Day 188-190: Iganga – Kampala - Bike Bimble

April 8, 2025 to April 10, 2025

Day 188-190: Iganga – Kampala

From Iganga to Jinja we didn’t see a lot of options but take the big, ugly, noisy, smelly, truck infested main road. At times it had a decent shoulder, at others, not so much. At least the trucks all gave us enough space, but it would be better to avoid if possible. Just before Jinja we got our first glimpses of Lake Victoria. The map shows that the lake is huge, but the way the land folds and the many islands close to the edge makes it look like a bunch of joined lakes.

We went mostly around Jinja. We knew it was a bit touristy, but we only wanted to see the source of the Nile river. Bit hard to claim the river starts at a lake (where does the water in the lake come from then?) but I guess it must start somewhere. It’s already the longest river, so that’s enough. And easier this way if the locals can run boat tours to show tourists the actual point that the Nile starts.

We took a dirt track, that ended up going over a train bridge over the Nile. It hadn’t rained all day that we could tell, but the dirt track was slippery with sloppy mud. Again confirms the only reasonable way to go during the wet season is to stay on asphalt – or love pushing on muddy tracks.

Watching the Nile rush past...something like 5% of the water here will make it to Cairo

Form Jinja to Kampala there is an alternative to the main road. South of the road there is a lovely asphalt road, with a wide shoulder, and much, much less traffic. You can follow this road all the way around and then there is only a short section of ugly road into Kampala. Or you can take a short section of dirt road, about 20km, which ends suddenly at a small ferry terminal (for want of a better name). We were lucky – it looks like this area hasn’t seen rain for a day or two, and the road was nearly all hard and dry enough to ride on. That would have been a completely different (type II fun?) experience a day later (when it rained all night and most of the morning).

At the end of the dirt road, there are a collection of small boats who’ll take you and your bike (and probably a motorbike and anything it will carry, i.e. anything that can be balanced, however unreasonable it seems to carry that on a bike). In this way we now have a (short) Lake Victoria cruise as part of the journey 😊

We’re now in Kampala for a couple of days. Met up with a Warm Showers host (Rob) and have already demonstrated our ignorance at many African and Ugandan topics at a quiz night with Rob and teachers form his school.

We’re inclined to agree with many of the other blogs we’ve read: there’s no reason for tourists to come to Kampala, except maybe the airport. It’s a big city. Relatively quite expensive (bananas are 4 times the price in Mbale). Not a lot to see except a lot (lot!) of people and boda boda’s (motorcycle taxis). It’s so amazingly busy and noisy on the roads. Imagine if everyone had a car… Shudder.

Today's ride: 136 km (84 miles)
Total: 9,315 km (5,785 miles)

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