Uganda Here We Are

The other day (1/3/12) we left the campsite in Naiberi near Eldoret and travelled the Uganda. The border crossing was easy and apart from being fined for not paying road tax in Kenya it all went smoothly. We had another 100usd to pay for the uganda visa and this time we also bought their road tax. We changed some money on the Kenya side to pay for the road tax and it ammounted to just under 50000Ush.2000USH = ~0.55pThere was a lot of people wanting to help me on the Kenya side but i told them all to go away as the process is easy. Immegration, Customs for Carnet, Pay Fee for Tax, Collect Carnet from customs and then get a police stamp on the carnet. Easy.The Uganda side was easier. Go to Immigration and present passports, Pay for Visa and get stamp in passport. Go to Customs and hand over carnet and then go upstairs to pay for road tax at Stanbic Bank, back down to customs to collect stamped carnet once you present them with a receipt for the tax.There were a lot of money changers on the Uganda end and they all looked like ducklings in their yellow long overcoats. Same type of long coat/overall as a doctor but in bright yellow. Must have been 20 of them clucking around for your business. One of them got mine and wanted his flawless US dollar notes in exchange for his tatty (toilet paper) Uganda notes. We drove toward Jinga and i decided the camp sites were too expensive. (one was $48USD a night !!!!) After all it was our 15th wedding aniversary so i decided what we needed was to sleep on the side of the road. Actully we both had the sane idea…..go to the Chinese restaurant, pay for a meal and ask permission to stay in the car park. Worked a treat. The meal was OK but julie had a slightly dodgy stomach the day after. All in all about the same price as one of the good campsites and we got food included ! We then got up and yet again decided to backtrack. Sipi Falls…..In Sipi we are at the crows nest and it has a good view of the (biggest) bottom falls from the bar and most of the camp. We paid for the guide to take us on the walk to the bottom and the middle falls. We also went to a small coffee plantation and for caves on route. Not too bad considering it was 9 quid and a couple of hours in duration. We resisted the urge to buy anything and and missed out the “craft shop” on the way back. For the benefit of my Dad the guide was called Patrick and we have taken a photo as proof that my hand went into my pocket to pay for an official guide.Fishermans Camp – A few storksDrinking the English way – Pinkie shotNaibery Camp – Private area and BBQNaibery Camp – Private area and BBQFillet Steak – 4 quid per kilo !!!Sipi FallsSipi FallsSipi FallsOur Guide – Patrick

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