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