Roadtrip Uganda - Part 8
Gulu Today we go to the town of Gulu. After a delicious breakfast, we leave for the ferry. We drive calmly to Tangi gate and from there to Karuma.
Near Karuma is a large waterfall in the Nile and it is easily visible from a bridge just before Karuma. We have our camera ready. We make a quick stop in the middle of the bridge and then quickly drive on again. The photo shoot succeeds but after the bridge we are stopped and sternly addressed by two soldiers. We are absolutely not allowed to stand still on the bridge as this is life-threatening. The soldier does suggest that we be allowed to stop on the side of the road immediately after the bridge. Our comment that this is much more dangerous could not convince the angry soldier. Nice to know that the speed limit on this stretch of road is 20 km/h and traffic here is very limited. There is great difficulty regarding the major crime we committed. After some discussion, I have to come with him to the boss. This one once again speaks sternly to me and we have to pay a fine. One hundred thousand times sorry. And we didn't know. Bla, bla, bla, bla......... In the end, we don't get a fine but they want to receive something. I thought they wanted money but the colleague says we can also give water. Fortunately, we always carry plenty of water to give to the locals so this fine is quickly bought off with 1.5 litres of very "precious" water.
On to Gulu, a drive of about an hour on a very good road. On the way, our front window is hit full by a big pineapple falling off a truck. Quite a bang, an increased heart rate but our front window is fortunately still intact!!!
We decide to move into the Acholi Inn Hotel. We want a hotel with excellent amenities such as; the ability to do our laundry, a nice hot shower and wifi for maintaining our social contacts and updating the Polar Steps app.
Gulu is a very pleasant town. There is plenty of activity. We visit a nice covered market and do some shopping especially fruit and vegetables for the next few days. Kidepo National Park in the far north of Uganda is on the agenda and, according to the guidebook, you have to bring your own food because it is almost impossible to get it in the far north. The same goes for fuel. At Iron Donkey Café & Guesthouse, we drink the most delicious cup of Cappuccino in Uganda. Bea Café in Kabale unfortunately now in second place. We sit here cosily and forget about time.
Kidepo National Park – Apoka Early in the morning, we set off for Apoka in Kidepo National Park. Kidepo National Park is a 1442 km2 national park in the Karamoja region in north-eastern of Uganda. Kidepo is a rugged savannah dominated by the 2750-meter-high Mount Morungole and bisected by the Kidepo and Narus rivers
First we drive to Kitgum to fill up once more because there is no petrol available in Kidepo.
We fill up the tank and two large jerry cans. We also inflate our tyres again as the right rear tyre in particular (the one repaired in Paraa) swings a bit. After Kitgum, the road becomes unpaved. The quality is poor. We drive about 3.5 hours over the 140 km. At the campsite in Apoka, we settle down and are soon joined by five Jackels. These fox-like animals keep circling around our tent and are seemingly very interested in our delicious dinner. During our meal, several boars and two hippos pass by. It remains special all these animals around us. We remain extremely careful but your relationship with animals changes.
All night, we hear roaring lions. Lion spotting was one of the main reasons we travelled to Kidepo. In the morning, we initially drove to the Lion Rock and The Crocodil Pool hoping to see lions and some crocodiles. On this trip, we have only seen a few crocodiles in the Nile. However, no lions on the rock and no crocodile in the pool but the scenery is truly stunning. Without paying attention to our navigation, we drive around delightfully. Until we discover that we no longer know exactly where we are and soon came to the conclusion that we are lost. After some searching and with the help of maps.me, we find the right road again and drive back to Apoka in the dark, satisfied.
Up at five and immediately on our way to Lions Rock. On the way, we come across a female and a male Lion just lying on the path less than five metres from our car. The male wants to do more than just lie down, only the female is not amused. After some time, they both retreat to the grass and the male gives his female extra attention.
We decide to drive on to Lions Rock and when we arrive we think we see a lion on a large rock but we don't really want to believe it. Like The Lion King! This would be too good for words. Besides, the eye has deceived us more often or we see something that is the wish of our minds. But there really is a lion on the rock and its mane is shining in the morning sun. A dream is coming true. What a picture! We can enjoy ourselves and take pictures and then the lion decides to find another spot. Unfortunately, but how wonderful!!!!!
After this beautiful encounter, we decide to take a shortcut via the crocodile pond so that we save petrol and don't have to drive all the way back. At the crocodile pond there is again no crocodile in sight, only a small baby crocodile about 20 cm long that immediately skittishly scurries away into the high grass. We make our way through the grass. On the map and on our good feeling. Maps.me fails completely. Everything is unknown to our favourite app. But we find our way. One obstacle made things a little tense. A deep pool!!! Do we do it, or not. Not would mean we would have to drive back the whole way. So gas up!!! Our bolide had to roar a bit, had to find grip for a while and then shot up the road again. We squeezed our butts together. Getting stuck here was not really an option. It was very exciting!
We drive on to Kitgum, about another 125 km. Fortunately, we came out well with petrol and drive to Kitgum at our leisure, a trip of about 3.5 hours. As our tyres are weak especially the right rear tyre and the left front tyre. We drive to the same pump where we were helped earlier for a soda. They see us coming and we are greeted with a broad smile. Of course they want to refill our tyres. They also check the right rear tyre in detail with water to assess whether it is flat again after all. Fortunately, this is not the case. With that we want to give a tip and a bottle of cola, the mechanic comes to us and asks if he can have our number. This is because he, John, wants to whatsap with us. John waves us goodbye, happy with our number, the tip and the coke.
We drive on towards Gulu. After 20 km, we come to a fork towards Gulu or Lira. We actually need to head towards Lira but don't want to ride over 100 km unpaved. Another consideration is that in Gulu they have the tastiest Cappuccino in Uganda. Another factor to consider. Moreover, there is an asphalt road to Gulu. To be sure, we ask a local if the road to Lira is paved. The answer is that it is a very good road so we decide to drive on to Lira anyway. This saves us a 70 km detour. However, just outside the village, the tarmac turns into a beautiful red dirt road. We turn around and drive towards a delicious cappuccino.
