From Nairobi we headed west via Nakuru and Eldoret to the Ugandan border. We were in fact re-tracing our steps from a couple of weeks ago so went back to the Roving Rovers team for yet more work on Biggles - once again they were great. Bosey and the Roving Rovers team set about fixing our back right shock absorber housing, checking our wheel bearings, replacing our second battery and coming up with creative ways to fix our top cargo nets and store our dog guard on the roof rack. Thanks to the team we now have access to the equipment from the front seats in the back of Biggles (one of Rich's big bug bears). Hurrah! Tony Hangraph (owner of Roving Rovers and an ex-Kenyan rally driver) took time out to show Rich around the Roving Rovers site and explain the company's history. Each one of his Land Rovers (predominantly Rangies) in the yard has a fascinating history and they our still in active operation on the demanding African roads. We recommend any Land Rover lover to make a visit. Toney is currently converting a 35 year old Range Rover into a stretched twelve-seat safari vehicle (limo style) that will be used for fishing trips up to Lake Turkana. After seeing pictures of the luxurious fishing boat and the size of the fish Tony caught on the lake, we know that his plans for 'Turkana Tours' will be a huge success. We wish him and the team at Roving Rovers all the best for 2006 (www.rovingrovers.com). Once we were fixed up we headed for the Ugandan border. Rather than use the main border crossing we opted for a more 'scenic' route taking us around Mount Elgon and through the Elgon National Park. The border crossing at Saum was a small shack covered in Bougainvillea-one of the prettiest and most hassle-free crossings we have had so far. The route around Mount Elgon was beautiful and exhilarating - Rich turned into a rally driver for the afternoon on the dusty roads. For this part of the journey we had partners in crime - Bill and Claire (Brits from Bristol in a white Defender 300tdi) who we met in Nairobi. Both Landies coped with the track well, although Camilla and Claire were left a bit shaken and dusty! We eventually arrived at Moses Camp at Sipi Falls in the east of Uganda. We arrived just as it was getting dark and who should we bump into but Robyn Fox, the teacher who we stayed with in Khartoum! It was an incredible coincidence - she had taken a couple of weeks holiday for Christmas and was backpacking from Kigali to Nairobi...We had wanted to personally thank her and the kids at KICS for their sizable contribution to Amani and now we had our chance. Suffice to say we had a great evening catching up, cooking fondue in our potje pot and downing a few litres of Drostyhof...Rich and Bill were still putting the world to rights at 4am. Nursing our hangovers the following morning we walked through banana forests to the waterfalls. The scenery in Uganda is spectacular - every inch of hillside is cultivated, everywhere you look there are terraces teaming with crops. We now understand why Winston Churchill in his African Journals called Uganda 'the pearl of Africa'. We said our goodbyes to Robyn and with Bill and Claire, headed to Jinja: the source of the Nile. We camped at a fun campsite called Nile River Explorers, full of backpackers and other overlanders, including a fun Dragoman truck. The view from the campsite was spectacular, across the Nile and down to some hair-raising rapids. Chatting to people in the bar it soon became apparent what everyone was doing in Jinja - attempting the "world's hardest white water rafting"...something Camilla wasn't entirely happy doing! Considering Camilla practically drowns herself when she drinks half a pint of lager, attempting these rapids was not exactly on her agenda. After a few beers in the evening, the bar hushed and a video of 'today's rafting trip' was played. The video showed flimsy rafts being capsized at almost all of the fifteen rapids - people flew out of the boat and were thrown down waterfalls...not Camilla's idea of fun. Of course, Rich had other ideas, and with the prompting of "don't worry, Claire is a doctor and Bill is a physio so you'll be fine", along with many gin and tonics, we somehow put our names down on the list to have a go at this mad sport. Camilla didn't get any sleep worrying about it and when we had a practice at flipping the boat was, quite frankly, terrified. There wasn't a lot we could do as we had paid our money and were sitting in the middle of the Nile in a flimsy raft about to career down a fourteen foot waterfall! Luckily we had a fantastic rafting guide, called Jane, whose extensive experience and great skill meant that we felt in safe hands. As the first rapids arrived all Camilla could do was hang on for dear life and hold her nose (a difficult task to be done in unison) and brace herself for the inevitable...she was going to die. Somehow, after the initial panic she managed to enjoy it - even though we capsized lots of times and were underwater for up to 20 seconds at a time (which might not sound like much but when you don't know which way is up and for how long you are going to be in this dark, gloomy place without being able to breathe it seems like eternity!) It certainly was an adrenaline rush and we can now see why people come to Jinja to experience it...the highlight of the day was finishing on a Class 6 rapid (which Camilla somehow managed to stay in the boat when everyone else was thrown out like popcorn), and, whilst having a beer with Jane to celebrate, realizing that having done the "hardest rapids in the world", Camilla never has to white water raft again... We left Jinja with various bruises, aches and pains. White water rafting certainly knocks you about. It was a long drive to the south of Uganda, but a beautiful one. We crossed the equator for the fifth time on this trip (and water really does go down the plughole different ways on either side!) and headed through mountainous farmland all the way to the beautiful Lake Bunyoni. The Lake looks like a scene from The Hobbitt, with it's terraced fields, luscious greenery and mirror like water. It was the perfect place to nurse our battered bones. From here it was only a hundred kilometres to the Rwandan border...which isn't a great distance but on mountainous dirt tracks, takes longer than you think or at least we had planned!