Ugandan Scouts – Kaazi National Campsite

As I have been a boy scout in Germany for over 15 years, I wanted to stay in contact with scouts even here in Uganda. Thus I contacted the Uganda Scouts Association on my arrival, just to check whether there are some scout activities to be found in Uganda. As it turned out there are and so I went on my first small trip with the head administration of the national scout association.

The destination? Kaazi National Scouts Training and Campsite is located south of Kampala, near to Lake Victoria, one of the African Great Lakes, the largest tropical lake in the world. A great place with about 5 hectares space where scouts can enjoy their leisure time,  let off their steam and splurge their creativity. Besides their own beach where they enjoy swimming (this part of the beach is supposed to be free from bilharzia), the scouts do have their own ‘Challenge Valley’, a forest in which they have to solve tasks and face different challenges in terms of scouting. Of course there is lots of space for accommodation as well as Kaazi Campsite is used for national camps with 4000 to 5000 Ugandan scouts every year. Plenty of houses provide shelter for scout groups and in addition Kaazi has large lawn areas to place dozens of tents.

Kaazi Scout National Camping Ground auf einer größeren Karte anzeigen

On our two day trip to Kaazi, I was shown all the areas of the campsite and Morris, one of the head scouts, lead us through challenge valley to the beach etc. We had a very good time joining kids at the beach, went for swimming over there, playing ball games, visiting the forest and even doing some painting to create new scout signboards. And one more thing you should never miss as a scout: A lovely fire in the evening. 🙂 We ended the day with a great bonfire, enjoyed some good talks and furthermore: cheese fondue! Yes, we had some nice Swiss cheese fondue which the others brought from the World Scout Jamboree. After going for another 3km walk to get some water, we went into our igloo tents to finally crawl into our sleeping bags. As it turned out, getting water from the trade center was not really necessary. It rained the whole night, not only outside the tent but also inside. 🙂 Woke up from rain dropping hardly on my head.. 😛 ANYWAY: As you will see, we spent some great time over there. Scouts, BE PREPARED for the next time I’ll come.