Welcome!

This blog originally started life on another website, but has been transferred here in its entirity. It charts my experiences during a year of working as a surgeon in Kiwoko Hospital, Uganda - a rural mission hospital in the middle of the infamous Luwero Triangle, devastated during the civil war of the 1980s.

You might need to read the blog entries from the beginning of 2007 to get a full understanding of life as a Developing World Surgeon. The more recent posts are some more infrequent reflections! Enjoy, Steve

Friday 14 October 2011

Camino de Santiago Day Six

The final day’s cycling was certainly the longest, and involved frequent ascents and descents as we crossed the valleys towards Santiago. There were herds of cows to negotiate and a close call with a white van around one bend at the bottom of a fast descent! A brief sandwich was taken for lunch as we pressed on closer and closer to Santiago. It got dustier and dustier which went for my throat, making the climb up Monte de Gozo much harder than it should have been due to excessive coughing and not enough breathing!


Finally we entered Santiago and made our way as a group along the one-way streets amongst the traffic to reach the Plaza del Obradoiro and the obligatory Cathedral marking the end of the pilgrimage. The crowds in the square were great and we saw several others who we recognised from the journey. All had a sense of achievement after completing a 350km ride. I made the mistake of going inside the Cathedral which was a giant shrine to all the things I dislike about Catholic and Orthodox buildings. Priests in cubicles waiting to receive your homage, giant sensors of incense, gold decorations, and crowds and crowds of tourists milling around while every so often a loud “ssshhh” noise would come, from someone wanting it to be a reverent experience... I was distinctly underwhelmed, and got out again as soon as I could.


The week finished with cold drinks followed by a final tapas meal, and then a good night’s sleep. The aching muscles were worthwhile, and some degree of fitness had been restored, along with a desire to get out more on the bicycle in Scotland where there are lots of long distance cycle paths waiting to be explored.

The journey home was completed uneventfully, and Scotland was cold, dark and wet, fully justifying the holiday to Spain where it had remained hot and sunny all week. All that remained was to book my flights for the next trip – back to Uganda in six weeks time!

Thursday 13 October 2011

Camino de Santiago Day Five


This was a long morning ride through the Galician countryside, passing from village to village along mostly off-road tracks. There were some stony mini ascents and descents along the way before we ended up with a good downhill at the village of Portomarin. This was an original Roman village with a Roman bridge that was relocated when they built a dam and reservoir. The remains of the Roman bridge were moved stone by stone along with the church onto the hillside above. The result is an old church building surrounded by a very planned but pretty village around it, where we stopped in the square for lunch.


The afternoon started with another long and predominantly uphill road which seemed to go on forever. This wasn’t the most beautiful part of the countryside, and with hot sun beating down onto the tarmac it was fairly hard going – although there were flatter bits to break it up, which I appreciated. However, the ride improved and we started passing more and more walkers along the way as we got closer to Santiago. The day ended in Palas de Rei, with a comfortable hotel room, and a good meal in a courtyard restaurant.

Wednesday 12 October 2011

Camino de Santiago Day Four

This day started with a long 8km climb up into the mountains to O’Cebreiro. This was a surprisingly steep minor road with a constant and persistent gradient requiring one of the lowest gears the whole way. Some of the group opted to walk the actual Camino path instead, so we did get a bit of a rest at the top of the climb. This was definitely the hardest bit of cycling in the trip, but the views at the top were magnificent, and after a bit more up and down (flat according to our guide), we came to another steep decent, this time on a fabulous winding wide road with a great surface, which seemed to go on for miles.


This was Galicia, where the landscape changed into rural farming communities with a lot of subsistence farming. The road went on towards Samos where we lunched, and some people visited the monastery. I enjoyed a simple rest instead after the efforts of the morning, and too much to eat again! We ended the day in Sarria where I was able to settle with a book in a terrace cafe alongside the river for an hour or two before we all met up for another Tapas meal in the town centre. Open air dining really is the thing in this part of Spain, and we seemed to be set up with our table in the middle of the street outside the town council offices and police station, but it was a beautiful setting, and good food and drink to end the day.

Tuesday 11 October 2011

Camino de Santiago Day Three

It was another predominantly road-based start today with a ride around the outskirts of Ponferrada before a short stop in the town itself next to another castle. Then on along smaller roads and tracks to Villafranca, with its great views over green valleys and wooded mountains, and a bustling market in the town square.


The afternoon was surprisingly energetic with a long ride along the old road to Herrerias, twisting and turning below the new A6 dual carriageway as it crossed between the hills above. I found myself pushing hard ahead of most of the group, with John, one of our older group members, for company. One of the reasons for cycling this week was that I was unfit after little exercise for several months following an ankle injury. It was slightly disconcerting to find it hard to keep up with someone over thirty years older than me, but I think John did a lot of cycling, and besides, the exercise was what I needed. The muscles were aching that evening though, as we stayed in a beautiful stone build hotel between the mountains.

Monday 10 October 2011

Camino de Santiago Day Two

Today started with buying picnic food – empanadas (the local version of a pasty, with either meat or tuna), bread, cheese, and of course olive oil and wine! The cycling was notable for a long late morning ascent to the Monte de la Cruz de Ferro – at 1505m, the highest point of our ride. I’d stayed at the back for the first part of the morning, so by the time we started climbing I wasn’t near the head of the group. However this gave me the opportunity to branch off onto the off-road track rather than following the road up the mountain. Slightly more challenging ups and downs, and a good excuse for not being first to the top of the hill!


After a long rest and a prolonged picnic, the way down the other side was long and steep on roads that weren’t great. Still a good journey though, and fun around all the tight twists and bends. Pretty much the whole afternoon was downhill, ending in Molanaseca with a delightful hotel situated next to another pilgrim bridge. We were early enough to enjoy a walk around the village, followed by well earned beers outside in the shade before the sun went down. So many of the villages we passed through or stayed in had narrow streets with very few cars. They were quite delightful and picturesque, although also seeming slightly backward. It did make for a peaceful and bicycle-friendly route.

Sunday 9 October 2011

Camino de Santiago Day One

After an early breakfast we were away on the bikes soon after nine am. Our luggage would be taken by minivan between hotels on the route, so we travel light with, for me, a small rucksack containing water, first aid kit, small toolkit, and a lightweight rain jacket. It was surprisingly cold in the early morning shade of Leon, and our first stop was in the centre with a visit to the Cathedral. This was huge and fairly spectacular, but I did hope that this wasn’t to be the pattern for the whole week. I mean cathedrals are all very well, but I was there for the cycling!


There was quite a long stint alongside the roads on the way out of Leon, but the countryside soon appeared and it turned into a beautiful day of rural cycling along small roads and farm tracks. The group seemed to keep together fairly well, with no major problems with fast cyclists and slow ones. The most spectacular part of the journey was the entry to Orbigo over a long stone bridge of Roman origin, following which we lunched. Most of the restaurants along the way did “Pilgrim” menus which were three course meals with wine/water for a fixed price. It was much needed on this first day after cycling 35km, but I was slightly concerned that I might go home having put on weight should this pattern be repeated each day!


After lunch was a leisurely (thankfully, given my full stomach) ride to Astorga. Along the way was a drinks stop in the middle of nowhere at a building which turned out to be a bit of a commune. I found myself quite challenged by one young English girl there, who had been walking the Camino but had stopped there for three weeks – when I wasn’t particularly interested in seeing round the living quarters in this commune she had a bit of a go at me for not embracing the pilgrimage and seeing “the simple life”. Obviously at her age, she was on a significant personal journey, but she walked off before I could challenge her assumptions... I mean, I’ve done the whole long journey alone thing (climbing Kilimanjaro), and I’ve done the whole living simply thing (in rural Uganda), so it would be entirely appropriate at my age to enjoy a simple cycling holiday without being judged for it! However, the brief conversation did stay with me for several days, so I guess she was successful in making me think about what I was up to!


In Astorga we settled into another hotel before exploring the old town. The main architectural feature was a very Disney-esque palace designed by Gaudi from the 19th Century. If I’m not mistaken, the castles in Disneyland/world/etc were based on this design! Dinner, after evening drinks, was in a local restaurant notable for a delightful young waitress who had the biggest smile I’ve seen outside of Uganda, even if she spoke no English!

Saturday 8 October 2011

Camino de Santiago October 2011

Finding myself with a week of holiday in October, and with the Scottish weather rapidly turning Autumnal, I managed to be book a cycling holiday in Spain at relatively short notice. Cycling the Camino de Santiago from Leon to Santiago sounded worthwhile. The route would be on and off road along the pilgrim’s trail which has been followed for many hundred years. I actually hadn’t heard of it before, but it’s apparently one of the three great European Christian pilgrimages, along with the journey to Rome and the journey to Jerusalem. Some people would tell you that cycling rather than walking is cheating, but hey, I wanted some exercise and a cycling holiday – the fact that it’s along a pilgrim trail isn’t really important to me...

From the trip notes: “The Camino de Santiago de Compostela across northern Spain is one of the world’s oldest pilgrimage routes. For more than 1000 years pilgrims have made their way to Santiago and in 1987 it was declared the first European Culture Route. Also known as ‘The Way of St James’, it originated in the region of Galicia where the tomb of the Apostle James the Great was discovered in the 9th Century. The way is marked by the symbol of the Scallop Shell, typically found on the Galician shores, and the grooves in the shell that join together are said to represent the many different ways pilgrims travelled from to reach the tomb of Saint James....”

Easyjet actually did pretty well at getting me to Northern Spain via Stansted, along with my bag and my bicycle (considering the last Easyjet flight I went on lost my bag for five days on the way to a skiing holiday, this was great news). I even managed to watch most of the rugby world cup match with England losing to France in the quarter final while waiting between flights in Stansted. There turned out to be fifteen cyclists in our group – a good combination of single travellers and couples/friends. Unexpectedly, I appeared to be the youngest in the group – with a number of people in their forties, fifties and even sixties.

Saturday evening was a chance to get to know folks over a drink, and an evening meal of Tapas, in Leon. Bikes had been sorted out, and my bicycle put back together. With no idea of the likely fitness levels or cycling experience of my companions, the first day’s cycling was a little into the unknown, but the weather forecast suggested blue skies, sun and heat which boded well for a good trip.