Jinja and the Source of the Nile

Two hours from the airport,
and nothing like the rest of the trip.

The Nile leaves Lake Victoria at Jinja and runs 6,650 kilometres to the Mediterranean. John Hanning Speke reached this spot in 1862 and ended the most argued-over geographical question of the century. The water below it is some of the best commercial whitewater anywhere.

Jinja is the one place on a Uganda itinerary that is not about wildlife, and it is usually the day people talk about afterwards. It sits two hours from Entebbe, which makes it the obvious first or last stop rather than a detour.

The rafting here is genuinely world class. The commercial section runs grade five, with long pools between the rapids and safety kayakers on every one, and the companies running it have been doing so for decades. There is also a grade three family float that takes people who have never held a paddle, including children.

If none of that appeals, the same stretch of river does quiet very well: a sunset boat to the source itself, kayaking on flat water, or a morning on a bicycle through the villages along the bank. It is the easiest day in the country to tune to whoever is travelling.