Day 33 Tuesday February 13 Entebbe to Jinja

by Henry

We now resume riding for five days in a row. During this stretch, we will leave Uganda and cross into Kenya during the fourth day.

Today’s ride was 116 km, just under 1500 m total elevation gain, maximum temperature 27°C. Each day starts out cool and pleasant, but it consistently gets hot and muggy in the afternoons.

Eero is scheduled to fly back to Finland later tonight, and we were sad to see him go.

Our rider meeting was at 6:30 AM, breakfast was at 6:45 AM, and riders were leaving by 7 AM.

The ride today was broken up into several segments. Because Kampala’s traffic is untenable, we skirted it and took an alternative route around the periphery of the city. Our first 36 km was on a busy road and we had to pay very careful attention to motor scooters and vehicles going every which way. To add to the fun, it was drizzling for most of this segment. We were stopped once again at the shores of Lake Victoria.


We were loaded in order of arrival into groups of five with our bicycles onto fishing boats for a short 3 km water crossing.


Our group of five jammed into the narrow fishing boat.


Upon reaching the other shore, we were greeted with a 20 km unpaved hilly stretch of rain-soaked, muddy, and incredibly slippery road. This picture does not show the innumerable potholes, which added to the treachery.


Many riders slipped and fell on this 20 km segment, including myself, but there were no major injuries. All of us and our bikes were caked in mud.

Rocks and potholes only added to the treachery.

This truck driver had a bad day.

Lunch was at about 58 km, and after that we had smooth tarmac for the rest of the day, which basically consist of continuous rolling hills. The clouds dissipated by 1 PM, and it got hotter. I appreciated a tailwind.

Jeff had bad luck with two flats right after lunch.


Another giant tea plantation.


Kids at a primary school.


We arrived at Kingfisher Resort in Jinja on the shores of Lake Victoria.


The riders who arrived earlier took a boat excursion on Lake Victoria. There was a floating platform with a placard proclaiming the source of the Nile River. It’s not clear how that exact location on the giant lake is considered the source.

Those of us who arrived later were preoccupied with showering, cleaning our clothes, and setting up our tents. There were several industrious young men who created an impromptu business cleaning our bikes for $1.30 each.

For most of the afternoon, and well into the evening, there was a music video being filmed at poolside.

The muddy road sapped our energy, and the group retired early after dinner.