‘Boda Boda’ is the name given to one of the most ubiquitous, and cheapest, forms of public transport in East Africa – motorcycles and bicycles.
Seeing so many of them on the roads, in and around Kampala, reminded me of the Moto taxis we used in the Fouta Djallon Highlands of Guinea Conakry, whilst on the River Gambia Expedition
‘According to our main moto taxi man, Ebu, when we were trying to make the initial, extremely protracted, deal with him: “Come, we go now, now! We will get to Kedougou (Senegal) in two hours” he assured us – compared to 6-7 hours in a vehicle. In the end, we haggled a deal for roughly $28 per person – down from $35 per person. Hey, when on a tight expedition budget, every single dollar saved counts…
At long last, almost 5 hours later, we were ready to hit the road. Ebu is still adamant that we would make Kedougou by dark. So much so, he very convincingly stated: “and I will return tonight, to Mali Ville, with a passenger from Kedougou, too!”. In actual fact, we would not reach Kedougou until 10 pm that evening!’ extract from the ‘River Gambia Expedition-1044km source-sea African odyssey’ blog by Helen Jones-Florio
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