Oral East Africa>Cycling from Kisumu to Kampala and back; Part 2, The madness in Kampala. At the hut of the story

Written by Faith Asiko

By madness I mean motorbikes. If you think Kenya, Nairobi, Kisumu, Busia or whichever town in Kenya has a lot of motorbikes, you haven't gone to Kampala. Kampala traffic is crazy.

Everybody is struggling to go. There are no roundabouts on the main road. It's just T junctions, there are no traffic lights. The police are the ones who are controlling this traffic and everybody is just struggling to go, gosh, Kampala was madness. It was just crazy.

Uganda in general, the way motorbikes behave is just something else, they will be hooting at you like crazy. Not even at you. You know how in Kenya, whenever a matatu wants to pick a passenger, they would hoot maybe once or twice or 2 times. In Uganda, it's continuous hooting like beep, beep, beep, beep, beep nonstop.

It's super super-annoying especially for a cyclist. Another thing I realized in Uganda is that motorbikes like to ride on the side walk, like where you are supposed to be cycling. That's where motorbikes will be riding. So, they'll be hooting at you and I'm like, where do you want me to go? There was a point in Kampala city both motorbikes cyclist and pedestrians were all riding and walking on the pavement

Up, up, up the trail to Mutushet

On day four we had to get back on the road. This was supposed to be the longest day, on paper, 230 kilometers from Kampala to Mbale. But it was just the longest but not the hardest. We arrived in Mbale at around 7:30 PM, looked for food, looked for a place to sleep.

On the fifth day We set out from Mbale to Kapchorwa, now this was supposed to be the toughest section, kilometers and kilometers of climbing throughout. So Kapchorwa is like Kenya’s Iten in Uganda. High altitude, high elevation gain, a lot of climbing and we faced all that plus the rains, again!

This time round we did not shelter, I pushed myself and braved the sting of falling cold water. It was tough, man, It was tough. But we managed. It was cold, I rode the entire day in my rain jacket and long trousers. We got to Kapchorwa at around 5pm, when it was still raining.

On day six we set out from Kapchorwa to kitale and we kept on climbing, climbing, climbing and more climbing. A little bit of a drop then flat all the way to Kitale with a lot of elevation gain in the beginning. Then the roads just zigzag, zigzag.

You climb until there's nothing else you can do. If you stop, you're going to go backwards. You just have to keep on climbing. You are on your softest gear, but you're out of breath. There was this section called Mutushet, the moment I finished it I said "no wonder it's called Mutushet". And then we got another mechanical problem at the top of the mountain, of course.

Gods eye view

But it was almost like God intentionally gave us that mechanical problem so that we could stop and look back at where we are coming from and take in the beautiful views.

When we were going up, we were climbing and we weren't looking on the sides or back where we were coming from, so we didn't see these views before.

But the moment we stopped for the mechanical problem, that was the first thing we noticed. We managed to capture these nice beautiful photos, the beautiful views, they were breath taking.

Like down in the valley you could see small little houses from afar and the road where we were coming from meandering around. It was really nice, it was beautiful.

I wondered how it must feel like to live out here one with nature, what free therapy. I did not have to wonder long though. I quickly managed to make friends with these two girls who were just seated there at the top, chilling.

When I tried asking them where their home is, they pointed down in the valley that that's where their home is and that's where their school is. I tried asking them how they got up where we were but they couldn't understand because of language barrier.

I also tried asking them how they go to School but we didn't understand each other. But this language barrier did not stay in our way, they were so so nice, very loving, even though we barely understood each other. Through the broken down the communication, we tried to communicate, and found common ground and connection in our love for photography.

They asked me to take a picture of them, after taking pictures with me, of course. And when we were just about to leave, they invited us to their house. This was so so nice. Very, very heartwarming. I almost broke down.

I wanted to say so much but I knew they couldn't understand, so we just told them that we would come next time. We gave them a few coins we had and shared some snacks with them and off we continued with our climbing.

But this really touched my heart. These girls were just seated there doing nothing. Like in the middle of nowhere and they invite total strangers to their house. Oh my God, this was very, very touching. I think that was the highlight for me of this trip because. I didn't imagine that that could happen.

Last lap

Shortly after that break that the rains began again, heavily. At this point we did not have a choice but to continue. We finished the climb in the rain, then came winding drops.

This was the only day I have ever been scared going down on a tarmacked road on my bike. The road was slippery, you look on your left it's a valley, you get to the switchbacks you're holding both your brakes but the bike is just moving! I was scared to death.

After we descended back to Kitale, we took on the last leg on day seven, and despite the fact that this day was supposed to be easy, due to the fact that we were back in Kenya on familiar roads and not much climbing. But let me tell you, this day took a toll on me. I was tired.

By the time we were getting to Kakamega, that is, after doing around 100 kilometers, I was literally almost giving up. I didn't have any more energy left.

Remember I had eaten a good lunch, drunk the energy drinks and soda and all that, but man, I didn't have any energy to pedal any further. Every pedal stroke I took I felt like I was going to fall off my bike.

I barely managed to get to Kisumu at around 4:30 in the evening and I was so so happy to get home. I was so happy to sleep in my bed. I was just happy to be back home. It felt good.

I will return for Ugandan cuisine

So in general, this trip was a learning experience because this is the first trip I've taken outside the country on my bike. I didn't know that I could do it. I surprised myself.

One thing I loved the most was Ugandan food. Oh my God, Ugandan food. We had this food called Luwombo. It's like there is either chicken Luwombo or beef or fish luwombo; It is hard to explain. It is basically beef or chicken or fish stew made in banana leaves. And then it comes served like that. Very tasty, very delicious, and that was the best part about Uganda in general. Just food!

There is also pasted beef or pasted whatever stew, whatever it is, fish for example, chicken. It's very tasty. Then matoke, I swear I ate matoke every single day I was in Uganda.

The way Ugandans serve their food is really interesting. I am sure when Ugandans come to Kenya they get disappointed when they're served food. In Uganda they give you a portion of everything they have cooked with whatever Stew you've chosen. OK, so if on the menu it says chicken or beef, then you choose whatever it is you want. But the accompaniment is like matoke, there is arrow roots, there is sweet potatoes, there is ugali, which they call posho, there is rice. Like all those things in small portions on one plate. That was really nice. I was shocked because that, you will never find that here in Kenya.

Another thing I was surprised about Uganda is their breakfast is literally like lunch or dinner. How do you get served Matoke or rice or beef stew like in one plate for breakfast! It's quite interesting, which is good for cyclists, of course, we needed that kind of heavy breakfast to help us, you know, kickstart day.

All in all it was a good experience and I will definitely, definitely do it again.