A trip into town

Every other Wednesday here is set aside as the day for the camp supply trip to Fort Portal. As we needed to stock up on snacks and were keen to eat a meal that didn’t consist largely of beans and plantain, Duncan and I jumped at the opportunity to join Edson on this trip into town.

We left early, aiming to avid the roadworks that are going on along the road to Fort Portal. Unfortunately the previous night’s rain had made the road out of camp treacherous and Edson was forced to inch the car along, exhibiting some lightning fast reactions with the steering wheel as he corrected for the slipping and sliding of the wheels. With this delay we were unable to get past the roadblocks before the day’s construction work began meaning that the journey took longer than expected. It seems that even in Uganda road works are the bane of many a driver’s life!

Despite the hold-ups, and the fact that a blanket of cloud ruined my chances of a ‘stunning view down the Rift Valley’ shot, I thought that the drive into town was a success, if only because it was on this journey that I saw my first hammerkop.

The hammerkop is a bizarre bird found only in Africa that I have long wanted to see. The name, derived from the Afrikaans word for hammer-head, stems from the peculiar head shape that makes the medium-size brown bird look so odd. However, it is not just its appearance that is strange about this unique bird. Mated pairs of hammerkop build the largest nests of any bird species, some being so large that they are capable of supporting the weight of a small car!

Upon reaching Fort Portal my first thought, and one shared by Duncan, was “food”, or more specifically “meat”. Due to the cost and the difficulty in storing it, we rarely eat meat in camp, and for someone with carnivorous eating habits like myself this is difficult to take. A bacon omelette and pile of chips soon put my food craving to rest, and that was just breakfast!

Once fed, and after a trip to the bank, Duncan and I headed into the centre of town to explore and to search for the items on our shopping lists. Fort Portal is a bustling town with a relaxed and friendly atmosphere and it made a nice break from the isolation of camp. We finished our shopping and wandered around the town and I even discovered to my delight that Cadbury’s chocolate here tastes not unlike that found in the UK and is pretty damned good!

We also managed to find somewhere in town that claimed to be able to cut mzungu hair (mzungu being an African word used to mean ‘white person’), as Duncan was in need of a haircut. Unfortunately this in fact turned out to mean ‘we can massacre your hair so that you look like a doll that a small girl has played hairdressers with’, and so the only reasonable option was to shave it all off. Duncan therefore left Fort Portal with significantly less hair than he’d arrived with!

Chores done, we enjoyed a cold beer before heading back to camp in the car, that was now packed to the brim with various supplies. After two weeks living in tents in the middle of nowhere it was great to get a day in town, but I felt glad to see the thatched roofs appear from the savanna as we arrived back in camp that evening. Revitalised and with my meat cravings fed I am now ready to face some more chimpanzee chasing.

Written on Wednesday 21^st July