Borderless Travel staff is on its way to Mbale, to visit a recently completed school project that’s part of our village safari tours. The 250km journey from Kampala to Mbale takes you through Mabira Forest, via Jinja, the source of the Nile.

Jinja announces itself as the Sugarcane Capital of Uganda when you drive past one sugar plantation after another. One of Uganda’s best-known sugar producers is based in Jinja, and there’s a clock tower at a roundabout to declare their being there. About 90km from Mbale are swamps where subsistence rice farming predominantly takes place.

Covering an area of 80sq km, a handful of commercial rice producers – who sit alongside local farmers – supply rice to most of the country. If you rely on your surroundings to inform you of how far you are from Mbale, Mount Wanale will appear on the horizon and then you will know that you’re about 20km from your destination. More from Mbale .