Atimo Recreation

Over a year ago now I headed out on my first of many adventures with Charlie and Jenny of the Mountain Club of Uganda. So I figured it's about time I wrote something about it all! This is the first in a series of look backs on my time in Uganda.

I headed up on Friday evening after work because I wanted to meet up with some old friends from Gulu that I'd worked with on a previous project - a bunch of ladies we affectionately referred to as The Gulu Girls. So I hopped on a bus from the crowded Kampala bus park and sat through the usual hour or so wait for loading. I arrived in Gulu as fresh as a dried cowpat and found my hotel via the police who wanted me to pay them for their services. In the morning I managed to meet up with Sue and Mary who told me all about how my old friends were getting on since the last time I'd been in Uganda.

Gulu has been through protracted war for about two decades and is now maintaining a hard won peace. So The Gulu Girls all grew up in Internally Displaced People's camps on the outskirts of the city and have struggled along ever since. Having gone through a secretarial school some other friends were supporting from the UK, Sue's now a secretary at the St Mary's Sacred Hearts school for girls and Mary's working in an internet cafe. Both are pursuing further education and the other girls seem to be getting on well.

Charlie's not so happy queuing

Fortunately for our conversation the others had a puncture and comedy of errors fixing it on the way up, so we had plenty of time to chat. But finally Jenny, Charlie and V bumbled in to town in Porsch-a, J&C's beloved but battered Rav4. Following a breakfast of mandazi and milk tea, Jenny made Charlie stand in line for some kerosene and we headed off to The Recreation Project 

The Recreation Project is the brainchild of Ben Porter, a psycho-analyst that's been working in the area for about 7 years. As he said, "I got bored of sitting kids down and saying Now kids we're going to talk about the worst thing that ever happened to you!" So he created an adventure playground that you can only get round in pairs or as a group. The idea is to nurture trust and confidence in children that have been through horrific things. I've no idea if it's working, but at the very least Ben's given the children of Gulu a good time - which is often overlooked in Development Practitioners thinking. Everybody needs a good time!

Climbing at TRP

We came to Gulu to find a rock at Fort Patiko where Samuel Baker set up to see off the slavers and to do so we needed Grace, who worked at TRP. But we came to TRP to see their new climbing wall built by a bunch of Norwegians (I think) who set some pretty gnarly routes on a planks of eucalyptus.

After running around the playground, jumping off the leap of faith and lunch of beans n rice we headed out to find Tony, the badass Boda driver.

There is always a man associated with land in Uganda and this time it was no different. We arrived as it was getting dark and the men were getting drunk. Tony talked them down to a few thousand shillings and we followed him in to the gloom, bumping through the bush following the headlight of his tiny bike.

We set up camp atop the rock accompanied by a gaggle of little boys and the squeal of Tony's engine to provide enough light from his headlamp. Then headed off in to the darkness further up the rock to find deadwood for a fire. Fire set Tony had a go at breaking Charlie's new stove that he'd queued so patiently to get kerosene for and I broke out the waragi - then apparently proceeded to snore.

The next morning we awoke to silence and sunrise. We found that we were on a plateau with views stretching out across the plains, the first time I was to find that Uganda is full of plains or rolling hills then huge rocks just bubbling up out of the ground.

A view to wake up to

Rocks with no cracks! Which wasn't much use for my new trad rack. But we set up a top anchor and belayed from the top to scope out the route. There's a pretty bald bulge at the base with a finger crack that you can smear up before getting to some easier slab work and then you're up! Atimo (I did it!) Recreation.

Rapping down the rock

Charlie on the rock

Jenny on the rock

V 'I've never climbed or camped before' on the rock

The problem with adventuring on the weekends is you have to get back for work on Monday. So we headed on down, packed up Porsch-a, watched V's sleeping head bounce up and down on the cool box and chuckled at Jenny & Charlies friendly bickering over each other's driving.

5 hours later we were back in the chaos that is Kampala. 

(Most of the photo credits go to Jenny Farmer)