Kampala Return

Wake at 4:45am to catch the fast bus at 5. It stops by around 5:30 and we're off for Kampala. 30 minutes later the glass in the window by my seat falls out to the road, shattering. It's a cold ride through the mountains, but after some time the sun emerges and it's warmer. While we're still in the hills, the bus breaks down. Just overheated, the driver tweaks some tubes and we're off. For a few minutes. Eventually we reach Kabale - it's been a number of stops-to-let-the-bus-cool-down later, but here we can stop for some time while the radiator is replaced.

At least we fared better than one of the buses we were racing (yes racing. One of the other drivers even did the "On your mark...") - it got too close to the edge of the road and toppled into the ditch, luckily it was towards the mountain not towards the cliff (i wonder why there aren't crosses on the side of the road here, at the site of fatal accidents, like there are in Latin America. There are a lot of Christians here, can't believe they don't ever die on these roads).

The replacement radiator (not a new one) doesn't fit the same bolt holes inside the bus, so the mechanics clamp it to the old, broken radiator and place both in the bus. Took a couple hours, but we are happily off towards Kampala again, wind and dirt full force in my face.

After another couple hours, more problems. They forgot that buses need petrol to run; we're out. It doesn't take that long for another bus to bring us some fuel, but just filling up doesn't fix the problem. After a few tweaks, a few false starts, and a couple hours, we're again on our way.

17 hours after we started on the fast bus, we reach Kampala. I've half of Uganda on my face, and another bus experience to talk about.