Gone Raftin'

We took another break from work a few weeks ago to visit Jinja, which is about an hour and a half drive east of Kampala. Jinja is home to the source of the Nile River, at the spot where the river starts out of Lake Victoria. It's quite well known as an adventure seekers paradise, with bungee jumping, horseback riding and mountain biking available. But of course the main attraction is the white-water rapids of the Nile, which is the reason we were there for the weekend.

Our day on the river started with a bang, as we went over this 'little' waterfall right off the bat. Somehow we managed to stay in the boat through this section, but that wouldn't be the case later in the day.

Enjoying a relatively quiet moment... there were actually long stretches of calm, smooth water in between the eight rapids of the day. We did quite a lot of paddling to get down the river - I think we did about 25 km in total.


Each boat had a guide at the back, who seemed to do most of the work of keeping the boats upright through the rapids - or ensuring that the boat flipped, if that's what you wanted. Our guide, Juma, seemed to be a bit more experienced and responsible than a few of the others, much more cautious. Some of the younger guys seemed to try to flip their boat at each rapid!

Of course we did flip a few times, leaving you disoriented for a few intense moments. The only thing to do is hold your breath and wait for the lifejacket to pop you back up to the surface.

Jinja is definitely the big tourist destination in the country, particularly for the younger backpacker types. I had a bit of cultureshock while at the rafting campground bar, being surrounded by more 'muzungus' than I had seen in one place in months. It's a combination rafting adventure company, hostel and campground, with about 150 tourists partying it up in the bar.

Time goes by

It's hard to believe, but my time here in Uganda is actually coming to a close. I am now in my final two weeks of this three month adventure, and it's just starting to get really interesting! Hah, no, of course the whole experience has been interesting, but our work on the Kitaka Mine has just started to progress really quickly in the last week.

Another couple of pictures from our visit to the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre, the first is one of the hyenas and the other is Barb and I with a shoebill. What an amazing bird! We entered the enclosure and our guide called him, and this huge bird flew right over to us and landed right beside me. It's quite a social animal, and was apparently gesturing to us and looking for the appropriate response. He would drop his head in a bow, and wiggle it back and forth - like shaking your head 'no' while bent over. We were instructed to repeat the gesture, in order to indicate that we were friendly, and to avoid getting nipped in the arm with that large beak!

As for our work at the mine, it looks like I'll be leaving just as the production work gets underway. We've partnered with a group of Chinese investors who were brought on board by our Ugandan backer, and they are interested in moving very quickly on the project. So far it seems that our interests are aligned, as far as the social and environmental responsibility components are concerned, but we will have to see how things go to be sure. Mining is a high-risk enterprise, and things can change quickly. Hopefully the future of the Kitaka mine is as positive and beneficial for the community and the area as the initial planning and development have been.

Animals!

This pic is from a spot along the road from Kampala to Mbarara, on our way out to the mine camp. Apparently the area is renowned for the quality of the meat - we picked up 5 kilos of beef before heading on, at a price of 5000 shillings a kilo (about 2 dollars). You can see a couple of very large birds on the roof, known as the garbage pile birds.

On Barb's final day here in Uganda, we visited the Wildlife Education Centre. A nice thing about knowing locals is that you get the chance to experience things that most tourists might not get to.

Chimps are pretty amazing creatures - they have some great facial expressions. Looking into the eyes of the chimps here was a really wonderful experience. You realize just how closely related we are when you watch their behaviour and look into their eyes. We came across a shirt here in a tourist shop recently that seems appropriate, it simply says '98.7% Chimp' across the front. Heh.

We were excited to get to see this baby elephant that was brought in recently to the Centre. Elephants are very social animals and it's usually not a very good idea to keep them alone, but this baby had been abandoned and was rescued from drowning in Lake Victoria just a few weeks before we visited. It had a few injuries and it seems like it's getting very good care. Hopefully when it gets better it will be returned to a group of other elephants.

Rhino! We've seen a rhinoceros before, but it's still stunning to be so close to such an amazing creature. The keeper called this one over, and we got to pet the horn and scratch his hide a bit... very rough to touch! The keeper was using the sole of his boot to give him a rubdown.

Mini-vacation in Ethiopia

Barb and I managed to get away from Uganda for a few days to visit our friends Kevina and Njoroge in Addis Ababa. We had a great visit, a nice mix of relaxing and getting out to see a bit of the country. This stone carving was along the road out of Addis, as we were driving to see part of the Great Rift Valley.

There's all sorts of things along the road, including these women herding a few donkeys - or rather, running to keep up with the trotting donkeys!

There's lots of ways to transport goods - we saw a few of these makeshift carts along the way.

We had lots of fun getting to know Kevina and Njoro's little girl Isla - a bundle of energy! She is full of life and loves to laugh and try new things. This is her first time painting - a natural talent, I think!

We got out of Addis for an afternoon to have lunch at a little place on the edge of the Great Rift Valley, about 100 km out of the city. We walked along a short path to a small bridge, built by Portuguese soldiers in the 1600's, and got some great shots on the edge of a stunning valley.

After 5 days it was time to go home, and now Barb and I are back in Entebbe. Ethiopia has a very different feel to Uganda, I'm really glad we got a chance to experience a different part of Africa. However I've been told that Ethiopians don't really identify as African, they generally consider themselves unique among Africans. They are very proud of their culture and heritage.

More interesting images

It's pretty amazing just how much people can load onto their bikes or motorcycles here. We've seen kitchen table sets, bundles of metal rebar, large storage trunks, stacks of beer crates 4 high, and this guy with about a dozen empty water jerry cans. These loads are certainly the norm, rather than the exception.

Barb and I went back to Aero Beach this weekend, and arrived hungry. Luckily they will serve you food and drink on the beach, so we were excited to hear that they had fish and chips available. Not exactly the English style breaded fish sticks, the dish arrived with a whole tilapia and a side of chips! Yum... it was actually quite tasty despite the somewhat terrifying appearance.



We got comfortable with the baboons visiting the camp, though not too comfortable... they're still pretty scary sounding even if the young ones are really cute.





Here's the current water setup, hopefully just the very short-term setup. We procured the large 1000L tank and managed to fill it with a few trips to the local well, with the 10 new jerry cans that we also bought. Hopefully we can soon run a long pipe from the adjacent hillside, to pump spring water into the tank and keep it topped up. Until that happens, the guys will have to continue filling jerry cans and bringing them back to the camp on a bicycle.



Lots of small villages grow coffee among their matooke banana trees, and they lay out the crop in the sun to dry. I think some of the coffee is for their own use, while the rest is traded or sent to a local coffee co-operative for packaging and sale. Ugandan coffee is pretty good, but we're heading to Ethiopia next week where I hear the coffee is even better.

Sweet Sweet Water...

It's been a pretty amazing week for Barb and I, we've been out at the mine camp in the southwest of the country for the last 6 days. The camp runs pretty smoothly, the 10 or so guys working here have a good rapport and all work really hard. We've been doing lots of different things; setting up the office area in the main house, buying a large water tank for the camp, scouting out a clean water source to supply the camp in the future. This first picture is at the big waterfall in the area, where they're planning to install a hydroelectric project in the future. We went out to see it while the guys took a reading of the river flow rate.


This picture of Barb on the hill is from the day we went to scout the water. There's a natural spring coming from the mountain near this point, and we were measuring the distance from the campsite, in order to estimate the cost of running a pipe across the valley to provide fresh water for the camp. We went back another day with a GPS unit to measure the elevation - we may be able to send the water just using gravity, no pumps needed.


We stopped along the road on our way to the mine to check out the drummaker's shop - Barb was pretty excited! As I'm writing this post Barb is outside with the miners, playing on the drums she bought! Music has an amazing power to transcend cultural boundaries and language barriers. Last night I brought out my harmonicas, and some of the guys were very interested. I brought along a few extra harps to give to the guys, so I think they're going to learn. This afternoon I heard one of them practicing across the camp on his own, so there's definitely some interest!

Battery power is running out on our computer, and I don't know if we can run the generator tonight, so I'll cut this post short. I think we're driving back to Entebbe this weekend so more posts should follow in the next few days. I must say that both Barb and I are really loving this trip and adventure, it's been amazing in many ways. I'm sure more adventures are on the way for both of us!

Aero Beach day

When you head out for a day at the beach, you may not expect to arrive to a field full of decommissioned airplanes, but this is Uganda and this is Aero Beach! After paying 2000 shillings at the gate for admission (a little less than one dollar) we parked near one plane that supposedly was once used for smuggling goods into the country, perhaps during the reign of Idi Amin. It certainly looks like it's been parked here for a long time, the wheels are sunk into the ground and the engines are in various states of disassembly.

Across the field another plane was also parked, and it had been painted in tribute to the current American president. Apparently Obama is quite a celebrity here in East Africa, as he has family roots in Kenya. Oddly, it seems that Gaddafi of Libya is also a bit of a local celebrity, though I haven't really figured out why just yet.

We walked down to the lakeshore after parking, and found some interesting sights at the water's edge. Lots of people splashing around and playing in the water near the shore, which is to be expected, but then when you look out at the water there's a small boat with a pair of guys casting out a net for fish.

Then about 30 minutes after we sat down a pair of camels appeared behind us waiting for some customers. A few thousand shillings gets you a camel ride up and down the beach.

It was a pretty interesting day... it's nice to have someone bring you drinks right to your chair on the beach, but after a few hours the place filled up with drunk teenagers and was quite a wild party. We ducked out just as it was getting to be too much crazy energy.