After paying our US$30 for a Ugandan Visa, I arrived at the Customs office to declare the Landy. The Customs officials at the border were so new at the job that I ended up showing them how to fill in the Carnet, and then the big discussion began about road tax. An hour later they had discussed, called a friend, and eventually decided that I had to pay US$20 for two weeks entry into Uganda.
Handing over the Dollars, they then told me that they don't access US$ and only wanted Ugandan Shillings. Aaaah, this was getting frustrating. Off to a local vendor to exchange the dollars only to be offered a very bad exchange rate. Back to the car to collect Kenyan shilling and then back to the vendor. Finally after hours I was given a receipt by the Customs Officer and proceeded up the road. Within 10m of the border post, I had to engage 4-wheel drive to get across a muddy stretch of road. After the first muddy stretch, the only way of moving forward was in low-range gears.
The 40km to the first town took us 4 hours to cover. It was now 6:30pm so we opted to rest for the night with a local pastor whom we had given a lift. Amos and his family extended a huge welcome to us.
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If we had had thought our first 40km was tough, this mornings drive - only 16km - was tougher. The muddy was slippery but to make it tougher the camber on the road sloped to the left and right and ended in a huge water filled rut! I had to lower the tyre pressures so as to get enough traction. With an average speed of 10km/h we finally reached tarmac but not before we had a few nervous moments sliding towards the ruts! Low range first gear was essential to limited our speed on the downhill - any touch of the brakes resulted in an instant slide towards the ruts!
Our destination for the day was the powerful Sipi falls...
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) Layers two and three of the Sipi Falls
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