A stroke of luck – and a chance to explore Jinja
My finances had dried up and I wasn’t looking forward to staying in all week-end with only 10,000 Uganda shillings (£3) to survive on until payday this week. After only 3 sessions, the English conversation class I’ve been giving has been put on hold.
I was going stir crazy.
“We’ve been working far too hard for volunteers!” Stacey and I agreed, only half-jokingly. I’d produced four fund-raising proposals in two weeks and I needed to get out of town. When my colleague asked me how he could thank me for my hard work, I immediately said “take me on your next field trip!” Sadly, as the week passed, the car filled up with researchers and so I was left behind in Kampala to stew alonein my very lovely house. Since the organisation office is in my spare bedroom, it can be difficult to switch off from work, especially when you’ve been working long hours.
And then out of the blue came an invitation to accompany fellow VSO volunteer Jan and a visiting Irish Member of Parliament for a week-end in Jinja. What luck!
Jinja sits on Lake Victoria, three hours drive east of Kampala. For Ugandans it’s a symbol of the country’s industrial heyday but I find the derelict factories and the run-down 1950s architecture depressing; it could have been so different. For visitors however, Jinja’s famous for being the Source of the Nile and the adrenaline capital of East Africa.
Our timing was spot on: a group of rafters and canoeists – there to heave rafters out of the water if the raft overturns – were approaching the falls. I had butterflies in my stomach. Were these the falls where we’d flipped over and I’d panicked?
The rafters floated on downstream and we stopped for lunch at the Fork and Paddle, a high vantage point overlooking the river. The sun was beating down and for a moment I thought I was on holiday.
As we left Bujagali Falls, three big buses thundered past us at speed, throwing up billowing clouds of thick dust. How blessed were we to have been virtually run off the road by the visiting African Anglican Bishops.
Kingfisher Safari Resort offers no chance of game viewing but does have a beautifully landscaped view of Lake Victoria through lush vegetation and palm trees of varying heights. We loved the funky bandas and it was great to be in the pool after a muggy dusty day.
We’d promised VSO we’d take good care of our VIP guest so we had to laugh when, en route to dinner along the Kanunga Road, our car ended up in the middle of a heaving mass of several hundred people, shouting, dancing and ululating!
As we waited for everyone to pass, the crowd changed direction and moved towards us.
We were stuck. People gestured us to drive forward. People beckoned us to reverse.
In the build-up to the general election next year, we had ended up slap bang in the middle of an election rally of not one, but two, candidates.
It was market day and the whole world was out on the street. Resplendent in gold and yellow – the dominant colour of the National Resistance Movement that has been in power for 24 years – the lady candidate danced and laughed with the crowd. There’s not a whole lot going on in this neck of the woods so, regardless of your political colours, you’ll get a good turn-out if you roll up with a big sound system. You have to wonder how many of the cheering crowd will actually vote though.
On our guided tour along the randomly designed wooden walkways, we murmured approvingly at the way the walkway had carefully been built around the trees. The individual bandas are large and stunning, each with their own private decks. I thought of how relaxing it would be to go to sleep to the sound of the falls. Every element of the construction is unique: the Zanzibari wood carvings above the doorways, the granite hand basins, the natural rock pool next to the falls that will soon be the lodge’s swimming-pool.
As we paddled back across the Nile through the dark night back to the waiting car, a flicker of lightening gave a rosy glow to the far horizon.
three hours? jinja was only one hour's drive from kampala in 1960s to 1971 when i left for uk. also, the 1950s architecture is the evidence of "art deco" style of architecture that the indian immigrants invested in and is the legacy of jinja, a new town built with colonial town planning template. the layout of mbale and jinja and other towns is the same – compare when you walk around next time. jaffer manek
Tx for your comment Jaffer. Yes Jinja does remind me of Mbale. Both still graceful, if a little shabby now …
Junja brought back very happy memories. Dawn on the Nile with the mist and spray rising over the water, sleeping in the banda with a washing up bowl for company. I can imagine the journey as well albeit yours was somewhat more crowded with the election jamboree. Noticed "Kingfisher Lodge" in the photo, I think we went near there?
We passed the sign to Kingfisher Lodge Ma as we passed Nile Breweries, just before you cross the bridge into Jinja. It's the road opposite the one down to the Haven.
You would love Wild Waters Lodge! My god it's sensational, have a look a the link above.
PS does Pa know how close I got to Joanna Lumley?!
I obviously saw this article before but don’t recall the Lodge, I really want to go there as having stayed at Junja I can imagine what it must be like…un…imag…ina…able!!!!!
It’s an incredible setting. You have to get a small boat out into the middle of the Nile to reach the lodge. Each room is a separate (large) cabin built around the rocks and thus unique. There’s a rolltop bath on every verandah too!