An Eye and a Lens - In the Smoke-House - Barhir Dar

Just behind the bus stand is a non-labelled blue house with people hanging out on the front porch. Go into the trashy back yard and find yourself in a Sheesh House.

 

Skybus - from Addis to Bahir Dar

Sky Bus are meant to be the creme de la crème of bus transport around Ethiopia. Ethiopia is big, and those with money and not much time would be better spent getting internal flights if you really want to see all that Ethiopia has to offer.

There are six Sky Buses six days a week from Addis to Bahir Dar . Government buses take up to a day an half to make the journey, but with a 6am departure from Addis we make the journey in 10 hours. Minibuses can make the journey pending a) crashes b) flat tyres and other mechanical failures, in considerably less time.

The journey goes through some startling beautiful scenery with rich agricultural fields, superb valleys and dramatic canyons. The road is fully sealed but does have to negotiate some sharp bends – no surprises to know that minibus crashes are rife and invariably high mortality of the passengers. The safety record of Sky Bus is one of the best in the country in a country where driving is erratic at best – indeed similar to two of its southerly neighbours Kenya and Uganda.

The current fare is Birr303 including tax.

Photographs Up At Last

Times have been rather tricky with the bank cutting me off from my money supply. Frantic phonecalls shared between Addis and Hong Kong, and devious plots to boot. Hoping business will be restored to usual in the next couple of days coz i am down to emergency cash only.

Having also suffered toothache after a well sugared machiato for the first time in some 10+ years - i fear i have lost a filling but there was no evidence of such apart from the occassional searing pain. I am even more scared of an Ethiopian dentist.

What with frudtrating Net connection to boot, it feels the Travel Gods are conspiring against me at the moment.

However, we can celebrate on ALITD with the additions to some photographs of my Ethiopian leg. Hurrah we should all cry - i certainly do. Too much text and not enough photographs mskes ALTID a dull blog indeed.

I have no idea what ALITD looks like as i can't access it.

Rasta Mzungu

Having lost three baseball caps in the first four months, i occasionally wear a bandana. Bought for me by Lij Fire, it is black with red, yellow and green banner miniature marijuana leaves and “Love and Peace” in large upper-case letters. I rarely wear it, but even when i don’t, i have been called Rasta Mzungu” from Tanzania to Uganda.

I promised both Lij Fire and Charity i would get my hair (or what i have left of it) dreaded in Shashemane. They both attempt to convince me i am a Rasta. Vietnamese Buddhist monk and Genuine Friend from The Ganj tells me i am a Buddhist. Ma and Pa tell me i am Jewish, whether i accept Judaism. I dismiss and accept all three

I have been a short, back and sides person since i had my hair braided in Thailand in 1991. My infamous Boss – “lovingly” named Whatacuntski by many of the teachers that had the misfortune to work under him - was completely furious and formerly threatened me with a letter of dismissal for my “unprofessionalism”. Ironically, i had more professionalism in my left wrist. It was a shame to lose them because the kids completely loved it (many of which returned from a three day vacation to Thailand also braided) and some of the parents did too! My hair has always been messy when long – in terms of aesthetics, it was clearly a huge improvement.

Just over one year ago i left my spiritual home of McLeod Ganj. After a memorable all-night session with Ying celebrating the Winter Equinox,i fell asleep in the Barber’s chair and woke up to find my hair entirely shaved off. Horror of horrors for sure – something of a holocaust survivor about it.

I did get it cut one more time subsequently, just before departing for Haiti in March this year, but i have let it grow long again – to the point of being a dead-ringer for Krusty the Clown or The Mad Professor.

My Shashemane “guide” takes me to Mimi, a local Muslim girl. She is a local stylist. I wanted beads, but no-one can get hold of them and spends some fifty minutes tying and knotting it, somewhat painfully and not entirely unstimulating. I find myself closing my eyes and lying on top of her leg. I apologise profusely – i don’t know how Muslim Mimi is, but she just laughs and says “no problem”. She then invites me to take her to Addis tomorrow for she has never been. I politely refuse and pay her Birr60 for her efforts.

Mimi in action

Shashemane

 

Spare a thought and perhaps even a donation to my Rasta Malawi Bro – Lij Fire, who was recently arrested and jailed for procession of his meditational herb. Whilst i am pleased to report he has now been released, he is penniless. Lij Fire is truly a Servant to humanity.

Lij Fire gave me a full itinerary for my Ethiopia (read Zion) visit. Shashemane was a must, doesn’t make it on the typical travellist circuit, and is home to an international Rasta community. The land (5,000 hectares) was donated to Rastafarians by Haile Selassie after World War 2, and i meet some of the 12 Tribes including Jamaican and other Caribbean islanders, English (both from Birmingham) and even French! They rub shoulders in peace with both Ethiopian Muslim and Christian communities.

Bob Marley visited Ethiopia and requested his body be buried in here in Shashemane, Indeed in 2005 Rita, Bob’s widow tried to get the Jamaican government to arrange this, but was refused. Too much of a cash cow for Jamaica maybe?

I imagined the central streets of Shashemane filled with Reggae bars blasting out Marley tunes, but the central part of town bears no immediate witness to this. The central part of town is a bit of a dump to be honest.

The international Rasta community are centred around neighbouring Melka Uda. As i head towards the suburb, i am inundated with “guides”. It’s a good idea for i would have found very little on my own. The difficulty is trying to just take one – they all try to “jump on the bandwagon.”.

 

the true Nazarite Way - a guilt-free download!

 

an international Ethiopean community

There are a lot of “Rasta cowboys” trying to sell you tourist price “medicine”. I fill an ounce “Ziploc style” bag of high quality fresh buds for my Christmas present to myself for Birr50. Compressed marijuana and hashish are also readily available, but unfortunately i couldn’t get any free samples.

I am taken first to the Rasta temple which lack much aesthetics. And i am guided round by the Rasta “caretaker” into the back room where tribal meetings take place. This is also a small “museum” including photographs and magazine and newspaper articles. It’s vaguely interesting and then asked to make a “donation”. I was thinking of Birr10 – it’s not much more than a room after all, but up it to Birr20 – the same i paid with my student card to visit the National Museum in Addis. The “caretaker” is scathing – “that’s not even one pound in your country!” and is even unhappier when i report that i am not in England at the moment. It’s the end of the smiling face of Rastafarianism.

 

outside the Rasta temple

Pasta – my guide then introduces me to Ras Hailu Tefari who developed both Banana Art and Rastafarian Museum. Originally from St Vincent, Ras Hailu Tefari studied Art in Harrow, before heading to Zion in 1994. He produces incredible collages using banana trees as his medium. The colours are incredible and his customers include Ronald Reagan and the current president of Zambia. He gives no hard sell at all, but i can’t resist a greetings card for Birr10. He has also collected some of Haile Sellasie’s medals and other memorabilia. He charges a Birr15 entry fee.

I skip out a visit to the Black Lion Museum and we head up to Zion Train Lodge for coffee, but also offering bungalows, family huts and rooms. Run by French Rasta Alex, they offer organic predominantly vegetarian food and have small stables behind where you can rent horses. It looks peaceful and quiet but not cheap.

The surrounding fields and countryside are extremely picturesque, but is this the Chosen Land? After all, this is the land of huge Biblical importance given to Rastafarians by Jah himself.

 

 

outside of the town the scenery is beautiful

Despite the high-grade “medicinal herbs”, long term residents, whist not unhappy, don’t look or sound like have found Nirvana here. With plenty of local cowboys “bigging up” Jah with easy Rasta platitudes in American accents it can’t help either. I’m part of the problem – a camera touting blogger. Many have overstayed their visa (there is no religious exemption on this issue as yet), and many seem “stuck here”. Security walls built plusher homes are laced with broken glass and i’m warned repeatedly to conceal my camera.

Some 12kms from Seshamane lies Wando Genet. A bus takes you close from the bus station for Birr6 and if you can find a bajaj waiting, it will take you to the hot springs for Birr8. The hot springs are based inside the Sellasie designed Shebelle Hotel. It costs Birr12 entrance and a further Birr20 to use the facilities. Massages and lockers are available.

 

once the home of Haile Selasse

 

the hot springs burst forth

 

the source of the hot springs

I base myself at the Dome Hotel with a clean ensuite bathroom for Birr80. It’s next to the bus station and does good local food. The South Rift Valley Hotel is three times as expensive, but more more “executive” - they have a lovely cool cafe set in a green garden.

Electricity is erratic.

Further afield from the town is Langano Lake which has one of the safest swimming opportunities in Ethiopia and Awasa – a university town with a large fish market.

The Road to Shashemane

Bus journeys in Ethiopia are notoriously crap. Nonetheless my experiences in Mozambique were quality practise and although internal flights are cheapish, i’m doing this the hard way. P. forewarned me about windows. Despite often oppressive heat, opening windows is a big no-no. It is believed at best the wind brings sickness, and, at worse, lets in evil spirits. For a wind lover this kinda sucks

I’m told the journey from Addis to Shashemane is not long, so opt for a safer but slower bus rather than a mini-bus option, leaving from the Southern bus stand. There are four buses a day and arriving at the bus station at 8.15am i get a ticket for one which finally departs when full at 9.30. The ticket costs Birr58. I am told it should take between three to five hours. I am assisted by my Addis fixer – the honest but incredibly poor student, Derbo, who quickly gets me to the front of the right queue and the “Death Chair” at the front next to driver.

It is slow to get through the Addis suburbs with its heavy traffic congestion, but after an hour we clear the city. Whilst the road is completely sealed, it only takes an hour and a half to experience my first of what is likely to be many punctures. The scenery into the Rift valley is quite beautiful, but slow going, with invasions of donkeys, cows. Oxen and even camels at one point. This might be south of Addis but shows me i am really in North Africa!

There is also an unidentifiable road kills to swerve past, as well as dogs and goats.

We stop for almost 40 minutes on a “15 minute” lunch break at 1.30pm and don’t arrive into Shashemene until 3.30pm – six hours and averaging 40kph. For around Birr80 i’ll take a faster but more pricey minibus to return to Addis.

A Town Called Addis

Addis Ababa - Amharic for "New Flower" - was described by a foreigner in the 19th Century a “noisy, dusty, sprawling and shambolic”. Clearly nothing has changed more than 100 years later.

With a population in excess of four million people it is Africa’s fourth largest city.

Walking the streets of the city centre on my first morning, it is surprisingly modern with high-rise buildings and plenty of affluent-looking people strolling around. However, interspersed with this are corrugated shanty areas and even tented communities reminding me of Port au Prince. Beggars (both Christian and Muslim) openly beg on the streets or along the minibus stops amongst the bustle of pedestrians. An old guy openly squats on a main thoroughfare in the city centre urinating on the sidewalk and nobody bats an eyelid. There is also something of Delhi and Mumbai here; the disparity of wealth is vicious.

shiny buildings amongst the squalor

Local family homes are being demolished all over the city in Ethiopia’s 10 Year Development Plan for Addis – a modern 21st century city. Clearly still a long way to go, as those evicted from their family homes are offered no recompense, thus forming the tented community.

mass demolition as part as the 10 Year Plan

My first stop has to be the huge ornate Holy Trinity cathedral – Ethiopia’s second-most important place of worship. It is the resting place of Haile Selasse in a lavish Aksumite-style granite tomb next to his wife complete with lion’s feet. Tourist entrance fee is Birr 30 including a guided tour by a priest and guide. My guide is very keen to point out the grave of English suffragette Sylvia Pankhurt who died in Addis in 1960. It is found just off Niger Street.




the priest/gate-keeper will pose for a photo - even if he is pretty pissed at my offer of Birr10

The Derg monument is a classic Communist monolith with typical Soviet style sculptures and wall murals. Entrance is Birr 5 and a further Birr 10 to use The Beast. It is located on Churchill Avenue, opposite the Main Post Office.


The National Museum is interesting and informative. There is a collection of fossils, the highlight being “Lucy” – a 3.2 million year old hominid. She is the first example of a human form walking on two legs, discovered in 1974 in the north east of country. There are also costumes and crowns of the Ethiopian royal family, including the lavish throne of Haile Selasse. On the top floor there is an exhibition of some excellent black and white photographs of Christian ceremonies.
Haille Selassie's throne

The Ethnological museum is on the campus of the beautiful Addis Ababa University – the site of Haile Selasse’s palace. You can check out his and the Empress’ bedroom as well as acquaint yourself with the myriad tribes and distinct cultures in Ethiopia. Photography is strictly prohibited.
Haille Selassie's Palace - now part of the University of Addis and the Ethnological Museum

Places To Stay:

Originally i install myself into the Lido Hotel on Sudan Street. It is spotlessly clean and comfortable with attached bathroom, but at Birr 345 (including tax) beyond my budget. I know Gloves will like it. However to pinch pennies i relocate to to the friendlier Wutma Hotel on Mundy street where a clean room with attached bathroom is Birr 160.

Undoubtedly my personal favourite however is Hotel Itegue Ituate. Built in 1897 by the Empress of the same name, it is the oldest hotel in Ethiopia. Rooms start from Birr 138.

Places To Eat:

For some real quality local fare, check out the Habesha restaurant on Bola (African) Road.. Mains start from around Birr 45. Local musicians and dancers perform nightly from 8pm. Open log fires keep customers warm on cold evenings and avoids being called up to dance. “Moves” were divided into three
1) double jointed shoulder shrugs
2) lots of food stomping – think of slow motion Irish Stomp?
3) Thrusting groins (and accompanying breast shaking by the nubile female dancers)

i have the good fortune to hook up with Betina, a German born, internationally educated journalist based in Hong Kong. She provides quality company and possesses an up-to-date travel guide. They first forget our drinks order and then forget our food order. Our tibbs (stewed lamb, cooked in a lush onion, pepper and tomato) is quality. I subsequently dine here with Gloves and the food is equally impressive.

I take Derbo (friend and fixer in Addis) to the Sheraton Hotel. Owned by an Ethiopian, the opulence is staggering – no wonder rooms begin from US500 per night. If this doesn’t sound too expensive for you, it is possible to upgrade to the villa for a staggering US$12,000 per night.

the foyer in the Sheraton

A pastry from the shop will cost about Birr40 and you can then take it into the coffee-shop to hang out. It is possible to use the swimming pool for Birr200.

On my last day in Addis Gloves treats me to a sumptuous buffet at the Summerfield restaurant – a worthwhile Birr 444.

The KG Corner next to Taitu Hotel probably has the best burgers in town.

Ristorante Castelli’s on Mahatma Gandi Street is an Addis institution. Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Bill Clinton and Bob Geldof have all dined here in what has been termed as the best Italian restaurant outside Italy. It is indeed quality, most especially the homemade pasta in truffle sauce, although the old fat Italian owner is a grumpy rude bastard.

The Good Times Cafe has reasonable food and regularly shows Premiership football.

The Yeshi Buna Cafe just up the road from Taitu is open 24/7. A little expensive, it does serve some cracking dishes and the strawberry machiatos at Birr10 are quality.

The Lime Tree cafe and restaurant is next to the Addis Ababa University. It does decent Ethiopian food with a few international dishes. The fruit juices are good and the desserts are highly recommended. The menu looks cheap, but they charge additional taxes. You can’t miss it as half of the place is a London double-decker bus.

Getting Around:

Local shared taxis (blue and white Hiace minibuses) ply the main thoroughfares of Addis with prices ranging from Birr1 – 3. The small Lada taxis need patience if you are to negotiate a fair price.

St George's Cathedral - proves very difficult to enter for free - i fail three times!


the massive Orthodox cathedral in Bole

An Eye and a Lens - Stained Glass Windows - Holy Trinity Cathedral

Holy Trinity Cathedral is Ethiopia's 2nd holiest religious site, it also marks the burial site of Haile Selassie. This ornate cathedral in Addis is beautiful and the stained glass windows are fantastic. Check out the Amharic script underneath.

Net Connection in Ethiopia

It sucks - and i can't even upload a single image.

Normal service will resume whenever.

For those celebrating during the "festive season" - Enjoy!

I'm back in Addis for the next couple of days wrestling with ATM machines before journey onwards.

Singing the Praises of Ejibayehu “Gigi” Shibaraw

Not so many moons ago i wrote about the miracle that is MP3 players. Sniffy contributed several quality albums including the insanely beautiful voice of Ejibayehu “Gigi” Shibaraw, an amazing Ethiopian vocalist. Lij Fire, my recently arrested Malawian Rasta bro and my South African travelling companions on my voyage through the Quirimbes Archipelago fell in love with her. If you haven’t explored her talents, check out her vocals on Abyssinia Infinite’s Zion Roots.

Rumours abound that she'll be performing in Ethiopia for the first time in a decade next month. If it's true, i'm there.

Sheffield Paul

On my very first visit to Watma Hotel in the centre of Addis, the owner’s son introduces me to Paul. Paul is from the city of Sheffield – famed for its traditional industrial roots as a steel producer in the heart of England. He is in his late twenties and somewhat fat.

Two months ago he sold his house in the city, decided to splash the cash and paid a visit to his travel agent. He walked away with a return ticket to Ethiopia and quickly fallen in love with the place and its’ people..

He has explored a few parts of the country, come back to Addis, found himself a woman and just moved into her apartment. He called his father, told him of his new living arrangements and is at the point of being disowned and disinherited. He sits around at Watma’s drinking and eating and not sure what he is going to do.

Please send some quality advise i can offer in the comment’s box below.

Let’s Do The Time-Warp

Ethiopia boasts a pretty unique time.

The day begins at dawn begins at six on my quality casio pro-trek. This in Ethiopian is 12am. It’s a bit tricky - always check if the time on the bus ticket is local or farangi time.

As i write this posting – my watch also states the date is 21st December – locally it is December 12th – some nine days’ difference.

Christmas will be celebrated on January 6th/7th and both myself and Dr. Gloves will be celebrating Epiphany on the 19th – hopefully somewhere which isn’t Addis, and most hopefully in Lalibela (11 stone churches) or Aksum (rich ancient civilization with the most venerated church in the country.

If that doesn’t seem wild enough for you, here in Ethiopia it’s only 2003. Fortunately my birthday next month now makes me a boy in his thirties. Wild indeed!

Ciao to My Student Card

Whilst i could never recommend a Masters in International Schools through Oxford Brookes University, one colossus perk was having a student card. I have made modest if numerous savings on three continents, but officially expired 20th December. Both Ma and Ying have forbidden me to begin a doctorate – and both must be obeyed.

On its last day of validity i get 50% off both the National and Ethnological museums. It has certainly served me well.

Ethiopia

For those of my generation, Ethiopia is synonymous with the horrendous famines during the 1980s, prompting Bob Geldof to beginning what was later to become a more global trend of rock stars promoting global cause, e.g. Sting and Bono. Of course the reputed smelly front man of The Boomtown Rats was not the first “celebrity” to show a social conscious – ex-Beatle George Harrison gave concerts to assist mass flooding in Bangladesh several years earlier.

Yes, poverty is still on the cards in Ethiopia, as indeed fighting with their much-hated Eritrean neighbours, but it offers so much more too. Christian churches built into the rock more than thousand years ago are still actively used for worship today are dotted around Lalibela. Ancient tombs and obelisks, 17th century castles and even burnt out Soviet tanks can also be found scattered in huge swathes of wilderness.

Travel is arduous and uncomfortable on local buses and unsealed roads, and i am sure i am going to be experiencing not dissimilar journeys to the ones endured in Mozambique, Nonetheless, there are some chilled out spots scattered around, coffee is worshipped and it’s as cheap as chips.

The illustrious Dr. Gloves will be joining me for a few weeks in January and with his keen sociological interests is keen to get to the tribal parts in the more remote areas of the south.

Boltie and Kim were hoping to also join me through the country, but have been side-tracked by work in Sierra Leone. However a recent email from Brother Josef from my Namibian/Zambian leg of my African travels is keen to hook up again., be it Egypt, Sudan or Ethiopia.

All in all i’m sure we are in for an interesting six weeks.

Ciao Uganda

Uganda has been a great place to travel through, not least because it offers cheap options throughout. It also has a variety of outdoor activities to keep the passing travellist satiated. The natural beauty of the country is immense, and with over 1,000 bird species, it is very much an ornithologist’s paradise.

It is green and fertile, and should be self-sufficient. However it has been somewhat reliant on outside aid – indeed almost half of its GNP comes from foreign aid. Really shocking considering the richness that the country has to offer. As Maurice noted, my friend from Fort Portal, he has spent 16 years trying to get the money reduced, but to no avail. They are crippled by love.

The population explosion is enormous, not least witnessed first-hand in Kampala, not least with the strength of Catholicism. The lack of smokers hasn’t helped matters. Fortunately the death-toll on the roads is doing its best to keep the situation under control.

The people have been polite, helpful and friendly without being over-bearing. Again, like Rwanda, shoes are seen as a major status symbol.

Since the far north of Mozambique to this point, i have been regularly assaulted with the ubiquitous “Mzungu” – a label for all “whites”. It has been explained to me on several occasions that it is not an offensive term. It can refer to skin colour, but also as a mode of travelling – zigzagging around. Nonetheless at best it has been a constant irritation and at worst i have loathed it. I don’t shout out in London “oi – Black person!” to every Afro-Caribbean person i meet, although Sue who has been in Uganda for 20 years tells me she responds to the Mzungu call with “Yes, African?” In Jinja t-shirts are available with the words “Mzungu is not my name” – a little too late for me. Fortunately “mzungu” is never heard in Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt - i morph into a faranji - a foreigner.

My next posting will be from the bowels of Ethiopia. You might have a bit of a wait.

Onwards and Eastwards - Jinja and Surround

the source of the Nile - fed by an underwater spring just behind the island on the left

Shit happens on the road. I am disappointed about flight hopping, but it’s time to move on and get on with it.

My flight for Addis departs Uganda on December 18th and i have been faced with a travel dilemma, for hanging in Kampala is not an attractive option for me.

In the north of Uganda lies Murchison Falls where lies a National Park with the cheapest chimpanzee tracking. Unfortunately it is difficult to get there independently, although Red Chilli Hideaway run safaris there. To the east of Kampala lies Jinja – labelled the “adventure playground of Africa” - with bungee jumping, white-water rafting, kayaking, horse-riding and quad-biking all on offer. Unfortunately such fun comes with a price and i am busy trying to mend the hole in my pocket from my flight purchasing.

It’s a shame because the white-water rafting comes highly recommended. A series of Grade Five rapids offers some of the most challenging and adrenalin-filled experiences on the planet. A 250MW hydro-electric dam is scheduled to begin work on February 15th 2011 to reduce these to just four rapids. Both operations that run these rapids (New Zealand run operators Nile River and Ugandan owned Adrift) offer almost identical programmes at an identical US$125 for a day trip and a barbeque. I hear of high recommendations for both. Nile River offer reruns for US$65 and a 2 day trip incorporating 17 major Grade 5 rapids for US$199.

Grade 5 rapids are on offer close to the source of the Nile

I come for a completely different reason. Just outside the town centre lies the source of the Nile river as i reacquaint myself with Lake Victoria.

Despite the failed attempts of the Greeks and Romans to penetrate the Sudd wetlands in southern Sudan, the upper reaches of the Nile remained largely unknown. Various expeditions failed to determine the river's source, thus yielding classical Hellenistic and Roman representations of the river as a male god with his face and head obscured in drapery. Agatharcides records that in the time of Ptolemy II Philadelphus, a military expedition had penetrated far enough along the course of the Blue Nile to determine that the summer floods were caused by heavy seasonal rainstorms in the Ethiopian Highlands, but no European of antiquity is known to have reached Lake Tana.

Europeans began to learn about the origins of the Nile in the 15th and 16th centuries, when travelers to Ethiopia visited Lake Tana and the source of the Blue Nile in the mountains south of the lake. Although James Bruce claimed to be the first European to have visited the headwaters, modern writers give the credit to the Jesuit Pedro Páez. Páez’ account of the source of the Nile is a long and vivid account of Ethiopia. It was published in full only in the early 20th century, although it was featured in works of Páez’ contemporaries, including Baltazar Téllez, Athanasius Kircher and by Johann Michael Vansleb.

Europeans had been resident in Ethiopia since the late 15th century, and one of them may have visited the headwaters even earlier without leaving a written trace. John Bermudez published the first description of the Tis Issat Falls in his 1565 memoirs, compared them to the Nile Falls alluded to in Cicero's De Republica. Jerónimo Lobo describes the source of the Blue Nile, visiting shortly after Pedro Páez. Telles also used his account.

The White Nile was even less understood. The ancients mistakenly believed that the Niger River represented the upper reaches of the White Nile. For example, Pliny the Elder wrote that the Nile had its origins "in a mountain of lower Mauretania", flowed above ground for "many days" distance, then went underground, reappeared as a large lake in the territories of the Masaesyli, then sank again below the desert to flow underground "for a distance of 20 days' journey till it reaches the nearest Ethiopians." A merchant named Diogenes reported that the Nile's water attracted game such as water buffalo.

Lake Victoria was first sighted by Europeans in 1858 when the British explorer John Hanning Speke reached its southern shore while traveling with Richard Francis Burton to explore central Africa and locate the great lakes. Believing he had found the source of the Nile on seeing this "vast expanse of open water" for the first time, Speke named the lake after the then Queen of Britain. Burton, recovering from illness and resting further south on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, was outraged that Speke claimed to have proved his discovery to be the true source of the Nile when Burton regarded this as still unsettled. A very public quarrel ensued, which sparked a great deal of intense debate within the scientific community and interest by other explorers keen to either confirm or refute Speke's discovery. British explorer and missionary David Livingstone pushed too far west and entered the Congo River system instead. It was ultimately Welsh-American explorer Henry Morton Stanley who confirmed Speke's discovery, circumnavigating Lake Victoria and reporting the great outflow at Ripon Falls on the Lake's northern shore.

Even this activity doesn’t come cheap, USh 10,000 is charged to enter the park. The source spot itself is somewhat disappointing, simply because it is fed by an underwater spring, just behind a small island. Boat trips to the source point and a nearby bat cave can be negotiated.

how could Dr Livingstone miss this somewhat glitzy signboard?

The park is sponsored by Bell beer and is thus decked out in their sponsorship colours of glitzy red and yellow. There is a statue of one of my all-time heroes ever – Mahatma Ghandi, for some his ashes were placed in the water here in 1948.

Ghandi - one of the first to ride the rapids of the Nile

The river stretches north for some 4000kms until it exits into the Mediterranean and each particle takes between 3 – 4 months to complete the journey.

I will meet the Nile again in Khartoum at the confluence of the Blue and White Niles and it will be with me ever present companion through the rest of my African Adventures.

Based at Explorer’s Backpackers they offer free shuttles to and from Kampala, with pick-ups outside Red Chilli Hideaway and Nakumatt Oasis. They charge US$5 for a dorm bed and have a reasonably priced menu. They clearly make their money from the rafting. It’s clean and well-maintained and has hot water in the bathrooms. They also offer free wi-fi which for some mysterious reason i am unable to log-on to. They offer mountain bikes, but at US$25 per day is seriously over-priced.

As my Scottish cousin Robin will testify during a stint in Australia, the adrenalin rush from white-water rafting prompts raging hormones, interestingly more often in women. The "cool" Ugandans (many boast American accents) operating from the backpackers are most willing targets, and make the most of the plentiful opportunities that arise. Beds creak, subdued moans break the night silence, and women trip over each other returning to their own bunks at 2am having "gone Native" for a few hours. No wonder the staff here go around with grins larger than the Nile itself.

They have a second back-packers at Bujagali Falls which is some 9kms further out. It is a beautiful site with identical menu and similar prices for accommodation. They also offer safari tents at US$35 per night, but it is a long way out of town. A Boda-boda costs about USH 3,000 to/from town

the view of Bujagali Falls from Nile Campsite

The town is attractive on the outskirts, but it’s pretty dumpy in the centre and the market literally stinks with huge dumpers filled with disgusting refuse.

The Baraza restaurant opposite the police station offers kebabs, pizzas, Indian and African cuisine. The curries are good, but if you want it to taste authentic, ask for spicy. Non-veg curries cost USh 10,000.

a Hindu temple on the outskirts of town - appropriately surrounded by cows