A nice leisurely morning was what we needed and exactly what we got. After the mid-morning rain, we had a great lunch on the porch overlooking Lake Victoria. We then got ready and left for Jinja, but not before being delayed by this huge truck struggling uphill in deep mud. He had been digging the dirt road for over an hour and blocking anyone else from coming or going. Apparently this is quite common as the houses on the street are always under construction and these types of huge trucks need to deliver building materials, etc.
When we arrived at Jinja, we met Chris and Chiho who had rafted the previous day and were recuperating today. We had dinner together at the Nile River Explorer's Camp and outlined a rough itinerary of our Lake Turkana route in Kenya.
Basically, overlanders have two options when going from Kenya to Ethiopia (or vice versa). You can choose to do the Marsabit route, which is reportedly a long stretch of barren land and totally uninspiring. Or the alternative route is to go by Lake Turkana which offers more diverse scenery, people, and lots of dirt roads. It is not a good idea to do the Lake Turkana route in a single vehicle as it is quite remote and chances are you will need help at some point.
So we are hoping to do it with one or two more cars, preferably well-equipped ones. The task now is to obtain our Ethiopian visas in Kampala as they do not issue them at the Ileret border (on the Lake Turkana route), and to get our Carnet de Passage stamped (probably in Nairobi), for the same reason.
Lots to think and plan about. But first, we had white water rafting on the Nile to look forward to tomorrow!!
Start: Phil and Claire's home, Kampala, UG. 14:30
End: Nile River Explorers Camp, Jinja, UG. 17:20
Distance Traveled: 110 km
Road Conditions: roads are ok, it's the crazy raving mad buses overtaking at every opportunity that was scary
Temperature: cool and cloudy
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