Jinja, Uganda

Smooth ride to Jinja and onto Bugagali Falls near the source of the Nile. I took a boat tour for $3 and eventually had the boat leave me on one of the islands in the midst of the Nile. I set up camp and took a swim during the perfect sunset. At night, the dam-controlled water level rose unexpectedly and flooded my fire and camp. Oops.

I spent the whole day reading beside a massive set of rapids and I am loving Seven Years in Tibet. What a guy! Imagine my joy when I found a passion fruit tree, and a lemon tree right above the location where I had settled in. I stayed on the island for a second sunset and then headed to town with the goal of socializing. To my disappointment, I found only a lonely old man in a mud hut and so I camped beside him on his hill as it was an epic location overlooking the Nile. He spoke no English but somehow made good company - just two bachelors chillin' in DeNile. Eventually some children came to say hello and they were soon gathering supplies and cooking for me in exchange for some expired AA batteries - they were absolutely thrilled with the exchange.

I started probing for kayak lessons in the morning. The asking price for lessons was $115 per day, but I found an arrangement for $10 per day without entirely abandoning my personal safety or the quality of gear to be used. It cannot be understated how much I enjoyed the hours of bartering with the local instructors. In the end, my teacher is a Rasta named Luke who speaks only broken English. He is a safety kayaker for the locally owned rafting tours and is quite adept at the sport. I'm looking forward to this very much.

I got to know one of the boys who cooked pasta for me the night before and he invited me to camp on the flat land on his grandfather's matoke farm. I've spent the last two days there, kayaking with Luke during the days.