Jinja by Bike
Wednesday, August 8th, 2007So we get up the next morning and decide we want to see Jinja by bike. So this guy at the backpackers rented us bikes that we could just bike for the day and then bike out to the Bujagali Falls campsite which is like 10 km away and he would come pick them up. So…following a cartoon map…yes, another cartoon map…
We head out to the Source of the Nile. Guess why they call it that. It seems kind of weird since Uganda is in the middle of the continent and the end of the Nile is north. And in my head rivers should go south. Anyway, it’s pretty, but really kind of lame because it’s kind of where the government decided the Source of the Nile should be – there used to be a waterfall but they cabashed that to make it more stable so it’s not really the original Source. And of course we got lost. But, that’s just classically John and Cindy.
We head out of the Source of the Nile and get caught up in this huge 200 plus groups of kids and have to end up carrying the bikes over them. Something about an agricultural deal (kind of like 4H). Luckily a few guys helped me out because I’ve got the muscle tone of an ant at this point. I mean, exercise besides walking is pretty much non-existant. John’s been doing pushups lately. Did I mention that he didn’t really have a butt before, but he REALLY HAS NO BUTT now. And can you say skinny? He could use some of his mom’s cooking…
Anyway, oh yeah, we head through Jinja town to this viewpoint of the town. This guy’s cartoon map is really getting sketchy at this point – luckily we’re in Uganda where you can usually find someone who speaks English (since it’s their official language but not everyone knows it) – so somehow we finally find the road to the viewpoint. And oh my gosh it was a pretty darn big hill. When everyone is pushing bikes up this hill it’s got to be a good hill. Totally beautiful at the top though. Definitely see why this guy heads people up there. Then we hit a snag. We are heading back towards town when this guy waves at us. So John goes toward this guy because, typically, Ugandans are really friendly and nice – but this guy wanted to take his bike. John started yelling at this guy to take his hands off the bike and being really loud about the whole thing and the guy let him go. It was like a little gang of guys that I guess stole bikes. Although I can’t imagine why you’d want to steal some of the bikes around here. They’re a bit trashed.
Anyway, after 5-6 wrong turns we finally made it to the road to Bujagali. It was kind of a long day and bikes on 2 people who haven’t biked in a really long time. But totally fun – we had a good dinner at the Black Lantern (John had spare ribs – he was in heaven), had some wine with Kristi & Kelly and headed to bed.
Everyone comes here to raft the Nile, but we’re perfectly fine to stay on land for now!
JohnCin