Some of the most popular Ugandan National Parks such as Queen Elizabeth and Murchison Falls charge $150 entrance fee, per 24 hour period, for foreign registered vehicles, plus $30/person/day for camping. This is more expensive than Kenya, and even worse than Tanzania. We were so peed off by this kind of extorsion, that we decided to sacrifice the night in Murch and spare ourselves a helluva long drive there and back. Something in the kitty that can be put to good use later on.

The drive from Queen Elizabeth to Kampala is beautiful and the road excellent. Lots of Ugandan kob by the roadside, and what scenery! Once again, the beauty of the country touched us deeply. We arrived in Kampala early afternoon and Jannie wanted to get the Prado on a high lift. A noise that we had picked up on corrugated roads in the Kgalagadi in May returned, despite Hermanus Toyota reassuring him that nothing had come unstuck. Se we waited and waited our turn, in a very fancy Toyota garage with 20 bays in the workshop, until finally the mechanic showed Jannie a slight bend in the plate, which he promptly fixed with a screwdriver. Two and a half hours and R300 later and Jannie was reassured.

By that stage I was feeling decidedly unwell, the start of two days of travellers’ diarrhoea. Jannie had mislaid the prescription tablets I had brought along from home somewhere, he reckons they must have fallen from the door panel where he kept them when he used them two weeks ago…

Red Chili campsite in Kampala was amazingly quiet despite being in town. We got going at the crack of dawn because of a silly chicken that thought it was time to start crowing at 3am. The border post was an absolute breeze, 30 minutes and we were through both sides, and driving along Kenyan roads again with their maddening speed humps. The road was quiet, hardly any trucks or tankers, and before we knew it, we passed Eldoret and found ourselves back at wonderful Kembu campsite outside Nakuru. The hree tdogs remembered us well and there was a great reunion. Lovely to sleep on a peaceful, working farm, with racehorses and plenty of foals.