Kampala & rafting in Jija

Kampala / Jinja

In my earlier assertion of East Africa, I said that, unlike Europe and many other parts of the world, this is not a place to go "city hopping". One place that this advice does not hold true is in Uganda, where its vibrant capital city, Kampala is safe and stable, thriving with action, and an excellent place to spend a long period of time. Like Beirut, Kampala was devastated by civil war and internal conflict (during the 80's) but is now a thriving fast-paced city that has become the entertainment capital of its region. While there's not a whole lot to see here during the day, in terms of landmarks or historical monuments, Kampala comes alive at night and there's always something going on; be it discos, plays, concerts, etc. To make matters even better, Kampala is remarkably safe - quite a contrast when compared to its neighboring capital city, Kenya's crime-infested Nairobi.

On my way back to Kampala from seeing the gorillas in Bwindi, I made a stop at about 78km southwest at the equator. Uganda is only one of ten countries in which the equator passes through and they've celebrated it by drawing a line through the street and marking each side with two nine foot high cement circles on either side of the road. There's not a lot to do here except get the requisite banal tourist photos and visit the cafe. There are however three metallic bowls on stands set up along the street- two either side of the equator, and one dead center with the words "Did you know?" written on them. As you may or may not know, water drains clockwise on the north of the equator, anti-clockwise in the south, and straight down right at the center. This can be demonstrated for a fee of about $3 here using a bottle of water and flower to show the movement of the water. One of my engineering friends here in Abu Dhabi insists it's all a trick and that I was duped as you need to be, according to him - much farther away from the equator to really see the effects of this. Either way, it's kind of a fun touristy thing to do.

Right: Ok which one's bus 666? .... Kampala's crowded minibus station

The last highlight of my East Africa trip was a day of grade five rapids-white water rafting on the source of the Nile in Jinja, 100Km east of Kampala. The Nile, the world's longest river, flows out of Lake Victoria nortward to the Nile Delta in Egypt, via Sudan. I've been white water rafting before, in Costa Rica and California; however, those experiences don't compare to the grade 5 rapids (grade 5 is the maximum danger rating given to a rapid before being considered a "waterfall") in Jinja. There are a couple of companies now offering this excursion; the two main ones are Adrift and Nile River Explorers (NRE). As Adrift could not fit me in with their schedule, I went with the latter. $100 gets you an all day trip down the rapids, lessons on how to cope with the rapids and falls, all you can eat and drink barbeque and beer afterwards, transportation to and from Kampala, and a night's accomodation in the NRE's accompanying youth hostel in Jinja - a decent place to hang out and meet other young travellers.

Jinja is one of the few places (if not the only place) in the world where grade 5 rapids can be taken on by a beginner rafter with little to no rafting experience. The reason for this is that the water at the source of the Nile is unusually deep despite the speed of which it flows, so there is very little danger of hitting rocks once the raft capsizes - and they did capsize indeed! In fact our group got flipped over four times during the entire trip - I think that was the record for the day. I also gained a reputation as the guy who went flying down the river everytime the boat flipped over.

It was all great fun and the rapids all have nick-names. There's the "G-spot" which is sort of a lethal tsunami like whirpool which sucks your raft in, throws it up and around a couple of times, before hurling the raft and it's contents (ie: you, the rafters) downstream. The worst was the last one, aptly dubbed the "bad place". This looked more like a waterfall turned sideways than part of a river and even though I'm not what you'd call a religious man, I admit to getting down on my knees and saying a few prayers before we were forced down this. Someone up above must have been listening, as we did not, much to everyone's disbelief, capsize at the bad place.

On this page there are various photos taken from Kampala and the Equator. Also, I've included some shots I took at Jinja. Some of these were taken before and after we got in the water. The ones of us doing the rafting I took from my TV screen as I bought the accompanying video they filmed later. These latter photos didn't quite come out as well as was hoping but it's enough to give a basic picture.

Right: Sewing a better a future for Uganda... Ha ha... I know that's really, really corny... just some photos taken while out and about in Kampala's central market

Below: A Hindu temple in Kampala. There is a large Indian minority in East Africa due to the British bringing many Indians to work on the East African Railroad during colonial times.

Below: Water drains clockwise north of the equator, anti-clockwise south,
and straight down at the dead center. Although, my engineering friend in Abu
Dhabi doubts the authenticy of this particular test.