First trip to Jinja

Source of the Nile

After a lovely slow Saturday, our teammember Matthew took us (Kate, Willem and Hannah) to his hometown Jinja. This is one of the a larger towns in Uganda with lots and lots of tourist activities mainly because it’s located at the source of the river Nile. We tried to leave our guesthouse earlier in the morning, but due to the African pace we didn’t succeed (What did we even expect 🙂 ). We took a taxi filled with about 17 or 18 people, which would normally fit about 12 people… very very cozy!!

Once arrived in Jinja, we visited the source of the Nile. After some bargaining, Matthew and Ahmed were able to reduce our entrance fee to half the amount it was before. Lucky us! The bargaining continued and also our boatride reduced with 100k UGX. With the Flying Dutchman, our captain Pius and tourguide Rich, we left shore to see the source of the longest river in Africa. On our way, we saw a lot of fisherman, many cool birdspecies and even a cobra!!!

The water in the White Nile origins for 30% from its spring and for 70% from Lake Victoria. We reached the point where the spring and Lake Victoria met. It was very impressive to see!!! You could clearly see the difference between where the river starts and the beginning of the peacefull lake. A small hut was built near the spring. We got off to take some pictures. After 20+ pictures with an Indian family (for unknow reasons), we finally got the space to take some pictures of our own.

 

After our boat tour, we made a walk through the upper parts of Jinja, where Matthew used to live. He took us on a trip down memory lane and showed us his old nursery, school and home with lots of funny stories attached to the places. We continued the walk to downtown Jinja where we had lunch and visited the central market. There was a huge discussion between Matthew and Ahmed, because Ahmed’s was of the opnion that Jinja was not a real city. His main reason for this was the fact that Jinja had no elevator and Kampala did have some.

 

 

Matthew had one last stop in mind that he really wanted to show us. We arrived at a bar called ‘Bourbon’, which Matthew pronounces as ‘Bubbles’. It was the coolest bar we had ever ever ever seen!! It was located on the shore of the river Nile with a stunning view on the largest bridge of Uganda. It even had a small beach and a floating part on the Nile where you could sit and enjoy the view. Ofcourse we chose that spot! After a couple of Club-beers, some cokes, a fresh mango juice, a lot of laughs and a beautiful sunset, we decided (with a heavy heart) to head back to Kangulumira. 

On our way back home, we we found ourselves (once again) in an overcrowded taxi-van with broken windows. Numbed by the cold and stiff by the squeezing we safely arrived back at our guesthouse. We went straight to bed after an amazing weekend, ready for a new ZECC-week.

Humasol