Kampala to Gulu Walk; Hot, Tough
After walking a cumulative 360km in 10 days, under one of the hottest temperatures on record, the #JoeWalker Kampala to Gulu road safety awareness walk team entered Gulu City at 12:09pm on 5th March 2025. Days before we set off, the weather flipped, offsetting our original forecast of warm temperatures to very hot. I flirted with the idea of rescheduling the walk but never discussed it with the team. And then, the team after running a dry run actually reduced the walking duration by a day meaning we had longer distances to walk on average. I prayed, worked on my mental...
DAY TEN: JOE WALKER IN GULU
On Wednesday 5th March 2025, waltzing to Odong Romeo’s Yoo Leng, we landed in Gulu. Beaten and exhausted but high on adrenaline of crossing the finishing line, we jumped and danced like teens at the end of year kandake. After a few photos at the Elephant, we were joined by pupils of Gulu Baptist Primary School and a team of our partners from Responsive Drivers Uganda, and Pride Microfinance. Together we marched through the city to Gulu Post Office the last point of our walk. From there we proceeded to Gang Kal Madit where we were officially welcomed to Acholi...
Day Nine: We’re almost there
By Joe Walker The Kampala to Gulu #JoeWalker road safety walk set off at 6:30am from Kamdini. We transversed Nwoya, Oyam, and Omoro districts, and after 40km, we are done for the day. Nine days since we started, so far, we’ve covered 331km. All through this walk, for every stretch, every police checkpoint, all the chats with boda boda riders, drivers or roadside market vendors, the cries are literally the same including; - Speeding - Narrow road - Unsafe or no infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians And that was the story as we literally crawled from Kamdini to Bobi. At Kamdini, by 6:30am, the traffic officers were...
Day Eight: It was special, the longest so far
By Joe Walker What a day…. #JoeWalker Kampala to Gulu road safety awareness team lifted off from Bweyale at 5:00am, with our headlamps on. We lit up the pitch dark highway and soon we were rolling the mileage into sunrise. When you walk through a town, it gives you an opportunity to appreciate it better; Bweyale is a big busy town that needs modern and safe infrastructure to serve, protect, and save its people. As daylight shone upon us clearly, we could see that the road between Kiryadongo and Karuma is actually marked with some signs. Most of them seem to be fading...
Day Seven: A moment with road crash victims, boda riders
By Joe Walker Wow! The day started so bright and early. As always, we were out of where we slept at 5.30am, in this case, Kigumba. Our first stop was at Kiryadongo, where we had an interaction with boda boda riders and later visited Kiryadongo Hospital, where we had a moment to share with victims of road crashes. If you have not been in such a situation and you visit that world, where people have suffered road crashes, you would think twice about the way you drive. Several of them have been stuck in the hospital for days with nobody to take...
Day Six: It was hard, but beautiful
By Joe Walker Today’s episode of #JoeWalker Kampala to Gulu road safety awareness walk was hard but beautiful. The body struggled to get up, and the last few kilometres to Kigumba (today’s rest point) were a drag. The legs felt heavy. But what a beautiful start! My best friend Ethan Musolini threw us a surprise…he joined us on the road straight from Kampala as early as 6am. He left Kampala at 3am. We enjoyed watching the brilliant sunrise over River Kafu, had a crazy photo shoot, and off we continued on our trek towards Kigumba. [caption id="attachment_17803" align="alignnone" width="1024"] My best friend Ethan Musolini...
Day Five: Let’s do the right thing
Migyera town never sleeps; loud music and prayers blared on all night long on Thursday night. As we set out at 5:45am on day five of #JoeWalker Kampala to Gulu road safety awareness walk, Migyera was still happening. The power blackout had nothing on them. I wonder if the party was because of the numerous truck trailers parked on both sides of the road. Fitted with our headlights, and powered up by the early morning cool breeze, Migyera town was soon in our past. Unlike all the previous towns, we met very few school children. But consistent with other towns, many...
Day four: An unfriendly stretch for pedestrians
The #JoeWalker Kampala to Gulu road safety walk kicked off at 6:15am at Nakasongola and we are now docked in Migyera for the day. This is an interesting stretch so far. There is very light human traffic, lots of speeding vehicles, and animals crossing the road. It’s a bit unfriendly for pedestrians. Whether the road speed signs reads 50 or 80, the cars just fly past at insane speeds. One traffic officer Afande Baluku said he has even stopped someone who was flying at 160km/hr and her argument was that there were no people near the road, so what was the big...
Day three: Slow down
The #JoeWalker Kampala to Gulu road safety walk today took us from Katikamu to Nakasongola. We saw a beautiful sunrise, speeding vehicles, narrow roads, very unhappy but cheerful boda boda riders and of course, faced the scorching heat. We kicked off at 5:45am and traversed through a long endless straight road. As soon as you join the main road, what hits you first is the fast-moving vehicles, private SUVs, heavy trucks, buses and even motorcycles. Everyone is flying, given its early hours with no traffic police on the road. Yeah, you can imagine what that is like. Crazy. Total disregard of...
Day Two: Wobulenzi-Luwero stretch, a disaster waiting to happen
The stretch between Wobulenzi and Luwero is a big disaster waiting to happen: too many schools, many speeding cars, poorly marked roads, no speed barriers, boda bodas loaded with children being dropped off at different schools, many children in different shades of uniform walking in different directions and numerous “traffic wardens” helping them cross the road at different points. That’s the scene that opened the chapter of #JoeWalker Kampala to Gulu road safety awareness walk. After a brief introduction to the heat on day one, we purposed to hit the road early today and be off the road before the sun unleashed...