During early 1996 I travelled to Uganda to meet  a penpal of mine, below is an account of our time together, told in diary format just as I recorded it at the time, or you can click here to see photos.

26th March- I have just received the last of my immunisations and I am now safe from Yellow Fever, Typhoid, Tetanus, Polio, and Hepatitis so I can now start to think about booking my ticket.
 Several days of frantic phoning later I have been able to arrange a ticket to Entebbe at a price I can actually afford and at a time I can travel. The only catch is that the journey takes nearly 24 hours and involves changing planes at Muscat in the Sultanate of Oman.

 19th April- I'm off at last I leave home at around quarter past six in the morning and walk to the train station. I then spend around half an hour sitting on the station platform waiting for a train to London they should be plentiful at this time in the morning but somehow there is never a train when you need one.
 Eventually, a train arrives and before I know it I am getting out of the train at Charing Cross station, Here I change onto the London Underground and so I find myself nearly two hours and a further change later walking through the main doors of Heathrow airport.
The next challenge is to find the Gulf Air Check-In desk This is not as easy as it sounds as first all my baggage has to go through security scanners before I can get to the desk and check in. My baggage goes through the X-ray machine 4 times they seem to be trying to decide whether there is anything in there likely to cause the plane to explode, there isn't but every time I travel this happens to my luggage.
 Eventually I make it to the Check-In desk and receive my boarding card without any problems. There now follows 1½ hours wait until my plane gets announced and I can proceed to the departure lounge. There is just time for there is just time for a cup of the usual undrinkable airport coffee and a slow wander around the shops before I proceed through the gate and wait in the departure area.
  Once on the plane I settled down with a book and a set of headphones to  pass the 10 hours until we arrived at Muscat Airport.
 After listening to the in-flight radio pop music station all the way through and the easy listening selection. The plane finally landed at Muscat. The direct flight doesn't take so long but this particular flight went via Doha airport to waste a little time otherwise it would have arrived too early. Once at Muscat I had to sit in that airport for 3½ hours until I could
get onto the plane to Entebbe.
Eventually at 0335hrs (Muscat time) We were allowed on the plane and we finally took off for Entebbe via Nairobi.
 I  am able to sleep for a few hours here although the airline crew does insist on waking me up several times to eat some of the meals that airlines always serve. I am not sure exactly what the meals consist of as most airline food tastes the same irrespective of which meal it is purporting to be.
 Finally, 20 hours after leaving Heathrow I see a mass of water below the plane that I am able to identify as lake Victoria and I realise that I have almost reached my destination.
 As the plane gets lower and lower I begin to get a little worried as all I can see is water and there is no sign of the airport, however we do find a runway and just before 10.00hrs (0700 London time) we touch down in Entebbe.
 By this stage I am naturally a little nervous, I have arranged for my friend Salim to meet me at the airport with transport to Kampala which is about 30 km away but communication
not being perfect between our two countries I am not sure if he will be there.
 I needn't have worried he is waiting for me as I come through the arrivals lounge. I have never met him before but it can't be anyone else standing there with a huge poster with my name on it.
 Entebbe airport is quite a modern building I understand it was paid for with Israeli money after the last airport on that site suffered a small accident as detailed in the 1976 film Raid on Entebbe.
 I am shown outside the airport and into a waiting taxi cab where I get to sit the front seat.
The taxi is full of people I think Salim has brought most of the Youth of Kampala to meet me. It takes about 45 minutes to drive the 30km back to Kampala and it is during this time that I am gaining my first impressions of the African continent. It is very green and not really dry and dusty as I had expected The roads are not in a very good state of repair they are either dirt and gravel or where they have been made with tarmac then they have been allowed to become full of holes and ruts. When I notice this I begin to wish that the cars were fitted with seat belts that actually worked.
 After about 25-30 minutes we arrive in the city of Kampala, drive down the main street and stop outside a small shop with a sign declaring that it is the Lusam Grocery. We get out of the car here and have a discussion with the woman behind the counter, after a short discussion we are lead out of the front of the shop, around the corner, down a dirt track and up what looks like a fire escape into a room with a few chairs and a portable television set. We do not stop here but pass out through another door and emerge onto a
corridor with about 5 bedrooms and 1 set of toilets and shower rooms. We stop at the first bedroom and unlock the door. Once revealed the room appears basic but clean. It contains 2 single beds and a small table. The walls are painted a dull colour that might once have been white.
 We thank the woman and pay her for the night in advance. She then leaves us and we begin to plan the next few days, By this time there are only 3 of us the rest having taken the taxi back to the people from whom they had borrowed it.
By this time I am quite tired even though it is only about 10 O'clock in the morning. After a few minutes planning we have come up with a rough outline of how we are going to spend the next two weeks. We resolve at once that we will spend the first day visiting the famous Kasubi tombs that are only just outside Kampala.
 We left the Lusam Inn and walked through the town for about 20 minutes until we reached one of the slum areas on the outskirts of the city. Here the houses are very basic, being mainly constructed out of corrugated iron, and bits of wood, plastic, etc. There is no sanitation and the only means of obtaining water are from the puddles which from in the craters at the roadside. It was to be quite a common sight throughout my stay in Uganda to see people collecting water from puddles and then carrying it home in plastic containers
balanced on their heads.
 After walking through this area for a while we were fortunate in being able to hail a transit van full of people. Upon closer inspection this van proved to be a share taxi. We bumped along the roads for about 10 minutes and then we were let out of the van at The bottom of a fairly steep hill, a brisk 5 minute walk up this hill brought the two of us to the Kasubi tombs. On first sight the area appeared to be deserted but as we walked through
the site entrance  and entered the compound several people were visible including a woman sitting behind a desk in a small hut. This proved to be the visitors' centre where we were able to obtain a guide to show us around the site.

 Looking around the compound the most arresting feature was the main hut.
 However there were also smaller huts on either side of the main hut and
it was outside these smaller huts that there were signs of activity with children playing and women preparing food.

The guide explained that the site had originally been built as the palace of the Kings of Buganda and the Small huts were built for the Kings wives. The descendants of these wives were the people still living in these huts.
  Before we were allowed to enter the main hut we were instructed to remove our shoes outside the door. The inside of the hut was quite dark but it was light enough to see that it was carpeted with lots of rugs and straw mats.
 Once inside we all sat down on the floor while the guide explained how the last four kings of the Buganda are buried around the compound and the palace was maintained as a shrine to them. A screen was erected at the front of the hut and this was decorated with photographs of the kings as well as traditional spears and shields and drums.
 In one corner there were some chairs that had been presented to one of the Kings by Queen Victoria as well as a stuffed leopard that had been a pet of one of the kings but had to be destroyed after his death because it became uncontrollable.
 We stayed in the area of the tombs for quite a long time looking around and finding aboutall of the history of the Buganda people.
 By this time it was late afternoon and we walked back to the centre of Kampala and
found somewhere to eat.
 During my entire stay in Kampala I only used 3 restaurants. The main 2 were The House of Foods which we used that night or The Curry Pot, which we used that night. For the most part Ugandan food is very simple and there are 3 main dishes that you find everywhere. Goat, Chicken, or meat that is normally what they call beef. These are served with either rice or something called matoke that is made with some kind of grain
and has no describable taste.
 After we have eaten we spend the evening walking around the city finding out what it is like and getting some impression of the way people live in Uganda.
  When it comes to time to get ready for bed I discover the eccentricities of Ugandan plumbing, Although there is water coming out of the taps the showers did not work  you are simply given a bowl and told to fill it from the cold water tap  and take it into the shower cubicle. The lack of hot water does not really bother me as I was not used to the African heat yet and so I am really quite glad of the chance to cool down. Unfortunately cold water is not very good for removing mud stains and Ugandan  mud is particularly
sticky and resistant to attempts to scrub it off. Anyway eventually I return to the room I am sharing with Salim for the night, after a quick  spray around the room and all over my body with the can of insect repellent and it
is time for bed, and the end of my first day in Africa.

April 21st- I wake up early and am able to get into the showers before Salim is awake. For the rest of the day we walk around Kampala.
 It is very much easier to walk around Kampala by day. The pavements in Kampala were once modern and well built but they do not appear to have been repaired for many years.
The drain covers and water mains were originally covered with metal covers but now these are missing leaving deep holes in the pavement that it is quite possible to walk into if you are not careful. Another problem is caused by the habit of piling rubble and household rubbish on the streets. It is just as well that the street lights are still working in most places.
 This is more than can be said for the traffic lights, There is just one junction in Kampala
where the lights work but the rest of the junctions have traffic lights that are either stuck
on one colour or just don't function at all.
 Kampala is a very diverse city with a marked split between the part of the city where the ordinary people live in apartments. and the 'foreign' part of the city that contains all of the foreign embassies and the major hotels like The Kampala Sheraton Hotel and The Speke Hotel. The Sheraton Hotel has a huge garden that is the nearest thing Kampala has to a
public park This garden is open to the public and we spent some time walking around there. There are fountains and a small mock village selling local crafts.
 After a busy day travelling through the city it is time to return to the Lusam Inn and sleep again, we want to get to bed early as we have  arranged that in the morning we will travel from Kampala to Jinja. The taxi travelling to Jinja can leave as early as 6 a.m. and so we have to be at the taxi park by then.

22nd April-  Today we travel to Jinja. Using Share Taxis in Uganda for a long journey is an unusual experience. Most taxis are licensed to carry 14 people and they don't start on their journey until they are full. On this occasion we only have to wait about 20 minutes before the Transit Van started off on its 2½ hour journey to Jinja. The taxis tend to travel very fast on the roads that are full of holes, There are no seat belts in these taxis. There are two features that are universal to travelling in Uganda at the current time, one is the army and customs checks that occur every few miles and usually only involve opening the sliding door of the van for the armed officer to see if we are carrying any weapons or other prohibited items. Sometimes if the officers were bored and had nothing better to do
they would insist on searching through all of our' bags and possessions.
  The other feature of travelling in Uganda is the refreshment stops. every so often the taxi will stop in a village and from seemingly nowhere dozens of children will appear and try to sell you things usually food and drink but  jewellery and lots of other things were also forced through the windows for our inspection. The most common thing being sold  was fizzy drinks which the Ugandans refer to as soda. If you buy this from one of these roadside sellers the thing to remember is that you must drink it while the taxi remains
stationary as the seller will wish to have the bottle returned. If you do not manage to finish the drink in time they will chase the taxi or bus shouting at you until you relinquish the bottle to them.
 Anyway, eventually we arrive at Jinja and the first problem is to find somewhere to stay. after a hunt through the entire town which took about ten minutes we  finally find The Sparrow Rest Lodge. This is another small place with only 4 or 5 rooms, It does have the advantage that the shower actually works. The room itself is a large double room with the two beds at one end of the room and the other half of the room seems to be in use as a
store room with pots of paint and a sewing machine being among the items stored there.
 Once we have found somewhere to leave all of our clothes we go  outside to find some method of transport to the Bujagali Falls.  The method of transport that we find is a bicycle taxi. This is quite an interesting experience for me as we don't have anything like this in Britain. The idea is that you climb on the back seat of a two seater bicycle  and the person in front pedals you wherever you wish to go. This works quite well on the flat roads that have a proper surface. However it does not work so well on the dirt tracks that predominate in the towns and villages, Also it seems that where we are going is mainly up hill and you have to get off and walk when the hills become too steep.
 After around 20 minutes we turn off the main road and cycle down a small grass track and stop at small hut and a barrier across the road, this is the entrance to Bujagali Falls. It is here that I learn another of the facts of life in Uganda. Non Ugandan citizens always pay
at least three times as much to visit the tourist attractions. Actually this doesn't really matter as they are still very cheap.
 Once issued with our tickets the barrier is lifted and we are allowed to continue down the grass track  until it broadens out and suddenly there in front of us are the Bujagali Falls.
 These really are quite spectacular with the water cascading down a series of small waterfalls and foaming around a variety different bends and twists in the watercourses
before finally settling down into a single river. This is clearly a major tourist sight and for the first time since my arrival in Uganda I find some other white people. Apparently one of the attractions here is to pay one of the young men from the area to swim across the top of the waterfall where the river is at its widest and most violent. So as part of a group of tourists we find the money and prepare to watch an African boy risk his life for our amusement. He strips to his shorts and dives in to the foaming bubbling water and in a
moment he is gone, caught in the swirling current he is carried down the waterfall below the torrent, he is carried down the falls and far away around a bend in the river almost out of sight. The river is wide at this point and for a moment no-one can see him We strain our eyes a little more we glimpse a speck far out in the middle of the river, He is struggling to reach the river bank but the current is too strong and he must take a moment to rest while
he allows himself to be washed further down the river. Eventually he reaches the bank of the river and pulls himself up onto the mud and earth. The boy walks slowly back up towards us, collects his money and takes his place at the back of a queue of young men all waiting to do the same thing.
 Soon after this incident our two taxi drivers begin to display signs of impatience and we decide it is time to move on to our next objective.
 The main attraction in the Jinja area is the source of the river Nile. This source of the Nile was discovered by Speke and Grant in  1862, or so I was informed by a plaque on the bank of the river. There is not really a great deal to see here, just a brass plaque set in a stone pillar and the usual soda sellers who seem to be everywhere in Uganda. It is a nice spot though it is very picturesque there just isn't anything there in the way of the
spectacular. There was once because this was the site of the Owen Falls, but these were dammed some years ago to provide Hydroelectric electric power. a necessary operation as this power station provides most of Uganda's electricity, it is however a shame the falls had to be sacrificed.
After visiting all of these sites we return to the town of Jinja. As it is a Sunday I would have liked to have gone to church but I had arrived  in Jinja at about 11 O'clock at by that time all of the services had finished. In Britain services are held in the morning and in the evening but in Africa they hold two or three services in the morning starting at about 6 and  with the last one ending at about 10 o clock.
 So by this time all of the church services were long since over. This was a pity really as I had just been pedalled past a Baptist Church I would have liked to have tried.
 So we return to Jinja and Salim decides to look up a friend he hadn't seen for a long time. Eventually we find the friends' house but he isn't in so we leave a note with his father and return to the Sparrow Rest lodge.
 We sit and talk for a little while and then just after it gets dark the electricity fails and all of the lights go out. This is the first of many nights I was to spend in the dark.
 Shortly after the lights go out there is a knock at the door, Salims' friend has found us.
We spend a long time talking to him about pretty much everything. His father is a local politician and he enjoys talking about politics all over the world. It is very strange to listen to these two friends as the two of them sometimes use English and sometimes their own language. They often start a sentence in one language and finish it in another.
 When Salims' friend leaves us we take turns to take the one candle we were provided with and go and wash. We then retire to bed it is still quite early but there is very little to do when you can't see your hand in front of your face.

23rd April- It is time to move on again, this time we are off to Tororro. Salim is going to show me where he used to go to school.
 So it is that I find myself back on a bus bumping along the potholed roads. At least it is a proper bus this time or rather it is what we in Britain call a coach instead of a mini bus.
 When we arrive in Tororro we immediately pick up a couple of bicycle taxis to take us to Tororro secondary school. Progress to the school is very slow as we are carrying all of our baggage and so we are very heavy to pedal along the dirt tracks.
 We arrive at the school after about 10 minutes  and I am glad to get down from the bike and sit in the shade for a few minutes as by now I am starting to feel the heat. I wait at the entrance to the school while Salim goes off to find some of his friends who still attend this school.
  He is away for about 7 or 8 minutes  and I am quite glad when he returned because I have been generating quite a lot of interest as the only white person in the town. Tororro is not really a tourist area and so it is not very often that non Ugandans are seen on the school premises. This wasn't always the case as the school was started by Italian Catholic
missionaries. I found it strange that someone like Salim whose family is Muslim should have attended a Catholic school but apparently this is quite normal in Uganda.
 When Salim returns he brings his friend Robert with him and explains that Robert is going to show me around the school while he tries to find the head teacher and pay for his exam results. All education is fee paying in Uganda and even if you sit an exam you are not given proof of your results unless you pay for it.
 Robert shows me all of the school buildings including the classrooms and science blocks and dormitories. Most Ugandan schools are boarding schools with students returning home every weekend. The students sleep in large wooden huts that are crammed with bunk beds where there can be no privacy at all. However at least the rooms are kept clean and dry, because of the climate for the most part the students spend their time
outside eating outside and sitting out there when they are not engaged in studying.
 The food  the students endure would best be described as basic. It consists almost entirely of cassava that is served in plastic bowls. During my stay in Tororro I was persuaded to buy some salt for them since the school does not provide any for the students.
 Since Salim had to stay at the school and wait for the head teacher to see him Robert decides to show me around the local area. We take the bikes back to the town where as there is nothing very much to see in the town (It is just a small collection of houses). We take the bus to Malaba which is on the Kenyan border. There is very little at Malaba but it quite busy with lorries and trucks crossing the border.
 A lot of the traffic here is aid lorries belonging to the United Nations. There are a lot of aid lorries on Ugandan roads generally as all aid to Rwanda goes through Uganda.
 Since we have the time we decide to stroll across the border and take a quick look at Kenya. Robert doesn't have his passport with him but that isn't important as they never check passports at this crossing, There is a steady stream of people crossing and re-crossing the border everyday. A great many people live in one country and work or study in the other country.
 Kenya seems to be fairly similar to Uganda, at least the little bit I am able to see in the 45 minutes I am in the country. We have just time for a soda and a short stroll around the town before going back to Uganda and taking the bus back to Tororro.
 We meet up with Salim in Tororro and set out to climb Tororro rock. This is a large hill on
the outskirts of the town We make it to the base of the hill but before we can put a foot on
the hill we are accosted by a man with a rifle and turned back the way we had come. The
reason that we are given is that the hill is now being used by Ugandan Electricity and written permission from them must be obtained before we will be allowed to climb the hill.
 It is getting into the early evening now so we decide it is now time for me and Salim to return to Kampala.
 By the time we arrive back in Kampala it is quite late and so it is important to find a room for the night. The Lusam is fully booked so we book into Swan Lodges.
 This is quite a nice place it is reached by an alleyway and climbing three flights of stairs (like  most lodges in Uganda).
 The facilities here are somewhat more basic than at the Lusam but then it is half the price.
The toilet is just a hole in the floor and there is no paper provided. the shower has water running out of the tap so at least that is something.

24th April- Today we are staying in Kampala, Salim wants to take me to see the Uganda Museum.
 The museum is on the outskirts of the town and so of course we take one of those minibus taxis again.
 As we are approaching the museum we see dozens of school children outside and it becomes apparent that a school party will be visiting the museum at the same time as us.
 Fortunately, we are able to gain access before the school children so we are not held up by them.
 The museum is not really very large and is very traditional with everything arranged in glass cases. There are exhibits relating to geology and history of all of Uganda as well as of the separate tribes.
 One of the more unusual exhibits is a set of traditional tribal musical instruments that we are allowed to play. There were xylophones and drums and various other things that would take too long to describe and I have no name to give them.
 Other interesting exhibits were traditional clothing items and also wildlife from the area. I had already seen a cobra while we were out walking in Tororro and I have no wish to get any closer to one than the other side of the road.
 After we get back from the museum we walk around the town for a while and then go and get something to eat. Then we go back to Swan Lodges. We plan to spend the evening there, however when we get there we discover that the electricity is off, so Salim takes me and introduces me to his family instead.
  When he is in Kampala he lives with his father and step mother in a 2 room flat. They have 4 other children and his uncle often stays with them as well. Actually they haveseveral properties in their home town of Lira but because of the civil war in the north of the country it is not safe for them to live there all of the time.
 Their accommodation in Kampala is very basic  there is no lock on the front door and there is no running water. All cooking is done in a pan over a charcoal fire, apparently these conditions are normal in most places in Uganda.
 I did not see Salims' father during my stay as he was in Lira sorting things out there. They used to have quite a large herd of cattle but these were stolen by the government to feed the army.
 Salims' uncle wants to discuss politics with me. He talks a lot about the election campaign
that is running in Uganda at that time. It is the first election they have had since 1980 and the results of the 1980 elections were ignored. The last election before that was in 1965 and the leaders elected then were soon replaced by a dictatorship.
 everyone in this country wants to know my opinion of the different candidates. This is difficult for me as I don't know anything about any of them.
 After discussing the differences between our two countries it is time to leave and return to Swan Lodges and sleep.

25th April- Today We are going to Kasesse to see if we can find some wildlife. This means another bumpy ride on a bus. This is quite a pleasant time as for part of the journey we pass through the wildlife reserves and it is very picturesque area. When we arrive at Kasesse we book a room for the night at the Moonlight Lodging and then we find a taxi with a driver prepared to let us hire him for the day and drive us to The Queen Elizabeth
National Park.
 It takes about 30 minutes to drive from the town to the national park. When we get to the gate we pay for entry and ask the way to the Mweya Safari Lodge where we know we can hire a guide.
 We have to wait about 20 minutes for the guide to come back but soon we are bumping down the dirt track that forms the main thoroughfare in the park. The wildlife seems to be avoiding me though as we spend the next 40 minutes driving around the different tracks and getting the taxi stuck up tracks that were too rutted and narrow to allow for motor transport. The guide takes us to where he had left the elephant that morning but it has
wandered off at some point during the day. I understand that elephants  do have a tendency to go and look for food when they are hungry. We spend a little more time
driving around the park and we see a few hippopotamuses as well as lots of buffalo and deer. We also saw  the remains of a deer that had been left over from the lions lunchalthough the lion himself we did not see.
 after leaving the park we returned to the Moonlight Lodge to get some sleep. There is nothing to do in Kasesse town itself so we will be moving on again in the morning.
 The Moonlight Lodge could hardly be described as the height of luxury. Although the rooms are not too bad they are the normal large double rooms with a huge bolt on the door so they are quite secure.
 The problem is that there is no running water at all and so we were required to fill up a bowl from a jug in the room and take it into the shower room. There is no light of course and so it is no easy to see what you are doing. The other half of this problem is that there is no water for the toilet, previous guests had solved this problem by relieving themselves on the toilet floor rather than using the hole in the ground provided for the purpose. I am relieved that we will only have to spend one night there.
 First thing in the morning we travel on to Kabale.

 26th April- Kabale is right up in the mountains and is refreshingly cool compared to Kampala and the heat I was used to, Salim however found it very cold and took to wearing all of his clothes in bed in an attempt to keep warm. The mountains are a great place to walk and see  a different side of Uganda. The country is rather under populated (although you would never know this in the towns). and when in the mountains it is possible to travel for ages before you meet anyone. In Kabale we stay in the Visitours
Hotel. This is clean and there is even hot water although it was actually so hot that you couldn't use it as it burns you. Our room is reached by means of an outside metal staircase
that is so warped and twisted that it looks as if it has been hit by a large vehicle and is about to collapse either with us on it or afterwards stranding us on the 1st floor.

27th April- Today is spent travelling back to Kampala from Kabale. We travel on a crowded bus with no room to move and the journey takes 7 hours. The travelling time is only 5 hours but it is important to be on the bus early as there is no timetable and they leave when they are full. There are very few buses travelling this route. If we miss this one there may not be another one all day. So we sit on this bus for 2 hours before he has
enough passengers on board for him to start the journey. We arrive back in Kampala at about 9 p.m. and book back in Swan Lodges. I stay here all
the time now until I return to England.
 Swan Lodges has not improved while I have been away. The plumbing has broken and so we must now take all water from a tank in the entrance hall.

28th April- Sunday again, this time as I am in Kampala I am able to go to church. There is not a lot of choice in which church I should go to as only The Church of Uganda and Kampala Pentecostal Church (KPC) hold services in English. We decide to try KPC. The service starts at 8.30 and as we arrive there is a choir at the front of the church singing.
The church building itself is huge rather like a theatre. There is a platform at the front and tiers of seats running back. In total there must be several thousand people here. The service is a little different to what I am used to, there is a lot of singing at the front and then someone stands up and spends a long time talking about church activities during the week that do not interest me as I won't be able to attend any of them. After this someone
stands up and gives a gospel sermon that was not really too bad. It seemed unusual to me but this was more to do with the cultural angle he took than to do with my disagreeing with him about any of it, He spoke from Deuteronomy 28 about what happens when someone curses you.
 After the church service I go with Salim and group of friends to Entebbe we have borrowed a car from someone. like most of the cars on Ugandan roads it is a white Toyota. We spend a few hours looking around the zoo at Entebbe. It is not a very large zoo although they are making efforts to improve it. The zoo is mainly full of monkeys and ostriches. There is a very good snake house though and also a nice collection of Nile
crocodiles. It is a good place to visit as all of the animals can also be seen in the wild in various parts of Uganda.
 When we finish at the zoo we move on to Entebbe beach resort. This is an artificial tourist resort complete with imported sand on the shores of lake Victoria. You can even go for a swim as long as you don't do beyond the protective crocodile cages. We don't stay here long as there is not really much to do except sit in the sun and look at the imported camels sitting on the imported sand. you can take a photo of the camels if you feel it will
impress your friends but you must pay extra for this.
 From the beach resort we move on to Makarre University. This is one of the best universities in Kampala. It is an Islamic university but most of the students are nominal Christians, Many of the university lecturers are on strike at the moment as the government has not paid any of them for three months. We visit more of Salims' friends who are studying here. The rooms on campus are basic but adequate. although it did get rather crowded with the number of people we tried to fit into the room.
Eventually it is time to return the car to its owner and head back for another night at Swan Lodges. Tonight I move into a single room and Salim stayed with his family, This saves a little money and also meant that he didn't have to keep running back there to change his clothes.

29th April- Today we spend our time strolling around the last little bit of Kampala that I haven't seen yet. We see the railway station and yards and also Port Bell, a port where it is possible to pick up the ferry to go across Lake Victoria to Tanzania. I would have liked to take some photographs of all this but it is illegal to take photographs of Ugandan trains
our ferries in stations or ports. This is because everything around the station yards and ports is in such a poor state of repair that they don't want the outside world to know about it. I considered taking a few illegal photographs but the appearance of several of the armed army officers who are everywhere in Uganda decided me against it.
 Today I also get to meet another friend of Salim. He seems to be doing rather well for himself as he owns three shops in one street.

30th April/1st May- We don't do much on these two days. We sit in cafes and drink
Ugandan tea that is revoltingly weak being made entirely with milk, in the evening we go out to the local video parlour that is a meeting point for all the towns' youth. In the video parlour we sit and drink soda and shout at each other to try and be heard above the noise of everyone else at all the other tables. It is an unusual location for a place of entertainment as it is situated between a mosque and a Sikh temple. In Britain the Moslems and Sikhs would both of complained and planning permission would never have
been granted. I should have reconfirmed my flights today, It is a practice with Gulf Air that unless you go and see them at their local office 72 hours before your flight is due to take off they will cancel your ticket and resell it to someone else. However we forgot that May 1st is Labour Day in Uganda and therefore the office is shut.

2nd May- Today we visited Old Kampala. This is a little part of main Kampala that is a district by itself. Most of the buildings here were built in the 1920's and 1930's during the period of British Rule. We have Robert with us again as the school term has ended for a while. He says that he has never been to this part of Kampala before. The roads here are narrow and winding and for the most part seem to lead up.
 Eventually the roads stop going up and  we emerge out onto a road above Kampala and we have great view of the whole of the town. We are standing next to a small mosque it was going to be a big mosque  but the government changed and permission for the big mosque was revoked.
 Also today I am finally able to reconfirm my flight home. I find out now that I must pay an extra $20 airport tax before they will let me out of the country. I do not mind the money but it is inconvenient as I only have British pounds and Ugandan Shillings and the tax must be paid in American dollars.

 3rd May- Salim is busy today so I spend the day with Robert. We go to Jinja as this is where Robert lives when he is not at school or in Kampala.
 We have a fast journey to Jinja it only takes 2 hours.
 In Jinja I am introduced to Roberts' brother who works in a local foam production factory. Roberts' parents have been dead for 15 years and so he must stay with his brothers on factory owned premises.
 As Roberts' brother works in the foam factory he is able to arrange for a guide to show us around the factory. We are shown all of the chemicals that are mixed together to create the foam and then all of the machines that are used to cut and shape the foam to make mattresses and seat cushions and all other foam materials. I find all of this very interesting as I have not seen any factories like this before. It is quite a labour intensive process as
each mattress must by cut to shape individually.
 After visiting the foam factory were go and have a look at a new bridge built over the Victoria-Nile, and we also hunt along the river bank until we find our way through to the source of the river Nile. This is the source of the Nile on the opposite side of the river to the one I had found earlier. This one is rather overgrown and does not appear to have been visited very much since it was originally discovered by Speke in 1862.
 We finally travelled back to Kampala late in the evening and arrived at about 9.30 p.m. and I return to Swan Lodges for my last night in East Africa. Amazingly the running water supply is back on tonight.

4th May- Today I am starting my journey home, I have arranged for Salim to borrow his friends' car again and pick me up at about 7.30. My flight is at 10.45 and I must by at Entebbe airport by 8.45. Unfortunately there is a problem and Salim is delayed and doesn't arrive until 8.30. He has used the car to go and collect some of his younger brothers and sisters from school so after collecting me  we drive via his home to let all of his family out of the car before we start moving towards Entebbe.
 It is now 8.45 and we should be at the airport. We have a clear run to the airport however and we are able to pull in front of the airport building 45 minutes before the flight is due to take off.
 I book onto my flight just in time I am the last person to arrive. Now I say good-bye to Salim and his friends and pass through passport control and collect my boarding pass. I only have to wait in the lounge for a few minutes before we are allowed through onto the plane. As we approach the plane we are asked to identify our luggage which is lined up on the airport runway. Only luggage that is identified is allowed to be loaded onto the
plane. I believe this is for security reasons.
 Soon we have taken off but within an hour we are sitting on the runway at Nairobi taking on more passengers.
 At 7 p.m. we arrive at Muscat airport and I settle down in the departure lounge for rather a long wait. The is plenty of room so I follow the example of other travellers and stretch out over several seats.

5th May- It is 1 O'clock in the morning (Muscat time) and my plane has just appeared on the departure board.  In fact it has appeared on 2 boards one in English and one in Arabic.
 I stagger drowsily to my feet and proceed to the departure gate. We are allowed onto the plane at about 1.30 and we take 15 minutes late at about 2.00. I sleep most of the way home although they did insist on waking me up to eat at the most uncivilised times.
 I finally cleared immigration at Heathrow airport at around 7.00 and I was met at the airport by my parents.
 I got home at 9.00 and it was a relief to be able to have a shower with running water and to be able to shave with warm water. I just had time to change and have a mug of tea before it was time to go off to church tell everyone about my trip.