Day 21 - July 26

Today was our day to be tourists. I think it’s necessary on every trip to do at least one day that you aren’t doing a lot of work and that you have some time to relax. Unfortunately, the way it works out for us, all of our relaxing days are at the beginning and then we have some really busy days from tomorrow until Saturday. I think it will be a lot of long days ahead, but hopefully we can manage.

We decided that we should be able to manage to use public transport to get to Jinja and then find a special taxi to get to the horseback riding place. Since Jozeph was our driver and we had to fit 5 people into his car, he didn’t want to travel all the way to the downtown taxi park because he didn’t want to get stopped by the traffic police. I would hate to be the reason that Jozeph was in trouble for anything, so I was fine doing whatever he asked. We went to a smaller taxi park near where we live. The only problem with the smaller parks is that taxis fill up much slower. We found an EMPTY mtatu that was the only one labeled for Jinja. Angella and I decided to look around and see if we could find any others that were going that direction. Sometimes you have to ask the drivers specifically where they are going in order to find out their destination. The park is pretty much mass chaos, with mtatu’s parked in all different directions and guys yelling where they are going. I’m actually kind of glad we didn’t go to the downtown park because it is ten times as chaotic and probably would have been a bit overwhelming for the group of us.

Since we couldn’t find another taxi and we were still the only ones in the mtatu, we were getting doubtful that we would make it to Jinja in time to go riding. After 30 minutes, I decided we had to make a deal. I told Angella that we should offer to pay for the empty seats in the mtatu if they would promise us to not stop and pick up more people and take us to our final destination. I sometimes feel like we are taking advantage of Angella because she is always our interpreter. For the drivers and shop-owners, they see a Ugandan woman with a bunch of Mzungus and they expect her to help them out by giving them business at a high price. We want Angella to help us get a fair price. It ends up putting her in a sticky situation where she feels like she is being pulled from both sides. If only I spoke Luganda! I would gladly try to negotiate prices with people, but there is just too much of a language barrier to make that possible sometimes. The driver was receptive to our offer, but charged us 7000 per seat even though the going rate is probably only 5000. We had to pay for a total of 14 seats, making the final price 98,000 shillings. Even though it seemed like a lot, it was much better than the price we would have paid for a special hire and it was the best way to ensure we got there in time. The ride was actually quite pleasant. We could spread out in all the seats, open all the windows without people in front of us closing them, and we got to go straight to the location.

When we got to Jinja, we had to call for directions. The woman on the phone was so nice and didn’t mind that we might be a little late. Sometimes I forget that being late is almost always expected, but when I had called to plan the trip, the man on the phone insisted that we were ten minutes early. I would rather be early and have to wait around than late, even though most people would expect lateness. Angella is the exception to most Ugandans. She is almost always on time or early and she likes it when other people are too.

We had to turn down a narrow dirt road to get to the horses. We are lucky we even saw the little yellow sign pointing us in the right direction. None of the boda drivers or local workers we asked knew exactly what we were talking about, so we just had to keep our eyes open and hope we could find our way. Apparently Jinja had gotten much more rain that we did in Kampala yesterday because the road was a pile of mud. The driver did not want to go, but Angella insisted they take us where they said they would. We were pretty much sliding out of control the entire way. At one point, we slid to within a few inches of a matooke tree. At least we weren’t really going fast so we probably wouldn’t hit anything too hard. Ahead of us, we saw a big white truck just stopped and parked across the road. We realized it was completely stuck in the mud. I called the woman at the horse place and she said she knew about the truck and her husband was on his way to pick us up with the jeep. We saw him right away coming up behind the truck. The mtatu driver started to ask for more money, but I had already counted out the exact amount and he had already overcharged us. I’ve learned that if you have exact change, there is no opportunity for people to say they don’t have change so they won’t be able to keep more money. It doesn’t happen with every driver, but there are quite a few that it seems to be the case and I’d rather err on the side of caution!

We had to stand up in the back of the truck because it was wet and full of red dirt. There was no warning about all of the trees so we were just hanging on to a big pole and trying to duck as much as we could. At one point, Angella and Pamela, who were slightly in front of Nick, ducked without warning while he was looking the other way and he turned around just in time to run into the branches. It couldn’t have been timed better!

The view from the ranch was amazing! They are on top of a hill overlooking the River Nile as it wraps around a couple of islands. Everything is green and beautiful around it with the sound of the rushing water to calm you down. The people that own the horses are a couple from the Pacific. She is from New Zealand and he is from Australia. They moved to the country 10 years ago because he had visited and loved the country. They’ve been living on the river for over 6 years and are able to keep the horses and rent out land to make money. Some of the most interesting people I have met have been from Australia or New Zealand. It seems that they are much more likely to be adventurous or live in interesting places than people from the U.S.

The horses were a great way to do something different. Angella had never ridden one and she had mentioned it was on her “bucket list” of things to do in life. We really wanted to help her out with her list and I thought it would be pretty fun to see her riding a horse, so we offered to gift her the trip. I’m so happy she decided to accept! My horse was named Sam Bucca. The only reason I recognized that he was named after alcohol was that when we studied in Australia, a woman invited us to her house and she got really excited about opening her bottle of Sam Bucca and sharing it with us. Apparently it was some sort of special liquor or the bottle was special to her. Now every time I’ve heard that name, all I can think about is the trip to Margaret River with the sweet little woman who fed us and entertained us for an evening.

Sam Bucca the horse was great, except for the fact that all he wanted to do was eat! I felt bad depriving him, so I often just let him stop and munch on some leaves. If I really wanted him to go, all I had to do was give him a tug and a kick and he would be obedient. It was just hard to deny him food when I knew he was doing all the work and I was just sitting back letting him struggle on the slippery roads. The horses were having a bit of a tough time after the rain. The guides didn’t really want to go to fast to ensure that the horses were not sliding around too much. I was okay with that. It takes a lot of energy to stay on the saddle when you are trotting and I preferred a relaxing ride. There was a little girl named Naomi who was also on the ride with us and she really wanted to trot. She was probably only 9 or 10 but she really loves to ride horses. I think we figured out that she is the daughter of some Mzungu that runs a resort in Jinja.

Overall, the horses were great, except that Angella’s slipped and made her scream at least a few times. Nick had some issues keeping his on the trail. Naomi’s horse started bucking and going crazy at one point. My mom, being the trooper that she is, stayed on the horse and kept a smile most of the time, but I think she was having trouble getting her horse to do what she wanted. It’s funny because no matter where we go, people call her mom. The guides kept going back to help “mom” with her horse. The ride itself was through a local village in Jinja on some of the trails through the fields. The last part of the ride was gorgeous! We got to go to a clearing overlooking some of the rapids. I recognized them from when we went whitewater rafting because they were right next to the rest camp where we get to eat dinner. The guides led my horse right next to the edge facing the clearing so he could take a picture. It was fine until he lined up Angella and Pamela next to me. They took the picture but then Pamela’s horse decided that it was a good idea to back up into mine. Sam Bucca was not a fan and started to freak out. I quickly got him to move forward and away from the edge. The last thing I needed was to tumble down to the Nile with a horse on top of me!

We got done with the ride and took some pictures overlooking the Nile. Angella loved a huge great Dane that was on the riverside so she had a mini photo shoot with him. Hopefully I’ll get one of my favorites posted! We got a ride back to town and the owner set up a taxi to take us to Jinja.

Jinja is not as small as I expected. It actually felt quite large once we started driving through the busy streets. It’s a better size than Kampala, which is so big and crowded that at most times it can be very unpleasant. I think if I had to choose, I would appreciate the pace and attitude of the people in Jinja. They tend to be much more helpful and less worried about taking advantage of money from tourists. We ate lunch at a small restaurant and internet café and then stopped to look at some of the shops. We were able to buy a lot of beautiful things and they were much cheaper than they are in Kampala. One of the shop owners was so happy that he gave Angella 4 pairs of earrings for free. I don’t know if he thought she was a guide or if he just was generous, but it was really nice of him!

On the way into Jinja, we almost got into big trouble. Pamela had her camera in her hand and had lifted it to take a picture of the Nile. As we were crossing, a guard started yelling at her to stop. She never took any pictures and put it away, so we thought that was it. However, when we got to the other side, an officer pulled over the car and started talking to the driver in Luganda. I could tell right away he wanted to know about pictures. We had to take out our cameras and prove that we hadn’t taken any pictures. I was shocked at how strict they were about the rule. It’s the first time that we’ve actually been questioned about what we are doing. I’m so happy that Pamela never took any pictures and we didn’t get ourselves into trouble. Clearly there is something to hide near the bridge. It makes me really want to know what it is! I guess it will be a secret that Uganda will hold without sharing it with us!

We decided to check out the Bugagali Falls, which is a 15 minute job out of Jinja. The cab driver that brought us to town offered to bring us there. It was good to be able to take some pictures close to the river and for Angella and Nick to be able to see something they haven’t before. We also paid a guy 3,000 shillings to float down the rapids tied to one of the plastic cans that people carry water in. I’m sure he does it all the time, but it’s still kind of fun to watch. For $1.50, I think it was a good short entertainment for the afternoon.

On the way home, we decided to take a bus. It was much bigger than the Mtatu, but it was still crammed with people. We sat with all 5 of us across the last seat. Unfortunately the woman in front of me kept shutting the window and the window next to me didn’t open. It make for a really long hot and tiring ride. It’s crazy how the buses stop here. There are rest places where people dressed in blue coats come up to the windows selling fried bananas, water, juice, meat on a stick and all kinds of random things. You can pretty much get anything that you want without leaving your seat. By the time we stopped, I would have rather just kept going and get to Kampala sooner, but you get what you pay for! Instead of 98,000, we paid a total of 20,000 for all 5 of us. I was a fan!

We had to walk back to town because the mtatu we got stopped early and we were on a really odd road. I was so ready to be home! We stopped at Quality Supermarket to pick up some random food to eat for dinner. We got Jozeph 2 to take us home because Jozeph was unavailable. I didn’t really care how we got home at that point as long as we got there! I took a shower and got ready to sleep early! The next few days are going to be really busy and I don’t want to be tired!