I returned from an assignment to Uganda a few weeks ago. It is the youngest, most vibrant spot outside of SA, especially the town of Jinja, on Lake Victoria and the source of the Nile. I could emigrate and live there very easily.
I stayed at the Nile River Explorers campsite in a tented boma overlooking the White Nile, as it hurtled north to Cairo and the Mediterranean. From where I chilled a lot of the time, in a thick cotton hammock, I could see the Bujagali Falls. There is a bar, restaurant in an open boma, with a wooden deck at the campsite.
I spent three days and nights there and met young adrenalin junkies from about 16 different countries. They come to Uganda – mostly to Jinja - to work as volunteers and to raft and kayak. The rapids are Class 5 (the best anywhere in the world). And, phew, can these youngsters party! I am not a water-baby so my adrenaline rush – apart from the parties – was a stunning horseback ride one morning along the banks of the Nile on a 19 hand bay thoroughbred, Geronimo. I cast my mind back to a night in Jinja at the 5 Star Nile Resort Hotel, where, through a contact I was invited for drinks with delegates from the Ugandan Tourist Board, following a conference held there. They persuaded me to stay for dinner, a fantastic spread beside the pool in the gardens of the hotel. A DJ was playing Ugandan reggae, mostly Bobby Wine, a local superstar.
On my way to the bathrooms, I passed four young guys dancing in a circle next to the DJ, and broke into a little reggae move. (I had heard earlier that in October 2008 UB40 held one of their biggest-ever-attended world concerts – in Kampala!). One young guy called out to me: “Hey, Mzungu (white man), come dance!” I happily joined the circle for a few numbers. We introduced each other. They were from Kampala, Uganda’s capital city (where I also stayed for two nights). Three of them were from the tourism delegation; the other is a Bugandan prince, Prince Waasaga, son of the present king (kabaka) of Buganda, the largest of the four kingdoms combined under the name Uganda by the British.
