With only 80km’s separating Jinja and Kampala, it didin’t make sense to overnight in the Ugandan capital. Anyway it’s a big city and we try to avoid them. We only wanted to stop for petrol, but Uganda is currently experiencing a fuel shortage and it wasn’t so easy to find. When we did manage to find a station with fuel, it was selling it at almost US$2.00 per litre. We had no choice but to buy some and hope that towns further on had it for less.

It wasn’t to be. The further we got from the capital the less petrol we could find and the more it cost on the black market, reaching almost US$4.00 per litre! Running dry we were forced to overnight in Fort Portal and wait for the next delivery expected the following morning. Queueing up at 6:30am we managed to fill up at the normall price of US$1.50.

Ugandans can be a funny bunch sometimes. Everytime we stop, a large group gathers around the bike and starts firing off all sorts of questions. One particular girl asked “Where are you from?”. “We’re from Poland” we replied. “Oh, from P-O-L-A-N-D” she repeated slowly and then followed up with “But which tribe?” When we said we didn’t belong to a tribe, she couldn’t believe it and just walked off bewildered.

With the tank full we headed for Queen Elizabeth National Park. Formerely called Kazinga NP until the queen decided to visit. We definitely preferred the original name… The equator runs through the park and it was the third time we had crossed it on this trip.

Accomodation in the park is expensive, so we found a small restaurant in the ‘one street’ village of Katunguru and pitched our tent around the back. It was a funny sort of place… Across the road from the restaurant was a bar that had satellite TV and was showing live English football games. There was a speaker sitting just outside the bar blaring out the sound of the TV to the whole village. It was only turned off when the last game finished, around midnight! Once the TV was off the hippos moved in. They ate grass just over the fence from our tent for half the night, making louding munching noises. It felt surreal…

The Queen Elizabeth National Park is only one of a few parks in Africa that allows motorcycles to be ridden inside. So we took the opportunity to do a few ‘independent’ game drives(rides). In one part of the park we saw plenty of wild bore, buffalo, elephant and antelope. But we wanted to see lions and were determined to find them. We continued riding through park and came to an area that was known for having plenty of lions - the type that likes to hang out on trees.

Just as we were getting close, a park ranger told us that it wasn’t safe to ride our motorbike amongst the animals. We insisted that motorbikes are allowed and after some phone calls to head office he let us through. Now off the main road, we turned onto a single dirt. About 5 minutes into our ride we saw three big lions sitting in a tree. What a sight!!

We approached slowly knowing that the unusual sound of the motorbike can unnerve them. We were right. As soon as they heard the bike, all three turned in our direction and watched closely as we approached. We stopped beside a car also viewing the lions, no more than 5 meters from the tree. We didn’t dare get off. It was obvious the lions didn’t like the bike and we asked the driver of the car if they could attack. “Of coarse” he repled “they are not used to the sound. You shouldn’t be in this area. Who let you in? You can be arrested!” Just then the biggest of them all - the male - stood up on one of the branches as if ready to pounce. This was getting dangerous! Taking a few more quick snaps, we slowly rode off.

A hundred meters on and the track simply ended. There was no place to go but back passed the tree with the now irate lions. It wasn’t a good feeling and we felt trapped, hoping just to get the hell out of there! Just as we approached the male jumped down from his branch. Hearts in our mouths we made a quick u-turn (the quickest yet) and headed for the same dead end we just came from. Looking back in the mirror we couldn’t see the lions anymore and were not sure if they had run away or were now hunting us! Again we got to the end of the track but were determined to keep going away from the lions.

We decided to go off-road over some short grass in what we hoped wa the direction of a main road that we had apporached on earlier. Luckily it appeared only a few hundred meters on and we made it safely. What an experience!! We were both excited and shaken by the encounter. On the motorbike we were exposed and vulnerable, but we also got to see the lions in a way not many people ever do. It was definitely the scariest moment of our trip so far, but also the most rewarding. THE HIGHLIGHT!!

The following day it was on to Rwanda, also known as the land of 1,000 hills. Once over the border (an easy crossing with visas issued on the spot at US$60) we rode through lush green valley’s and forests to the capital Kigali. Looking at the countryside and the smiling faces along the way, it’s hard to believe that one of the worst genocides in history occured here just over a decade ago. We visited two memorials dedicated to the attrocities of 1994. One was an old church in which thousands of people were burned and clubbed to death, while taking refuge there. The place was littered with skulls, bones and torn clothes. An eery sight.

The other memorial gave a very detailed account of what exacty happened. It documented just another case of the negative effect colonialism has had on Africa, creating conflict between tribes that had co-exsted peacefully before. It also showed how at the end of the 20th century the west simply stood by and watched as around a million people were murdered in just 3 months! Makes you wonder…