Little did we know that today was to see us cover only 200 miles in 10 hour,s the road was as bd as anything we have travelled so far. Our map shows the route to Uganda as a tarmaced A road and it is the major trunking road for trucks from kenya. Unfortunately, a new road is being built alongside and as everywhere in Africa if a new road is being built the old road has been badly neglectd. It was actually tarmac but it had been repaired many, many times by simply filling in the potholes. In lots of places the tarmac had melted leaving massive groves where waggons had driven over it. It was so bumpy we could only travel at 15/20 mph. In parts there were diversons onto dirt tracks with big potholes and boulders which were that bad it is hard to describe the extent of it and here we could only travel in first gear. What made it 10 times worse was the fact that hundreds of vehicles were on the road, petrol tankers taking fuel to Uganda spewing up massive thick dust clouds which made near zero visibility going north. Travelling south were mini buses, coaches and trucks filed with people and their furniture fleeing the villages and trying to get to Nakuru or Nairobi, it was sheer bedlum. We passed through many villages which had been badly damaged with shops and houses completely destroyed. Whole families with what few belongings they had left were sitting at the side of the road trying to get a lift south, it was a heartbreaking sight. We passed through Eldoret where the people were burnt in the church and imagined it deserted due to the numbers fleeing town but it was a very busy place, but we never did find the church.

We finally made the border into Uganda which was lined with tankers and wagons trying to take supplies across. Uganda has also ben badly affected by the situation in Kenya as all petrol is brought in from Kenya and anything shipped from other countres arrives in Mombassa, again to be delivered by road. We also crossed the Equator once again, having already crossed it on the way south through Kenya and now once again going North through Uganda. The usual border paperwork was carried out with ease although we refused to pay one $20 fee on the Kenyan side only to be stung by another $20 fee on the Ugandan border.

It ws only an hours drive from the border to the town of Mbale where we decided to stay in the mount Elgon Hotel as it was too late to drive up to Sipi Falls our intended destination. The hotel staff were super friendly and all came out to look at the camper, again fascinated as they had never seen a 'house on wheels' before.