The source of the Nile
We arrived in what I was told was Jinga at about 7am and I was summoned to the front of the bus. I got all my gear and as the bus pulled away I realised I was alone at a service station in the middle of nowhere in the rain. There was nothing in sight. Oh, except a roundabout...
I went into the servo and talked to the guy behind the desk Haresh. We bonded on a curry to curry level and he offered to get a boda-boda for me and actually secretly told me it should only cost me about 4000UShillings which was nice of him. A boda-boda is the common mode of transport here in Uganda - it's a motorcycle taxi like they have in Thailand. After I bargained the original quote of 15000shillings to 5000 we headed off. As we pulled away I realised it was probably really dangerous for me to get on the bike with my pack, as the rain had turned the roads to slush.
But I reached the campsite in one piece, just burnt my leg on the exhaust getting off the bike...
Jinga is amazing. It's so green. Everyone lives in mudhuts and there are kids everywhere. Once again you're always greeted by the obligatory "Jambo Mzungu!" and waves.
Nile River Explorers campsite at Bujagali Falls in beautiful. The showers are open and look out onto the river, which makes for an interesting bathing experience. It has tiers all the way down to the river bank where the dorms, bandas, and tents are lined up. There's a bar and you get a tab which you pay when you leave - which is a little dangerous...
There are so many Aussies here it's not funny. I hadn't met a single other Australian till I arrived here, but they're everywhere! And they own all the major businesses around here. I feel like I'm at home again!
Jinga Town is a little decrepit. You can tell at one point the town must've been thriving and beautiful, but all the buildings are rundown and unkempt and everything is covered by a film of red dust or mud. Including me. My feet are now permanently stained red from the mud and dirt.
Everything here has a name that refers to the Nile in some way. It's pretty funny. The stores, the beer, the meals in restaurants, the clothes, the hotels...
The Nile is famous for it's Grade 5 rapids (Grade 6 is the highest and they're unraftable) and rafting and kayaking fanatics flock from all corners of the globe to ride these waters. Maybe that explains all the Australians.
So, I decided to see what all the fuss was about and I went white water rafting yesterday. I couldn't actually take my camera on the raft - it would've fallen out and been swallowed by the mighty Nile so I dont actually have any pics as such. I got to the place we were supposed to meet and this old guy comes up to me a goes "Hi, I think we've met" in this dodgy way. I was like "No, I dont think we have, I'm Sneha" and he said "I'm Ian. Yeah, we have met, I spent the night in your banda the other day." Now let me tell you, there have been no visitors to my banda at all since I arrived, so I had no idea what he was talking about... If he was hot, I would've considered going along with the conversation just for fun ;)
It's weird though, ever since I got here, lots of people have been mistaking me for someonce else. I've been told I cured Josh and that he says thanks, that I hooked up with this Ian guy, and boda-boda drivers are offended when I dont know their names. How weird that there's some other curry chick who looks like me, roaming around Jinja getting with ugly guys.
Anyway, back to rafting. The group I had was so eclectic. There was Ian from Ireland. A Dutch couple working for an NGO called War Child and 3 Poms. Steven one of the Poms, looked like Peter Pettigrew from Harry Potter. Nice enough guy though. The other Pom was Steven's brother in law, and he was there with his girlfriend. I dont know her name, but I kid you not, she looked like Moaning Myrtle. And fuck did she whinge. The whole time all she did was complain in this prissy English accent, and all her boyfriend did was look at her longingly. They couldn't keep their hands off each other. It was gross.
Myrtle refused to stay in the boat when we practiced flipping, and started hyperventilating everytime we came up to some turbulent water. She had some serious issues.
I had an awesome time though, even though I had to sit behind Myrtle and paddle doubly hard cos she kept stopping and hyperventilating. The flips were awesome, the rapids were unbelieveable and the scenery was amazing. I can see why people are addicted to the thrill. It feels like you're playing a game with the river, teasing it. It wants to kill you, and you ride the waves on an inflated dingy hoping you dont die, and get this rush of adrenaline when you dont.
I think I nearly did die though - at the last rapid, which was the most turbulent, called "The Bad Place" for a reason, the raft flipped and we all ended up in different corners of the rapid, as usual. Then as we were flipping the raft back over again, I forgot to hold onto the raft, and ended up under it. As the water was so turbulent, I kept getting pushed down lower and lower, and people were piling into the raft which didn't help. I was struggling to get out from under the raft and I thought to myself, I think I'm going to die here... It was pretty awesome ;)
On the way back to the campsite we drove through a Circumcision Party.
Bloody Myrtle was waving to this bunch of fully grown men in a really condescending way (you know when you flex your finger instead of waving your hand). They just stared back at her, no one smiled, no one waved. Then she turns to her boyfriend and in her prissy english accent goes "I love putting a smile on their little faces, I love making them happy!". I felt like slapping the bitch. THEN to top it all off her boyfriend goes "Darling, that's cos you're special that way". Argh! Vomit! Why do people like that exist in this world??
I'm leaving for Busia tomorrow, and I'll get picked up from there and taken to Mumias, where I'll be spending the next two weeks or so for the EWB project.
I went into the servo and talked to the guy behind the desk Haresh. We bonded on a curry to curry level and he offered to get a boda-boda for me and actually secretly told me it should only cost me about 4000UShillings which was nice of him. A boda-boda is the common mode of transport here in Uganda - it's a motorcycle taxi like they have in Thailand. After I bargained the original quote of 15000shillings to 5000 we headed off. As we pulled away I realised it was probably really dangerous for me to get on the bike with my pack, as the rain had turned the roads to slush.
But I reached the campsite in one piece, just burnt my leg on the exhaust getting off the bike...
Jinga is amazing. It's so green. Everyone lives in mudhuts and there are kids everywhere. Once again you're always greeted by the obligatory "Jambo Mzungu!" and waves.
Nile River Explorers campsite at Bujagali Falls in beautiful. The showers are open and look out onto the river, which makes for an interesting bathing experience. It has tiers all the way down to the river bank where the dorms, bandas, and tents are lined up. There's a bar and you get a tab which you pay when you leave - which is a little dangerous...
There are so many Aussies here it's not funny. I hadn't met a single other Australian till I arrived here, but they're everywhere! And they own all the major businesses around here. I feel like I'm at home again!
Jinga Town is a little decrepit. You can tell at one point the town must've been thriving and beautiful, but all the buildings are rundown and unkempt and everything is covered by a film of red dust or mud. Including me. My feet are now permanently stained red from the mud and dirt.
Everything here has a name that refers to the Nile in some way. It's pretty funny. The stores, the beer, the meals in restaurants, the clothes, the hotels...
The Nile is famous for it's Grade 5 rapids (Grade 6 is the highest and they're unraftable) and rafting and kayaking fanatics flock from all corners of the globe to ride these waters. Maybe that explains all the Australians.
So, I decided to see what all the fuss was about and I went white water rafting yesterday. I couldn't actually take my camera on the raft - it would've fallen out and been swallowed by the mighty Nile so I dont actually have any pics as such. I got to the place we were supposed to meet and this old guy comes up to me a goes "Hi, I think we've met" in this dodgy way. I was like "No, I dont think we have, I'm Sneha" and he said "I'm Ian. Yeah, we have met, I spent the night in your banda the other day." Now let me tell you, there have been no visitors to my banda at all since I arrived, so I had no idea what he was talking about... If he was hot, I would've considered going along with the conversation just for fun ;)
It's weird though, ever since I got here, lots of people have been mistaking me for someonce else. I've been told I cured Josh and that he says thanks, that I hooked up with this Ian guy, and boda-boda drivers are offended when I dont know their names. How weird that there's some other curry chick who looks like me, roaming around Jinja getting with ugly guys.
Anyway, back to rafting. The group I had was so eclectic. There was Ian from Ireland. A Dutch couple working for an NGO called War Child and 3 Poms. Steven one of the Poms, looked like Peter Pettigrew from Harry Potter. Nice enough guy though. The other Pom was Steven's brother in law, and he was there with his girlfriend. I dont know her name, but I kid you not, she looked like Moaning Myrtle. And fuck did she whinge. The whole time all she did was complain in this prissy English accent, and all her boyfriend did was look at her longingly. They couldn't keep their hands off each other. It was gross.
Myrtle refused to stay in the boat when we practiced flipping, and started hyperventilating everytime we came up to some turbulent water. She had some serious issues.
I had an awesome time though, even though I had to sit behind Myrtle and paddle doubly hard cos she kept stopping and hyperventilating. The flips were awesome, the rapids were unbelieveable and the scenery was amazing. I can see why people are addicted to the thrill. It feels like you're playing a game with the river, teasing it. It wants to kill you, and you ride the waves on an inflated dingy hoping you dont die, and get this rush of adrenaline when you dont.
I think I nearly did die though - at the last rapid, which was the most turbulent, called "The Bad Place" for a reason, the raft flipped and we all ended up in different corners of the rapid, as usual. Then as we were flipping the raft back over again, I forgot to hold onto the raft, and ended up under it. As the water was so turbulent, I kept getting pushed down lower and lower, and people were piling into the raft which didn't help. I was struggling to get out from under the raft and I thought to myself, I think I'm going to die here... It was pretty awesome ;)
On the way back to the campsite we drove through a Circumcision Party.
Bloody Myrtle was waving to this bunch of fully grown men in a really condescending way (you know when you flex your finger instead of waving your hand). They just stared back at her, no one smiled, no one waved. Then she turns to her boyfriend and in her prissy english accent goes "I love putting a smile on their little faces, I love making them happy!". I felt like slapping the bitch. THEN to top it all off her boyfriend goes "Darling, that's cos you're special that way". Argh! Vomit! Why do people like that exist in this world??
I'm leaving for Busia tomorrow, and I'll get picked up from there and taken to Mumias, where I'll be spending the next two weeks or so for the EWB project.
posted by Sneha at 9:07 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home