This will get your adrenaline high on.

Posing around on arrival

 If you are an adrenaline junkie, and you love to push your buttons and stretch your limits, this would be "your" place. Tucked away in Luwero, you branch off just after the town round about a few meters away from the main road coming to a small sign post marked "Extreme adventure park Busiika. Its mostly famous for rallies, cars and bikes. " FYI this is not a kalango(advert). I am just saying.

 You know most times, we spend our money on stuff and at the end, you may want it back except you can't or may be you feel like a sense of loss like it was worth it. I have never felt something worthwhile of my money like the experience i had at this place. I can't explain it, its one of those things which has to be experienced first hand.
Ohhh, by the way, this happened a while back, towards the end of last year to be exact.  I will not say much but i will let the pictures tell the story.  In brief, my cousin invited me to go out on an extreme adventure with her workmates, I can't say the adventure bit registered well but curiosity got the best of me. I have heard about Zip-lining, bungee jumping. rock climbing, water rafting, name it... Had never attempted to do any, reasons I don't know actually. You can't tell how you like something until you have tried it.  I will start with an apology, the pics aren't in the chronological order of the different rope challenges but you can pretty much get the hang of things that happen at the place. And ohh, that's me in the dark green top.

View of the poles from the ground

We had just arrived at the venue, goofing around

We are briefed by the instructors (You can see his name imprinted at the back of his T-shirt) eased us into what we were about to embark on 

Start of the climb, small ladder that leads to the first pole

Resting in between poles before the next tasking move on a cobweb(weaved in btn poles)

This was the last stage of the all the challenges (the swing), only one of us got to finish out of a group of about 15, she got a certificate. I can bet only a handful have them.

We let our hair down (Literally) after getting down the poles

This is the thing (for lack of a proper name, that you use to get off the zip-line.(Posing with the two instructors for the day, very handy if you ask me.)

Mwizi tales

It had rained for an hour or so leaving the ground soaked that when you stepped on the grass, it would bring back the balance inform of mud wrapping itself around your shoes. This is the kind of place that has rich red soils that get very sticky with a rain encounter. That was the state of the roads as we departed from Mwizi about 32Kms from 

Mbarara town.

                  (Mwizi marked with the red spot)

You see Mwizi is one of those places blessed with so many contours inform of hills, high and low, steep and shallow. It’s the kind of place where you can see your destination so close but yet so far literally. In my head, it would all be easier to go over the hill and right on to the next one, but that’s not how they navigate hills. It’s a game of going around and around the hill in circles hence the long distance.

I recall one my friends telling a joke as we travelled of how they had been to the place close to where we had been and, on asking the locals how far long they were from their destination, they were told it was just around the corner. Except the corner turned to be 5 more Kms and I just couldn’t understand that.

The rain had been so sudden, no one saw it coming. One minute the sun was scorching and in the next was the mighty rain.

The roads once smooth and even now turned into cakes of mud.  Bundled up in a small Car (premio) to be exact, the journey from Mwizi to Mbarara started. Now grab a seat because it’s a long tale.

We began the climb, this was a shallow hill, we drive a few meters and then stop because there was an Ipsum car stuck in the middle of the road ahead of us, and we were blocked. Some of the gentlemen jumped out of the car to go assess the situation. It wasn’t good. There were 20 or more people trying to push it and stabilize it on the road so it could move without any luck. Now we created a jam, with cars behind us wondering why we weren’t moving.

While there like sitting ducks, unsure how long it would take us to leave that place, some huge car (Benz) comes from behind and swoops by us like the road was smooth tarmac. We were left just looking on as the car disappeared from the top of the hill. The power of big cars. Then one of my colleagues made a remark that threw everyone in fits. “What a show off”.. I mean you couldn’t blame the guy but it just reminded us of our tricky situation and how our car wouldn’t pull off the move. After what seemed like a long time, I will call them “car pushers” managed to get the Ipsum out of the way onto the side so we could pass.

I thought, the Ipsum guy was just driving badly and we would just drive off easily. Joke was on us.  We had the road clear to move, but all we were doing was a dance on the road stuck in one position meanwhile. This went on for a while and then the “car pushers” lent their hands but it wasn’t moving much. All the gents got out of the car to go help out leaving the three ladies to support the car on the road. Compared to what was going on outside the car, I couldn’t complain… I remember someone digging some holes in the road to give the car stability on the road, it worked a little, we moved mouth to the nose distance and then the car dance started again. And then came the “car pushers” instructions to the driver, everyone was telling the guy how to navigate the car off the spot it was stuck in, it was too distracting. You could think they were the most senior drivers to exist on the earth, well to give them a little credit, may be because it was their road, they knew it better but it was also possible that some of them had even never stepped behind a car wheel.

Anyways, after what seemed like for forever we got off the spot, everyone got back into the car and you could see the relief in everyone’s eyes. Like phewks we are finally out of here, Mbarara here we come.

It was lovely to finally be driving on an okey road, we had good banter in the car, cracking jokes, I mean we were going home and that was good enough. To be honest, I couldn’t quite recall the particular road that had brought us because there were too many turns, junctions I couldn’t have kept track if I tried to. The rest of the people in the car knew the way so I didn’t have to worry about a thing.

So we reach a junction and find this guy waving his finger around, tells us to take another road as the one we had used before was quite a mess. “You don’t want go there” he said. The driver tries to ask some questions but the “self-appointed” traffic controller wasn’t hearing any of it. The guy took offence that they would question his instructions, we couldn’t believe it. As if saying do you people know these roads better that I do, you just came by today.

But of course we were glad for the pointer, anything to help us avoid getting stuck on the road again. 

We move on what seemed like an okey road and then we reached somewhere and the driver stopped. We didn’t know what was going on but looking ahead, we could see cars stuck on the road. And I was thinking, not again. Not that my wish could have reversed the situation, we jump out of the car to take in our surroundings as we ponder our next move. 

The slippery slope

Yeah, we were on top a hill and the road ascended into the valley. If you forget what a head was for a second, the scene was so breathtaking.  Since it had just rained the vegetation never looked so green, it was beautiful.  Looking just below, the valley was so steep, going far down, it seemed to go on for forever. Meantime we are wondering should we turn back and go use the other road or just wait in line as each car ahead of us moves at snails speed to get off the bad spot which no driver could maneuver easily.

So it’s decided we have come so far to turn back, so I was praying and I guess so was everyone that we survive the slope and get off the bad spot unscathed. The driver drove down slowly and we could see the car ahead doing a dance on the mud. It was so scary not forgetting that if the car went off the road even a little, we would end up in a valley so far down and dead... These were definitely not comforting thoughts but I couldn’t help it. This is the time when you think of everything that could go wrong, not that I didn’t have faith in God to get past this but my head wondered so far.

But luckily for us, the driver (bless him) crafted his way off “thee spot”, we could breathe again. We however had to get out of the car, so it could move light on the slope. Down the slope there was a costa (Half bus) that had gone off the road leaning one side, closing off half the road. Whichever car came had to squeeze itself on the remaining half off the road.  We crossed our fingers and the driver passed alright. It was moment of joy getting back in the car. Now we are thinking this is it, next stop Mbarara town.

The mood in the car is pretty chill and calm, we are laughing again nothing else could go wrong, like what hadn’t we been through already. We are going steady, taking in our surroundings as we go, there are very big banana plantations, and they seem to go on for forever. The houses are very scattered, there is like 2-3 kms from one house to another. And we are wondering how does one family get to till all this big chunk of land, because on top of the bananas, there were coffee plantations, cassava, potatoes, they grew everything. I admired their hard work and having to keep with all that.

By the way I forgot to tell you, you recall the Ipsum that was pushed out of the way so we could pass, the driver didn’t take it so well. He was trailing us like it was a driving competition. We reached somewhere, seemed like a bottom of a hill, plantation on one side, a bush on the other. There is a car stuck right ahead of us, so we stop, the guys go to check out what’s happening. Now this infuriates the Ipsum driver, he is hurling insults, saying how anybody can fail to drive on that road. If he could, I bet he would have jumped over and drove off.  And yes, that’s impossible plus, this road could only have one car at a time, there is no way he would have squeezed and passed. Despite his sour mood, he had to wait behind us. Bet it killed him to sit and wait.

The car that was stuck moved eventually, I didn’t ask what had been wrong with it. The sun was going down, it was getting late and we didn’t know how far more we had to move to get to the main road (Mbarara Kabale high way). Consolation was, if the road was fine, we would get there in not so long.  After driving for some Kms we reached another junction and the road which we were supposed to take (could have taken us to the main road fast) was even messier. That was the story, the evidence though was with the cars that had attempted to use it but had returned. This wasn’t good news.

An old man passes by and the driver inquires from him if he knew another way that we could use. He was nice, in his own words says “ yes you could go straight through this other road, it’s definitely much better except one spot and when you pass that,  the rest should be okey but it will take you more time to reach Mbarara and it goes through a forest,”. It’s not like we had many options.

We got onto the road, it seemed to be made up of rocks and in tow with the Ipsum set off into journey that awaited us. I mean it felt different but we had been through enough, what could be worse.  At some point we seemed to be climbing and the road was getting rockier. The car got stuck. The driver tried his best but the car just wouldn’t move. So we got out of the car, the ipsum that was tailing us managed to go over the rocks and went ahead of us but got stuck just in front of us. Its passengers go out mostly women and few men and tried to push the car. It wasn’t bugging.  Among the pushers was this woman who was pushing the car while staying rooted in one spot.  If you are pushing something you are supposed to move it.  So the car would move a bit and then her hands would remain suspended in air, this was a bit funny to watch. After sometime of long pushing and failing, the guys went to add their weight to the push and it worked.

They got off the bad spot and surprisingly came to help us. We were shocked because they had been on quest to get ahead of us. The Ipsum driver comes and tells our driver, to get out and he helps. As if saying I passed this spot so obviously I know how to do this better. We turned and looked at each other. It was weird getting help from him but anyways it worked. We got moving again.

It was a bit of a rough terrain as we took on the hilly road but after a while we reached what seemed like the top because we could see our surroundings properly, the valleys and yes the forest. You know, all along as we moved I was anticipating reaching the “Supposed” forest. It’s not every day that you see a natural forest and my excitement was at its peak. You can tell the difference between a man-made and natural forest by the thickness and under growth. You can’t see through unlike the latter. This was it. The last natural forest I ever saw was Immaramagambo forest way back in 2005 while on a geography trip in High school. That had been a while

Enter the forest

So we were now moving on the sides of the hill, with a view of a forest on one side that went into a valley and what seemed like an endless hill on the other side. We went down a slope, went over a stream of water and over us the converging trees. It seemed darker; I don’t know if it was due to the fact that much light doesn’t pass through the trees to reach down or because it was getting late. It was coming to 7pm at the time. Do you know the feeling you get when you are excited but also scared at the same time, that’s how I felt and so did the rest of the people in the car I think.

At this time so much was running through my head, God forbid anything happened to the vehicle, the thoughts of what would happen to us in what seemed like in the middle of nowhere were unbearable. It was a lonely road and we were the only vehicle on it, our travelling partners (Ipsum) were ahead of us, mind you we didn’t meet any people anywhere as we came.

To sort of lighten the mood, we begin talking about the animals which could be in that forest, ranging from monkeys(less scary), anacondas (creepy this one) or even lions. Not that it was comforting but we laughed over it.  It was one of those places where somehow you begin to think of the horror movies you have watched; the setting was kind of the sort. I recalled the wrong turn horror movies and how things could get messy and fast. One of my colleagues says “you people shouldn’t even joke about those things.” But somehow we got through the forest started going up a hill again, there were still trees on either side of the road but pine trees. So tall but we could see through them.

The long hike 

See the car (Ipsum) lodged at the bottom of the hill

 

And then the great trek began (Martyrs on a mission-getting to the top of the hill)

As we went up the hill, we could see the Ipsum lodged somewhere on the road, its passengers were out. It had got stuck again. Gauging from how steep and rough the road was we too knew there was no way we would pass easily. We got out of the car and pushed it for some distance, the driver then drove ahead so we could find him at the top of the hill. We also helped push the Ipsum and it drove off.   So we started the long hike. We had no way to estimate the distance between where we were and where the car had packed, on top of the hill.  We were quite a big number, looked like pilgrims going to Namugongo.

We walked, stopped to regain some energy and walked some more. It was a big test for “Us” the unfit people because it was so exhausting you would think we had climbed Mt.Rwenzori. But looking on the bright side, the walk was good for us because we managed to take in our surroundings. It was quite a scenery, through the pine trees we could see other hills, scattered houses in a distance. It was one of those moments when you appreciate God’s creation. 

Sorry the pics aren't so clear but if you see closely through the pine trees, there is a view of the hills far and wide

Can you see the tired smiles though, our car was finally in view (Lol)

After walking on for what seemed like forever, we got to the car, and sitting in was quite a huge relief.  From then on we moved on smoothly, there was a trading center at the bottom of the hill where the Ipsum stopped, they had reached home, lucky them. 

They waved us off goodbye. From there it took us about 30—40 minutes to reach Mbarara town. We had made it but we had had an adventure.  Not that we had reached our homes but the hardest part of the journey was done. The Mbarara to Kampala journey couldn’t come close Mwizi escapades. We just prayed for journey mercies.

Mwizi is one of those places that are captivating and beautiful for those who love sight-seeing and hiking. This is thee place to visit. I would just advise that you wear comfortable walking shoes and clothes.

In case you are wondering how I ended up in Mwizi, I had gone for a burial of a dear friend’s dad who had been called by the Lord. A great man he was, left a big a legacy and a beautiful closely knit family to remember him by.  May he rest in peace.