Finally arrived in
The flight out was via
The chap picking me up (Sam the boss) had been
delayed due to his car breaking down, but I have since got it up and running
again, but more of that later. I
was met at the airport and after getting visa sorted we bought Marks and
Spencer own label wine at the duty free shop headed out to try a couple of the
local beers at his mates bar in Entebbe.
Stayed overnight in hotel, and drove to Kasese via Kampala, where we
stopped briefly to buy meat and drop off PA28 wingtips to be repaired and get
coated
The drive to Kasese took about 8 hours, this
was partly due to the road conditions but mainly because his Renault would not
do more than about 50mph, coughing spluttering and running so rich I was
surprised it was going at all. Most
of the tarmac roads are pot holed, and the dirt tracks are even worse. This combined with suicidal cyclists,
pedestrians, cows, goats and minibus drivers, makes driving here very
interesting. (See photos).
Where we are based at the moment (Kasese) is 30
mins drive from The Queen Elizabeth National park. We came through this on the way up here,
and I have already seen more wildlife on the road through the park in 45 mins
driving, than I saw in 8 months down in SA. Baboons, elephant, zebra, buffalo,
couple of different species of antelope and wild pigs. There was others, but can’t
remember what as I write this.
Accommodation is ok but water and electricity
supply is very random. The houses
were built by a mining company for management but the mine stopped being worked
over 20 years ago. The mine used to
produce its own electric and water, but now this is surplus, it supplies the
local town for free. It sells power
to the National grid during peak times, so whenever this happens we get cut
off, usually two or three times a day.
The electric they supply to the grid is the only source of income, as
they are no longer mining. The
water also comes from the mining company, but is very poor, and needs filtering
and boiling before use.
On the
Vehicles are all in similar state to the
aircraft!! Only one vehicle here at
the moment, and that is the Renault 5 that I had to rebuild the carb on last
week, at least that is now running.
There is a Peugeot 305 here, but cam belt snapped a couple of week ago,
so that’s another job. Also a
The plan is to be operating from a strip across
the border in
The workshop here in Kasese is a nightmare,
bits in boxes everywhere, piles of wings, ailerons, body panels etc etc, so I have been making an attempt to get some order to
the place. See the photos, and
guess which Dexion shelving I built, and which was put together by the locals!!. They had
been working off pallets on the floor, and the odd bit of Dexion shelving, that
a two year old could have put together better. Anyway now the workshop is in some sort
of order I can start working on the vehicles.
Over the last few days, in between getting the
Renault running, made new gaskets for the carburettor, and re built that,
cleaned and gapped plugs, replaced vacuum hose, and now it seems to be running
OK. The carb gasket was so broken
up that fuel was just pouring straight in to the inlet manifold.
Being here is not costing me anything, (not
earning much either though), but the weather is great, meeting interesting
people, and enjoying it all so far, despite the lack of aircraft, reliable
cars, electricity, internet, phones, or
fresh water straight from the tap.
I may not be saying the same in 3 months time, but for now having
fun.
Contact details are:
Kasese,
or mobile 00 256 71 527 027………
We are three hours ahead of GMT, text messages do
not work to Jersey Telecoms (No agreement with JT), and the house is too far up
a valley to get phone signal. So
contact is very hit and miss. I can get to Internet occasionally, so
will check when I can while in Kasese.
I have a selection of photos here,.which should be quick to load.