Mufasa blows a fuse or two, but we are determined to keep our heads above water!

They say that Jinja on the north shore of Lake Victoria is the adrenalin
centre of East Africa, if not the whole of Africa with the current situation
in Zimbabwe and the Vic Falls. Say no more we just had to get there and see
what near death experiences were on offer!
It is nice to have a short drive for a change and despite Mufasa blowing a
fuse the journey down to Jinja was uneventful. The fuse seems to be a
problem that is related to the washer and reverse light issues that have
cropped up so far. The reverse lights were now working after I had fixed the
switch (read glued it together) in Eldoret, but the fuse for the
washer/speedo and now as it turns out the reverse lights keeps blowing.
Story to be continued later!
Anyway, we headed to Jinja and the Bujugali Falls on the Nile about 9km
north of town. They are more rapids than falls and they will soon be gone
with the planned dam that is due to be constructed just down stream of the
falls. Our home for 2 nights the Eden Lodge (N0 29.082 E33 09.703) is a few
minutes walk from the falls and we almost had the camp grounds to ourselves.
There is a huge camping area that is grassy and dotted with huge trees, and
most peaceful. The bird life in the grounds is fab and kept us both busy.
The Bujugali Falls are the play ground for the white water river rafting
companies that operate on the Nile. We ventured down on the Sunday morning
to see them and hopefully watch some lucky punters wash up from their
adventure! The falls / rapids are pretty spectacular and are a grade 5 in
the white water rafting scales, i.e. death defying. Sure enough after a
short wait the lucky punters appeared. My God, it looked terrifying watching
from the safety of the river bank let alone being bashed around in the raft.
Two rafts went through, the first lost 2 or 3 punters, and the second passed
thru unscathed. Did it make us want to try it, not on your life! Everyone
was safely recovered.
On leaving Eden Lodge we hit downtown Jinja, not a bad place at all, a nice
African town. It is obviously a bit scruffy and suffered in Uganda's bad
years, but you can see the signs of it turning into a real place to be. Sue
was not too keen on all the fruit bats we saw down near the river,
especially when they left their roosts and flocked in numbers above our
heads. The other draw in town is the 'Source of the Nile', i.e. where the
lake ends and the river starts. Can you believe they wanted Ush10,000 each
plus Ush2,000 for Mufasa for us to drive down and see it. Needless to say we
said 'NO' and parked just up the road and saw it all from a great free
viewpoint! Crazy! Then it was time for the short drive to Kampala.
Once again we lost another fuse on the way, bugger. However we now have an
idea of what might be going on. As the fuse is on the circuit for
washer/speedo/reverse lights we have a theory that the damaged reverse
switch on the gearbox is now shorting the circuit and blowing the fuse as it
blew when I put Mufasa into reverse. Coincidence we don't know but I have
now disconnected the reverse switch and bagged and tapped the connector, so
watch this space. Just need to buy some more fuses!
The traffic coming into Kampala was grim as we had read it would be.
Thankfully our destination, Red Chilli Rest Camp (N0 19.205 E32 37.798) is
on the eastern side of town so for the moment we don't have to pass thru the
city and the worst of the traffic. Before hitting camp we made our way to
the Lugogo Mall, home of Shoprite and Game amongst others, basically an
ex-pat shopping centre. Very nice it was to and we stocked up on a couple of
essentials and will hit it again before leaving town to keep us going on the
road for a while.
So apart from a huge thunderstorm yesterday afternoon, tent wasn't erected,
it is hot and sunny in Kampala, but I think we might get another downpour
later! They have free internet here which is great if not very much in
demand, overland trucks stop here, and also a tad slow. It is a wireless
network but we don't have wireless on the laptop to make use of it, and
there is an ethernet connection free to plug the laptop into but I can't get
that to work either! Anyone got a Networks for Dummies book handy?
Next stop for us the Murchison Falls NP and our first taste of wild Uganda,
oh and the expensive parks fees too!