We have had problems with the Internet in our apartment for the past few weeks. If it is working, it is very slow and almost impossible to download pictures. We finally went to the office to finish our post about our trip to Uganda.
On the Friday morning, July 24th, we took a little adventure trip to search for the source of the Nile River, just as explorers did a couple hundred years ago. This time though, we had a small advantage because there were signs everywhere in Ninja pointing the way. We left at 9 and drove to Jinja (rhymes with Ninja). There were 7 of us, the Howards, Kinghorns, Petersons and our driver Godfrey.
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| Godfrey, our driver for the trip to Jinja |
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| Shanty on the bank of the Nile |
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| Shacks on the opposite bank |
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| Mahatma Gandhi asked to have his ashes scattered in the Nile River. |
We hired a little boat and a guide, and set out on the Nile River. We started about 1 mile below where the Nile River begins as it leaves Lake Victoria there at Jinja. We rode up to the point where the river actually leaves Lake Victoria.
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| Sign on a hotel property proclaiming the "Source of the Nile" |
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| Sign out in the river channel itself, at the supposed exact spot of the Nile's source |
There are signs all around talking about that being the source of the Nile, the longest river in the world. If flows from there 4,000 miles to where it empties into the Mediterranean Sea from Egypt. The sign also says that it takes the water 3 months to make that trip.
The trip was really interesting. We saw so many different kinds of neat birds.
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| Two beautiful Eagles |
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| I believe this is a type of Crane |
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| A bunch of Storks |
We saw a lot of black storks that eat 4 pounds of food daily and poop every 5 minutes.
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| Bird poop in foliage beneath trees |
Besides birds, we saw river otters, monitor lizards and some huge spiders.
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| Some cute monkeys |
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Two pictures of a well disguised Monitor Lizard
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It is quite heavily populated near the river so there really aren't a lot of large animals around. Our guide also said the river is too deep for crocodiles, but there are lots of snakes along the banks, although we didn’t see any.
Lake Victoria is the second largest freshwater lake in the world (after Lake Superior), and there are thousands of smaller rivers and streams that feed into it. Some people say that you must go to the source of the longest river/stream that feeds Lake Victoria to find the true source of the Nile. But everyone in Uganda claims this to be the true source of the Nile. It makes for good press and also tourist dollars.
So it’s at Jinja, Uganda where the River Nile starts. Even at that point, it’s a huge river. It’s between ½ to 1 mile wide already there at its source. It’s actually called the White Nile there in Uganda. Many miles downstream at Khartoum, in Sudan it meets up with the Blue Nile. At that point, the Blue Nile contributes more water than the White Nile, but because the White Nile is longer, the source of the Nile is traced back from the White Nile.
All of the following pictures were taken from the window of our van as we drove back to Kampala from Jinja.
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| A truck loaded with sugar cane |
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| A truck loaded with baskets |
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No wait! They're actually all tied to the bicycle this guy was pushing up a hill
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