Doug and I awoke close to 6:30am and began to get our gear ready. Breakfast was shortly after 7:00am (we had to wake up Nathan and Christine, whom we had nearly forgotten about). Omelettes, bread and jam, pineapples and banana. After breakfast we completed our chores. I filtered water for Christine (her bottle still smells like that banana beer). Earlier I had been using Doug's Katydyn but it took so long I went and used my Pur(ifier) instead.

We headed out the same way we had come in two days ago; up a narrow path. Doug, David and I took a split and backtracked up a side path to reach what was called The Top of the World. We weren't quite sure how to get there. At one point a child called out, "No!" when we had started on the wrong path. ("He has a honest face," David commented before heeding his advice.) We decided the way was up a footpath, through the tall, thick stalks, so I waited with the bikes (less they get stolen) until they came back. I went alone up the path and found a high view of some of the crater lakes and valley below.

When we got down to the bottom we realized that the others hadn't known we had stopped, so we sped down the path (woooops! cattle in the road!) until we caught up to them.

We did some paved road and a new, smooth, dirt one. We cycled through a large group of well-dressed children walking along the road—likely a church group—who smiled, laughed, waved and called out to us as we went through them.

We came up a hill to see the hillside alive with people—market day. We stopped along the road, just past a long row of men with their bicycles loaded with heavy banana bunches. (I took a picture; apparently they weren't entirely pleased with me for doing so. David said he thought some of them were grumbling while I took the picture, but I hadn't noticed.)

I walked through the market with Christine, coming across Maxine at the top. She was mad at David because she wasn't getting enough information from him. I told her where we were and promptly lost track of Christine... unfortunate for her, since I was holding her money. The stalls were full of items of a practical nature: cloth, clothes, shoes, sugar, matches, rope, etc. Nothing of particular value to the tourist. ("Here, have this. It's a nice bike tire I got for you in Africa!")

I rejoined the others and waited while Maxine bought fruit (and told David she was, in fact, angry at him before she abruptly walked away; they later discussed the issue and we made a more conscious effort to slow down and stop more often). I chatted briefly with a man at the market that approached me; he was quite well dressed, all in white, and looked like he might have some authority there. I told him where we were from (Kibale... they never seem to mean from what country) and our destination and he told me the route there and wished me a safe journey.

At another village we stopped at a junction and a crowd gathered around us. One man rambled uncomprehensively to Christine and I in broken English. I suspect from a faint odour and his demeanour that he was drunk. The others Ugandans seemed a little embarrassed because of him.

We eventually hit a paved road, which we followed for the rest of the way. We stopped for lunch, where I (and most everyone) had rice with a peanut sauce. It was joked that I was a jackrabbit (from yesterday) AND a camel because I didn't drink much at the restaurant... and, of course, by now David was calling me "Helium Boy". (What can I say? We Canucks pack light.) As we neared Kasese I heard quite a few more, "Give me money!" calls—even one from an adult. David suggests that they don't really expect anything, but white people generally represent wealth. Christine's rear tire had a slow leak so she used the "stop-and-pump" method for the final leg, which had a long stretch of downhill until we turned into Kasese, a small town with wide, dirt roads.

We checked into our hotel, exhausted. It's a series of cement huts, similar to last night, but with luxuries: a room fan, mosquito nets over the beds, towels, sheets, shower sandals, an actual shower and brand-new squat toilets nearby.