11th June. Red Chilli Hideaway, Kampala

11^th June. Red Chilli Hideaway, Kampala

There would be worse places to have to spend a few days than Kampala. The Red Chilli camp site is also the base for backpackers and the overland trucks. It can get busy at times and rowdy. Luckily where we have the van parked is away from the throng and an ideal place to see what is happening. We were fortunate to be able to nurse our van back to the camp site meaning we can sleep in it while the parts are in transit. The garage is only a kilometre or so from the camp which again is good.

As I said earlier, the clutch began to do strange things the day we crossed into Uganda but seemed to right itself. However, going up to Murchison Falls NP it came progressively worse and by the time we got back to Kampala I was having to stop the engine before I could engage first. VW is not a common brand in Uganda but luckily they had the parts in Nairobi. I was just thinking of the number of times I’ve had to use the clutch on the roads we’ve driven on and I guess it would have been used many more times than I would’ve used if driving in Australia. On the bad roads it is usually a case of 2^nd & 3^rd gears with occasionally hitting 4^th for a short distance.

It’s given us time to do a couple of repairs; the outside table base broke for the 2^nd time and while in the NP we had light rain one night which I didn’t realize was pooling on the awning. Suddenly there was a crack and one of the wings that hold the awning out broke. I had angled the awning so as to let any water run off but couldn’t have been enough.

I temporarily fixed the awning, it should last until we get home, and had the table base fixed in the engineering shop down the road for the monstrous price of $7.

From here we head into Rwanda than into Tanzania. The roads in the western part of Tanzania should be the last challenge of any type for us. After that it should be asphalt all the way albeit potholed in places.