... And so it was...
I finally got all the paperwork done in Nairobi for my visas so Im now free to head North :)
As soon as that was possible, I set off for Uganda, and the recommended route was as the title suggests, "round the back of the mountain".
So I looked at the map and programed the GPS to go the right way and off I went... And my first day of riding was a big one :) It didn't look too big by the numbers tho... only about 520Km in road distance.
But knowing the roads around here I set off early to give me "buffer time".
It ended up taking me ten hours of constant driving with no stops for food or drink, and only one stop for fuel. And of that ten hours, the last 100Km took 4 of them :)
But first, a quick look at the old and new tires... I was so glad that I changed over to new tires with tread... once it gets rainy and the roads are dirt you really need the traction!
The Old Tires
The New Tires
The new tires look like they will be a pretty reasonable combination of rubber for the road and good sized lugs for off-road... Im expecting most of the off-road in the next month or so while Im in the Southern areas... Probably not much in Sudan and Egypt.
But, back to the mountain trip :)
Its Mount Elgon that I was heading around and the approach was just the usual Kenyan paved roads with their suicidal truck, bus and matatu drivers, assorted pot-holes and diesel smoke belching heavy vehicles... not too much to worry about.
But then as I got away from the main population areas, the road eventually turned to dirt.
And the dirt around here has a pretty high clay content so when it gets wet, things get slippery quickly... And yep, there were showers about as I headed through the hills toward the mountain.
So the road got muddy and I slowed down a lot but things were basically in control.
Then after about an hour of dirt I got to the tinny little Kenya/Uganda border post.
It took about fifteen minutes to exit Kenya and then I had a very foolish policeman in Uganda tell me I had to ride the bike in to a side area to do Uganda customs... I said I didn't think that was a good idea because the bike was big and heavy and the side area was very steep and muddy but he insisted.
I just managed to get the bike in there OK without toppling over but the out didn't look promising... I did the paperwork I needed and then tried to get out... As expected the bike slid all over the place and then fell over!
I was rather miffed and had a good old shout at the policeman and demanded that he get off his important seat and come and get muddy and help me get the bike out!... It took about 10 minutes of lifting and pushing and supporting etc but we got it out eventually :)
... and off I went again, but slower now that the tires were all clogged with clay and the roads were steeper and damper!
The Kenya/Uganda border post.
The road stayed sticky and slippery and wound its way up and down and around through the hills for the next few hours of slow riding. It was mostly just slow riding at about 40Kmh but there was one section of very recent road work where the surface was soft and not packed...
The mud was of the sort that sticks to the bottom of your boots and comes up with each step in a 2cm clod on your shoe.. Needless to say my tires were immediately fully loaded with it and since my bike has a "low-front-fender" rather than the high fender of a dirt bike, my front wheel very quickly became jammed with mud.... And once it stops turning, it stops steering too... It then took me fifteen minutes to clear some of the mud from the fender and another twenty minutes or so paddling the bike forward at less than walking pace toe get through the 200m soft section... I thought I was going to be stuck there for the night but it turned out that the soft section was only short... pheeew!
After that things were manageable and even got slightly better till I finally made it to where the pavement started again :).
The paved road is of course a very useful surface for the local farmers to use to dry out their harvested wheat on... No place to park along the side of the road.
Having made it out of the mud, I stopped in the first sizeable town and found a ATM to get some local money (banks and bank machines seem to be pretty much everywhere in Africa... Im never more than a couple of days from a cash point :) )
Then I found a place camp at a near-by tourist destination... which was why I came "round the back of the mountain" in the first place :)
