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Hello,
So im now writing from Nile River Explorers River Camp, Jinja, Uganda. Sat with a smoothie, a bacon roll and looking over the nile river. It's all truely amazing here!
The journey here was one i don't want to repeat but unfortunatly weve got the return journey to do on friday night! On Sunday I stayed ovenright in Nairobi in an apartment of one of the people i met coming through the village and that john and tommy other volunteers were already crashing at on their time off. Then at 5am i got a taxi to the bus station to be there for 6.30 because Nairobi rish starts on a monday at 5.30! Then my cab didn't turn up so was clearly stressing. The security gaurd of the gated area the house was in rang one for me though so we got on the way. Then we thoguht we hit traffic, but it turns out it was a police stop because there'd been an accident and there was a body in the road next to two coaches. Just what you want to see at 5am before you embark on a 12hr bus ride.
Then met nicole and waited for our bus which was delayed surprisingly. Then a conductor ran over and said charlotte rachel and charlotte rachel?! quick quick get on the bus we've beeb lookign everywhere for you! Clearly not since we were the only two muzungu girls sat outside a bus station. So we ran on and foudn out we'd been upgraded to royal class since our wasnt turning which basically meant we had lots more room. Then we must have been way too cocky about our good luck because then after an hour on the road we stop for 20mins where the bus nearly tips over and they grab a tree of bananas form the cargo and throw them off, then we get stopped at a police check along with every other bus, lorry, 4x4 going north from Nairobi. We were sat in a field for 2hrs while one man and a lot of police men armed with automatic rifles checked if they were road worthy.
So that seriously dampend our spirits at it meant we'd be arriving in jinja and having to find the hostel and check in at atleast 10pm. But eventually after loads more stops and passing some amazing views like fields and fields of tea leave farms we made it over the border about 7pm. The weirdest immigration and customs control ive ever been through, we actually just walked over the border with out passports, $50 for the visa and customs forms in our hands following all the other muzungus to work oiut where we needed to be. Then about 10pm we finally got to Jinja and were immediatly swarmed by boda's wanting to take us the the hostel which was pretty good thing as we were worried we wouldnt be able to find one. After we haggled down from 20,000 uganda shillings to 5,000 even though we knew that was still too much we just jumped on and hoped they knew where we were going.
I think our faces as we turned the corner of the hostel must have been priceless. Before us was a bar, pool table, food, wifi and Bruno Mars blasting out. Amazing. Hostel was great, we had a room to our selves and a beer in our hands 5 mins after arriving. Id died and gone to heaven :)
next mornign was Nicole's birthday and we checked in properly and found out the rafting plan for the day. I had a bacon barm and a brew and then other people arrived from the Kampala transfer so we got briefed and fitted for jackets and helmets. Then had a 1/2 hr drive to the start point on the river and finally got to see in the daylight how beautiful Uganda is. It so green compared to kenya you wouldnt believe that these countries were neighbours! We got to know the other people rafting, a couple form newcastle on a 2 year world backpacking tour, a girl form cambridgeshire who's slightly strange example A: shes in africa for 9months and decided not to take malaria tablets. she got malaria last month. and a guy called Neville from US who's a pilot on leave and used to be a pro rafting. And a whole river crew including our guide Kurk from s.africa.
First sight of the nile was amazing will never forget it, and it was a beautiful day. So we got trained up and soon as we had to practise being thrown out, tipping it right again and then climbing in it got pretty scary! And we could hear the first fall ahead of us which was a grade 5 which is the toughest we'd do of the day. We went through it fine and then started to prep for the next one a grade 3. We got tipped out on this one which was scary as you cant see whats coming so you dont knwo which was your falling and justr have to hold your breath untill you see sky and hope another waves nto going to get you. there 2 kayaks whizziing round and one othe rraftfor the equipment so your met pretty quickly and just hang onto them untill u can be pulled back in-since none of the girls could do it ourselves-too weak!
I wont do a play by play of the whole thing since we got the dvd and cd which shows it so much better and you see the whole expanse of the river. Will tyr and load the photos this week on the wifi since theres no chance of doing it at the village!
So when we got out we were met by a bqq and beers and then made our back to the hostel with a few for the road and saw more of Jinja. Then we crossed the dam which was amazing but your nto allowed to take pics which was a gutter because we passed right by a croc! (we said to kurk in the boat-so what other wild life is there if theres no hippos or crocs like the website says? and he was like...erm there is crocs. there around but you just dont see them often. great.
Then we got the transfer to the river camp and decided to upgrade to a double room for $11 instead of the dorm for $7 since we saved money on the coach and came to the bar and saw the most amazing view of my life! the only contest might be coral beach in cyprus on the balcony at sunset. So we got our facebook fix, a drink and settled in for the night. A big group arrived sooo drunk and the party started from there. Nicole got hoisted onto a table for a round of happy birthday and some shots. This morning weve got sore heads but the group have started drinking again. hardcore.
So thats it for now in uganda, weve got untill friday eve here before the night bus back so we're going to decided what to from here since we cant get intouch with the abseiling company and cant face another bus journey. Plenty to do here, quad biking at some point for starters!
So glad i decided to come and was allowed to come even though it was a no untill 10 hours before i was leaving untill sister mary stepped into my aid! Also i emt some last week who wants me to teach dance in Karen next week...so need to get that approved now for i'll got back to the village at the weekend. Im going to miss the bacon barms.
Lots of love to everyone,
Charlotte xxxxxxx
- comments
Michaela A.m.a.zing! Sounds like such an experience...good and bad! Keep blogging...am loving it! Stay safe...much love Chaela xx
joy hilton makes interesting reading charlotte cant believe how calm and matter of fact you sound along your journey.nothing seams to worry you looking forward to next installment .x joy