Days on the Nile

26 - 31 August, 2024

26 August - Day 52

Kampala - Jinja

Accommodation: Nile River Explorers

We had requested to leave Kampala a little later than planned, so I could meet up with Janet the wonderful Ugandan lady I happened to meet in the customs line in Finland! Thankfully, our guide and driver were happy to leave at 1030 rather than 0700.

I had sent Janet a photo of our address in Kampala, which Bernadette (pictured on the left below) had in her itinerary. We were waiting with bated breath for Janet’s arrival. It had been 20 minutes past when she should have arrived, we figured it must be African time. However, after 30 minutes I rang and spoke to Janet, who sadly had been at the address we had sent her trying to find us. I spoke with the lady at reception in Red Chilli who told me the address on our itinerary was the old address of the hotel, which had changed 15 years ago!!!!!!

Unfortunately, it meant we couldn’t visit Janet’s house and meet her boys (who had cleaned the whole house and made tea ready for our arrival). Instead, Janet kindly jumped on a motorbike taxi and came to the hotel we were at.

It was so wonderful to see her again and hear about her life in Uganda looking after her sick Mum, renting the house she lives in and about her three boys.

It was just us three ladies, our driver Zeph and our cook Vincent continuing to Jinja today. We travelled on the same roads we had travelled in on, both Lynley and I recognising the towns but primarily the bumpy dirt roads.

It was hot when we arrived in Jinja, so I quickly put my tent up and splashed my face with water to cool down. Our campsite was stunning. Looking over the Nile River, from the restaurant all the way across the camping area. It was rustic but welcoming and homely. We received a briefing on the different activities we could do which included rafting, a boozy boat cruise, mountain biking, and quad biking. While everything sounded amazing, I wanted to be careful of my funds but also take some time to rest, so I instead asked about a bird watching tour, which was arranged for two mornings from today. While Lynley and Bernadette signed up for rafting, booze cruising and bird watching.

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing and watching the monkeys throw themselves from tree to tree. One from the top of a palm tree into the shrubs below.

27 August - Day 53

Jinja

Accommodation: Nile River Explorers

I woke to giant rain drops spattering on the roof of my tent. Quickly unzipping the tent fly I shut my windows and door, creating a warm cocoon in my tent. The door flap started to drop closed just as the first flash of lighting lit up the sky. I spent the next 45 minutes laying in my tent listening to the rain get harder as the thunderstorm ripped through the sky. Ten years ago I would have been shaking in my boots, scared half to death but this morning I appreciated the beauty of the sounds and the flash of the lightning, eventually soothing me back to sleep.

Surprisingly I woke well rested, at around 0754, with my watch reading 9h12m of sleep - brilliant.

I made myself some toast for breakfast and a coffee. Taking the morning slowly, I finished my food and went to my tent to put something away before packing up all the breakfast food. Well, was that a mistake. The cheeky vervet monkey’s had descended on the loaf of bread I had left out, climbing all over our clean dishes without a care in the world.

I had nowhere to be and no one to please today, so I spent the day relaxing under the shade of the restaurant, looking over the fast flowing current of the Nile.

As the day turned to afternoon, Rod a weary traveller like myself, came to chat. He explained that he has been riding his motorbike from South Africa up to East Africa, on a similar route to me, but will continue back down for another few months towards his second home in Mozambique. He partook in the Put Foot Rally, a fundraising journey from South Africa to Botswana to purchase shoes for African children. After his partner passed a few years ago, he’s now spending his time travelling around the world, with South America next on his list of destinations. We chatted for a few hours, both sipping from a cold Nile beer before joining a group of other guys who manage the campsite and their friends. We sat around the bbq where Andries cooked two large Nile perch that he had caught a few days ago. Gracie, South African and Australian traveller also came to join us for the evening. She has been volunteering around Africa, both in Kenya and Uganda for several months and had a wonderful sense of humour. We all got along swimmingly, I felt relaxed and like I was chatting to friends at home.

28 August - Day 54

Jinja

Accommodation: Nile River Explorers

I walked down the steep red-stained cement stairs towards the waters edge with Lynley, Bernadette and Kibbi, our local guide. A long red wooden boat was waiting for us at the base of the stairs, ready set sail searching for birds.

The Nile had a ripping current that we could see from the surface of the water, swirling and gurgling the water towards Egypt. Interestingly, we had learned that this section of river never used to be this calm prior to the dams. Downstream about 3 dams have been put into the river between here and Lake Victoria. The area of river that we were now floating along, was previously major rapids and our guide, Kibbi, had a good chuckle at the fact that we would have been dead if we were taking to the rapids that used to haunt this area of river, in our wooden boat.

Pide Kingfishers were the most common bird we spotted on the river. They would chat to one another, darting through the skies and elegantly diving into the water catching fish. We would spot a group of five or six hanging out on branches, or others occasionally popping into holes in the red mud river walls.

It smelled like the River Murray but despite the colour of the water, it was nothing like it. Lilly pads lined sections of the water, with tall mountain-like hills leading up from the banks of the river. They were covered in bright green vegetation. Areas looked like you would be walking straight into a rainforest, with tall trees fashioning Tarzan-like rope branches. Other areas had been cleared and were obviously where people were living and catching fish from, with large nets spread out with tiny little fish drying.

The only other people that were on the river were fishermen in mokoros and other wooden style boats.

We spotted so many birds, despite Kibbi continuously apologising for there not being many birds out today. We spotted: cormorants, a kite eagle, Purple Egrets, Lily Walking birds, Woodland Kingfishers, Malachite Kingfishers Sunbirds, a number of species of Hawks and Eagles - some Kibbi didn’t even know what they were.

The bird watching tour went for an extra 45 minutes longer than planned but we arrived back at our accommodation feeling relaxed and ready for breakfast.

We had our last breakfast with Bernadette on the park benches, enjoying corn and potato fritters, a muffin and fruit salad. We said our goodbyes and then Lynley and I engaged our relax modes.

As I sat catching up on all my adventures throughout the past month, ants would climb over every inch of my body and monkeys would call to one another from the treetops - throwing themselves from tree to tree. The most wonderful visitors were the butterflies. Hundreds of them of all different shapes and sizes would gracefully and effortlessly float around the campsite. There were butterflies with black and yellow patterned wings (exactly like what I would research as a child) and giant cream butterflies the size of my hand that would circle the trees.

After lunch Gracie appeared back at the campsite after her day of volunteer teaching. We sat and chatted for hours, while making paint brushes for her school from dried palm leaves that had fallen in the campsite.

I enjoyed the rest of the evening chatting with new friends I had made, hearing stories about Andries helping save local zoos and the hard work he puts into helping many African communities. After saying my goodbyes to Rod and Andries, Lauren and Chris, I went to my tent at 2130.

29 August - Day 55

Jinja

Accommodation: Punda Milias Camp

Unfortunately sleeping in a campsite with other young travellers often means there’s little to no sleep to be had. There were people constantly walking past my tent, yelling out to their friends and laughing, which meant I didn’t get much sleep. For the first time on the trip too, my tent started letting in water when it rained over night, so the occasional drip landing on my head, hand or leg through my sleeping bag liner also didn’t help the sleeping situation. My alarm sounded at 0404 and after snoozing for ten minutes I started packing up my things and breaking down my tent with only about 4 hours sleep in the bank. We packed a salad roll for lunch and a Nutella roll for breakfast and left the camp exactly on 0500. Both Lynley and I, the last two remaining settled in for a few more hours sleep when thirty minutes later a bang and hissing noise sounded from the left hand side of the truck. It sounded like a huge amount of air rushing out of a small pipe - and it was. Zeph slowly drove us to the closest petrol station where he pulled in and we were told exactly what we feared - we had no breaks. A local mechanic had come to fix the trucks air breaks and do some maintenance on the truck the day before, and it seems he didn’t do the best job. So, Zeph got on the phone and the guy came to fix it.

I continued to sleep from the moment we pulled into the petrol station until waking up to a bright sunshine filled bus at 0830 - making up for the few hours I didn’t get last night.

Arriving at the border we jumped off the truck to a gentleman holding what looked like a reptile enclosure filled with samosa. He told us “Cross through immigration and then get a samosa. We crossed the Ugandan/Kenyan border in record time, after having our temperature checked, stamping out and being stamped in we took off from the border, without samosas.

It doesn’t get old looking out the window of the truck. While the drives are longer than anything I’ve ever experienced, they do disappear incredibly quickly. Between a few hours sleep here and there, toilet stops (where it’s pot luck what you will be walking into) and driving through villages there’s always something to look at.

Seeing the beautiful maze fields as a backdrop to villages, which can either have the most manicured buildings and fences, or buildings that are falling apart. The different service stations and markets that line the streets. Cattle and sheep grazing on the side of the road in a mishmash herd, or just a cow walking through the middle of town. Other areas had headstones for sale on the footpath or footpaths covered with maize or cassava.

It did start to rain quite heavily at times but it was a nice soothing aspect to the drive. As the rain fell, umbrellas over the motorbikes went up. Big enough for the driver and their passenger.

We arrived at Punda Milias Camp just before sunset and I started setting up my tent for the last time. I was enjoying the moment and reflecting on the more than 50 days I had mastered the art of setting up this tent when Vincent yelled out to me. It turned out Acacia had paid for me to have an upgrade in one of the fancy tents with glass doors, a bathroom and a double bed! It was a beautiful surprise that I didn’t let myself believe until I was standing in the room.

We had a beautiful three course meal prepared by the restaurant. A vegetable soup, veggie lasagna and an apple tart with ice cream. It was a perfect last night as a group.

30 August - Day 56

Nairobi

Accommodation: Hotel Boulevard

It was our last drive in my moving home.

Traversing the Great Rift Valley we made our way to Nairobi. Thankfully we had no truck problems today and casually drove towards the city.

We arrived in Nairobi just before midday, making great time through the city traffic, which was not nearly as bad as what we had experienced on other days. We put it down to the lunchtime traffic.

Arriving at the hotel we sadly said our goodbyes to Zeph and Vincent. I was surprised that I didn’t cry, it was difficult finishing the tour. Despite spending 60 days in Africa, I am not ready to leave.

I was checking into my room at Hotel Boulevard, where the staff member behind the counter kindly told me I was getting an upgrade! I was excited until she said it would mean I have to get in a car and drive to their other premises a short distance away. She said I would be able to walk but not after 1800. I kindly declined the upgrade and asked to stay onsite here. Thankfully she obliged and both Lynley and I were given our rooms.

Just before I went to walk up to my room I head an “oh my goodness” - I looked up to see my beautiful new travel friend Kat, who I had met more than a week ago at Wildebeest Eco Lodge! We had a beautifully warm embrace and promised to meet each other for dinner later.

I spent the afternoon doing my washing, re-packing my bag and catching up with my wonderful family before my last dinner with Lynley at 1930.

We dined at the restaurant where she ordered a couscous salad with olives and feta. However, it came out looking a little different - it had lettuce, carrot and capsicum instead. It turns out the chef didn’t have the ingredients it listed on the menu so they just improvised instead. Lynley spoke with the waiter and he provided her a pizza menu instead, it was the most delicious homemade pizza I’ve had on the whole trip. The waiter apologised when he brought out her new meal and promised her he would use a vice on the chef’s manhood - we couldn’t believe our ears!!

After dinner I joined my new friend Kat, who had coincidentally also run into her tour guide, David, from years ago when she did an overland tour. We sat and chatted about our travels and explorations for about an hour, when suddenly we were surrounded by darkness. The hotel power had gone off in the whole premises. We chatted for a little longer before going our seperate ways. Kat had such a beautiful energy and I was so grateful to have met up with her again. The universe has amazing ways of bringing likeminded people together.

People told me Africa has a way of sucking you in, it does something to get under your skin. I didn’t truly understand what they meant until now. Africa has changed my life. The wild rough edges of the country shine with beauty and I’m so grateful to have seen this side of the continent. I really, truly hope that one day Tyler and I can come back and explore more of this beautiful wild world, climb Mount Kilimanjaro and hopefully take our children on safari.

African countries give you so much more than you could imagine but incredibly, we too give it more than we think about. The money we invest travelling to this wonderful continent helps to stimulate their economy and every dollar we spend in local villages makes a difference.

I feel honoured to have been welcomed into the lives of so many African people and to have received every wave from locals. Thank you Africa, you certainly have a piece of my heart. I hope that I can return to Australia a better person because of the impact you have had on my life.

31 August - 1 September

Nairobi - Doha - Texas - LAX - San Jose, Costa Rica

For now, it’s onto new adventures. Speak to you all in Costa Rica!