Jinja
The town where the White Nile leaves Lake Victoria, eighty kilometres east of Kampala, and grade V rapids on the river below it.
- Arrival
- Entebbe International · EBB
- To the town
- About 95 km from EBB in a straight line
- Private jets
- Into EBB, open around the clock
- Best time
- January to February · June to August
The city
Where the Nile begins.
Jinja sits on the northern shore of Lake Victoria, 1,204 metres up, at the point where the White Nile pours out of the lake. The Ripon Falls vanished under the Owen Falls Dam in 1954, and two power stations now draw on the river there, with a third at Bujagali eight kilometres north. Since 2018 a new bridge has carried the road across to Njeru, home of Nile Breweries. Sugar from Kakira, just outside town, employs more people than anything else here.
Visitors come for the river. Rafts set off from Jinja every day of the year, for half a day or a full one, through rapids of grade IV and V with names like Superhole and Jaws, and the dams keep the flow steady whatever the season. Kayaks, bikes and a bungee jump fill the other afternoons. For drier weather, aim for January and February or June to August.
- Source of the Nile Coronation Park marks the spot where the river leaves Lake Victoria on its way north.
- The rapids A day on the White Nile below Jinja, through grade IV and V water at rapids called Hypoxia and Real Deal.
- Source of the Nile Bridge The span between Njeru and Jinja, commissioned in October 2018.
Arriving
Entebbe, then east along the lake.
Entebbe International is the arrival point, about 95 km from Jinja as the crow flies; the road runs through Kampala, which is 81 km from Jinja. Jinja's own airfield at Kimaka, four kilometres north of the centre, is small, shared by civil and military users.
- Kigali 55 min
- Nairobi 55 min
- Mauritius 4 h 55
- Frankfurt 8 h 05 long-range jet
- Bangkok 10 h 05 long-range jet
When to go
January to February, and June to August.
Afternoons sit between 27 and 30 °C in every month. The long rains peak in April at about 220 mm, and October and November are wet again. January and February, then June to August, stay under 90 mm.
- 29° J 73
- 30° F 86
- 29° M 141
- 28° A 219
- 28° M 160
- 27° J 82
- 27° J 75
- 28° A 83
- 28° S 107
- 29° O 133
- 28° N 159
- 29° D 104
Elsewhere in Uganda
More reasons to come.
- Kampala The capital, its markets and the Kasubi royal tombs.
- Entebbe The airport, and botanical gardens on Lake Victoria.
- Murchison Falls The Nile forced through a gap seven metres wide.
- Queen Elizabeth A national park whose lions climb trees in the Ishasha sector.
- Bwindi Impenetrable forest, home to about half the world's mountain gorillas.
Flying to Jinja?
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