10. Journey to the Centre of the Earth

Saturday 10th November 2012

Wear Red Day

Today we crossed the Equator which was an interesting experience. The equator line crosses a main road and we witnessed a crazy tourist taking her life into her hands as she stood on the line in the middle of the road with traffic approaching in both directions. Nothing so dangerous for us however! We posed on the circular sculpture for a team photo which, if I manage to work out how, will be attached to today’s blog. Our journey from Northern to Southern hemisphere was long and tiring, and certainly eventful. At the equator
we were not even close to being halfway through our 400km road journey to Kisiizi but the chances of us reaching our destination in 9 to 10 hours were still looking reasonably hopeful at this point.

 

The day had started well with a delicious breakfast of fresh fruit and yoghurt followed by crispy bacon and tomatoes on toast – just what I needed to set me up for what I had been warned was likely to be a pretty tortuous experience. The serene environment of our breakfast terrace surrounded by palm and banana trees amidst perfectly manicured gardens where we sat enjoying coffee under the watchful eye of several parrots and sunbirds, was about to be shattered. We left the Boma guest house at about 9.30am after watching our luggage being loaded on to the 14 seater minibus. It soon became pretty clear that due to our minibus having the smallest roof rack imaginable, and the fact that Isaac (the original driver who totally miscalculated the size of the vehicle required and therefore had to hire another van and driver) was also coming along for the ride, it was going to be a really tight squeeze! I ended up in the front seat with Carolyn and our driver David and after stopping to pump up the tyres and get fuel we set off on our epic journey. Our next stop was the supermarket to pick up essential rations – wine, crisps, chocolate, bottles of water etc and a few of us needed a toilet break too. Now I’ve seen long drop toilets before in Sri Lanka so I don’t know why I hadn’t expected them in Uganda plus I’ve had a knee replacement since my Sri Lanka visit, so even if I had managed to somehow manoeuvre myself into the crouching position I certainly wouldn’t have been able to get up again – not without some assistance anyway - which could have proved pretty embarrassing. I spent a minute wondering whether or not I should give it a go when I heard a toilet flushing – it was like music to my ears. Beccy had found a ‘normal’ toilet at the end of the row – halleluiah!

 

Squeezed back into the minibus we continued the journey passing through small villages every so often with the most amazing things for sale on the side of the road. From the normal things you would expect to see like fruit and vegetables, clothes and jewellery to the more bizarre items including wooden bed frames, metals gates, three piece suites and wooden coffins – all displayed on the grass verges. I think the most bizarre sight was the stack of coffins with their ‘glass viewing windows’ cut into the sides – presumably designed for looking in, rather than looking out!

 

Many of the names of the businesses we saw along the way suggested to me that owners had a great sense of humour. Amongst my favourites were the “Feels like Home Hotel” – I’m not sure whose home it was supposed to feel like, but judging from the external appearance I certainly didn’t think it was likely to feel like home to me. Then there was the ‘Choice Beauty Salon”, looking remarkably like a medium sized garden shed it wouldn’t have been my first choice, but I might have been prepared to try the M&N God Gifted Restaurant, but unfortunately we didn’t have time to stop. Not much further on we were pulled over by the Police – it was to be the first of three brushes with the law that would encounter before we reached Kisiizi. The police officer checked over the vehicle, asked David to produce his licence and then gave him a ticket to fine him for having too much luggage in the back of the vehicle, restricting his rear view.

 

About an hour after reaching the equator a lunch stop was on the cards and I thought I heard moussaka mentioned which sounded extremely appealing. However it turned out we were heading for a restaurant in Masaka and there wasn’t one Greek dish on the menu! I opted for Spanish omelette...and chips! (Sorry Marian I’m going to have to abandon any idea of continuing the Atkins diet over here – I’m told that all the meals at Kisiizi are carb based – so I’ll have to get back on track when I get home). Whilst at the restaurant we were joined by a large group of beautifully dressed women and men in suit jackets and flowing robes, and it turned out that they were all meeting up to go to attend an ‘Introduction Ceremony’. This is a sort of pre-event to the engagement party which will take place next month with the Wedding planned for January. The women looked extremely elegant but there was a sort of ‘Stepford’ feel to the whole affair as all the dresses were identically designed with fantastically large puff sleeves and a wide sash, but each one in a different colour.

 

We passed yet more villages selling further ranges of interesting items at the roadside and it seems that each area has its own speciality. First there were rows and rows of drums, then displays of colourful basketware, followed by stalls and stalls of tomatoes carefully piled up into pyramids and finally about half a kilometre of open wooden shacks selling different types of potato.

 

I was fascinated by the huge termite mounds at the side of the road and only a couple of minutes after I had finally managed to capture a good photo of a particularly impressive one through the window, we were pulled over by Traffic Police who approached the minibus brandishing a hand held speed camera. He leaned in the passenger front window to ask where we were going. David answered “Kisiizi Hospital, and gesturing to all of us said – they are fighting the Marburg virus”. The traffic officer immediately retracted his head from the window whilst simultaneously jumping back several yards and frantically waving his arm to indicate we should move on immediately. That was pretty quick thinking from David!

 

I’d just been thinking that the road surface hadn’t been as bad as expected when we suddenly hit a dodgy patch of road. It wasn’t exactly an unmade road, but was made of many different layers of uneven tarmac, loose gravel and sand with a generous sprinkling of potholes added in for good measure. Driving on this surface for several miles created a swirling dust cloud that was similar to trying to drive through thick fog. After about ten minutes the road changed back to a tarmac surface and once again we were able see vehicles approaching from the opposite direction, making it a bit less stressful for those of us sitting in the front. Once our visibility had improved, one of the first things we came across was a bus parked on the opposite site of the road for what was quite obviously a toilet stop. No hiding behind bushes here, apparently you just get out, unzip and get on with the business in hand. I was just wondering what the women did when an immaculately dressed lady appeared with a bejewelled headdress and her white flowing robe draped over one arm as the other hand was used to steady herself whilst she scrambled up from a hidden dip in the grass verge.

 

At 7pm, bearing in mind we had been on the road since 9.30am and in theory should have already arrived at Kisiizi, Sam suggested pulling over for a comfort break – not the Uganda bus type of comfort break – but just an opportunity to stretch our legs for five minutes and swop a couple of places around in the bus. Just as well we did, because the last two and a half hours of the journey were really bad, it became almost an off-road experience for the remainder of the journey, in pitch dark, bumping along at a painfully slow speed to avoiding skidding off the side of the ‘road’.

 

At one point it looked as though we would be sleeping in the minibus because a lorry was stuck blocking virtually the whole road. David got out to ensure that if he tried to get round the lorry he wouldn’t be committing us to the same fate. We were all planning to get off to lighten the load but he assured us it would be ok. We held our breath as the minibus slowly edged its way around the stranded vehicle and we were able to continue with the last painful leg of our journey to Kisiizi. Just before 9.30pm we finally arrived at the hospital and were greeted by Ian and Hannah Spillman, the Medical Superintendent and his wife from Macclesfield who run the hospital. Supper had of course been ready for hours as they had expected us much earlier but nevertheless the sausage casserole with cabbage followed by chunks of fresh pineapple was most welcome. We weren’t all to be housed in the same accommodation. Tom and I had a room in Rose Cottage the guest house on the main road. My room is called Sunbird – not sure if Tom’s has a name? Sarah and Sam were allocated a shared guest room in a separate wing of Ian and Hannah’s house whilst Beccy, Haley and Carolyn had their luggage transported to the smaller of the two ‘round houses’ that are situated overlooking the waterfall.

 

I didn’t know quite what to expect although I was definitely expecting something far more basic than the Boma Guest House and this certainly was considerably more basic. A concrete floor – single bed in one corner, sink with a cold water tap in the other corner, a small desk with a patterned tablecloth draped over it, a fireside chair similar to one I remember sitting on at my grandparents house in the 1960’s and a wicker shelving unit for my clothes- plus a couple of coat hangers hung on nails in the door. The toilet and shower are in two separate outhouses outside in the garden (good job I decided last minute to pack my dressing gown!). In the guest house there is a small lounge, a dining area, a kitchen and two guest bedrooms. The other bedrooms are outside in small one storey buildings, opposite the shower and toilet. Tom is in one of these, and my room is in the main house, with nobody occupying the second bedroom. No staff stay overnight – they just come in to prepare and cook meals during the day, so it was a little daunting considering that the front door lock didn’t seem that secure, I couldn’t get my bedroom door to lock either, and we had been advised not to worry if we heard noises as there was a security guard patrolling throughout the night. I wedged my cases against the door, so that if any intruder tried to enter I would at least be woken up – quite what I would have done then I don’t know, but I eventually dropped off to and actually enjoyed quite a good sleep, no doubt fuelled by the exhaustion of the day.