Border Crossing from Rwanda to Uganda at Cyanika.

Immigration, Vehicle Import and 3rd Party Insurance:

Arriving at the first gate the armed police did a passport check and walked around the vehicle.

Then 100m on the left is Rwanda Customs, here at the Customs window they signed out the Carnet.

There was no exit of immigration here.

At the second gate, there is a Security Police Post on the RHS.

Go inside and the officer will ask for Comesa.

What he wants is to check the 3rd Party Insurance.

After the this gate you come to a gate with Uganda on the LEFT ( you have been driving on the RIGHT up till now) and Rwanda on the LEFT.

An armed guard will come to the vehicle and very briefly check around and inside the vehicle.

He will let you through - DRIVING on the LEFT, and then park up on the left

The immigration office is on the left.

We were given and filled out 2 forms, an arrival card for Uganda and an exit card from Rwanda.

The far door on the right is Exit Rwanda. Do this first.

Then the next door on the left is entry Uganda.

Over the road in the blue building is Customs for the vehicle import.

Read the below before you go there...

Road Toll  or Road User Charges

A ‘normal’ car/ LandCruiser etc is US$20 paid in Uganda Shillings ( or US$ ??) and lasts for 30 days....easy

Our vehicle although is a private and not a commercial vehicle, it is classed as a TRUCK ! This means that you pay by the kilometre.

The officer asked how far are you travelling/ kilometres you plan to do in Uganda.

At this stage I suggest you have an idea of the nearly shortest route you plan to travel through to your exit point.  Make it sound reasonable, and staying for a few days at some tourist attraction etc.

I said we were going to the Murchison Falls then, Kampala then to out to Kenya.

He then proceed to use Google to find out the distance, town to town on this route. This added up to 1085 kms which in turn calculated at UGX 217,000 Franks or US$60/A$80.

All the time I am being friendly and sort of joking that he could call it 200Kms etc etc.

When I heard this figure I said something like “That is not very friendly for tourists for the great country.”

I showed him we had only UGX 140,000 Franks from money we had just exchanged with the Black Market Guys.

Somehow UGX 120,000 seemed acceptable ! ???      That is US$40/A$50

We now have a Payment Registration Slip for ROAD USER CHARGES for UGX120,000.

On this document there is NO RECORD of kilometres, distance, direction, towns or a finish date. Thus my reasoning that one could pick a shorter distance.

He then happily signed the Carnet into Uganda.

Now that he had taken all our Uganda money I changed US$50 with the Black Market money changers.

There is no ATM or official money bureau.

There was one more gate where the guard wanted to see a gate pass. We were never given one so I showed him the page where the officer signed the Carnet into Uganda.

I do not believe he understood but waved us through.

You are now driving on the LEFT although the road is jammed with bikes and pedestrians.

Travel in Uganda:

After Rwanda, the very first thing you notice is the rubbish.

It is everywhere.

Then you notice that the children and adults do not wave or smile.

In the less tourist visited areas this is not the case.

The next thing you feel !

The rumble strips are horrendous.

The only way we could comfortably drive was at 4KPH !

We found the main roads well paved but the dirt roads needed attention.

Camping & Park Entry:

Camping was between US$5 and 10 per night and some places this was each.  Payable generally in US$y

Park entry was US$40/person/day + US9 vehicle/day. Card was acceptable.

Food:

Fuel:

Water:

Internet:

We chose MTN for coverage. So far it had been good. 1Gb for a month was XGU35,000 and the sim card XGU5,000 so all up 40,000 or A$16/US$12.

We selected an on seller and it was a mistake, it took almost 2 hours to configure. I would suggest you find a Service Centre and deal direct with MTN. At least they have technicians who know what they are doing.

For our actual Travel Diary through X see: GoannaTracks Uganda

Return to: DIY Kit For Overland Travel