Cycle Tour - Kampala Cultural trip

I could see my daughter could see this tour far enough - she isn't into cycling and wasn't sure her lungs could cope with a 16 mile cycle in the heat of Kampala but I convinced her to go anyway!

Bert (a Dutchman who speaks excellent English, as most Dutch people do), was our bicycle tour company leader who came to pick us up.

His website is at www.ugandabicycle.com

We drove down to his house which is quite close to Cassia Lodge and got the bikes set up for the ride.

Our heads were now peering skywards as dark clouds seemed to be approaching. This looked like a heavy dose of rain and my thoughts were confirmed when it started to lash down - we took cover in his house!

We thought our trainers would be ok sitting under the eaves of the house but because this had turned into a full electrical storm our shoes were now full of water with the rain swirling around - it had even taken out one the palm tree type plants which was lying horizontal on his driveway!

Storm over, Berts other cycle guide helper took us on the run (on mountain bikes, useful or the local side roads which are tricky to say the least - actually, it made it more fun!) and down to a small fishing village where we loaded the bikes onto an oversized wooden motorised Kayak.

Bikes on board we headed across Lake Victoria to visit some local villages along relatively smooth orange country dirt tracks.

Was that gritted teeth or a natural smile??!

One good thing about this trip is that guide carries water for you and if we run out he just buys it at the next village we come to - just as well as the sky was blue and very hot. Shame we had forgotten our sun screen though! How long would our factor 50 last??!

We came to a crossroads where there was a small village and our guide bought us a chapata each to eat - we sat down in the shade for a breather!

We turned left and headed down back towards another part of the lake through tiny wee villages where the kids would shout 'Muzungo' to us... this is the name people describe white persons - we laughed, said hello and carried on where the road now turned into a path which eventually lead to a tiny harbour in the middle of a swamp.

Bikes back on the wooden boat we headed through this narrow channel surrounded by reeds. This part of the journey was amazing, just so different and unexpected.

The only problem with holding your camera up in the air is that there is a chance you can block the view of any on coming traffic - no guesses what happened next!  We hit and scraped another wooden boat fully laden with passengers. I sensed choice words spoken in Lugandan as the ships passed.

Soon we were out and into the open waters of Lake Victoria. However, I could see the ships Captain having trouble with the outboard motor which eventually stopped. We were now drifting. Thoughts were now going through my head. However, our cycle guide seem unperturbed which gave me confidence we would make it back to shore.

It's not a good sign when the motor that is supposed to be propelling you across the water is sitting inside the boat!

All systems go and we were on our way again back to the small port where we started from. Our guode then took us round the fruit and fish market where we tasted some mangos and headed back to Berts house.

....and back to the hotel pool for some serious relaxing...

I would definitely recommend this cycle tour if you ever come to Kampala, great fun and a chance to see the local culture first hand.