We finally managed to leave Kampala on the 12th of June. Having decided it was too risky to go to Rwanda we were disappointed but confident it was the right thing. The advantage of this is we could decide to rather take a slower drive to Mombasa where we needed to fetch Sarah from the airport on Monday afternoon. Our first day took us out of Uganda and back into Kenya. After the mandatory tyre repair we fetched a few things at the supermarket and headed on the road we came in on to the border with nothing to report other than the occasional rain we went through.

As recommended in the Lonely Planet a highlight of Kenya, we thought to check out the rain forest of Kakamega (a great name which brought us a lot of amusement!) for the night on entering Kenya. We arrived at the gate to the reserve in the pouring rain and in the dark as we had left Kampala later than expected as we only got the car back from the mechanic late the night before. The price to camp was $15 each and a Banda (small reed hut) was $30 total….so naturally we took the banda! This was on top of the $20pp entrance fee so we had to decide whether it was worth it but the road in had been dangerous in the dark and wet so was our only option.

It was a sweet little hut with two beds and a chair…basic but comfortable especially since it rained all night! The next morning we awoke to baboons playing and racing through the camping area, and another flat tyre. We took a hike into the forest for a few hours which was lovely! The trees and the butterflies we amazing and we enjoyed getting some exercise. We saw the rare Black and White Colobus monkey again which we were introduced to in the Serengeti. Kakamega Forest exists as a protected area of indigenous rain forest in amongst the tea plantations the British developed around it. It doesn't have a lot of wildlife but gives a good view as to the dense forest that originally covered this whole area of East Africa around Lake Victoria prior to development. All in all to be honest it was not amazing, especially at such cost, but interesting and different to where we would normally stay and the most affordable of Kenyan parks!