The bed next to mine hasn’t been slept in and I reach through a Uganda Waragi haze for my phone, stashed away in the metal trunk under the bed at Nile River Explorers Camp.
“Hope you’re ok? Or do I need to pull you out of a ditch / jail etc?” reads the text I send my friend K.
Two minutes later the phone rings. My head is still on the pillow. In fact, I hardly recognize my own voice after last night’s cigarettes.
“Where are we?” K asks someone on the other end of the line.
“Triangle Hotel” comes back the answer.
Oh God, my head hurts …
“How much money do you have on you?” K asks me. “I’ve lost my wallet.”
Now there’s a surprise: fuelled by half a bottle of Uganda Waragi, the stupid Muzungu has followed the scent of a woman into Jinja town. It’s a 45 minute ride in total darkness through the countryside on rutted marram roads – on the back of a boda boda of course.
“I fell asleep three times,” he tells me. (Or did he say he fell off the bike three times?)
I just hope she’s worth it!
OMG
OMG indeed!
The situation got complicated: when K went to the police station to report the loss of the wallet – new lady friend in tow – the police wanted him to sign a form incriminating HER! After various pointless wrangles, K decided to leave it, at which point they wanted to charge him for wasting police time.
Eh banange!
Time to get the new tourist police on the case … heard good things about them so far.
Hi mydear, how are you doing?
Hi Jane 🙂
I saw a few monkeys, but nnhtiog in the water. Part of that may be selective perception, as I was there to begin learning to white water kayak. Part of Kayak School is learning to tip the kayak and then roll it back over. I really don’t want to think about what creatures might lurk below. But perhaps a larger factor is that the surrounding area is relatively industrialized. There’s already one dam online and another is under construction. FYI: I’m pretty sure that the Nile has crocs rather than gators. In any case, I’m headed back this weekend, so I’ll let you know if I see any more creatures.
Owens Falls dam is online – but badly maintained, hence all the power problems ‘load shedding’ – we’re having these days. The new dam, at Bujagali Falls is complete but behind schedule in coming fully online.
Jinja is hardly industrialised! Apart from the dam and the brewery, there’s little industry these days in Jinja.
Jinja is incredibly green and virtually unspoilt.
The River Nile has crocs yes (definitely ‘gators) and at Jinja they very rarely access the Nile, because of the barrier created by the Owens Falls Dam.
There’s therefore nothing at all to fear in the waters of the Nile, if you’re rafting or kayaking there. The only thing I’d pay attention to are submerged rocks
but your guide will always alert you to those. Nile Perch are the biggest creature, but they swim in the deeper waters of the river and they’d certainly be more frightened of you than you should be of them 🙂
uganda is ablessed country wiz all the god given sceneries’ thanx be to god.