Slept better than Moses in a basket. Woke up a few times, thought I heard hippos outside the tent. Ignored it, Nile whispering sweet nothings to me. We’re heading back to Jinja today, and it’s a helluva journey. After we pack up and have breakfast, it’s quite warm again. Annelie rinses some washing in the river before we strip down again and get our bath on. One last time. We’re waiting for the others to join us so that we can start the trek back to the border and onwards. The idea is to work our way back so that we’re in striking distance of the border tomorrow. We’re not crossing the border in Busia again (for obvious reasons, and it would be a detour for where we wanna end up. So Malaba it is.
Mattie, Marietta, Fanie and Hannelise joins us just after 09:00 and we make another quick visit to the falls to pay for the camping fee. Goodbye, you magnificent thing!
Very pleasant drive back to the camp gates. More baboons with babies blocking our path, before disappearing into the bushes. Stop for a few pics. Drive through 100’s of butterflies dancing on the wind (and some being sucked into the radiator. The Bullet is quite unfazed). By 11:20 or so we reach the gate and exit the park.
Interesting bit of road ahead of us, since we have to go via Kampala again. Eish. Before then we reach that same stretch of road with the speed bumps every 10 meters, men at work creating more bumps. We partake in a bit of slaloming again, driving over the bumps at an angle. Not long before we arrive back in Kampala, but it seems a bit more chilled today. Maybe we missed the peak traffic, it’s only like 13:45 or so.
Strange thing happens next. We make a call to try and drive on the brand new road that they’re building here. Now usually they’ll block your way, and they do after a few meters with planks of wood riddled with nails. But before we get too close, a worker jumps up and MOVES the barrier... So we continue driving. Next barrier (past these big concrete blocks) again, a worker moves it for us. There’s other traffic going through this ballet as well, bicycles, motorbikes, odd van or car. But it’s clear that you’re not technically supposed to drive here. The “halt, who goes there, ok, wait while I move the spikes” goes on 3 more times before we reach the last one. And here we are halted, by a very angry looking Ugandan wearing a bright yellow safety vest. Dirk chats to him, think he played dumb and just said we’re lost, and we didn’t know, etc etc. He doesn’t buy it, calls someone on the cell phone, more gesturing. Speak to Dirk again, we’re stuck here, right at the END, by this last obstacle.
No problem. Nothing a 1000 UGs can’t fix. Smiling broadly, he welcomes us to his stretch of the road. We smile and wave.
Onward we go, driving through sugar plantations as far as you can see. We arrive back in Jinja around 16:50. Mattie and Marietta pulls into the Nile River Resort (yeah, that 5 star resort I wrote about earlier). We head on to Adrift, that 1st camp site we checked out last week but camped at the Nile River explores instead. Still the same deal, we can’t park the vehicles next to the tents. No worries, we’re not cooking tonight. We’re opting for the restaurant instead. Couple of folks doing bungee jumps when we arrive, so out comes the big-huge lens and I’m snapping away. I offer to email the guys some pics, and they’re very chuffed.
We place our order for 19:30, Pizzas (the other grab pork snitchels) and hit the showers. Sit and have a drink, and right next to us in a bush two big spiders are prepping the parlour, probably putting their orders for chow in as well. Two crazy British chicks who I took bungee pics of buy me 2 large Nile beers (thanks!). Food arrives and we join the others. Nat, the manager (from Australia) is very friendly and makes chit chat. She buys us another round of beers! The other guys bail out, and I have to finish all the left overs. By the end of the night, I’ve had about 4.5 litres, excluding the sundown Savannah we had.
Needless to say, I slept like a rock.
Highlights: Free beer!
Morning bath in the Nile!
[G & A], out
Promise me you won’t stop when I say when
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