From the desert to the forest

A quick blog tonight... After travelling through floods in Yorkshire, a delayed plane and tight transfer in Dubai and being minus one case in Entebbe, we're a bit tired! In the last 24hrs we've travelled by car, train, bus & plane and lost 3hrs. We gawped at the miles of desert surrounding Dubai, a city of skyscrapers & Tower blocks and an airport so big there are trains between boarding gates and the glass lifts rise past waterfall walls. But it's a blur as the whole time we were being escorted by a rushing Emirates woman so we didn't miss our connection.

We arrived here on the building site that is Entebbe airport, taxiing down the single runway past construction workers and piles of dark red earth. The terminal building is still pock-marked with bullet holes from the Israeli commandos in 1975 (look it up if you want to know more. .. Most of you won't remember!). Then we started our long, slow, 5hr journey to our hotel. The suitcase admin took 1½hrs to sort, so we left at a time we never drive near Kampala... and basically queued for 4 hours.

However, we smiled as we flew over Lake Victoria, shimmering in the midday sun, and rejoiced in the lush green vegetation that is now so familiar. Long tall grasses, palms, bushes and trees. No desert here. We watched people working, walking, driving (there are so many cars now). Tom calmed me down as I sorted the case, no slick Emirates staff, just slow grinding doggedness of very pleasant equally frustrated local staff. We ended up chatting away & having a laugh. I love it here!

So it's an early night tonight and more adventures tomorrow. We'll hopefully arrive in Soroti late morning and get started on planning the week with Fred & David. If all goes to plan, the case arrives in Soroti on Sunday... Not over hopeful, they've just rung to check where I want it delivered.

Night night