as it is likely them who are liable if we are turned away at the border. Check in desk lady called her team leader who then explained to us that in order for us to fly to Uganda we would have to have a ticket for onward travel, if he put in our booking that we were going to cycle this would not be enough for us to be allowed entry and thus allowed on the flight to Uganda. His words, "It can even be a $10 bus ticket to a neighbouring country, it can even be refundable." So we went to a corner of the airport and tried to find something. Suffice to say you cannot book a bus ticket online in Uganda, flights were pretty expensive as we only planned on being in Uganda around 6 days before we entered Rwanda. Mike luckily found a fully refundable flight via Rwanda Air which flew to Nairobi. It cost over 1 000 EUR for two tickets and as he has often looked at the Rwanda Air site (we nearly flew with them from Brussels to Entebbe), felt confident in it. Back we went to the check in counter and had to wait a while, but the team leader put in the relevant permission on our check in and we could get our bags and bikes through and finally head to security and then exit Europe. It was a lot of money to pay for red tape as we cancelled the flight the day after we arrived in Uganda, while the payment was still pending.

We had a 6 hour flight to Doha and at least we had no one else sitting in our row of three so that was a bonus. We had a lengthy layover in Qatar, 9 hours. We had last flown through Hamad International (Doha) years ago and were very impressed with the improvements since. It is much calmer and quieter than Singapore (much less busy) and the internal gardens, shops and layout were terrific. We had a 4 hour lounge pass and that was amazing. Very luxurious. The shower, along with lovely products and fluffy towel were a treat. The lounge was very big, high ceilings and the meals and coffee were fantastic. We left at 05:30 and went to find a quiet area in the airport which was easy to do. Only issue was very loud and very regular passenger announcements and boarding calls. We boarded our flight to Entebbe at 09:00 and left at 10:00, arriving in Entebbe at 15:00. We liked flying Qatar again, in flight meals and entertainment were good. The only downside was the check-in at Brussels, apart from us having to buy the other air tickets, it was still exceedingly slow and tedious.

Entebbe Airport was good, immigration was happy with us and no asked no questions about onward travel. You have to hand in your pre-approval advice and they print your visa and stick it in your passport. I guess Australians don't pose much of a immigration risk to Uganda. Just some more in this; we considered a few options with East African travel. The first was to arrive in Nairobi and purchase an East African Tourist Visa for 100 USD which gives you access to Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya. However as Australians we can enter Rwanda visa-free and we also did not fancy the idea of cycling out of Nairobi. Absolute nightmare. At the time of booking flights, there was an unstable situation in DRC and Rwands was involved, so it seemed a risk to fly into Rwanda if things escalated there and travel advice changed.We could fly Qatar or Rwanda Air to Entebbe, however we preferred Qatar as it flew as scheduled whereas Rwanda Air sometimes showed cancellations. The Uganda visa cost USD 50 each.

We collected our bikes and luggage and went outside to put the bikes together. We were relieved that it was not overly hot or humid and there were no mozzies, but a strong breeze. We had quite an audience of interested locals watching and asking questions as Mike put the bikes together. Another bloke wanted to know lots about Perth as he wanted to visit. It did not take too long and we were on our way. It was already after 18:00 and the sun sets properly by 19:00 here, so it was dusk as we rode the short distance from the airport to our hotel, Oslo Gardens. Well, it's more of a resort, I guess. The streets we rode down were mainly unsealed, busy with taxis and moto's, people everywhere, huge potholes, goats, hens, chickens, long horned cattle. Everyone was friendly. Delicious smells of chicken and meat being roasted over fire. We ended up having to push our bikes over some narrow paths and a man helped me by pushing from behind. We were speedily checked-in by Jenny. The resort is on the shores of Lake Victoria. This lake is sort of a legend as we learnt about it in school as children. It is the source of the River Nile, and second in surface area size only to Lake Superior. We showered, dropped our bags, crwaled under our mozzie net, ate our beef samosas that we got at the airport and feel asleep at 20:00. 12 hours later we woke up and went for breakfast at 09:00. We met the owner, a Norwegian from Oslo with a Ugandan wife. We had a lovely conversation with him about Norway and Uganda. Mike had some more work to do on the bikes and I sprayed insect protection on some of our clothes. Later we will go back to town to get something to eat.


We had a lovely stay at Oslo Gardens, it had a very nice atmosphere. We popped back into the little village on our rest day and bought the most delicious pineapple we have ever had, as well as bananas and a Rolex. This is a Ugandan speciality, it is like an omelette but the eggs are fried with chipati and it is delicious, plain but really tasty at the same time. Lots of oil I think, but it's good. We will probably have them fairly often while we are here. Oslo Gardens is very convenient to the airport, village stalls and the Nakiwogo Ferry Port. We had planned to take the short ferry over the water to Lulongo, but Mike saw yesterday that there was also a ferry from Nakiwogo to the Ssese Islands further south in Lake Victoria and we could ride across Bungala Island and take another ferry from the other end back to the mainland. This ferry left at 14:00 but we had to buy tickets at 12:00 as it gets busy and you want to be sure to get on. So we left Oslo Gardens before 12 to go stand in line to buy tickets. It cost 15 000 UGS (Uganda Shillings) for each of us and 5 000 UGS per bike. We were assisted by two blokes who showed us where to go with our bikes and even loaded them onto the boat for us. We then had an hour wait to board the ferry, they showed us to some seats even. Once we could board the ferry at 13:30 we had an hour wait as it only departed at 14:30. We just really enjoyed the time at the ferry port. There are so many people to watch as they arrive and go about their business. There were heavily armed police and other security, even the army. Everyone is really friendly and it is just so easy being back in an English speaking country.

Although the ferry left late, it took a short cut through some islands, so we were not late arriving. We crossed the Equator on the lake so are now in the southern hemisphere once again. No line- crossing ceremonies though. At times the ferry was jostled about a bit by the waves. We were seated upstairs on comfy seats and a big screen showed three war action movies, all American, all to do with American soldiers killing local inhabitants. One was Black Hawk Down (US vs Somaliland) and the other was Platoon (US vs Vietnam I think). The other one I don't remember. We didn't watch, but found it a strange choice of movies on a government ferry. Or maybe not so strange, but certainly uncomfortable. All you saw and heard for three hours was white army killing black people. Just on that, when Mike used the toilet at Entebbe airport when we arrived, a bloke asked him if he was American. His answer was a strong negative, whereupon the bloke asked him for money. Strong negative again.

It was a lovely sight arriving at Kalangala, very beautiful, an island paradise. The local accomodation set ups come to the port with signs indicating which establishment they are from and so we went to speak to the couple from the Kalangala Pearl as we wanted to camp there. It was only about 1 km from the ferry port. They charged 15 000 UGS per person to camp and when we got there we saw it was just lovely. The manager gave us a guided tour of the whole place. Right on the lake shore with very nice facilities. Hot showers, a swimming pool, even a fire sauna which is on every night. Normally I would have gone for the sauna in a heartbeat, but it was nearly sundown. We were able to pitch our tent right at the water's edge and then had a swim in the warm Lake Victoria while watching the sunset. A trip highlight right there! We showered and got into the tent, listening to frogs and geese. The birdlife we have seen so far in Uganda is wonderful. Our host even came to visit us at our tent when it was dark to wish us a good night's sleep. So far Uganda has been nothing but lovely! We especially like the people.


We had set our alarms for 06:00 but I slept through them and when I woke up at 06:45, Mike was sitting up, wide awake. He said I was so fast asleep and anyway, it was too dark to get up at 06:00. We started packing up and went to the bathroom, etc. The campsite manager came around to chat while we made breakfast. He had never heard of oats, so when ours run out I guess we will be looking around for another breakfast food! He told us that when people shout , "Mzungu, mzungu" at us they are being friendly, it is not meant as an insult. Good to know! Also he said that everyone who we pass on the roadside will want to say hello and we should say hello back, how are you etc. Also good to know! We set off around 08:30 after all this and went straight up a steep hill and passed a troop of vervet monkeys, which was cute. The climb was very steep. The road surface on the island was red packed dirt, very smooth You just have to avoid the potholes which are very deep. We stopped at Stanbic bank to try to exchange more money, but they didn't do foreign exchange, so we ended up withdrawing money for a large fee. After our climb we were high about the lake. We had a 35 km ride to the ferry on the other side of the island and there were some steep climbs but it was okay. Not much traffic. We enjoyed the different vegetation to what we have seen lately. Many trees, even fir trees. Palm oil groves. We did sweat a lot though, morning humidity and found it hot. In the end we made the 12:00 ferry by 25 minutes. This is a free ferry but we had to sign the manifest. Vehicles come on the ferry and we watched with interest as two blokes on mopeds consolidated their fish catch onto one. Never seen so much stuff on a moped before, and we have been to Morocco. We watched in amazement as the guy set off the ferry, barely a wobble. We sat on the ferry with mainly women and small children. The kids are just so curious, they just stare at us. One lady had a chicken (live) in a plastic bag, just it's head sticking out, tucked under her arm.

Arriving at Butaka, the mainland ferry port, the vehicles had to negotiate a narrow strip of stoney beach to get off the ferry. We stopped to buy a Rolex, but the bloke selling them said the eggs were off so he wasn't selling. We each had a rice samosa intead. At least he was honest!

The road was a good bitumen road for the next 25 km which was brilliant and we enjoyed that! It was a different world off the island, much drier with open grassland as far as you could see. Sometimes swampy. Many long horned cattle on the road. We stopped to pick up water at the first settlement and were able to rest in the shade for a while and use Solly to charge our phones. The public taps seem to be locked and then someone comes along with a key and unlocks them for a while and people collect water. The people were very helpful and helped us get the water. There were teeny children coming out of school in bright orange shirts or dresses. They all greeted us and waved. Some of them just stood and stared. Mike steripenned the water. When we were on our way again we picked up bananas, honey, bread rolls, pineapple and some drinks.

We turned off our road onto a dirt road which deteriorated pretty quickly, but was busy with people and mopeds etc. Many school kids. They are all excited and friendly. Not in a crazy Morrocan way though, just pretty sweet and wary of the road. They love to wave and shout , 'Bye Mazunga!'. This dirt road was pretty horrendous and very, very bumpy so you couldn't wave at the kids which seems a downer to them, they love the wave! There was a large grassy area where the church was and we wondered if we could camp there. Many kids around though, standing around us as we ate our pineapple. One young man who was a school student came to ask us to support him financially with his studies. We ended up walking into the bush a little and found a great campspot. No sooner had we set up the tent than a lady came along collecting firewood with her four children. She was very sweet, saying hello and her kids were sweet too. We managed to get a shower in before getting into the tent. We were exhausted


Today was one of those days when we just couldn't seem to get on top of things. There are many changes being in Uganda. We are suddenly at over 1 000 metres above sea level, the climate is diifferent with humidity higher than we are used to, especially in the mornings, and the roads are of course tougher than we have been used to lately. I felt completely exhausted and Mike not much better. It felt like we couldn't get any momentum and we just wanted to lie down under a tree and sleep. But you sort of have to find your way through it. We are on a route called the Uganda Trail, and as is common with these things, the degree of difficulty is pretty high. However, it also presented us with priceless interactions with locals, so, swings and roundabouts I guess.

Last night we slept with the tent outer open so keep cool, and there were mozzies! They sat on the mesh doors trying to get in. Around midnight I needed to go pee-pee. What to do? I tried to ignore the urge, hoping it would go away, but no such luck.Eventually I just thought, "be practical, you are taking medication everyday in the event of malaria so just get on with it.". I put on our mozzie deterrent pad heater (flextail) and a scarf over my head and jumped outside, Mike closing the tent door in my wake. Quickly did it and leapt back inside. All good! Yippee. Must say here that I can only envy men the convenience of their equipment in this regard.That includes when holding onto a loaded bicycle. This morning we got up around 07:00 as it is not really light enough earlier and the mozzies packed it in then. We said hello to a friendly bloke walking nearby through the bush. Ugandans are so cool, "Hey, mzungu! Hello!", "Good morning! " we replied. No problems with finding us camping there. We set off and the road conditions were variably ok to pretty poor, but you take that in your stride.There were many ups and downs, we never seemed to be on the flat at all. It was a lovely area to ride through though, we saw so many crops up close, banana, corn, passionfruit and coffee! The road was pretty narrow and we said hello to many people, travelling to school or carrying loads on moto's. We chatted to a Catholic priest who stopped and got out of his car to speak to us. He was so cool, he told us that one of his jobs is to go round the schools to teach the children good values. He also said we are welcome to camp at the church. We cycled passed the church a short while later and it was huge! We have noticed that most schools are catholic so the church fills a large space in communities. We rested by the church and chatted to a bloke who cycled passed with complete bunches of bananas hanging from their stalks and other edible plants all tied to the back of his bike. I had been lying down, probably hoping I would magically awake at our end point without any effort. As I sat up, he said, "What's the problem?". That was pretty apt. What's the problem? Well actually there isn't one! I asked him if the food was for his home and he said yes. He was a young bloke and this is probably his daily task. Later on we drew into a village and I bought some coke's to drink. We sat against the side of a house and a grandfather was busy stirring coffee beans that were drying on a large sheet on the ground. This is a common sight. His teeny granddaughter was with him and we had a chat to him. There was a tiny piglet running around that was so cute. After a while the little girl came to give us each a green fruit of some kind. Later on we realised it was a green passionfruit. She was so cute, standing right next to me showing how to eat it. Then granddad walked over the road to the shop and came back with bunch of small banana's. He broke off three and handed the rest of the bunch to us. We were floored by this generosity. Here was a man with so little in material possessions however he wanted to give us something which he had paid for.

We set off again, seeming only to be able to do about 4 km before we needed another break. Our route turned off the road and then plummetted metres down to a small stream before crawlimg back up. We chatted to a lady drying many sheets of coffee, she said it takes about 2 weeks to dry. She was so friendly, asking where we were going. An old man came walking down with his grandson who was very young, and afraid of us, as the bloke informed us, smiling. By now the track had become a goat track. Just after the stream we came across a well. We had already filtered water today, but we find the water tastes like it has a high iron concentration. Maybe this is a good this with us being at altitude and all! The well water though was beautiful. A bloke cleaning his moped there told us it was a natural spring. We pushed our bikes up the steepest part of the hill but could ride the rest. After 26 km finally we were at the main road, which was sealed! Amazing, so easy to jump onto and ride. A few km's later we were supposed to turn off again onto another goat track, but we turned back to the sealed road. Afer a few km's of this the road was no longer sealed, due to road construction. The surface was mainly brilliant except for the highest speed humps we have ever seen, made from dirt. There would have been vehicles who couldn't make it over, it was like a rodeo ride. As the road was red dirt and most of the traffic was truck, there were immense clouds of dust that showered us as they passed. By the time we turned off the road after 30 km we looked like oompaloompa's! Or Donald Trump after getting into the self-tan. The road was still up and down but we made ok time and did not have to rest all the time. We stopped in a town to buy something to eat, this time samosas and hot chips and sat down an alley eating. There was a hotel in the next town, 15 km away that we decided to aim for.

We carried on through the dust clouds, often cheered on by random men working in the fields or sittting by the roadside, or the moto drivers that pass us. As we drew into crazy busy Kyotera we felt pretty happy with our 60 km, considering how we had felt most of the day! The guest house we went to offered a great deal on a room. We had to take a long time over showering to get the dirt off.


It was a a good night at the guest house. We always hear music until very late at night, every night that we have been in Uganda. Always sounds like a party going on, but strangely it does not annoy us. There is something about African music, even the doof-doof kind. It is pretty soothing somehow. We had one breakfast included in our stay and paid 6 000 UGS for the other. This is around 2.20 AUD. When we went down at 08:00 it wasn't ready yet, the timid little waitress told us. We went back to our room and a few minutes later she knocked at our door to say it was ready which was really sweet. The breakfast was good, fresh pineapple, freshly made mango juice, Ugandan tea, omelette, bread, avocado which was so soft and smooth you could spread it like butter and beautifully crisp fried tiny potatoes. It was perfect, really. We set off just after 09:00 and the first 25 km was on a lovely bitumen road. We were very happy! Everyone else was too, everyone greets us in Uganda in many different ways. We passed orderly villages, cattle herds, all sorts of people. Some of the moto riders are all, "Hi guys!". Smooth. Ugandan women are very beautiful and dress very well. We see women in the villages handwashing clothing and when they lay it out to dry it smells like heaven. I don't know how they get clothes so clean when water needs to be collected in containers from miles away and brought to the house by bicycle. Every village has a dressmaker who often displays finished products outside the shop. The clothes are amazing. Quite tempting! Wonderful fabrics. We stopped after 20 km to buy some eggs and hard boil them. Daniel with his little boy Britain lived nearby and came to have a chat. His face was just lit up whenever he spoke, so engaging. He had the most beautiful teeth and eventually I had to tell him that! He gave us some info about the area and said that they are peasant farmers and the drier conditions lately have impacted their produce. Things don't grow as easily as before. Which seemed remarkable as while sitting there, quite a few moto's drove by with many, many huge bunches of green bananas hanging from their stalks. The moto with it's load was almost the width of the whole lane. These guys could walk the trapeze, their sense of balance is so good!

We were a little nervous turning off the road onto a dirt road, after yesterday! But we have now abandoned the Ugandan Trail for a route of Mike's making and we had an amazing dirt highway! Still climbing, sometimes steep, but at least it was a road and the ups were mitigated by the downs. By this I mean you could keep a high speed on the downs and make up time. We took another rest at a village as it started to rain and ended up putting on rain gear as it did not let up quickly. We didn't have to wear it long. More cute kids by the roadside just so excited to see us. We see many young men handmaking bricks. All the houses are built of brick. We see them shaping mud, brown or black in frames and then knocking out the fresh brick which is sundried.

It was a much cooler day due to the rain and this really helped us too, we were not as exhausted as yesterday. After we took off our rain gear we have a stretch about 15 km long of actual flat riding! It was amazing! The landscape is changing, there are soft rolling hills in the distance, and more grassland. The houses are also changing, many circular huts now with thatch roofs. We felt hungry and stopped to buy the best chipati omelette that we have had. Piping hot coming out the pan. A local kid told us they are called African pizza's. This was after telling us if we did not give him 2 000 UGS he was going to steal. When we said no, he actually got quite chatty. He was trying it on. We were so enjoying the day, such good riding that it felt doable and we were aiming to camp at a Catholic church at 73 km. The road was a bit wet in places due to the rain and at 45 km going along a slight downhill chatting to Mike my rear wheel slid in some soft gravel and and I came off hard. I badly cut my left knee and was in a bit of shock. Mike got me and the bikes to the roadside and patched me up. Having fallen in red dirt it was important to clean the wound and we have alcohol wipes for this. It was pretty painful. Moto riders stopped from each direction to express concern and a lady walking along did too. Mike thought we should camp right there and there was good camping, but as I could ride and nothing was broken or seriously damaged wanted to go on. The next 20 km was really just an endurance fest. We stopped after a couple of km's at a well to get water. The little kids who came to have a look at us were a bit surprised to see mzungu crying. The shock I think. We just kept going. There was a health centre about 12 km away. We weren't sure if I needed stitches. It was a very deep gash, luckily below my kneecap so I could ride fine, but painful. We had a very steep climb that we walked up and there was a okay place to pull off and camp on top, but it was only 16:15 and I thought we could go for another hour. So steep down and up again. We stopped for some bananas and saw the first evidence of a village with a drinking problem. The men were very drunk and one got a bit aggresive with us. It became a nightmare as we had this ridiculously steep section to get up and you could not ride it. Impossible. Beligerant drunk man on his moto on our heels, literally as he actually rode into my heels from behind and hoardes of kids being whipped into a frenzy of excitement taunting the mzungu. It was horrible and I was a wreck and had to stop and rest a lot, blood that had pooled behind my expertly applied waterproof dressing now running down my leg. The drunk guy buggered off. The kids were still there. A bunch of them took pity on me and pushed my bike from behind which was lovely and really appreciated. After this massive climb we whizzed downhill, kids running after us. Pulling into the next settlement, Mike noticed a nice looking farmhouse and said maybe we should ask if we can camp there. There was masses of grazing land. I was really just wondering if it were possible to get to the church at it was still 8 km and a bit of climbing away. We pushed our bikes into the farm area and a lady came out of the house. Neither she nor the other lady could speak English but the children could understand so we asked permission to camp. She agreed and we went to set up our tent. It was a nice area. A little later her husband came home and rode up to us on his moto. We explained his wife had given us permission and gave him 10 000 UGS (this is the amount we have decided we would give to someone who let us camp on their property). He seemed taken aback by this and asked if we needed any food or water which we didn't. The amount is fair as we pad 47 000 UGS for the hotel and breakfast. Mike re-patched my leg. The wound looked pretty bad. The health centre was over the road but it was after 18:00 so we figured it would be closed. The young cattle herder who is the son of the farmer, told us it closed at 19:00. So we thought I should go over there to have someone look at it. It was a short walk and I chatted to some other cattle herders. It was a very peaceful little village. The health centre was open and there were two nurses but it was mainly maternity health. The were little kids sitting there and hens and chickens walking about. The nurse looked at the wound (I nearly wet myelf when she had the bottle of hydrogen peroxide out but told me after looking thet I didn't need it, phew!). We take an antibiotic everyday for malaria prophylaxis and it's main use is for skin infections. The nurse confirmed I could take two of them for a period to keep the knee wound healing well. I offered payment, but she redressed the wound and said it was a free service.

Many kids came over to our tent to check us out and look at the bikes. They are just curious and we are fine with that. We showered when it grew dark. We are happy camping here. It is quiet and the people are lovely.


The morning broke with clear skies. A herdsman came to enquire about my knee and have a chat. As we are very close to the Tanzanian border, some people speak Swahili and not English. He was soon joined by the son of the cattle owner and another man. We all had a bit of a chat and together with the kids walking up to the nearby school, they were content to watch us pack away and leave for the day, waving us off. The gash on my knee had bled a lot overnight, but my leg felt alright and I was feeling good about riding. As we passed the school, a tall, smiling man came to ask us to go in and say hello to the children. There were about 5 classes, many in the class of littlies and numbers grew steadily lower as the ages grew higher. The man took us from class to class. The kids all recited the same thing in singsong, "We are the - insert year group here - of Kiterede Primary School. We are a class of boys and girls. You are very welcome!". They were all super eager. At first we thought they might want us to say something in return, but apart from vaguely encouraging them, they didn't expect anything. It was just exciting that we were there. They each had a notebook which they seem to do all their writing in. The handwriting was beautiful. All education is in English. 15 minutes later we were on the road.

It turned out to be a really difficult day. There was a major climb which we walked up quite a bit. The road quality was pretty poor and there were many vehicles on the road today which threw dust on us. We find we quite enjoy riding with the moto's but the cars are a different story. At the top of the climb we were at nearly 1 500 m and the views of the hills all around were great. Many cattle about, being herded to market. I did not feel very well after the fall yesterday and in the high humidity and massive amounts of sweating, the plaster covering the gash wouldn't stay stuck which was not good with all the dust about. Apart from the massive climb we had many, many up's and down's which were short but hard. We were aiming for a town at 60 km but pulled into the Rugaaga Health Centre as I had been feeling faint, probably due to the heat and not eating enough and also to get my knee looked at. The staff were brilliant. I offered to pay however this isn't an option. They did a skin prick test for malaria and other things and cleaned my wound thoroughly (ouch) taking care to look for any grit still in there. Then they gave me antibiotics and two types of painkillers and told me to eat well, which we have struggled to do lately. We asked if we could camp in the health centre grounds as I did not feel that I could go any further today and it was pouring with rain, they were concerned about our safety and made a few calls to the council and police but it did not seem we could camp around those buildings. Priska, the nurse, mentioned that she had called the hotel by mistake and so we said, "Oh, there's a hotel in town?". She was concerned that it would not suit us, so called a moto driver as a taxi to take me down there to have a look. This was exciting as my first experience on the back of a moped. He was a sweet guy. We got there and the room was perfect, didn't have a toilet, those were communal but there was a washing corner with bucket and drain. For 10 000 UGS it suited us and was better than camping in the downpour. We were delayed at the place a little waiting for the rain to end. The meals looked good.

He took me back to the health centre where Mike was waiting and thanked Priska and staff and set off on our bikes back to the place. We had beef stew for dinner which was a hearty meal, if a little tough. Mike only thought after we had eaten that it probably would have been from a massive chunk of cow that we see hanging up outside shops. No refrigeration here. All cooking was done on coals. We are really hoping tomorrow goes better, we plan to just finish the second half of today.


We actually had the quietest night that we have spent in Uganda at this little strip of rooms out back of a eatery. Absolutely quiet! Amazing. Still felt extremely tired this morning and Mike is starting a cold so bit of a low point today. However, on the plus side our aim was just to get to Isingiro a mere 30 km away with not much climbing, so surely it would be fine? We had omelette for breakfast where we stayed. Things had cooled down slightly following the rain. Mike did some maintenance on the Rohloff's this morning. There was a chicken sleeping outside our room door. We had a big downhill to start, about 6 km of it and dropped down to some grasslands with grazing cattle and herdsmen. The road conditions were bad and the road was pretty busy. A few heavily laden trucks carrying green bananas in their massive bunches which actually go slower than we do. The road parallel's the Tanzanian border and was full of evidence of assistance of displaced persons. We know that we will pass a refugee camp on the way to the Rwandan border tomorrow. There were many UN signs up around assistance through various measures and so on. The people were much poorer than we have seen lately and seemed not all to be Ugandan. The children were not attending school and were mostly wild. A group who ran after us up a hill actually sounded like monsters. We rested after 15 km and stopped at a village soon after to buy a massive pineapple (we have not seen one for a few days), bananas and watermelon. After this we had not long to go til the end of the dirt road (whoohoo!) and turned onto bitumen for the fist time since ages ago. There was a police check point and Martin and Goodwin were the two officers there and super friendly.

The Golden Crane Resort was where we were heading and looked very smart but when we went in they said that the rate for a double room was 160 000 UGS. This is nearly 70 AUD and of course they did not accept credit card, so that is ridiculous. We offered euro, not expecting them to agree and the receptionist said we could go to the bank in town to exchange cash. We had 90 000 UGS left as we are only in the country for one more night. We went into Isingiro and found the bank. There were armed security outside as usual and Mike chatted to them while I went in. There was a Forex desk, but when my turn came, the lady told me they can only transfer through a bank account not directly. One of the security guards offered Mike that if we gave him euro he would do it for us, deposit it into his account and draw out UGS. But we didn't really want to spend that much money on accomodation. The other bloke said there was a place just behind the bank with rooms and it was very nice. When we asked how much he said 200 000 UGS per month. We said well, we don't want to stay a month, just a night. He seemed to suggest that was ok and took me up 6 flights of steps to have a look. It was a new residential building and he showed me the room, brand new bathroom, very nice. I was saying that the 6 flights of steps were a lot with the bikes but asked what it cost. He went on about a 600 UGS deposit. "But how much for the night?" I asked. "No, it's for the month, " he said. "But we don't want to live here, " I replied, "We are just spending the night." What a waste of time. When speaking to Martin and Goodwin I had seen the ad for Banana Suites, which was just behind the bank so went off there to ask. Room for the night including brekky 45 000. Sold. Really nice place, nice room, hot shower. All good. So we were pleased with the outcome.

We settled in, showered, did some handwashing and had a snooze. Later Vincent the chef cooked us piles of freshly fried potato chips and Spanish omelette which was so delicious and we had masala ginger tea afterwards. From here we have 72 km to the Rwanda border and are not 100% sure if we will be able exchange money there or not, so we will see how it goes.


We opted for a rest day as we were pretty exhausted. Mike was fighting a cold and I felt I had pushed myself in getting here yesterday and needed to just take care. One interesting thing at the health centre was that my temperature was low, at 34.8 degrees, however the nurse said that can be a sign of the body trying to adapt to change in climatic conditions. So I have been taking extra electrolytes and the good meals have helped both of us. We are also worried about where we can get currency in Rwanda. The border crossing we are going to use, Kagitumba, does not seem to have currency available and there is not a nearby town with this service or an ATM. We would be going into a further unknown situation and have found that so far we are dealing with a lot of unknowns and that is putting us under too much pressure. We went to the two ATM's in town to draw more UGS as we did not have enough money to pay for accomodation tonight and neither machine accepted our cards. We went to speak to the young chef at Banana Suites to see what could be arranged, as in could we pay in euro? He seemed to think that would be ok and called the manager who agreed and later came to chat to us. After exploring many options and talking around the point, we decided to take a taxi to the city of Mbarara 30 km away to the Forex agent there. We called ahead and they were open. Then we could buy UGS and Rwandan francs and Tanzanian shillings and future proof this debacle. The manager offered to drive us as he could visit his children there and also as he was concerned for our safety being mzungu dropped off by taxi going into a Forex agent and then getting in another taxi. That suited us and off we went. It was a nice trip, we chatted a lot about Africa, Australia and the world in general. Vastly different perspectives on things. Mike could barely keep a straight face when Abdul (manager) adked him if we also had sluts in Australia. This meant prostitutes. His argument for polygamy was that otherwise the women have to be sluts. He dropped us, ensuring we had an armed guard to escort us and we did our business. Then we had to wait over half and hour for him to return with two kiddies which he then dropped off at home before we all drove back to the Banana Suites. We paid him for his trouble and then went to relax. We are relieved to have the currency we need for the next while. This aspect of this trip has been difficult as it is almost impossible to know how much you will need. And where to get it if you are crossing out of the way borders.

After resting we had a repeat of yesterday's meal which had been so good and enjoyed it all over again. We rested and then got to chatting about the trip and how we were feeling. It has been Rough. We have not enjoyed the riding. We hope it improves. We have options eg. flying from Kigali, Rwanda to maybe Lusaka, Zambia or even Windhoek, Namibia but it is too soon to call it. We know that we have not been eating right and need to work on that. I know that I feel like a different person after our good meals here and a couple of pineapples. We are going to break it down and not look too far ahead.

23 June: Last night was a debacle as our blanket dragged against the mosquito net causing it to seperate along it's opening and so had a few mosquitoes biting. Mike noticed and sorted it out in the night, luckily. I guess that is why we are taking daily tablets. Fingers crossed. We felt okay this morning, ready to move on and we did just so after breakfast. We were pretty excited about being on a sealed road and just pedalled along. It felt cool after thunderstorms yesterday. We stopped to buy fresh chapati being fried on the roadside and all of a sudden the first 32 km were up! What a difference a road makes. We sat to eat our chapati, well they were more like thick pancakes, with some honey. People waved at us from over the road but no one bothered us. However, our motivation was still zero. We had no enthusiasm at all for what we were doing. We have never felt like this on any trip before so we are struggling to know what to do. Sitting by the roadside we wondered should we just fly from Kigali to Cape Town and then go home? Our flights from Cape Town can be changed for a fee. We are worried about the road conditions on the route we have planned through Tanzania and the safety of the roads in Zambia. We are missing wild camping, we are missing scenery, we are missing being alone. Even our US trip with it's, well, Americans, had stupendous highlights in natural beauty. Cycle touring, like anything is a dance of rewards versus investment. Right now we are making huge investments and getting no reward. Imagine our disappointment when after exactly 40 km the bitumen ended and we were thrown back onto the crappest dirt road yet. It was unexpected, we thought the road was sealed all the way to the Rwandan border. Oh boy. Now we had 30 km of this to survive.

The road was mostly very rocky, it was a hard, hard road (not the smooth one in the photo below; photos were impossible without coming to a complete stop), we felt it all through our bodies. The area it passed through was very impoverished. We are talking dwellings made from mud and sticks. None of the children were in school and they appeared dirty with dirty clothes. There were no gleeful calls of, "mzungu, mzungu", they just looked at us as if they had never seen a white person. We did stop in one village for some drinks and there things were different, people took more pride in their appearance. There was a feeling of displacement here, and of desperation. We stopped again to eat our other pancake and this guy came over to our bikes, there was another bloke on a bike carrying banana's who stopped with him, they seemed to know each other. It was the only time on the trip so far that I was on high alert. These guys were impossible to figure out and we did not like what was going on. They just stared at us. The bloke on the bike left and the other one turned his back and was taking something out of his pocket. We got on our bikes and quickly left. Today people spoke no English and mostly just yelled at us or stared at us as we passed. The awful road came to an end 6 km from the border at a police checkpoint. The police were friendly as ever. The bitumen was marvellous as ever. Initially we had planned to cross into Rwanda today and there was a town about 8 km away with a guest house that we could hopefully stay at. Just before the Ugandan border there was a sign for a hotel and we went into the village to have a look. It was fine, self-contained rooms (here that means there is a inside toilet and shower!) for 25 000 UGS. Room with hot shower for 40 000 UGS. We picked cold shower so we had enough UGS for chicken stew, 12 000 UGS each. The stew was tasty,, the chicken was tough, but we ate it. The stew liquid with rice was delicious. The time had come to make decisions. We have no interest in the experience we have been having lately. We hate the riding, the roads, the people who all demand your attention all day long. The food is an issue also, it is difficult to get any variety in food.People in the guest houses do really well with meagre resources, but we don't have to live like that and we choose not to. The countries that we really want to see are Botswana and Namibia and so we booked air tickets from Kigale to Livingston, Zambia. Basically we are going to fly to Vic Falls and then travel Northern Botswana, Caprivi, Namibia and West Coast South Africa. We feel we have turned the tables on Africa and regained control. We have 200 km from here to Kigale on good, main arterials and we have booked into a hotel there for 4 nights before our Kenya Air flight. We feel positive about the trip now!


There were many mozzies at the Hillview Hotel. The manager brought us a plug in mozzie deterrent and we used our own flextail battery operated deterrent too. There was a big mozzie net to use, it fitted the bed very tightly. It was a peaceful place to sleep. We cooked our own oats for breakfast out back of the hotel and it was a quick couple hundred metres to the border. We were quickly stamped out of Uganda. At Rwanda we had to unpack and put all bags through the scanner. Then each of us had to unpack a pannier for them to have a closer look. The guy who decided whether to let us in or not took ages. He wanted to know where we were going, Kigale wasn't the right answer, where were we going tonight. Mike had picked the only hotel which showed up around the 80 km mark on Google maps. There was nothing after that within a day's ride. But you could not make an online booking or anything. Naturally the guy had an issue with us not having a booking. He kept asking for the phone number of the place, and Mike kept saying that we didn't have a booking and they didn't know who we were. Finally we were able to convince him of our plans as we were very specific about how long it would take us to get to Kigale, the name of the hotel we were booked into there and when we were flying out. He asked both of us for our professions and when we said we were retired, asked what we used to do. Eventually he determined that we did not pose a risk to Rwanda and stamped us in.

In Uganda you drive on the left-hand side of the road, not that this had any bearing on what we ended up doing on many of those awful tracks. In Rwanda, we are back on the right. European vs British ex-colonial powers. Immediately the road was perfect. It was called the NR 24 and we rode it all day. The surface was incredibly smooth and it is lightly trafficed. Vehicles are mainly very nice public buses. There are some 4x4's (government mostly), some petrol tankers and other trucks. The most common vehicle is the bicycle! This was amazing for us! These guys on heavy, old steel-framed plodders that they paint and decorate, adding personalized number plates and homemade mudflaps. It was so cool! We know that Rwanda has a national cycling team, but we didn't expect the bicycle to be such a feature on the roads. They are the boda-boda (moto) of Rwanda, lifting people who sit perfectly still on the back, or many empty water containers, or produce, etc. They have no gears and race along, getting up any hill, even with a passenger on the back. We had other cyclists as companions many times during the day.

Rwanda is well-organised and the villages are spotless and well-cared for. It seemed though as if most children were not at school. The little shops are clean and well-sorted and we bought eggs, long-life milk and bread. The bread is good! Better than Uganda. We stopped to hardboil our eggs. The people are very curious. They will stand by the roadside and watch you but they do not approach. Some are very smiley and friendly, others not. There are still herds of cattle and goats. Later on resting by the road, a young bloke came along selling tiny bags of nuts and hardboiled eggs. He carries them in a big bucket with a lid and provides salt and chilli oil so you can just eat the egg right there! It was pretty hilly riding but the constant gradient of a properly built road made it a pleasure. So we had quite a bit of climbing and a headwind and were quite pleased to stumble across the Cactus Hotel which appeared right before a massive downpour so good timing. The young lady at reception was very helpful. It's a proper hotel, European standard. We couldn't believe it. When I asked if they took credit card, she said of course. Wonders never cease! We had fantastic hot showers and an early night. We don't miss Uganda.


We had a nice breakfast at the Cactus Hotel, standard East African fare of fruit, omelette, coffee. The lovely Devota saw us off and wished us a safe journey. The road was alive with bicycles and for the first half of the day we were accompanied by other bike riders. We haven't seen this many bicycles being ridden outside of the Netherlands. The bicycle is relied apon by so many people here. Little old ladies sit side-saddle on the back, their hands holding the little padded rack beneath them while impossibly fit young men ride uphill at our speed, no gears. Passing us on the downhill with their 60 kg load. The first climb of the day was quite long and we were sandwiched between a few riders who just all go at the same pace which we did too. Sometimes someone has a radio playing music. It's quite festive. At the top of the climb we stopped to eat and they waved goodbye and went straight ahead. It is all work for them, ferrying passengers or banana's or water or in one case about 20 plastic chairs in a tower. We stopped to buy bread, avocado pears and roasted potatoes. Of course fizzy drinks too. We rode along the fingers of a lake for quite a way. We were quite high up today, 1 600 m above sea level. It was still hot and humid but no rain today so no build up in heat, which was better. We sat to rest and eat at one point and a young kid came down the hill at speed, sitting side saddle and the rear rack, his feet not on either pedal and not even one hand on the handlebars! What would his mother say? Coming up that hill, a man was pushing a bicycle laden with water containers, he held it still to rest and just looked exhausted.

Since yesterday we had been passing distance markers to Kayone, the first one we saw at entry to Rwanda was 118 km and we reached it today. It was quite a big place and here we turned off the NR 24 to take the road into Kigali. We wanted to stay at the next town where there were a few hotels. The place we liked was St Augustin's Pastoral Centre. It was accomodation offered by the Catholic Church, but they gave the cost in USD and did not take credit card. We stopped at the bank of Kigali to see if they would exchange our Tanzanian shillings, which we no longer, need for francs. They wouldn't take the shillings (and Tanzania is only 100 km away from here!) but they did exchange some euro. The road we were on now was busier with truck traffic but as with the NR 24 there is a wide shoulder, albeit not as smooth. Truck hoots from behind and you just pop onto that. We got to St Augustin's and they had a lovely room for us and could store our bikes in next to the stairs.We showered and relaxed and then took a walk back to the town centre to eat. We had such a lovely meal, meat samosas, pizza and chips and bought some drinks to bring back to our room.


What a day. We hunted out our breakfast at St Augustin's. We had been told that there was a large group staying at the centre who were having breakfast downstairs at 07:00, however we heard a lot of people moving about before 05:00 and when we went down to the dining area just after 07:00 there was no sign of any meal preparation. We walked back to the main building and reception area, but no one was there. I heard voices inside and went down a passage until I found the kitchen where the chef and helpers were eating around a table. I asked for breakfast and they made us some. Bread rolls, banana's, coffee and Spanish omelette. All good! We were on the road by 08:00. The riding was mentally demanding. We had a 11 km climb first up and the road was a maze of bicycles loaded with people and bunches of green banana's, heavy trucks, moto's, buses and other vehicles as well as pedestrians who also use the shoulder. We developed the strategy of sitting behind two guys on bikes who ploughed ahead and made way for us around the banana people, who were mostly pushing their loads uphill. We had the constant shoulder with quite a high lip up to the main bitumen surface. The shoulder quality is not as smooth as the road, but at least there is always a shoulder. You kind of have to weave between bikes as you go, cutting back into the car lane and then jumping back onto the shoulder when a truck hoots a warning from behind. It's good that they hoot, so you don't have to be looking over your shoulder. You are safe if there is no oncoming traffic, but some of the trucks are large container trucks and they do not want to overtake you even if there is nothing coming towards them so they want you off the road. So all in all we were quite out of puff by the time we got to the top of the climb! After that we had masses of downhill which was great but often you come up fast behind someone on the shoulder and have to get back into the lane. The minute you are there someone comes up behind you, hooting and you have to get off again. Then there are the vehicles, could even be trucks and buses who will overtake coming towards you and then you have to get back on the shoulder. The road was pretty narrow when we are talking heavy trucks, there was only just space for two trucks to pass when going in opposite directions, so the truck will even hoot at you when you are in the shoulder already and you have to move even further towards the edge of the entire road. Then there are the idiots on loaded bikes who will go hell for leather to catch and overtake you, only to find them a few hundred metres ahead slowing down to a crawl, blocking the shoulder or even stopping in the shoulder. Rwandan's cyclists love to overtake you. So all this was going on and we also had a big task today around bike boxes.

There are not many bike shops in Kigale and Mike had e-mailed one and we could go past another one, but had not received a reply. We decided to go via the airport. We have often thought of doing this when needing boxes, but never done it. As Rwanda markets itself as a bike touring destination and people do come here for that reason, we figure there might be some boxes hanging around the airport. So we had to turn off the main route into the city up a climb to get there. Would you believe me if I said that this climb, the steepest we have had in this country, was on a street made of cobbles? Like, how many cobbled roads, as in proper Belgium cobbles, would there be in Rwanda? Words cannot describe how pissed off we were, pushing our bikes up this hill. At the top Mike struck a stationary store and got tape for the boxes which was a win. Then more climbing, luckily on a bitumen road to the airport. Airport security would not let us in the vehicle entrance as we were classed as pedestrians. So we had to go to the other entrance where we also were not allowed in. The Rwandan policeman did not think it reasonable for us to enter the airport and said we could pack our bikes on the day of departure. We scoffed at this (fancy waiting until the day you need to leave to get a bike box?). Then he decided to let usi n but we had to unpack our bikes and put all our bags through the scanner. So we decided I would wait outside with the bikes and Mike would go in to see if there were any boxes. There were grassy verges under some shade and we went to put the bikes there. No, said the policement, coming across, you cannot be near the fence, you have to go over the road. So we took the bikes over the road and I waited. Mike was back in minutes, he could not go into the airport area without a passport. You can't make this stuff up! Let me remind you that this is a regular international airport, not a military zone. These guys are either paranoid about terrorism or terrorism is a real threat here. I waited with the bikes. Two other security guards working for the restaurant were I stood came by to ask me why I was there etc. Mike had a very frustrating time as he could not even get into the airport terminal building itself and eventually gave up after speaking to the cargo area people who said he could bavk on Saturday at 4pm for assistance. Yeah, right. So, we started cycling into town. The road was very busy and passing a motorcycle shop we spotted many large cardboard boxes on the back of a truck. We pulled in and of course were immediately halted by a security guard. We asked about the boxes and he said we couldn't get one. I went into the shop and was told we could buy them for 3 000 RF each. Mike checked them out, they were the boxes that the motorcycles came in, so they were heavy and big but their dimensions were a bit wrong, which was okay, we could cut them to fit. So I said, okay, thanks, we will buy two. Next problem; I needed a RT number (like a tax number or business number). Thy could not sell me a secondhand cardboard box unless I had this number. I made eye contact with a bloke in the store and asked if he had one of these numbers and could I use it. Sure, he said. I was invited to sit down opposite a clerk, who printed out 6 A4 pages to invoice this sale. After I had paid another man took me upstairs, for no reason other than he had to hand one of the 6 pages to a man in the office there. Then he took me back downstairs and then lower still to the sheds out back where another man got two boxes from the storage shed. Yet another man carried them to the front for me as they were too heavy. Mike and I had an audience of about 6 -10 people as we took the bikes apart, cut the boxes down and taped them shut. It took a couple of hours. People came and went but two blokes were really helpful and worked with us taping and cutting. They were really good, we don't think they were expecting anything out of it, but we gave them 2 000 RF each for helping. It's about the cost of two sodas each. Mainly we were so happy we had the boxes so that we did not have to ride to our hotel which ended up being on the top of a massive climb (Kigale is super hilly). The road was pretty much unrideable, traffic was just gridlocked so we would have been walking. The bloke who let us use his tax number also had the number for a taxi service. So he had all the numbers we needed. I went into the moto shop and asked the lady to call the taxi for us. We had a half an hour wait. The bloke had a big enough car, a Toyota Landcruiser so we could fit the boxes in the back but tying the doors shut and the bags on the back seat. We asked him what the ride would cost and he said we could tell him as he usually drives a smaller taxi so he did not know what to charge in the bigger car.Yeah, mate. That is actually your role, not ours. When pushed for an amount he said 30 000. We explained that we were a bit sort on francs (story of our lives on this continent), so either he could stop on the way for us to exchange or we could pay him in euro. He was like, "Yeah, I take Euro". So, great. It took an AGE to get to the hotel and we were so happy we did not ride! Very steep hills. We asked him if he could pick us up on Monday for the airport (we are having a mini-break of 4 nights in the hotel to recoup) and he said yes. We gave him 20 EUR which is 33 000 RF. He sort of looked at it as if he was regretting accepting it, like, where are the francs? Oh man, the people will drive you crazy I swear. We checked in and Mike handed over the credit card (we had made the booking via booking.com and the rate was given in USD). Then of course the very professional receptionists are, "Wouldn't you like to pay in cash?". Well, no, if we preferred to pay in cash that is what we would have done. A bit of to'ing and fro'ing on this, "Yes, we will take credit card but we prefer cash.". Well, that's sounds a bit like your problem, not mine. We asked if the onsite restaurant takes credit cards, they said, "Yes, but maybe they will say you must pay cash." "But they do take credit card payments?". "Yes.". The point is, we are not really interested what you as the hotel prefers, we will pick the payment method you offer which we prefer. Anyhow were were soon showered and languishing in air conditioned comfort. Our room is brilliant, we were upgraded to a deluxe room so it is huge with kettle, couch, balcony and it's at the end of the corridor. Had to ring to ask for an extra towel, it has been a common thing in Uganda and Rwanda that you only get one towel per room, but they did provide toothbrushes and toothpaste and disposable razors which my underarms thank them for. Phew! We went downstairs for fabulous hamburgers, salad and chips, a great meal. Very well presented and served.

We have four nights here, as I said and fly to Livingstone, Zambia on 30 June. It feels crazy that we will only have been in Uganda and Rwanda for a little over 2 weeks, and ridden around 500 km. If we had known how little we would have enjoyed our time here, would we have just gone straight to southern Africa and skipped this east African debacle? Maybe, but you have to experience something to know if it is right for you and we would always have wondered about these countries had we not come.

27 June: Our first rest day in the hotel. We had breakfast in the dining room. It was amazing! The coffees were the best, they were absolutely huge and made by the barista on duty. Perfect cappucino's in mugs the size of soup bowls. Spanish omelette freshly made, crepes, pea soup (unusual breakfast choice but delicious), ditto the roast potatoes and creamed spinach. Many types of bread and muffins, cereal, yoghurt. Really good! And we have it four days in a row. We took a walk into the city, well it was a bit of a hike as we still had to go further uphill! Not far in distance. We had a few errands. I had sat on my reading glasses and popped out the lens by bending the frame, so we went to an optometrist to get them fixed. In order to even get in there I was ordered by a security guard pointing with a baton or security wand at some hand sanitiser, "Wash your hands!". I went in and the bloke did a great job fixing my glasses. I asked him what I should pay, "10 000" he said, pocketing the money. We went to the bank to change money, to get in there we had to put our bags and phones through a scanner, only to be told once inside that they could not exchange Tanzanian shillings. So we went to the Forex office, back through the scanner. Did some exchanges including buying USD as Zambia wants us to pay in those, we will stay in Livingston for three nights. Photocopy of passport had to be taken at another desk. Then onto a supermarket to buy drinks, bags had to be scanned again and put in a locker, cannot take them inside. Then we went to the laundry. There is a pickup and drop off service here which gets great reviews, but it is costed by weight and we wanted to know the weight beforehand. We are talking 8 AUD per kg of laundry. In Europe we only pay 10 EUR to do all the washing and drying self-service, so Rwanda is pretty expensive. The guy weighed it and it came to 4 kg. We certainly were not paying 40 AUD for laundry so we decided to do just our VERY DIRTY cycling gear and socks, it still came to over 20 AUD. Then the guy tells us that is costs 3 000 RF for the moto to pick up and drop off. It was about a 5 min conversation to sort out this component as we were dropping off so why were we not being charged 1 500? The bloke reasoned, well the moto still has to drive to the hotel and back, yes, but not 4 times, only twice. Eventually he agreed to charge us 2 000 instead of 3 000. We walked back to the hotel, in Mike's words, "I am never leaving it again to go anywhere." Africa, it will sap your strength. We received our laundry back in the evening, it is a miracle but it is spotless. They must have had to wash it more than once to get the red dirt out, so it was probably worth the money.