Davids checks out a gorilla art carving in Kisoro on return from Bwindi National Park on Wednesday. PHOTO BY ISMAIL KEZAALA
In Summary
Comment. Davids and the other former Barcelona players’ visit to Uganda managed to come to light thanks to the $600,000 government expended through the auspices of UTB.
KAMPALA. Your columnist typed this dispatch with a little flicker of discomfort after a punishing four-hour trek in Bwindi impenetrable forest.
Thankfully, I didn’t have to write this column in a melancholy key if anything because the experience in the forest was somewhere between being joyous and bittersweet.
The treasure trove in the forest are mountain gorillas. Something of a dying breed, there are just eight-hundred or so mountain gorillas left in the world with Bwindi contributing half that number. I was in tow with Uganda Wildlife Authority rangers and a contingent of former Barcelona players.
The former Barcelona players trekked with such a fierce acceleration, showing — if there was any doubt — that they haven’t forfeited the fitness that saw them distinguish themselves in various football cathedrals during their heyday. As we made climbs that were unforgiving to the hamstrings and knee-savaging descents, I had a strong burst of remembrance of Edgar Davids’ tireless box-to-box forays.
After successfully tracking three silverbacks, Davids wanted more. The park ranger had earlier offhandedly mentioned that elephants delicately ply the same route we were taking. He even showed us the excreta of a baby elephant. It was a gargantuan pile! Davids now wanted to exhaust the possibility of tracking the elephants. Not today, the guide smiled. Davids and the other former Barcelona players’ visit to Uganda managed to come to light thanks to the $600,000(about Shs1.9b) government expended through the auspices of Uganda Tourism Board (UTB). This was the Ugandan government taking baby steps in the billion dollar industry of sports tourism.
Uganda is rather late to the bandwagon. Many countries the world over are big on sports tourism. Sporting events and geological features that chisel earth soil as much as the athletes are positioned to act as a magnet for tourists. For instance, tourists visit en masse the high altitude training facilities dotting the Kenyan Rift Valley that have birthed countless distance running sensations.
The Kenyan Rift Valley teems with alkaline lakes, volcanoes and birdlife. By fusing sports and tourism, the Kenyan government has showed that two birds can, pun intended, be killed with a single stone. The annual Lewa Safari marathon that extracts an interconnection between sports tourism and community conservation has over the years been a big draw for tourists to Kenya.
So, better late than never for Uganda then. When Davids, who has a decent following on social media networks, takes a photo of the Virunga volcanoes or a silverback and mentions Uganda, as indeed he did, he is unwittingly playing an ambassadorial role. That is sports and tourism interconnecting.
When Stephen Kiprotich wins Olympic gold in the marathon and the TV commentator tells billions of viewers that the unassuming Ugandan trains in Teryet, Kapchorwa (never mind that the high altitude training centre there is still some way off being functional), he is marketing Uganda. That, again, is sports and tourism interconnecting.
robertmadoi@gmail.com, @robertmadoi
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