Mike Fackney: Much Travelled Man
Mike had wanted to go to Malawi but a planned eight day tour had been cancelled because of Covid, and so, after two days in Kampala he eventually joined a tour party that went through Rwanda, Zambia, Tanzania, Columbia and Uganda. With excellent photographs Mike took us on the tour.
In Kampala he was impressed by the Kaddafi Mosque and the Hindu Temple. We noticed the bamboo scaffolding used in the construction of tall buildings and the ubiquitous motor scooters and push bikes. He showed, too, the darker sides of their history, Idi Amin's torture chambers and execution sites. There were modern buildings in the city but outside we saw a primitive butcher's shop with a bloody carcass proudly displayed, a well which served a whole village, a witch doctor, and coffee beans being broken, beaten and roasted by hand. Africa is renowned for its wildlife and Mike got close to buffaloes, elephants, antelopes, lions and hippopotamuses. A particular highlight was getting close to a gorilla family. On a sombre note we saw the genocide museum, dedicated to the 250,000 Tutsis butchered by the Hutus. In Zambia Mike saw the Victoria Falls but was not tempted when locals tried to sell him spitted rats, even though he was assured they were very tasty. In Malawi there were frequent long power cuts and enormous queues for petrol. The hotel they were meant to use had no water, power or food and so they moved to another one. The tour continued to Tanzania where Mike was impressed by a workshop for deaf people and more wild animals. They went past Mount Kilimanjaro which Mike had climbed on an earlier trip and on to Nairobi, a modern-looking city but strewn with rubbish. From there Mike was taken to more waterfalls on a boat trip on the Nile. Still gastronomically conservative Mike reluctantly declined a lunch of roasted grasshoppers. Thank you Mike, intrepid traveller.