Jenn and Skylar's Trip to Africa, the Summer of 2015

For months I had anxiously been planning and waiting for Jennifer and Skylar to join us in Africa. I wanted to ensure they experienced as much as possible while keeping the trip manageable. Everything had to be perfect. The accommodation was all booked and the transportation arranged for every leg of the trip. All we needed to do was await their arrival. In my schedule I had planned for them to arrive on July 4th, 2015, however in every one of Jenn's facebook posts she indicated she was arriving a day earlier than I expected. I figured she was just excited. Walking home from the grocery store a few days before their pending arrival I had a nagging feeling that maybe I had it wrong. I had better double check their tickets. Sure enough I was wrong. After a few minutes of panic, I got busy and rearranged our taxi to Kampala for July 3rd and booked an extra night's hotel at the Africana Hotel in Kampala, Uganda. How awful would it have been if we weren't there to meet Jenn and Skylar when they arrived in Uganda. The mere thought made me sick to my stomach, but not to worry, making the changes went smoothly. Now all we had to do was leave Bungoma for the five-seven hour (depending on traffic and time to cross the border) car ride to Kampala in time to check-in at the hotel and get to the airport before they arrived at 10:20 the evening of July 3rd. It shouldn't be a problem, however getting any kind of clear indication on how long the trip should take was virtually impossible and changed with every person I asked. Oh well, we were leaving at noon so surely we would arrive in plenty of time. As we pulled up to the Kenya/Uganda border crossing there were miles of 18 wheeler trucks lining the sides of the road. Was this the line-up I wondered? If so how long would it take? We later learned that sometimes it takes the trucks days to clear the border. Fortunately for us our taxi weaved in and out of the lineup and within 15 minutes we were parked so that we could go into the office and register as leaving Kenya. Once our passports were stamped we were back in the car heading towards the Uganda office to gain entry into the country. This is when I first started to wonder if we would reach Kampala on time. While Rodgers (our taxi driver) continued to weave in and out of traffic it still took us over an hour to reach the actual border. Once you actually cross the border again you park and go into an Ugandan office for entry into the country. On the bright side, there was no lineup in the office and we didn't have to pay a Visa fee, which was a nice surprise. We were prepared with our $50USD in hand to pay for the Visas, which we quickly put back in our wallets. Having cleared customs we jumped back in the car and headed off on the drive to Kampala. It was 2pm, surely we would have plenty of time. The countryside was gorgeous as we passed through rainforests, the town of Jinja, and saw tons of monkeys along the way. However the closer we got to Kampala the thicker the traffic got. At times we were at a dead stop and panic started to set in again. It was 6pm and we still hadn't reached our hotel. I knew it would take at least an hour to get to the airport from the hotel once we arrived and neither Randy nor I had eaten anything since breakfast. Rodgers wasn't 100% sure where the Africana Hotel was. He had mapped out the general vicinity using Google maps but we still were a little unclear exactly where we were going. After going around the block, we asked a pedestrian who pointed us back in the right direction, close but not close enough. The 2nd pedestrian actually jumped into the car with us a directed us to the hotel entrance. Finally, with relief, we were there. It was 7:15pm. Time for a quick bite to eat before we left for the airport. The hotel reception indicated we should leave at 8:00pm in order to ensure we arrive by 10:00 and it actually took the full 2 hours to get there. Traffic was horrible, but finally we were at the airport before Jenn and Sky's plane was scheduled to arrive. Jenn and Sky had flown from Calgary to Amsterdam and then Amsterdam via Kigali to Entebee. Unfortunately during the stop in Kigali the plane experience some mechanical problems and the plane was delayed. After sitting on the plane for over 13 hours they finally arrived in Kampala just after midnight. I guess I shouldn't have stressed that they might arrive at the Entebee airport before we did. They had arrived, cleared customs and were heading towards us. I have never been so happy to see anyone in my entire life. The taxi ride back to the hotel only took a hour, since there was no traffic at that time of night. Everyone was starving and fortunately room service was available 24/7. Tomorrow our adventures thru Africa would begin.