Beautiful sunshine in Jinja

After a proper day of beautiful sunshine here in Uganda we are feeling much better! (it started raining again last night and lasted for quite a while). And we could do washing! Jippeeey!! (Haha never thought I would say this). We are so relieved to have some clean flowery smelling clothes again.

What you are seeing here is the car park at Adrift campsite in Jinja, which is located next to the White Nile (source of the Nile).

These little “hokkies” with roofs and wash basins are meant for the Overland trucks to use as a base from which to prepare food for their groups. There are about five of these and one was open and the car guard told us to park here. It turned out to be the perfect base for us too and we were super-efficient from the moment we arrived (due to us wanting to make use of the sunlight). And we washed our stinky bike jackets, a whole bunch of clothes and I washed my saddle bags and repacked the food.

While this was happening, Francois used some old coals (left from the previous overland truck) to make us a fire as we had some delicious “wors” to braai! Luckily the driver from the truck next to us watched the spectacle and came to us with a scoop of fresh coals to use and soon we had a nice and hot fire going.

On our way to Jinja this morning we stopped at a supermarket to stock up on some supplies and with prices being so cheap I really enjoyed the shopping spree. This is where I got the wors – and to think that just this morning we wanted to leave our tiny “braai rooster” in Kampala as we never use it so it was a good thing we decided to stick with it. So we had some hotdogs and avo for lunch yum.

Francois also quickly replaced my bikes backlight which stopped working while driving the crazy gravel road through Western Tanzania.

We put this off for some time as we had to remove my very handy drain pipe holder which Francois and Eon mounted on the bikes with thick cable ties back at home. But with crazy traffic as we have experienced so far and heard continues even worse into Kenya we thought it better to do it now.

Here is also a photo of the scenery here on our way from Kampala to Jinja so that you can see the jungle-like greeniness of Uganda. Also note the little spectator next to the road on the bike. He was following us on his bike and as we stopped he also pulled off to stare and as soon as we were ready to leave he turned around and went back in the same direction :o) Curious people.

We also sorted our third party insurance on the way from Kampala as we could not get it at the border and paid UgSh 20 000 each (about R65) for the year. He was very efficient and friendly and used a typewriter to get the process done.

We really wanted to do some white river rafting here in Jinja (which is known as the adventure capital of Uganda) but last night we checked our schedule and it turns out we are about a week behind already. We also have to get to Nairobi before it is weekend again as we have to apply for our Sudanese visas there which is only open in the week. So we have decided to get on the road again tomorrow and cross into Kenya to try and make up with some time.

The Adrift campsite however is really cool and the bar equally nice. We also have free wifi here which is cool. The staff here is very friendly and the one guide could not believe his eyes when he checked out our little bikes. He said normally the South Africans come here with BIG bikes and also he said normally they change their tyres when they get here. He wanted to know how many times we have changed tyres and when we said “not once!” he was super impressed. Later I also overheard the car guard talking to some other staff in the local language explaining how far we have come and that we have never changed tyres etc. which was quite cute.

PS: We met a cool Dutch couple in Kampala last night – they are travelling with a Volskwagen bus from Holland to South Africa. This just shows that this is possible too as they successfully did the bad Moyale to Marsabit road with this vehicle – awesome!

Good night from some sweet smelling South Africans ;o)