We woke up early Saturday morning with great expectations - it was finally time to raft the NILE! The Rudy's, the Wilkes, P, E and I walked the 15 minutes to a nearby shopping center where we were told to meet our bus. The roads in Kampala are mostly dirt with ridiculous knee deep potholes, for which the city is well known - they even have t-shirts made about them. Our transport to Jinja arrived after we had enjoyed a 45 minute chat, which some might classify as a wait, and we then bounced along the hour and half drive to the Nile. When we got out, a lovely view of the White Nile river was accompanied by breakfast in an open air hut. Banana chocolate chip muffins, coffee, bananas, water and tea were delicious after such an early morning. We sunscreened up and got into our rafts to learn commands from our boat guide, Tom - a Tazmanian with blonde dreadlocks and wicked awesome tan. He was young, funny, sported the best tattoo I've seen in awhile along the inside of his calf - a giraffe with an impossibly long pencil-thin neck - and travels the world guiding white water tours. A total dude. We practiced all the tricks Tom taught us, including how to escape after getting stuck underneath a flipped boat. This completely debunking the idea that I might not actually swim in the Nile in an effort to avoid Belharizia - a type of worm larvae passed through snail feces in the water. The worms don't hatch for 8-10 weeks after exposure so we'll see how that pans out. Children, if I seem disoriented and angry sometime in mid-July please find the meds in my bedside table and make me take them. Tom's overview of the river included two class 5 rapids, several class 4 and a few class 3 and that our first rapid would be a class 5 - a 12 foot waterfall they we would need to hit "just right." Our boat got a little quiet. We have video from our trip down the Nile but it really will not convey what the rapids were like from our perspective. As Tom informed us, the class is directly related to how bad the consequences have potential to be so the class 3 rapids - while fairly safe - were like nothing I've seen before. Most of the rapids we went through were other-worldly and felt like something computer generated off The Perfect Storm. If I am able to upload the video you will see that we hit the first rapid exactly wrong and ended up going down the waterfall sideways. I was on the downward side so was actually standing when our boat hit the bottom of the waterfall. I have no idea how we didn't flip but our boat got sucked back under the falls and the safety raft came to our aid with a rope to tow us out. I was ready to go home after that one! Tom's response: Well, that was a bit of a close shave mates! Everyone ok?! Ha!
On our next rapid, video evidence suggests that our dear guide, Tom, henceforth to be referred to as the devil - Tasmanian, of course, flipped our boat on purpose. It was our first class 3 rapid and I think he felt we were a high risk kind of group and didn't want things to get boring. Lordy mercy. After a series of absurd rapids - honestly, in the adrenaline it has all become a blur - we had to get out and walk along one stretch of rapids because they were just too dangerous. We weren't allowed to bring a camera, but I sure wish I'd had it - the river raged so intensely there was actually a standing rip-curl - like an ocean wave at the beach. We put in at the end of this stretch to catch the last rapid of the series - Amy and I jumped in the boat that was taking the "chicken" route. The rest of our boat opted out of the rapid named "the Bad Place" and paddled hard over to the rapid known as "50/50." They gambled and lost and we watched them flip and eventually get reclaimed by the safety kayakers that followed us throughout the trip. Shaking, but pumped from the adventure, we all climbed the hill to a beautiful overlook where a hot lunch of cream of mushroom soup and build-your-own-burritos was waiting. There were beautiful old wooden chests full of dishes and utensils like something off an old ship that stay at the open air hut for our rafting company's meals. It was like something out of Swiss Family Robinson. We ate and watched another group take on the next rapid and flip. Oh joy.
After lunch a hard rain began to fall and we took the next rapid in a deluge but made it through unscathed. The sun came back out and we finished our time on the river with a bang by surfing the last rapid for a quick moment - again, if the video makes it on you will see it. It was pretty awesome. We finished with a float on our backs in the African sun on the great Nile river. Remind me to take my medicine in July.
Back at the base, we got to laugh as we watched photos and videos of our group while chowing down on muchomo and baked potatoes, orange Fanta and African beer. What a day, what a DAY!
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On our next rapid, video evidence suggests that our dear guide, Tom, henceforth to be referred to as the devil - Tasmanian, of course, flipped our boat on purpose. It was our first class 3 rapid and I think he felt we were a high risk kind of group and didn't want things to get boring. Lordy mercy. After a series of absurd rapids - honestly, in the adrenaline it has all become a blur - we had to get out and walk along one stretch of rapids because they were just too dangerous. We weren't allowed to bring a camera, but I sure wish I'd had it - the river raged so intensely there was actually a standing rip-curl - like an ocean wave at the beach. We put in at the end of this stretch to catch the last rapid of the series - Amy and I jumped in the boat that was taking the "chicken" route. The rest of our boat opted out of the rapid named "the Bad Place" and paddled hard over to the rapid known as "50/50." They gambled and lost and we watched them flip and eventually get reclaimed by the safety kayakers that followed us throughout the trip. Shaking, but pumped from the adventure, we all climbed the hill to a beautiful overlook where a hot lunch of cream of mushroom soup and build-your-own-burritos was waiting. There were beautiful old wooden chests full of dishes and utensils like something off an old ship that stay at the open air hut for our rafting company's meals. It was like something out of Swiss Family Robinson. We ate and watched another group take on the next rapid and flip. Oh joy.
After lunch a hard rain began to fall and we took the next rapid in a deluge but made it through unscathed. The sun came back out and we finished our time on the river with a bang by surfing the last rapid for a quick moment - again, if the video makes it on you will see it. It was pretty awesome. We finished with a float on our backs in the African sun on the great Nile river. Remind me to take my medicine in July.
Back at the base, we got to laugh as we watched photos and videos of our group while chowing down on muchomo and baked potatoes, orange Fanta and African beer. What a day, what a DAY!
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