Blogs from Bujagali Falls, Eastern Region, Uganda, Africa

Again.....Another trip to Jinja, this time with the aim of actually doing something! I went up on the Friday, again on the free shuttle! i spent most of friday chilling at the bar with the magnificent views over the river! I even went for a swim down on the beach that NRE had made, the current on this part of the river was rather fast! I had a relatively early night as I had to be up early saturday to go rafting! :) Having rolled out of bed and into the bus to take me to the main NRE site to get the briefing, equipment for rafting, breakfast and to meet the other rafters we where finally on our way to the start point. The drive to the start point took us out of Jinja and ... read more

Today I took a walk downstream to look at the falls! I left the campsite and went through the main gate at the entrance to the falls, where you have to pay 3000Ugandan Shillings (about 80p?) and walked towards the river, firstly i walked down to a small area that sticks out just above the falls, where there was some local people doing their washing and fishing, I then walked back up to the road/track and carried on down towards the falls, passing through an old hostel that some local families had moved into! from here i could see the Bujagali Falls, and some of the smaller falls up and down stream of it! This particular area is full of people trying to sell you trips across the river or kayak/rafting trips! As i was leaving ... read more

After the 5 days of doing very little, I decided to take a trip out to Jinja for a few days away from Kampala. Another early start, and I was the only person on the free shuttle bus between Kampala and Jinja! I read for a bit then went to sleep for the rest of the journey. The bus reached Nile River Explorers Backpackers in Jinja Town at about 9 45, and I had some breakfast, before getting a Boda out too Nile River Explorers Campsite out at Bujagali Falls, set on the top of the Hill, overlooking the falls! After putting my bags into the dorm, I cam out to the bar, where the balcony overlooks the river, very impressive view. I took a Boda back down into Jinja to get some things (much needed ... read more

My first bit of travelling around Uganda was to Bujagali Falls and a chance to finally see what all the fuss about it being a beautiful country is about. Thus far, I had only really seen Kampala and the places where Lauren and I live, Nansana and Kazo respectively. The journey from Kampala told us a lot about the differences between the two places. It took us nearly three hours, half of which was spent in traffic coming out of Kampala which has grown much faster than its road and transport infrastructure can handle. When we arrived in Jinja I immediately was struck by the space. Though it is supposedly Uganda’s second city, it is around one twentieth of the size of Kampala and in the couple of hours we were there the difference seemed immense. ... read more

Alright sorry guys, its been quite some time since we arrived but im afraid Ive been having way too much fun to be updating any kind of blog. So yeah, we touched down in Entebbe on the 10th June, loaded up our kayaks onto a taxi and headed to the NRE campsite at Bujagali falls. For me and Chris it was quite a mellow ride as we'd both been to Uganda before, but I think James was a little bit more aware of the three crashes and volatile driving we witnessed. Luckily we arrived just as the bar was closing and had enough time to have a cheeky bottle of Nile Special under the quite visible milky way. First day paddling went surprisingly well. First obstacle was Bujagali falls, graded somewhere between 4-5 (out of 6, ... read more

Managed to add a few pics to the previous blog if you fancy a look... I’ve met up With the rest of the group and now we are on the road and have already visited our first National Park and done our first game drives in Kenya. There are only 10 of us to start with, and I am the only one going all the way to Cape Town. Some of the others are only doing the Nairobi to Nairobi loop, others are going to Livingstone, a few others are changing trucks at Livingstone and going on to Johannesburg. We are picking up 8 more in Kampala, who are doing the Kampala to Kampala loop ónly, we then pick up another 14 or so in Nairobi - in other words, people are coming and going all ... read more

We have been having an excellent time here in Bujagali Falls, just outside Jinja in South Eastern Uganda. We are not sure how long we will stay here, but are definitely in no hurry to leave at all!!! We got here a few days ago, after crossing the border from Kenya through Malaba, and traveling via Jinja where we did an overnighter to stock up on supplies before venturing out here. Yesterday we were painting a local school with an organisation called Softpower. Softpower are a non-religious NGO with an extremely wide portfolio of educational activities including rebuilding and maintaining local government schools, funding a couple of local nursery schools (the government does not provide free nursery schools here, but without them women find it extremely difficult to perform all the tasks demanded of them, such ... read more

It’s hard to believe, but I’m now at the end of week four of my seven weeks in Uganda. The past few weeks have been incredibly busy, both with work and socialising! Access to the internet is limited, and power has been pretty erratic, so I’m grabbing an opportunity to upload this now and have another entry half-written to follow soon. Struggling with photos at present as the uploader is playing up, but have added them to the previous two so you can start to get a picture and managed to get a few in here. Loads more to come later. Thanks to all who have posted messages - please keep them coming! It's great to hear from home - sometimes I feel very far away, and texts and emails often seem to be going astray. ... read more