Jinja

From Kenya down Africa seems like a giant tourist fun park. At Jinja national park in Uganda we got our first taste of it.

Overland trucks huddle together in campsites with their tents scattered around them, like spores thrown out to fertilize and produce more brightly coloured, tarpoulin covered, self-catered human cargo carriers.

For some of the single boys and girls on the truck I believe Jinja also supplied some cross-pollination opportunities. I watched idly, sucking down a cold beer, wondering what my darling Nicci was up to in London. But, back to the fun park...

Day 1: Whitewater Rafting - Jinja has a wonderful set of grade five rapids which the Irish boys and I decided to take with the help of our raft guide, Henry. First rapid - total carnage. All of our initial training and practice went straight out of the window. In fact, everything went out of the window; paddles, limbs, guides, the Irish and a startled kiwi, taken flight for the first time thanks to the help of a giant tumblinggrade five wave. The raft flipped, spilling all and sundry into the soup.

From this point onwards it was like being in anenormous watery pinball machine. Bodies were slammed onto rocks, leaving a ringing pain and racking up "Ding! Ding! 50 points!" I got violiently squashed between an unidentified Irishman and a particularly hard rock. Had I had the time, I might have imagined the multi-ball bonus being awarded to us but instead the abject terror of not knowing where the surface is, not being able to breathe, and having someone's knee in my eyeball led me to imagine my imminent death. Fortunately everyone eventually popped up to the surface and crawled or clawed their way back onto the raft.

Blood on feet, elbows and faces showed that none had escaped the rapid's wrath. The rest of the rapids proved to be more sporting and less brutal but equally as fun. Near death rocks, go rafting!

Day 2: Fishing with some local Ugandan boys - It was very relaxing holding the beautiful rod, equipped with the finest lures, that I had hired while the local kids pulled in fish after fish using worms on hooks, tied to string wound on a bottle.

I could make up a story about the ones that got away but truth-be-told they were mostly my lures.

Day 3: Quad Biking - This was exhilerating! A few of us went with a guide through the jungle and the local villages on quads, zooming past bemused locals while kids ran after us screaming "Hello! How are you!?"

At one point we were taken to a school field and told to "Go for it!" 360s, 720s, jumps, skids and burn-outs galore were the order of the day until we were almost too tired to ride. Then back into the jungle...

At one point I was lagging behind the others, going full-throttle to catch up. I missed a corner, hit a rut and flew into a bamboo patch. I had to put the bike into neutral and drag it out backwards while two women carrying water pots on their heads stopped to watch the scene commenting on my lack of quad biking prowess.

When I caught up with the others I said I had made a wrong turn. The guide eyed me suspiciously, pulled some bamboo out of the front of the bike and continued the trail. An awesome day!