Today our friends are taking us to a place called Jinja.Jinja is on Lake Victoria and here you find the source of the Nile. We have a beer at a bar in a lovely spot overlooking the river and enjoy a bit of bird watching.Extreme sports are quite popular here and we can see the place where bungy jumping (or suicide on a rope, as I prefer to call it) takes place.None of our brave boys are volunteering today though.We’ve just moved to another part of the river, right next to some rapids.For about a euro the local boys will jump on a jerrycan and ride them.There’s one on his way right now.I hardly dare to look.Oh, it’s ok, he survived. After a lovely lunch overlooking the Nile we head back to Kampala.We pass tractors laden with sugarcane.The people are all dressed in their Sunday best, very different to the way you see them on other days of the week.
Riding the Nile rapids at Jinja
How mad is this
sugar cane tractor and trailer
15th May
Poor Agy’s suffering.His foot has been playing him up for the last few days so we’re taking it easy. Having seen the doctor, it looks as though he has an inflammation, very painful but fortunately amputation won’t be necessary. A problem of daily life here in Uganda is the electricity situation.All power stations rely on water, mainly from Lake Victoria.As rainfall has been virtually nil for the last couple of years the level of this vast Lake (63,000 km2) has diminished by around 30 cms.So Ugandans receive electricity on a 1-day on, 1-day off basis.It plays havoc with their daily lives.
16th May
Are you ready for the next adventure? Well let’s go fishing!As I said yesterday, Lake Victoria forms an essential part of daily life for East Africans.It is also stocked almost exclusively (80%) with giant Nile perch, introduced here in the 1950s.So we want a taste of the action.Tony is taking us out on his boat from Entebbe, about a 45‑minute drive away.At Entebbe we pass the famous airport where planes were hijacked in the 1970s during the raid on Entebbe. Now we’re on this beautiful fishing boat.It’s pretty powerful (2 x 200hp engines) so we are soon on our way.
But Tony isn’t happy with the sound of the engines.We stop the boat and he opens the engine electrical compartment.There’s a loud thrashing noise and we all spring back as this enormous metre-long water monitor scurries to another part of the boat.These things are pretty vicious so he’s not going to try to catch it.Hastily closing the lid he restarts the engines and we head for one of the many islands where the fish prefer to feed.By this time the water’s quite rough and the rain is lashing.Memories of Lamu come “flooding” back.We start drifting towards the shore and the water’s getting pretty shallow.At this moment the engines stall.Oh mummy we’re going to be shipwrecked.Never fear, our intrepid hero Tony is on hand to risk life and limb and throw himself onto the rocks (ok I’m getting a bit carried away now) to save us.In fact he jumps out and pushes us clear.Climbing back in he opens up the monitor-infested hatch, tinkers around with the wiring and one of the engines coughs into life.We’re clear now but the engine falters a couple more times before we start to feel safe.That monitor has a lot to answer for.I’m thinking we will have to go home but these two just set up their rods and proceed to fish – how cool is that?Even cooler, they catch Percy the perch, our dinner.
The original Boeing 707 from the raid on Entebbe
Raid on Entebbe old passenger terminal
Tony's boat,Lake Victoria
Nile perch for dinner
crossing the Equator,Lake Victoria
We’re heading home now, the weather is much improved.Here we are as we hit the equator. The second engine has just been resurrected so we fly home, tired but very happy.
17th May
After yesterday’s excitement we’ve slowed down the pace and are doing a bit of shopping in Kampala.Beforehand we enjoy a delicious smoked fish salad at “Crocodile” restaurant in preparation for the expedition.For a capital city Kampala is quite small but very pleasant, much less frantic than Nairobi.A lot of building work is taking place at the moment for a major Commonwealth-State meeting, due to take place in the next year or two.We stop for refreshment at the local Irish Pub, “Bubbles O’Leary’s” on the way home - well it has to be done.Percy, yesterday’s catch, prepared by Tony and Gunna’s cook Jane, easily the best cook in Uganda, is a veritable feast.
18th May It’s time to start making our way back towards Kenya and we’ve decided to stopover at the Nile Porch (www.nileporch.com), Jinja, where we came to last Sunday.Right now we’re sitting overlooking at the river watching the birds and fishermen.It’s such a great spot that it merits an extra night.Just enjoyed an enormous rack of spare ribs washed down with Nile Special beer.Delicious but we’re so full all we can do is crawl back to the tent to sleep it off
Source of the Nile at Jinja,Uganda
A view from the Nile Porch,Uganda
morning mist on the Nile river,Uganda
19th May
I’m sitting on the balcony watching the morning mist rise like a curtain to reveal a great masterpiece.It’s so tranquil.All you can hear is the rushing of the river and birdsong.We’re just going to spend the day reading, taking photos and yes, you’ve guessed, bird watching (or were you going to say drinking beer?).
20th May Brace yourselves we’re leaving paradise to fight our way back over the border into Kenya.We’ve just given the clearing agent a call and he meets us there.All’s fine at the Ugandan side and passports are stamped.But apparently customs say they need 1000 -/- (about 10 euros) for working overtime on Saturdays.“Funny” I say “they didn’t need it last Saturday”.“Oh it’s ok then, you don’t have to pay”.Now, isn’t that strange.Anyway, we’re through and back in Kenya.
We’re going to Kakamega forest, a relic of the Equatorial rainforest that used to stretch from the East to West African coasts.We’ve decided to take a shortcut along a very bumpy but pretty road.Now we’re on an even bumpier stretch leading into the forest itself.We arrive at a little oasis called Rondo retreat but unfortunately there is no room and we are directed to some bandas and a guesthouse nearby.After more lurching and braking we get to a very basic but clean guesthouse.As we just can’t face riding around for much longer we decide to stay.It’s a local community-based project and the guesthouse government owned.Our hostess, Eunice, offers us a wildlife walk.So off we trot.Agy’s foot is much better and he’s braving it too. Eunice explains the healing properties of many of the trees and points to 3 of the 7 varieties of monkey residing in the forest.The first (red-tailed) we have never seen before, the second is blue or Sykes and third colubus, a black and white species.She takes us to a tea plantation on the outskirts, which was planted by the government in the 1970s as a barrier against encroachment by the ever-increasing population.The walk is very interesting, unfortunately no birds for which the forest is famous, but you can’t have everything.
Colubus monkey,Kakamega Forest,Kenya
Tea plantation Kakamega forest
Breakfast with Eunice,Kakamega forest
crossing the equator again
Now, dinner.There’s nothing doing at the guesthouse so Eunice has organised this for us.She takes us to someone’s home next to the tea bushes.We’re guided into this room, which I can only describe as being like your granny’s sitting room.A lady walks in with a paraffin lamp and our meal of chapattis, sukuma wiki (spinach-like vegetable) and scrambled eggs.A few minutes later the hen who laid them walks in to see how we like the eggs.Believe it or not, it’s quite delicious.It’s 7.30 and time for bed.We will be up early in the morning to go for a hill walk to watch the sunrise.
21st May It’s 6.00 am, we’ve just picked up Eunice and are driving through the forest to the hill but the road is so muddy that we’re quite afraid of getting stuck.Reluctantly we decide to abandon the trip and return to base to plan our next move.After another cosy breakfast of mandazi (like donuts), boiled eggs and tea from the plantation, we take to the road again for Nakuru in the rift valley. The journey takes us via Eldoret and the Londiani forest.It’s such a beautiful ride, like being in Switzerland in the summer.Once more we cross the equator and are back in the southern hemisphere.
We’re now at the Waterbuck Hotel in Nakuru.Just settling down for a siesta when the phone rings.It’s the porter apologising because he has apparently given us a “very bad room”.To be honest, compared with last night, anything’s a luxury.Let’s face it, there’s even electricity here so it has to be a bonus.But we dutifully follow him up the corridor to the new room and it is rather posh.
