Day 149: Mabira forest to Kampala

We slept late and packed up very slowly. The Dutch couple went on a 2 hour nature walk in the morning and returned before we left.

At 11:00 we drove off towards Kampala, preparing for the worst as people keep warning us that we will now finally reach actual traffic chaos. The traffic flowed easily to Kampala. We wanted to go to a Shoprite, but then drove into bumper to bumper traffic. We decided to rather turn around and take the Northern Bypass to the Backpackers we saw on iOverland. We decided against Red Chilli Hideway as it looked a bit far out of town and didn’t receive all that many positive reviews on various platforms.

The Northern Bypass was also flowing despite construction going on for most of the way. Large sections of the dual carriage highway has been completed, but not opened as it is interupted by sections where groundbreaking haven’t even started so it could be a few more years(?) before being put to use.

We got to the Backpackers Hostel and Campsite at 13:20 and checked in for camping for only 14 000 UGX. To get to the campsite we had to drive through two gates around the property to a nice grassy patch between the bandas and rooms. The bathrooms were clean and looked quite new, and had hot water.

Caro made egg fried noodles for lunch while Hugo put up the tent and hanged up our bedding for the smoke from last night’s fire to move on.

To continue our movie streak Hugo wanted to go to the movies in Kampala, but Caro had to finish her Unisa assignment. Hugo, D&S took an Uber to the Acacia Mall at 15:27. The 6km took 28 minutes and only cost 10 000 UGX.

Fortunately for us the Cinemax cinema had ‘Manic Monday’ special movie tickets for only 10 000 UGX (less than R40). We booked Transformers 5, which was showing in 3D so we had to purchase 3D glasses for 8 000 UGX, popcorn and cooldrink also cost only 8 000 UGX. The cinema was quite modern and people behaved themselves, so all in all a good cinema experience.

Afterwards we ate Indian food at the food court which tasted superb.

Standing in front of the mall Hugo requested an Uber again and then saw a shop selling cellphones. Since his was broken he decided to go and have a look. In typical Hugo-fashion he bought a Tecno Camon CX Air cellphone for R2000. The Uber then arrived, but the shop staff still had to write out receipts and things and didn’t understand that he was in a hurry. During some confusion Daniel and Sekar got it the Uber which then drove around the block. When Hugo finished he couldn’t find them until he finally spotted the car, but by then Daniel was out looking for Hugo again. We all finally got in the car at 21:00 and reached the backpackers by 21:50.

Caro was already in bed and Sekar also went to bed immediately, but Hugo wanted to setup his new phone so Daniel kept him company for a while.