Whitewater Rafting down the Nile
on A Serendipitous Journey (Kenya), 21/Feb/2010 05:40, 34 days ago
Along with 10 friends, early Friday morning I hopped on the Akamba bus to begin our 11-hour journey from Nairobi to Jinja (near Kampala) to go whitewater rafting down the Nile! Uganda is the source of the White Nile which flows all the way up to Egypt into the Mediterranean Sea.Despite the air conditioning not functioning on the bus it was a pretty comfortable journey, with large comfortable seats and lots of leg room. The scenery along the way was spectacular and as we passed the area of Kericho with its rolling green hills, my Italian friend commented that it made him reminiscent of Tuscany only if one replaced the cacti and acacia trees with vineyards and olive trees.(Also really making me want to visit Tuscany!)The bus dropped us at the side of the road in Jinja around 630 PM, where a big open sided vehicle fromNile River Explorerswas awaiting us. After a quick transfer at the backpackers lodge in the town of Jinja, we made our way on to the campsite and enjoyed dinner and a drink overlooking the Nile. We then checked into our tiny dorm rooms, which slept 6 people in 3 bunk beds (making me wonder if I was too old for this!:-).We awoke early Saturday morning to rain pounding on the tin roof, wondering how in the world we were going to raft in th middle of a thunder and lightning storm!