Yusuf and the wood business

Bujagali Falls

I just arrived in Uganda after travelling for nearly 7 weeks in Kenya. My first brief stop was in Jinja. Here, the most promoted highlight is the source of river Nile. Actually, there is not really much to see, as there is this really big Lake Victoria, and there is a big river flowing out of the lake. Well, this is one of the big sources of the white river Nile. Still, it was a nice feeling to be there, as I have been to the source of the Blue Nile in Ethiopia in 2003.
After one day in Jinja town, I went to Bujagali waterfalls outside of town. The waterfalls are just beautiful, as there are quite a few high cascades. Especially in the late afternoon, they are a spectacular sight. Lots of tourists come here for rafting opportunities. But there are a lot more locals at the falls. The falls are a beautiful sight, but just imagine having there quite a few colorful rafting boats full of shouting mzungus riding down the river and the falls – this is a major attraction for locals and draws local tourists, school classes and the occasional farmer with a lonely cow there in the late morning especially for this event.
From Jinja, I went to the capital of Uganda, Kampala. In downtown area, the city seems like a big mess, but once you are a bit further outside, it seems more like an enormous village.

Bujagali Falls

Just after I arrived, I got a phone call from my good old friend Yusuf, saying he is also in Kampala. He was supposed to meet someone here to bring him to the border of Uganda with Congo for some timber business. This person never showed up, so Yusuf was stranded here. Well, I went to the bus station and picked up my lost friend. As this Ugandan person did not pick the phone the whole day, we had to make a decision about what to do now. As locals here do not really like to travel alone and most  Africans are not very skilled in reading maps (in that case Yusuf is no exception), I decided to travel with him to Mpondwe.
So, the following day, we took a bus to Kasese. Locals said it would take us 5 hours…. Well, that was the African way of putting it, at the end it took us 8 hours to go there, but at least the scenery was very interesting, as it changed from very green into bush and then into more or less barren savannah.
The following day, we took a shared taxi to Mpondwe. (Shared means really shared with 8 people plus driver in a normal car). Never less, it took us more than an hour to reach the Mpondwe, as our driver failed to stop at a police check post and was therefore heavily fined at the next stop….

Bujagali Falls

The wood is stored at the border in between Uganda and Congo, so it is necessary to register with the police to leave Ugandan territory. There was plenty of wood, just not Timber, as this is apparently growing only in Sudan. As there are no suitable roads in between Sudan and Congo in this area, there is no obvious reason, why there should be Timber from Sudan sold at the border of Uganda with Congo. But also therefore, someone needs to know how to read a map. In that matter we are doing circles….
Anyway, it was not Timber, but it looked pretty nice and it was hard wood. So, Yusuf looked for someone to get into deep talks for this wood business. Finally, we even got permission to take some photos, which will be a good way to show, that there is plenty of this stuff already there.
After some hours here at the border we boarded another bus going back to Kampala. For going back, we took the northern route via Fort Portal. It is shorter, but there are many mountains…. So, the information with 5 hours was again different in reality…

I felt really sorry for poor Yusuf, who had to travel the following day all the way back to Mombasa, which is a grueling 20 hours trip.