Source of the Nile

Last weekend June and I went down to Jinja, a town famous as the Source of the Nile river. It’s here the world’s longest river starts its three month journey from Lake Victoria heading north through Uganda, South Sudan, Sudan and into Egypt before finding the Mediterranean Sea.

Jinja is about half way back to the capital Kampala so a popular weekend trip for those who want to get out of the city as well as those in the East looking for something different and not too far away.

We stayed at Nile River’s Explorers Camp which was just what we needed after a few weeks in Mbale, a bar, chips and six nations on tv! Friday evening we took a guided boat out on the river and it was great to get up close to some more wildlife! June is my bird guru – over twenty years visiting family in South Africa she can spot the colour of its plume before I’ve even found the right tree! I think we saw about five of a possible eight types of Heron, plus African Fish Eagles, several species of Kingfisher, Egrets and bonus Red-Tailed Monkeys, a rather enjoyable couple of hours while the sun was setting.

Saturday we went Whitewater Rafting – a first for me, and possibly the last. Am glad I’ve done it, but I’m not sure the constant worry of flipping out of the boat is quite worth it for six hours. Thank goodness we only flipped once, and I’m pretty sure that was done on purpose! (You know, for the ‘experience’) It was still a fun day though, and the jumping in and out of the boat was much more at my own pace.

We had a look around Jinja on Sunday before heading home. It seems much more geared towards visitors than Mbale, a lot more relaxed and Sam, it’s definitely up there for our favourite type of shopping!