Around Uganda in eight days

Magnificent scene at Sipi Falls, many of us dream of exploring Uganda’s beauty, but never has enough time and money. However, Sam Bwaya, a father of three, dared to go out for an eight-day trip to eastern and western Uganda. He told his story to Carol Natukunda.

 I have two boys and a girl. My eldest child studies in Canada, my second-born is in S4 at Seeta High School, while my last born and only daughter is in P6 at Taibah Junior. We had been talking about a trip for two years.

 My idea was to help the children discover the things they study in class, but also get a feel of the life outside Kampala.  I would go with my two younger children aged 16 and 11. Their mum stayed behind because she has a back problem.

 Day 1

On March 26, 2013, we set off from home in Lwezza-Kajjansi at about 11:00am. We agreed that we would sleep wherever we would find ourselves and whenever we got tired. I was the driver. I told my children to stop me if they saw anything interesting. Our first stop was Ssezibwa falls, about 40km from Kampala.

 There is a picnic place. We enjoyed every bit of it, before moving to Jinja. We should have stopped at the Source of the Nile, but we had been there a few days before. So we drove to Kakira Sugar Works.

 We toured the plantation and proceeded further east. We reached Tororo at 5:45pm and went straight to the Malaba border with Kenya. My children were excited to be in two countries at the same time. We drove back to Tororo town to find a hotel to sleep.

Day 2

There is an old Rotarian friend, Bernadette Olowo who, after knowing about our trip, was more than glad to host us. We stopped by her home in Amurwo village in Tororo.

 My children were delighted to see different food crops grown in abundance in the gardens. Having grown up in the city, they had never seen things harvested straight from the garden. After breakfast, we headed to Butaleja district. Most farmers had expansive rice fields.

 The big surprise for the children was how River Manafwa fed the rice fields. We eventually got to Mbale town at around 1:00pm. We bought refreshments from a supermarket and headed for the Rocky Mount Wanale (also called Nkokonjeru) near Mbale town.

 Time was running out so we came down quickly, bought some ‘take-away’ and headed to Kapchorwa. On our way, we visited Semei Kakungulu’s resting home (Gangama hill), near Mbale College. 

 We got to Kapchorwa at about 3:00pm and went to Sipi Falls. It had rained that day. We fell down several times as we walked towards the falls. 

 But it was exciting. Initially, our guide said my daughter would not manage, since the path was bad. But she even got there before us. We were sweating although it was chilly. 

 It was 6:00pm when we eventually got back to the car. We were so tired by this time. But I insisted we needed to sleep in Kumi to be able to see as much as possible. We got to Kumi at 11:00pm.

Day 3

By 8:00am, we were on our way to see the ancient Nyero Rock paintings. The surprising bit here was that the locals do not see this as a tourist attraction.

 In fact, some of them use it as a place to dry their sorghum harvested from the gardens.  The Nyero paintings depict the story of the struggles of Iteso people and their challenges.

 From Nyero, we drove via Ngora to get to Soroti.  We were in Soroti town at 4:00pm and continued to Lira.

 Day 4

We got to Lira at 8:00pm and went to former President Milton Obote’s home, and the famous Aboke Girls School where over 100 girls were abducted by rebel leader Joseph Kony.

 What I wanted was for my children to know their history from a practical point of view. We headed to Nebbi, then Arua to sleep. We were excited to see the famous shea butter tree on the Nebbi-Arua road. It is sad it is threatened by extinction because of charcoal burning.

Day 5

On December 30, we were up by 6:00am. We drove to Murchison National Park where we saw so giraffes, Kobs, antelopes, buffaloes and baboons, among others.

 It took us three hours. We crossed to see the water falls, before proceeding to Masindi, where we arrived at around 4:00pm, took refreshments and got to Hoima at 6:00pm. We wanted to go and see chimpanzees in Kibale National Park in Fort Portal.

 We faced problems with the locals who interpreted distances differently. Where it was actually 100 miles, we were told 100km. Anyway, we reached Fort Portal at 1:00am. It was exhausting!

 Day 6

We awoke at 9:00am. The hotel we stayed in is owned by an old friend I had not seen in years. He got us a tour to Amabere ga Nyina Mwiru, Semliki National Park and later the Batwa Community and then chimpanzee tracking the following day.

 I had prepared my children in advance so that they are non-judgmental of the Batwa. They interacted with them like ordinary people and even see the hot springs

 

 Day 7

At Kibale National Park, we saw all kinds of plants, butterflies, worms and caterpillars. We walked for one hour before we heard the sound of chimpanzees.

 Some of the trees in the forest must be 100 years old. Our guide told us there are over 1,000 chimpanzees in this park. Later, as we drove out of Fort Portal to Kisoro district, we saw the palace of Omukama Oyo Nyimba, the Hima Cement factory, the Equator and Queen Elizabeth National Park.

 We got to Kabale at about 9:30pm. My children were fast asleep. They insisted we sleep in Kabale, but I knew we would be tempted to drive back to Kampala in the morning. You have to push a little harder to achieve something. I wanted them to be able to see the steep slopes of Kigezi. It was not until 11:30pm that we got to chilly Kisoro.

 Day 8

The next morning, we could see clearly Mount Muhabura from a distance. It looked so beautiful. The cold in Kisoro made our teeth chatter.

The hills were beautiful, but we realized many of them are bare from over cultivation. We saw many sacks of potatoes as we drove back to Kampala. This was great experience and as i save more money next time i will take them to enjoy the unforgettable mountain gorilla trekking experience!