from selling live chickens, to desper-
ately trying to clear their vehicles
through customs, in order to get that
darn temporary import paper and
forget that whole mess until the next
border crossing. But apparently here
the process is much quicker and sim-
pler: most countries issue tourist vi-
sas on-arrival and it takes an average
of 10 minutes to fill in some forms, if
any, pay the visa fees (always only in
cash and only in US dollars) and get
the stamp in your passport. Mean-
while the motorcycles with Carnet de
Passages are done with the process
even faster. During the majority of our
crossings, the customs officers didn’t
even bother to take a look through the
window to make sure that the motor-
cycles were actually there!
In Uganda, as well as in Kenya, ev-
ery person we met greeted us with a
bright smile and a good dose of curi-
osity: “Where are you from? Where
are you aiming to go? How had the
journey been so far? How big are your
engines? What is the fuel economy on
those bikes?” Everyone in these two
countries, formerly part of British
rule, speak perfect English, therefore
a cultural exchange was always a great
delight and felt very exotic, keeping in
mind that we come from Lithuania,
a country in the northeast of Europe,
which barely ever had any historic ties
with Africa and up to this day sees Af-
rica as very distant and an unfamiliar
part of the world.
Once in Uganda, we visited the
beautiful Sipi Falls on the slopes of
Mt. Elgon, the source of the river Nile
on the edge of the biggest lake in Afri-
ca – Lake Victoria.
The majestic Rwenzori mountains
on the border with the Democratic Re-
public of Congo and we crossed Ugan-
da’s most visited wildlife park named
after Queen Victoria on the national
road, where we met several herds of
antelopes, a couple of self-confident
buffaloes and a pack of neither grace-
ful, nor beautiful, but very cute wart-
TRAVERSE 20
hogs (remember the wild pig called
Pumba, who, together with his buddy
Timon the meerkat, befriended Simba
in “The Lion King”?).
Heading south from Uganda, we
crossed the border of Rwanda – a tiny
country in southeast African context,
justly called The Land of a Thousand
Hills.
Rwanda’s almost mystical land-
scapes of rolling hills, the heavenly
blue water of Lake Kivu and the sprawl-
ing lush green Nyungwe rainforest,
surrounded our three-day-long ride
on the never-ending twists and curves
over the perfect new roads.
Rwanda definitely has a lot to of-
fer to those who love a relaxed ride in
moderate temperatures with amazing
scenery on empty well maintained
roads which are never straight. But
that’s not the only great thing about
Rwanda. Imagine country, where you
do not see a single plastic bag dumped
on the ground, where everything is
clean and tidy and where everyone