Bush Mechanics

Here is my simple guide to 'bush mechanics' or how to fix your car in the middle of nowhere!

It is essential to have music on a long road trip, so adding an extra 2 hour wait to the journey is well worth it ... except when the car breaks down an hour later! In Uganda, everything can and frequently is fixed using duct tape. The skill lies in knowing which wires to cut and which ones to leave alone!

Take advantage of unexpected pit stops and tuck into the tasty home made cheesy pesto scones!

And when it gets really bad (or starts raining, whichever comes first) crack open a bottle of chilled white wine from the cool box. After all, you may as well take advantage when you have hired a driver along with the car!

To quote my friend:

"It's like a general rule of life: if something is on fire, you should wait until it cools down before touching it!"

Unfortunately, our driver had not heard such words of wisdom and decided to pour a jerry can of water directly into the smoking engine. Unsurprisingly, it backfired on him!

He was also convinced that the car would be fine after this because his 'sixth sense' told him so. But why didn't his sixth sense tell him the car would break down an hour into the journey in the first place? Not to worry, even in the back of beyond, you can find a helpful mechanic on call, ready to share some helpful tips and stick a blade of grass into the engine to diagnose the problem. We decided that we weren't convinced that this mechanic was totally bona fide, mainly for the unrelated but disturbing reason that his flies were undone, he wasn't wearing underpants and he hadn't noticed that his bits were on display to one and all.  Five minutes later, our driver decided to give up on his sixth sense and request a replacement car.

I would have thought that the simplest way to replace the diesel would be for the car hire company to reimburse us for what we had bought so that we could fill up our tank again. TIA rules here though, so we used buckets and empty water bottles to drain the fuel from one vehicle and poured it into the next, losing several precious litres in the process! 

Can you see a weird looking face in this bowl of diesel? Kind of looks like he's laughing at us, don't you think?

I would have used a tube to transfer the diesel from one car to the other . But then who am I to comment?

The journey to Kidepo

A thousand images flickering past.

A long and bumpy, muddy road. Huge mobile phone masts incongruous to the surroundings. Women on bicycles. A UWA truck stuck in the mud. Women with babies strapped to their backs using a calabash as sun protection. IDP camps filled with folks unable to go home. Fields of sunflowers. School children in day-glow pink uniforms walking and laughing their way home. Signs advising you to beware of landmines. Dwarf cows with big humps. Buses with messages from the Bible plastered across the windscreen. Children gathered around a water pump and carrying jerrycans. Farmers working in the blazing sun. Countless signs for the countless NGOs at work in this region. Fields of crops. Every shade of green imaginable. Blue skies, cloudy skies, grey skies, sheet lightning, torrential rain, blazing sunshine.

A hundred photos taken along the way, two thirds blurry as we whizzed by too quickly!

Road Trips

The long half term has finally come to an end and I am preparing for a BIG road trip. So big that it takes 2 days to get there and 2 days to get back. I'm heading up to Kidepo National Park in the north of Uganda which borders with Sudan. I believe we even put a foot over the border on one of the trips. This is THE park to go to if you want to encounter all the animals - giraffes, lions, leopards, cheetahs, ostriches and zebra. It has all the attraction of the Masai Mara but only a tiny fraction of the visitors.
Road trips in Uganda take a fair amount of preparation. Here's a sample from my packing list:
New camera with big zoom lens - check
Dettol and cotton wool to ward off nasty tsetse flies - check
Anti-malarials - check - don't wanna go back there again!
Sleeping sheet and own pillow case in case UWA banda bedding not up to scratch - check
Skirt to wear on journey to avoid flashing bum to random travellers whilst taking a roadside pit stop - check
Head torch - check - about time I actually invested in a torch after using my phone torch for the past 2 years
Silly straw hat to protect from glaring sun - not checked due to disapproving look from my friend in the shop
Mountaineering trousers that zip off into shorts - check - practical as they are, they will NEVER see the light of day in Kampala town - would hate to be mistaken for a tourist
New waterproof trousers and coat - check - am half hoping for a few drops of rain so I get to use them
Passport to prove Ugandan residency for discount at luxury lodge -check
Home made flapjack with safari mix stirred in to help pass the journey - check
I-pod so I can zone out during the bumpy roads and scary driving - check
Extra strength DEET - check
Amarula for night caps - check
Wine and plastic wine glasses for sundowners - check
Binoculars to spot the lions, leopards, elephants, giraffes and zebras - check
Posh frock for meal at the lodge - check
Bikini to chill at the pool - check
Salmon steaks to be cooked on a charcoal stove - check - hope we are not being over-ambitious here - if it goes wrong it'll be rice and beans instead!

So it looks like I'm all set to go ...