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Whitewater’s quick guide to Uganda.

Now I’ve only been the once, so I won’t say I’m any sort of Ugandan sage but this is what we think.


Getting there: We flew Emirates to Dubai, and then a quick stop in Addis Ababa, yes that’s Ethiopia, then onto Entebbe. Can’t fault the air line never questioned the boats (never weighted the boats) nice plane happy staff £526.00 Barging! A Tomato (mini bus to all you that don’t speak Ugandan) from Entebbe to Jinja/ NRE cost us 150,000 Ugandan notes (70 dollars if you prefer….) takes about 3 hours, depending on traffic cows and how many chickens on sticks you get on route.



Acomidation: How rich do you feel? We stayed most of out time at Nile River Explores (NRE) run by a smashing chap called Jack (likes his rugby, Beer & quad bike, no particular order!) there is a variety of accommodation, dorms think were 7 dollars and night, safari tents 25 dollars a night sleep two or a room think were 30 dollars. I stayed in a tent! fine there are other options, Nile river resort is just down the road and offers an excellent slice of colonial England (Posh) 100 dollars a night (ish…) or Nile porch this is just threw NRE and offers big tented room things, pretty posh again 100 dollars a night. Down river you have the other big main paddling stop over the Hairy Lemon. Set in an amazing location hiden away on a little island you get here via a small boat dorms cost 40000 shilling a night this includes a break fast and dinner, The food is OK…… you can tent it up here not to sure on the price, but it’s going to be cheap.



Food & Boozy: Well you have loads to choose from, at NRE cup of tea cost 1000 Uganda Shilling at the moment £1 gets you 3050 Uganda Shilling. Breakfast and dinner, if you recon on 10,000 shilling per meal then you have loads to choose from, starting from soup, burgers, loads of fresh fruit , Beef schnitzel was really nice. Plenty to choose from If you fancy a bit of a poser nosh in between the Nile Porch and NRE you have a nice place called the Black lantern a Ugandan mixed grill here cost 26,000 shilling and was more meet than I could eat, The ribs are really good to as is the fish loads of nice tilapia! A banana cost 200 shilling and a pineapple a 1000. You will not go hungry, oh and finally the Original chapatti man out front of NRE, Chapatti’s start from 800 shilling and go up to I think 1800 for a true deluxe version and can have anything in them. Great local stuff, Di Nile Café just down the road (turn right out of NRE and head for the crocodile) serves a lovely fry up as for drink a bottle of water was 1000 shilling I think. Alcohol just put it on your tab and worry about the price in the morning!
Getting around for a paddle: There are about 100 000 boda-boda’s in Uganda a boda-boda is a motor bike, normally a 125 but you can find some more powerful versions if you look for them! Sit on the back your boat on your legs and you’re off a run back from Silver Back to NRE cost 3500 shilling! You can haggle? generally I found it better to tip a bit, find a good one and stick to them like glue good guys. My man was a fell a called Bobby (eh Bobby what is the French for va-va-voom? I digress, Sorry) he was sound a as pound, met his wife and kids at the local village top stuff. A taxi to the hairy lemon will be any where from 50000 to 80000 shilling. Or if you fancy a quick paddle jump in at NRE paddle down to just below Bujagali Falls and walk back! 10/15 minuets, good for short paddle



Paddling: Knew we went there for a reason! Where to begin! Day one……. The day one section has some amazing rapids including The Hump, Bujagali, all the back channels, Itanda Falls (a true gem of a rapid) good big powerful rapids. The day two section is a bit sorter but still has some great rapids and is a probably a bit better for play boating, Nile special and club wave are at the end of this day two. In my opinion the best wave on the river is just below “hair of the dog” a wave called Mutts nuts, big powerful, a true man’s wave! You can run these days as sections or split them up in to smaller chunks. To explore the back channels can take a good few hours, test your metal against widow maker and such! Hypoxia is a good one to have a look at on the day two secion, run it?????!!? No.
So there you go 5 easy bit of advice to enjoy the river, the trip, the country. The only other thing that is nice to know. In Africa time really doesn’t exist! It amazing



Enjoy ;-)

posted by Pete @ 6:58 AM