After having served a stint in Sudan and seeing the convergence of the Blue and White Nile a few years back and now being in Uganda and so (relatively) close to the source, the urge to take the opportunity to see the source of the Nile River was too great to resist. Hence, my trip to Jinja with a group of friends went to Jinja and now I can lay claim that “I have been to the Source of the Nile!” Yeah! Jinja lies only about 70 km out of Kampala but it took us more than 2 hours due to the single carriageway highway and some stretch of roads under repairs.
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When one talk about Nile River, Egypt would sort of automatically comes to mind. But actually there are a few other countries that lay claims to association to it. Nile River – speculated to be the longest river in the world, with Amazon River coming a close second (there are others that would not agree to this though) - is actually 6695 kilometers (4184 miles) long. It winds from Uganda to Ethiopia, flowing through a total of nine countries’ namely Ethiopia, Zaire, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Sudan, as well as Egypt. It's only recent that the first known navigation team successfully followed the river from beginning to its end. The River Nile is formed from the White Nile, which originates at Lake Victoria and the Blue Nile, which originates at Lake Tana in Ethiopia. These rivers meet in Sudan and then go on their long journey northwards towards the sea.
The White Nile is a lot bigger than the Blue Nile, but because of losses along the way it only contributes about 15% to the flow of the combined Nile. The Blue Nile, rising in Ethiopia, contributes about 85% to the flow of the Nile that passes through Egypt to the Mediterranean. The source of the Blue Nile, in Lake Tana, Ethiopia, was not found until 1770 and the source of the Nile was not found until 1861 at Lake Victoria in Uganda.
Up to today, the Source of the Nile remains as one of the most debatable with many countries claiming the presence of the Source of the Nile to be found within their countries. However the fact still exist that the Nile’s Source lies in Lake Victoria.
A new information that I gather during the visit was that part of the ashes of the great leader Mahatma Gadhi was scattered at the source of Nile River. That explains the presence of the statute at the source of the Nile River.
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