Uganda, 1 Day Along the Road

It takes about 8 hours to drive from Kampala, the vibrant and lively capital of Uganda, located six miles from Lake Victoria, to Kisoro, a small and quiet village in the far southwest of the country, hard up against the borders of both the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda.

The bus leaves Kampala every morning at 8am sharp and ply the route throughout the day and at an affordable price. The road is generally good but just after leaving Mbarara the surface disintegrates and is badly potholed reducing speeds just before Ntungamo. Also, road construction the rest of the way to Kisoro makes progress slow.

Many kiosks and small shops line the street where the roadside settlements are. These tiny, traditional stores, constructed either from bricks, corrugated iron, wood or even grass thatch, are the foundation of the local family business and they have existed since the beginning of the 20 the century. Although the last decade saw the boom of supermarket business in the country, most locals usually prefer to buy from their local ‘Duuka’, the Swahili word for store.