Reviews

 Willem Vermeulen

First of all: Uganda is a beautiful country. the green heart of Africa. I was on of the first riders to join Pim on one of his rides. And what can I say. This man knows to people and the country. With some proper bikes, camping and travel gear it was easy to get on the road. And even offroad off course. With Pim on your side you feel more then welcome and safe. With his experience as a special force and nursing skill you will be safe.

Uganda is truly Africa, with long lasting road a head with small villages on the side its lovely to cruise. Mother nature is as pure as it can be. Especially the National Park ride was amazing. imagine to ride on a dirt road between elephants, hippo’s and Giraffes and many more. Meet up with a Ranger of the park that will guide you to your campsite for that night. make a campfire to prepare some food on. End up in bed and listen to the lions, monkey and other wild life sounds. The ranger will make sure you are safe.

As I said before we did a lot of camping with and without Rangers. the gear Pim has set up for you is prefect for a trip like this. As food we had a lot of things. From goat, rolled eggs (rolex) till a chicken, was no time I had hungry.

An adventure it is. and also adventures have some padlock sometimes. In this case some flat tires. But local are always willing to help out. with the right preparations (extra tubes) we where always good to go. This is what adventure is all about. Go with the flow and enjoy of every minute of it. Enjoy talking about every thing you see or listen to your favorite music while riding. The helmet intercom makes it all possible.

If you are a enthusiast motorcyclist, this is the adventure to get on!!!
so get your ass to Uganda and go for a ride!
If you ever have questions, hit me up!

 Wouter van Dijk

After a stressful period in where I accepted a new job overseas and quit my current one I was really looking forward to get out of ordinary life and go on motorcycle ride in a remote place. After the UG-moto website caught my eye I contacted Pim to get some information. From the first email it seemed that he was a really nice fellow and I was impressed by his plans for giving camping/riding tours across Uganda. Although it is not a self guided tour, this seemed to be the adventure I was looking for and agreed to be part of this first tour together with a fellow motorcycle fanatic. And man an adventure it was..

Right after landing in Entebbe (Kampala) one can notice that you are in an entirely different world with different (traffic) rules. I got excited about driving myself right away!

On the first night we stayed in the ICU guesthouse (great relaxed friendly environment) we made our plan to drive the north route including bush camping in Murchison falls. The next day we packed our tents and saddled our bikes to ride through the suburbs of Kampala into the countryside. Traffic in Kampala can be quite a struggle, but after couple minutes of adjustment it is actually fun to ride. Speed is low and people respect your space, although in the first minute that didn’t seem that way haha.

During the trip we stayed at many different locations, from camping grounds after a ‘high-way’ restaurants, bush camping in Murchison falls to a high-end lodge. All locations were an experience apart and different from each other. It was really fun to discover all the different locations. People in Uganda and also at the camping places were all great. They are friendly, welcoming and speak English. One of the nights we stayed at a guest family which hosted many orphanage kids from the surrounding area’s. This family was so great and welcoming and it was so much fun to play soccer with the kids and go out with the older ones. It seems that everywhere we went Pim already made some local friends, not based on providing gifts, but on mutual respect. This made it fun to hang out with locals and brought a more genuine local (nonguided) experience. Regarding safety I did not have a single moment that I didn’t fell unsafe during this trip. Although people around me asked me about safety concerns before the trip, I believe safety is not an issue. Offcourse going out on your own at night in Kampala might be a bit risky in some neighborhoods, but that is in most capitol cities I guess.

The trip was mainly offroad except for the first and last day. Offroad conditions were doable and fun. We were not in a hurry so we had plenty of time to practice around, have fun with the bikes but also take safety into account when things got really dirty. It is recommendable to have at least a bit of riding experience before registering, but one can also take a bit more time to practice in the beginning to make sure you are prepared. I actually didn’t have any offroad experience, but do have a bike back home and all went well and had loads of fun. Pim is self quite a good offroad rider and can definitely teach you the everything if needed.

Riding through the countryside is an unique experience. The landscape is just spectacular and people are not so used to seeing tourists on motorcycles, which gives a fun experience if you enter a town. Everyday gives so many high lights, from playing soccer with random kids along the route to spotting a wide variety of wildlife. It is hard to describe the sensation I felt when
entering the national park on a motorcycle and crossing paths with all sorts of wildlife like deers, elephants giraffes etc. Although we havent spotted lions, knowing they are around and hearing them at night while sleeping in a tent in the park, is a pretty crazy awesome experience. Finally, although I apparently I had some mutual friends with Pim I didn’t knew him upfront. However from day 1 it felt as I knew him for quite a while. He is a relaxed person and has a perfect understanding of people. I really appreciated the campfire stories and conversations we had!

So if you are up for an adventure, not looking for 5 star comfort, don’t like others to carry your luggage if you are walking next to them and like to ride bikes, this trip is your thing and will definitely stick into your memory
probably the rest of your life!