Arrival

I've made it into Kampala. The Entebbe airport where we fly in right by Lake Victoria, so the view was pretty spectacular for landing. The old Ugandan airport, the site of the hijacking of Air France flight 139 in 1976, is right next to the current one. Now it seems to be used by the UN, the place is full of UN tents, planes and jeeps.

I'll only be in Kampala for one more day, so won't have time to get to know the place very well. It's not as hectic as Nairobi nor as hilly as Rwanda. A completely useless and subjective description but there you go. Looking out my window I'd make the observation that at night Kampala looks just like any other capital city, full of white and yellow lights in all directions. During the day, when you can see occasional large empty patches of land, usually covered in red dust, and large caribou storks flying from tree to tree, it's clearly that it's an African city.

Tomorrow I'll be meeting Kevin, the man who runs the site I'll be working at in Semliki. I'll also be visiting the Ugandan Wildlife Authorities to pay a 'nominal' fee to be allowed to work in a national park area. The fact that the fee is variable depending on the mood of the officer that day and the charm skills of the applicant, combined with my track record or reverse bartering, a unique skill in which I end up paying more for an item than is even asked, things don't bode well. Hopefully it'll be around $25. I'll let you know how that goes.

I'm looking forward to getting to the site and getting to know everyone there. I'll soon find out how I deal with living in the field. The apparent 5:30 am wake-up, as my flat-mates will know, is not my idea of a good morning. On the bright side, I can lie in on Sundays. Switched on traveller that I am I bought some 'cutting-edge' clothing for trekking in the savanna. 2 of them are blue. I have just learned that the 1-inch biting tsetse fly is attracted to blue as it mistakes it for shade, which apparently is tinted-blue due to dispersed UV rays. Watch this space, I may include a tsetse fly bite counter in future blog posts.

Ok, that's probably enough innane thoughts for now. I find it impossible to write a 'blog' without feeling even more pretentious than usual. I won't have much internet contact from wednesday, as I'll be in camp. I should get to use the internet in the local town, Fort Portal every fortnight or so. I'll have a phone, so can have text communication if anyone wants to contact me. I'm sure I'll appreciate any messages. Hope everyone is well and enjoying their summers!

Cagan