Wednesday, 16 July 2014

Day 4: Drive to Jinja



Another day of driving... All of us were exhausted from yesterday’s adventures; we certainly slept well, and now we were headed for our next one. We managed to get going by 8.30 am, and hoped we would be in Jinja before it got dark. Estimated drive time was 8-10 hours. This time, my brother drove most of the way and managed to get himself stopped by the cops twice for speeding! The police however were very understanding when we said we were from Kenya, and they let us off. They didn’t ask for a bribe and they weren’t nasty. They were so professional and I was so impressed with them!

We were making relatively good time, and had a quick stop at the same place in Masaka for some more samosas. Due to the traffic congestion in Kampala, we were advised to use the Northern Bi-pass to avoid it. We got most of the way there, and then instead of listening to what we were told, we followed our noses. This didn’t bring us out as far as we hoped, so we turned off elsewhere and added on an hour to the journey.

As the sun was setting we crossed over the Nile into Jinja and made our way to where we were staying: Nile River Explorers. Driving in, there were 3 overland trucks and tons of people! I knew immediately that this was going to be a very social next couple of days. So we sorted ourselves out, got our room keys and headed straight for the bar and ordered a Nile Special beer. 




The camp was situated on the banks of the Nile, and the view was spectacular. The outside area overlooked it, and it was such a perfect location. We grabbed a bench and sat down. At the end of the table was a girl sitting by herself. Naturally, we got chatting and she was lovely. She is from Germany and had been working on a yacht, which is where she met her boyfriend from Cape Town. He joined us and we had a good jol. We spent most of the evening with them, and another friend of theirs who happened to be friends with my brother’s friend (small world!).

It wasn’t too late a night though as were going rafting in the morning!



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