After the overnight stay in Iganga, we drove to the famous JInja town in southeastern Uganda, where the Nile flows out of Lake Victoria, situated at an elevation of 1,140 meters above sea level. The city was founded in 1901 as a British administrative center and became one of Uganda’s larger towns. Jinja is nowadays the adrenaline capital of East Africa. Local agents offer white-water rafting, kayaking, quad biking, mountain biking, and horse riding in a gorgeous natural setting. The Nile River’s world-famous rapids are under threat, however. In 2011, the Bujagali Hydroelectric Project buried around half of the rapids under a giant reservoir. Although the government has pledged not to dam the river further, Uganda still needs energy, so a new hydroelectric plant is planned for Kalagala Falls.
We parked next to the Java House restaurant (30000 UGX / 2 nights) and explored one of the biggest covered markets in East Africa. In the evening, we had dinner at the Sailing Club next to the Nile River and later visited the famous Bourbon Club (Club beer – 6000 UGX) and Fantasy Lounge with a live band (bottle of Captain Morgan with mixers – 131000 UGX). The Uber is pretty expensive here; each short ride in the city costs us 16500 UGX.
Crossing the border from Kenya to Uganda – Busia
We bypassed the long queue of trucks and stopped at the first customs checkpoint. It was messy and hopeless there, so some soldiers made us a freeway in the opposite direction to be able to get to the Kenyan Customs building. We stamped our carnet quickly and drove to the Uganda Site, where the fixer (1000 KES) opened the gate for us, and we parked next to the Immigration and Customs. At the immigration hall, there is one counter to get an exit stamp from Kenya and another to get an entry visa into Uganda. They asked us for the printed version of the electronic visa, so we printed it at a small table in the arrival hall (50 KES) and returned to get the sticker and stamp. In the next building, they stamped our carnet and made import papers. We have changed 100 USD (3640 UGX / 1 USD) and paid the 223410 UGX (62 USD) import fee at the DTB bank. Then we were free to go. Nobody did any customs check of the truck on any side of the border. The whole process took around 30 minutes.
Parking location – Jinja: 0.445246N 33.198794E (🅿️,🚻)