Journey to the Mountains of the Moon - 1994 (9)

July 19th
After a good night's sleep, a breakfast of fresh pineapple and tea fuelled us for the day’s start at 8:45am. The first part of our track was slightly uphill and then descended steeply to cross confluence of the raging Bujuku and Mubuku rivers via the Kurt Shafer suspension bridge. The bridge was donated by Kurt Shafer (I think he was a US Ambassador to Uganda) as the previous low-level bridges kept getting washed away by floods. After crossing the river it was steeply up, up, up over roots and rocks. This was very hard going and we reached a very welcome rest stop after about three hours. After a brief rest and snack we carried on over undulating terrain of mostly slippery boulders for another two hours through the forest.

We emerged from the forest near a fast-running stream so I stopped to fill my water bottle. As I bent down over the stream I slipped and plunged headfirst into the water which was fortunately not deep. Denisi grabbed my belt and hauled me back upright but I had lost my watch in the stream when the wristband popped. After scrabbling around I managed to find it and it was still running quite happily. The bracelet was easily repaired and then we were off again. Oh what an adventurous life!

The trail led alongside the river to the unused Nyamuleju Hut and then through boggy areas to the newer John Matte Hut. This was about 7.5 hours total for the day and very tiring. At breakfast time I had thought I would fold but managed to make it through the day. On the final stretch to John Matte Hut we passed the whole of the Dutch party and caught up with Till and Pierre who had passed us after the first 2.5 hours. Two British guys arrived at John Matte Hut having come all the way up from Nyakalengija in one day. We thought it pure madness as they had no porters and told us that they might not go much further.

Dinner was a very welcome good cooked meal of Thai soup followed by Rice-a-Risso and mixed vegetables (Dehydrated potato and some sweet potato). Left is a shot of the porters hut at John Matte Hut camp, with the porters preparing thier evening meal. Below right is John Matte Hut with Till, myself and Dominic 'relaxing' at the end of a gruelling day.