Robert Munro

/ Rob Munro

Southwest Uganda

Cycling through Southwest Uganda in July 2006.

Camped at Nyakasura caves at the foot of the Rwenzori mountains.

It can't be easy to cook a stew for so long as to remove all flavour from it but still retain enough bacteria to give someone food poisoning, but somehow the 'chef' at the caves managed it. While Peter hiked across the Rwenzoris and went hunting monkeys with a Batwa (Pigmy) tribe, I nursed stomach cramps in a tent for 2 days. It coincided with a local school carnival in the next field and every 30 minutes or so the cave guides would bring a group of students past my tent, including me in their tour ("look at the rare green primate that has cycled from Nairobi"). I thoughtlessly zipped up the tent at one point, but luckily they found the small window to peer through. I would just wave, and say "hi, don't eat the beef". Still, there's much less scenic places to be stuck ill.

There are dozens of crater lakes in the area - here's a few.

As if getting ill and watching the diving prima donnas take out the world cup wasn't enough I fell off my bike going down a hill - it simply slip out sideways when going down a hill. My bike and legs are ok, but i cut up my hand a little so I've been riding pretty much one-handed this last week. This guy who saw me fall came up, looked at the path I'd ridden down the road as if I was crazy and said "haven't you ridden down this road before?". No sir, and don't expect me back anytime soon.

...and then one afternoon's riding made up for all the problems. We rode through Kibale forest and within 10 mintues had seen black and white colobus monkeys, red colobus monkeys, blue monkeys, olive baboons and one bare-arsed chimpanzee. It will never get ordinary riding through a forest and having monkeys take giant leaps across the road above you :-)

Butterflies and a flower.

Back on the road.

Monkeys scoping out our campsite.

There are alot of churches in this region - some seem more appealing than others.

Back into the southern hemisphere. After nothing but undulating hills since leaving Kenya we cross a branch of the great rift valley for a day of flat riding.

In Queen Elizabeth National Park were guests on the safari of the Greenwoods, veterinarians extraordinaire to the animals in the slums of Kampala...

... and saw lots of elephants, buffalo, kobs and bucks.

An elephant being chased away from the canteen in the park, and a warthog that just waltzed on through.

Boat safari in the park

Crocodile and a blue lizzard.

An angry male among these elephants made a very loud angry yell shortly after I took this picture of them behind Peter - a great way to make a bicycle feel like a pretty exposed way to travel. Like the sign says, everyone gives way to elephants.

From the National Park we've had the 3 toughest days so far riding along some questionable roads into a nasty headwind and up some very steep hills, but we still ended up in nice places, met loads of friendly people, and were doing it easier than this kid riding with one leg through the frame of his too-big bike. From here in Kabale we cross into Rwanda.