Robin and I took a weekend trip to Jinja, Uganda. Jinja is kind of like the Seattle of Uganda; lots of outdoor things to do. Jinja is where the Nile River begins (although there is some debate around that.. think small tributaries/etc). Our main event for the weekend was white water rafting on Saturday.
We left Friday morning; it took 7 hours to get there. Jinja is roughly 58 miles away from Nakaseke.
- Boda from Nakaseke to Wobulenzi.
- Taxi bus from Wobulenzi to Kampala. (food stop in Kampala @ Café Javas for salads <3)
- Another taxi bus from Kampala to Jinja.
- Boda from Jinja to the town of Bujagali (downstream along the Nile) to our campsite.
All of these modes of transportation cost us less than $5!
After we arrived at the Nile River Explorers campground, we cleaned ourselves up and had a Nile beer; overlooking the Nile. The white water rafting package we got included a sunset cruise, so we signed up for that on Friday night. The cruise was on a 2 story pontoon boat with food and drinks included. We met some cool people along the way. One of the guys we met was Leo from Brazil. After the cruise ended we went back up to the bar with a few others from the cruise and chatted until it was time for bed.
The next morning we work up early and headed to the “Jinja Base Camp” which was we met the rest of the rafting group. There were about 20-25 of us for the day. At the base camp we had breakfast and chatted with a Dutch woman who grew up in the States but was volunteering for a sustainable living organization in Jinja. Apparently there are several NPOs (non-profit organizations) head quartered there. There were tons of expats everywhere around the city, which I wasn’t expecting.
We bused from there to the start of our rafting trip, traveling for about 30 minutes. Along the way, kids excitedly waved at us, jumping around yelling “Mzungu!!”
We got into our raft at a calm area and our guide, Alex, gave us some pointers. He talked to us about basic rafting protocol and what to do if the raft flipped. We practiced flipping and getting back in. The rapids for the day were quite large at grade 4s and 5s.
When they built the damn right outside of Jinja, they eliminated several rapids. They also eliminated the annual flooding of the Nile banks. This caused a few different things to happen:
- Farmers who were used to utilizing the river flooding for irrigation had to create artificial irrigation. This is expensive for them…
- Allowed for rafting all year long since the river levels are controlled. This means that the rapids will not become too out of control. This is better for tourism…
Rafting was a lot of fun! The rapids were huge; you could hear them from far away before seeing them. We didn’t flip or anything crazy. The only time we fell in (Robin, myself and the woman behind me) was when we went back to try and “surf” on one wave. It was completely unexpected, fun and not scary flipping into the water. We stopped and ate lunch on a little barge then headed back for some more rafting. During the slower parts, we jumped out and floated in the river. It was a really wonderful day.
After rafting we headed to the campsite’s bar and watched soccer and relaxed. I was exhausted from rafting and being in the sun all day so I went to bed early.
Sunday we took a boda into the downtown of Jinja to the central market. I bought a ton of fun fabrics there (for a few dresses and skirts). We walked around as bit and then found the taxi park to head back to Nakaseke.
The ride back was much more enjoyable than the ride there. Our taxi drivers were much faster and made fewer stops. We got back to the guesthouse a little less than 5 hours after we left Jinja (including a stop at our favorite “western” eatery Café Javas in Kampala).
It was a really fun weekend. Jinja is my favorite city so far in Uganda!
Red Rover 