Mais, les lions et léopards son dans l'arbre

Things progressed more smoothly in the latter days of the trip, once I was riding a reliable Japanese motorbike. It was too small for me to fit all my gear on though, but fortunately Ayaz was now driving a support car. I now started to feel like Ewan and Charley, after all I had broken as many BMWs as they had, but in far less time.
We crossed the Equator and arrived in the Queen Elizabeth park for a late afternoon  safari. Ayaz had arranged for us to meet up with Jimmy, another ranger.

We were in luck that some lions were located nearby so we shot off up the track, and then led by Jimmy went off into the grass to try and get near to the tree they were resting in.

This was long grass, about the height that a lion can hide in.

Unfortunately my bike was a bit too noisy and they jumped down out of the tree and slunk away in front of us. This was a bad moment for me to fail to kick start the bike, it took 3 attempts.

The photo of the trip has to be the leopard encounter. I'm slightly proud of this one, a rare leopard on the ground in the daytime, on our first safari. We stalked it on the bikes, then it just wandered away from us with a "stuff you" look.

 
On an afternoon boat safari I was enthralled by a herd of elephants drinking at the waterside. The adults making sure the young drank, and re-approached after our boat engine scared them.

Not forgetting the Chimpanzee Trekking, an hours sweaty, humid walk in the jungle to encounter our nearest ancestors.

During the trip I saw more animals in the wild than I could shake a stick at. As that was the main purpose of the trip. Although I also enjoyed riding the bike(s) through the sand/dirt tracks and the bushes of the parks. Never knowing what was in the bushes and assuming if there was anything it would run away from me rather than towards me.

Jousting with lions

This is straight out of the "You can't make it up" category.

We had two days of riding to get to our next activity, Chimpanzee Trekking. To get there we had to go via Kampala and it's crazy rush hour traffic. After an hour and a half of fun with the cars, buses, trucks and bikes the clutch went in Mark's bike. It was pushed to a nearby expensive hotel and we waited for an overnight fix.

The following list covers the events required to get to the chimp trekking.

Mark's clutch fault. "Fixed" next morning.
Mark's clutch failed again after 30kms.
Mark continues on Ayaz's bike.
My chain comes off, no adjustment left.
I get a puncture. Ayaz, following in a car picks me up and takes for repair.
When Ayaz collects the bike later, wife of man I paid to look after it refused to let him take it until the man returned.

Next morning.

Replacement bike for me breaks down in the way.
Chain comes off 650 again making us miss chimp trekking.
Confusion over need for car to reach trekking after paying nearly makes us miss afternoon session.
Ayaz runs out of petrol at gate to trekking.
After trekking Ayaz's car blows a transmission line and leaves us stranded.
Mechanic uses "fixed" GS 1200 to reach us and Mark ferries us back to camp.
Clutch fails again on the 1200.

Mark managed to continue on Ayaz's bike, following seat and tyre change.

I was presented with a XLR 400, loaned from a local.

Rule one broken, many more to go

When in Africa, or any country outside Europe I have ever ridden in, the first rule is never ride at night.

At 5am, two hours before dawn we were packed and off, heading through Kampala.

This was so we could get across and out of the city before the traffic snarled the city. As we stopped at the first set of traffic lights I asked our guide, Ayaz, why we were the only people stopping at the red light. He took the hint and led us through the rest, weaving around cross traffic with everyone else. My day riding round had established that it was safer to drive like the locals.

The last 100km to the park is on a gravel dirt track. I was bimbling along happily, Ayaz and Mark (two up with his partner) had sped ahead out of intercom range when my rear end went all sloppy. I coasted to a stop and looked down. A puncture! In all my miles of overland travel I had never before had a puncture.

I settled down to wait for someone to notice me missing and hoped Ayaz had a decent repair kit as the tyre was off the rim. Eventually he reappeared, saw the problem but told me he had two issues as Mark had come off in a ditch and needed a hand. So I settled down for another wait.

Mark and his passenger were ok, a bit bruised but in good humour. We removed my rear wheel, and carried it the remaining 50k to our camp where we left Ayaz to sort it out while we went in a cruise safari. One advantage of a booked, guided trip, someone else gets to sort out the fiddly bits.

The next morning was another early affair, up just before dawn, cross the river (Albert Nile ) and collect our ranger/guide.

Immediately elephants were seen at the side of the road, giraffes, buffalo with big horns, wart hogs, and baboons .

The main attraction at this point was to find some lions, hence the early start. The rangers are in contact, and  once a sighting was made we we lead across to them. Unfortunately we had missed a pair mating by about 15 mins.

Our ranger was eager to please us, so he asked for my bike keys (he also preferred smaller bikes) and rode into the bush to try and herd them out. At this point Mark and I were saying "what the fuck are we doing?" . Standing in the jungle, waiting for a man to make a large predator angry, and herd them towards us.

A tour van came along, and the ranger told Mark's partner we were crazy, get in a bike on in a vehicle. At this point she bottled it, and asked to leave the spot.

As soon as I had a bike back, we did. Apparently we had broken a number of rules .....

Later while watching hippos

Kampala.

After two flights, and 3 takeoffs, then an immigration procedure that took longer for pre validated e-visa than "rock up" and apply on entry, I  was collected from the airport by Ayaz. As I went to get into the car he said "wrong side". I was tired and confused, but I was sure I was getting in the right hand side. And I was.

They drive on the left here. My failure to research Uganda at all had hit it's first surprise. Then, once ensconced in the hotel, when I got my international plug adapter out and realised it wasn't needed I remembered Uganda used to be a British colony.

All the road signs are in English, and it feels weird saying "thank you " for things when in such a foreign country.

I collected the bike, which involved my first "boda" ride on the back of s 150cc taxi, brought her back to the hotel and looked her over.

Well, it's a BMW (650 ), it's done 30,000+ miles, and has been badly treated.

Both bar end weights have been ground off. Both levers have also been shortened by the same incidents. The forks and bars don't line up, and both throttle and clutch cables are not quite routed properly.

Overall not bad.

During my ride, apart from dodging the "bodas" I also did a bit of exploring and found some city back roads that were dirt and did some off-roading.

It was fine, and the brakes worked.

Down by lake Victoria

Raid on Entebbe

Jean has planned to walk the 180+ mile UK Coast to Coast path from St Bees to Robin Hood Bay with her friend Moira. Something my knee(s) are no longer up to. (Actually I've never managed more than 3 days walking).

This means I have a 2 week gap to amuse myself with, and avoid being used as a re-supply/support driver (as they are carrying tents and intend wild camping their way across).

I drew up a shortlist of places I would like to go, that involved riding a motorbike.

• Kyrgyzstan
• Turkey
• USA
• Kenya 

It was pretty clear, pretty quickly that Jean also wanted to visit the top two, so the list shortened. The USA is an easy option, maybe too easy, and I have ridden a bike there a few times.

That left Kenya, until a friend pointed out that in Uganda you can ride a bike through the parks. Seeing animals in the wild is much better than in cages and zoos. Riding exposed on a motorbike, and camping in the parks should be an experience.

I would have preferred to rent a bike and self navigate, but as I was going on my own, and maybe there were animals I would have to be wary of, I opted to book on an organised tour with these guys.
Uganda Motorcycle Adventure.

Now I just need to work out how to fit my tent and clothes onto a BMW GS650 Dakar, that has no panniers. (The bike is the only small one, kept light. And I don't want to ride a BMW GS1200) .