Nakuru to Jinja (Uganda) - July 25th

July 25th, 2008:

Short: Discuss travel options with the camp owners, Drive to the Lake Bagario region, Cross the equator, Have lunch in Eldoret, Decide to try and make the Ugandan Border, Make the Ugandan border!, Spend the night in Jinja

Long: While at breakfast the owners of the camp were nice enough to walk over and help us plan our route to Uganda. We had mentioned to them last night that any recommendations would be welcomed, and they obliged. After a short discussion we decided we would take the longer, but more scenic, route north to the lakes region, and then head west to the Ugandan border. We planned to stay the night in Eldoret, a city in western Kenya, and possibly meet up with a friend of a friend from school who is working at a hospital there. After thanking, and bidding farewell to, the camp owners and their dogs (They have massive Great Dane), we began driving north to the lakes.

As expected the drive was beautiful, but long. One hour into the drive, as we passed a small town, we noticed two large signs had been posted announcing that we were crossing the equator. We were actually somewhat surprised, but a quick reference to our map confirmed we were indeed crossing the equator. As we neared the Lake we began to climb steeply into lush mountains, and then slowly descended again as we headed west towards Eldoret. We passed a number of towns, and the children in this region seemed to be particularly excited to see us. They would wave and yell “Mazungu” (Spelled wrong, but means “White People”) as we drove by. We have encountered this in quite a few towns along the trip, and it always makes us laugh.

Around 2 pm we pulled into Eldoret and had lunch at a restaurant in the center of town. At lunch we decided we would try and make it to the Uganda border before it closed at 6. While we would have loved to have stayed and spend time with our friend’s friend, we were also tired of driving, and just wanted to relax in Uganda the next day. It would be tight getting across the border, as it was almost 3 pm, and we had been told it would take 2-3 hours to get to the border, and another hour to cross. Luck was on our side though, and we made it to the border around five. We navigated through the paperwork on the Kenyan side quickly and then drove to the Uganda side. The border desks for non-Kenyan, and non-Ugandans, were completed desolate. After completing all of the paperwork we were informed we would have to pay road tax, but that the bank, responsible for processing this payment, was closed. Typical…the border is open to six, but the bank needed to make payments at the border closed at four. We ended up paying the road tax to the border agent, and he signed and stamped a makeshift receipt. He promised us we would have no issues with this receipt if we are stopped by the police.

Once through the border we drove about 50 meters before we hit gridlock traffic. The resident traffic was terrible, and it took another hour before we had forced our way into line, and through the last border gate. After crossing, we did what has now become a ritual after entering a new country: We used Niki’s I-pod and, loudly, played Africa, by Toto, and even had the added benefit of simultaneously watching the sunset over the Ugandan country side. Ritual over, we continued west and despite a horribly damaged section of road just outside of Jinja, we made good time. After checking into our hostel, we managed to have a late dinner at a nice Italian restaurant, called “Two Friends,” and then headed to bed.