Jinja and Nile River Rafting

As planned I book bus across boarder to Uganda. Jinja was my my first stop in Uganda. Jinga is a cool town! It's pretty and leafy. It's the source of the mighty Nile and is emerging as the adrenaline center of East Africa. World class rafting is  "must do" for tourist. I fell in love with Jinja not because of the world class rapids although I did end up taking the rafting tour. I loved the town for its unique ambiance and picture like suburb landscape. I took a "bike taxi" to the town center. There were a few European style buildings and western bakery shops that sell freshly brewed coffee. Backpackers were roaming around. Outdoor junkies were hanging out.
That night back at Explorer Backpacker, I chatted with an American girl named Courtney who told me about the scary rafting trip and her mission in Uganda as an NGO volunteer serving the local women.
I wasn't sure if I would take the rafting trip. In the next morning groups of tourists came in to the hostel for the rafting trip. They have signed up the trip earlier.
I met Flix, an outdoor junkie who convinced me to join the trip. Flix runs outdoor excursion tours in Switzerland. He leads numerous mountaineering tours to the submit of Kilimanjaro.
The rafting trip on Nile river is famous for its class five rapids. There were about six rapids en route including a couple of class five rapids. Everyone is guaranteed to be tossed out of the raft at least once. My raft flipped and it was not a fun experience. I was chicken out and got on the "safety boat". It was a fun ride and  I could probably have enjoyed more if I was more okay about being dumped into the river.
I ended up staying at the backpacker campsite by Nile River that night. A nice meal was served and followed by social chats among the tourists.
Flix was not sure where he was going to head to and I decided to head back to Jinga in the morning. I started to get very comfortable with the concept of solo travel. In spite of the loneliness, solo travel seems to work out better than permanently traveling with a companion. Thus far I have met many travelers and shared some parts of the trip with some of them here and there. It all turned out great. But I like to stay on my own itinerary and keep moving along to the direction I intend. However the tremendous freedom of traveling alone can sometimes put you in a limbo as to when and where to go next as you can literally go anywhere at any time you want. The motivation and planning are very important
.
Here I am- back to the Explorer Backpacker at Jinga, I was looking for an opportunity to visit a couple of local orphanages. If that plan fell out, I would keep rolling to Kampala.