It was another noisy night for us doughty
campers. Crickets, frogs and birds: good. Constant rattly trucks on the nearby road, right through
the night: bad. But in the morning, while the others feasted on dainty treats
at the hotel buffet, we had eggs and, for the first time, bacon, to the ironic
accompaniment of the muezzin’s dawn call.
We’re covering familiar territory now,
heading back towards Nairobi – not that it’s boring, at all. Today there were
brick kilns smoking and crackling away, huge papyrus swamps, the usual villages
with everything happening alongside the road.
It was misty, it rained, then the sun came
out, and we stopped again at the Equator marker for a group photo, and coffee
(a rare treat). Next we approached Kampala, around a new bypass cutting
straight through slums so crowded and tatty that the mudbrick huts we’ve got
used to seeing in the country look positively idyllic in comparison. There were
market stalls laid out along the pavement, selling cheap tat, and behind them a
stagnant stretch of water. There was also a nasty smell, presumably the
attraction for a big flock of vultures hunched on the grass.
After that squalor, our lunch stop, next to the
carwash in the bare carpark of a shopping mall, felt quite upmarket. The rain
poured suddenly down, forcing us to eat in the truck for the first time – there
are two tables midway, which until today have mostly been used for playing
cards. We had to close the windows to keep out the rain and it rapidly became
like a sauna. The salad, as ever, was fresh and crunchy; but everyone has now
learnt to avoid the bread, which falls apart if you even look at it.
Kampala is notorious for its traffic jams
and we got caught in one as we tried to leave the city, crawling along for ages
beside gutters foaming with bright orange run-off. It gave us time to observe
features, eg a big domed building on a hill, like a cathedral or basilica.
“What’s that, Edwin?” “A church.” And so we left Kampala, unenlightened as to
its history, points of interest, role in Ugandan life. Great work, Ed. There was also some, unfortunately not unusual, excitement when one of the traffic jams turned out to have been caused by yet another truck on the side of the road with a smashed-in cab. We passed two ambulances on their way to the crash.
We carried on towards today’s destination,
Jinja on the Nile, where we will be spending two nights so that tomorrow we can
choose how we want to experience its adventure offerings – everything from
Grade 5 white-water rafting to a booze cruise. Tonight someone local will be coming
to tell us all about it. It’ll be nice to get some actual information, for a
change.
We crossed the Nile again and turned off
down a side road, excited by a big posh sign reading ‘Jinja Nile Resort’ – but
then drove straight past it and in the gate of a much more basic outfit,
Adrift. We had a choice of camping in our tents, or dorms, or safari tents or
rooms, so we spread ourselves out amongst them all (dorm for me tonight: a
small, tall room with 3-storey bunks made out of polished poles).
Then we repaired to the bar above the river (notable for its displayed flags, which included NZ but *cough* omitted Australia - perhaps a nod to our introducing the world to the bungy jump, which they do here?) to make friends with the cute resident puppy, River (the resident black and
white cat, nameless, is also very vocal and friendly – until he’s not.
Typical cat). We learned what we could do – again an even split between full-on
white-water rafting, the ‘chicken boat’ option, quad-biking, horse-riding, and
just hanging out and maybe going for a stroll.
Dinner was more nice vegetables and an
almost-tender stew, and then we went to bed, luxuriating in the knowledge that
there would be no alarm in the morning.
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