Quadbiking in Uganda

November 11^th, 2023

While I was in Kampala, I met a local guy of Indian descent named Bhavesh.  He recommended that I should go ATVing, or quadbiking as they call it here, and he even gave me a contact name and number of a friend of his.  I contacted Paul and was set to go the day after rafting…might as well keep the adrenaline going!  Tim from Michigan, who had come rafting, decided to join me.  The place couldn’t have been located any closer, it was 50 meters from the entrance of the Nile River Explorers, where I was staying.

 

We were met by a couple of ladies and then Paul showed up.  We paid and another guy, Alex, got us kitted out with overalls, rubber boots, helmets and even bandanas.  I don’t know if Alex did it on purpose, but Tim was given a helmet with some stars and some blue and red stripes…very American looking. 

Ready to Ride!

It had been a long time since either of us had gone ATVing, so we were given a run through on the basics of the bike and then did a few circular laps around the building.  Passing that test, we headed out onto a small training course with some sharp turns and a few bumps including some nice messy mud.  The course circled around their defunct “Big Game” mini-golf course, complete with statues of the big five animals.  We left the course and ran up and down a long straight track in an open field.  Paul wanted to make sure we understood how to change gears, which was easy as the bikes were “semi-automatic”, there was no clutch you had to use.

 

Now it was time to hit the trails.  Paul was in the lead, followed by me and then Tim.  We had opted for the 3-hour package and our destination was Busowoko falls.  We passed through all kinds of terrain.  At first it was a narrow road, when I say road, it was hard packed red dirt and often bumpy.  We passed by small houses constructed of wooden frames with mud walls and thatched rooves and fields with crops such as corn.  It seemed like every second yard had little kids running out to wave at us with huge smiles.  We had to wave back or yell “Hi” as they were too cute not to respond to.

 

Later we descended a steep narrow path to the Nile where we could see one of the dams.  After a photo op, we climbed back up the hill and went in and out of a couple of forests with tall trees. 

Hard to see it, but the dam is behind me.

In one forest, Paul actually got stuck in some sloppy mud, as he stopped to check on Tim, who was now riding in second spot.  We watched Paul try some different techniques to extricate himself but in the end we sludged through the mud and tried to help by pulling on the front of the bike.  I asked Paul if he had a tow rope, but he said that he used it the day before and took it out to clean it, and erroneously forgot to put it back in one of his hard plastic cases on the back of his bike.  Whoops.  Luckily, we were able to get him free. 

An eight foot tall termite mound:

The bikes are getting muddy.

There were a bunch of big spiders and their webs by the edge of the forest.

Riding through the forest:

Having a great time!

Paul attempting to get out of the mud:

Now it was Tim’s turn to plow through the watery muddy.  He didn’t have much of a run up from where he was and almost made it but got stuck near the end of the big puddle.  It was an easy pull to get him free.  My turn next.  I asked Paul if he wanted to ride my bike through the natural obstacle, seeing he has a ton more experience riding, but he told me I should try.  I was able to build up more speed than Tim and made it through.  I’m glad Paul told me to do it as it was quite the rush!  Poor Paul had a couple of rubber boots filled with muddy water.

My run:

We reached the falls and it immediately looked familiar.  We had been there the day before while rafting.  It was one of the portages we had to do.  Today it was much busier with locals as it was a Saturday.  We drank some water, walked around, chatted with a Dutch guy who was rafting and then got back on the bikes to take a relatively quick way back to the ATV Adventures place.

Tim, Paul and me:

In the end we were out for a little over three and a half hours, and both Tim and I were ready to dismount from the bikes.  Our bodies had been rattled enough and both of us had sore thumbs from using the throttle.  Our faces were quite dirty as were our overalls. 

 

It was a fantastic activity…filled with MUD, MUD, MUD!!!  (said in a monster truck advertisement way!)