Potholes

When I was in South Africa a few months back, my sister and I took a day trip to the Drakensberg Mountains. It was a lovely drive and we had a beautifully relaxing time. At one point we had to take a more secondary road through a more rural area. As we turned onto this road, we saw this warning sign:

I had to chuckle when I saw that. The road was paved the whole way and I don’t think I noticed a single pothole. The road was a bit rougher than the South African highways, but it was still much smoother than most roads in Uganda. If the quality of the road we took to Drakensberg was here, drivers would easily consider it to be the best road in the country; Ugandan roads are dreadful!

Even the major highways between cities have some very treacherous potholes and eroded edges. In places, more drivers have created a “road” on the shoulder as they are forced to detour the actual road. The pavement on the road to the post office here in Masaka town was recently scraped away and the dirt road that is there now is actually an improvement. Formerly, much of the pavement was broken on that road that it was mostly dirt. The potholes that resulted were very deep and it is practically impossible to avoid damaging the undercarriage.

Many of the side roads in Uganda are not paved at all and after a prolonged period of rain, it is quite the challenge to get from A to B. As our project is located a fair distance from the main road, we have to drive about 3 or 4 km on a dirt road to reach home. In the few months I’ve been here this road has deteriorated significantly—larger potholes, deep trenches down the middle of the road, ditches caused by flowing water, etc. We have a Rav 4 that we use to run errands in town, and that poor little vehicle has really been shaken up driving this road so much. We get a bit shaken up ourselves!

Here is a photo of part of Bukoto Rd that we have to drive whenever we leave home. If it has been raining, we have to splash through large puddles and slide through slick mud:

Urban North American SUV’s must get very jealous of their cousins who drive African roads and have the opportunity to fulfill the purpose for which they were designed! Unfortunately, vehicles in Africa do tend to have a shorter life expectancy. (nothing new for Africa.....)