Last week I finally got to do something I have always wanted to do, that is white water raft the Nile. Another of my life goals conquered.Over the last 8 years I have tried often to get a group of friends to ‘do’ the Nile with me, but everyone seemed to drop off the list as the date grew closer. So I gave up until this year. The fact that Bujagali dam grows bigger by the day and will one day block off a great section of the rapids played a big part in my ‘do it now’ mentality.
I was picked up by the Adrift rafting company in the middle of Kampala and we passed by a back packers hostel in Mbuya to pick up 3 other people ( an Italian lady and two aussies), business was apparently low and I was informed that only one boat would be doing the distance.
We met up with the rest of the team ( a south African , two Belgians and another Italian) up in Jinja at the Adrift Camp, which was quite a shabby or is it rustic affair? I was the only Ugandan and qualified for a massive discount. One of the aussies wanted to know if she could pass off as a Ugandan and get a discount too……laughter all around. The cost for Ugandans is damn affordable and I would have expected more locals testing the home waters.
The Italian lady gave us quite a bit to think about at the beginning as she hitched herself into a red g-string that had all the workmen gaping. She ignored everyones stares, brave woman.
We hopped into this rubber boat, all eight of us plus our ‘pilot’, a Canadian fellow, who later let it be known that they only hire ‘internationals’ and he was around for only 6 months. There are 4 safety kayaks, each with a guy in it whose brief is to help anyone who falls out and cant get back into the boat. These guys are Ugandan and clearly very skilled at what they do.
Now the thing is white water rafting on the Nile is not one continuous adrenalin rush, in fact it several sets of rapids, interspersed with calm waters that we have to paddle through. The whole trip last approximately 5 hours and 30 km.
Its been raining quite a bit of late and I was weary of spending the day drenched, out in the open, but as luck would have it the African sun was out in force. I basked in it as all the Caucasians poured sun block all over themselves, again and again.
After a couple of drills: practicing how to sit, how to hold on and how to get back into the boat, we set off down the river. And you get to hear the rapids before you actually see them and by then its too late. Thoughts of; “How on earth did I get myself into this?’ do not help. With the pilot shouting instructions we hit the first major rapid big time, tossed around, drenched, dunked, the works….its was amazing. We all cheered when we realised we were still alive and from then on we were more confident, especially since no one fell out of the raft.
The rapids are graded: category 1-6. The higher, the category, the wilder the water. The Nile provides the same volume of water through out the year, unlike the Zambezi and other rivers. And there are numerous category 5s and 6s in there. But our pilot was great and he knew how to guide our raft through rapids. He often asked us if we wanted to take the safe route (won’t get wet) or the wild one ( very likely to fall out of the boat) and each every time we voted to take the wildest route……….the thrill was intoxicating. I did get to fall out once, but being a good swimmer, with a life jacket and the drills we got at the start I did not feel unsafe at all while I was in the water.
‘Big brother’, ‘gunga’, ‘50-50’, the rapids came and went, we were all on a major high. To stare the force of nature in the face and win is something we need to try at some point in life. And indeed the rivers bark is actually a lot worse than its bite.
In the sections where the water was calm we spent time swimming in the river or just chatting away. The river banks are beautiful with spots where I hope build my holiday villa one day……HAAAA!
We got to see kids swimming and the occasional bare breasted woman doing her laundry (‘ just another day in africa’, said our Canadian guide, I had the feeling he would have said a lot more if the I wasn’t there).
The last set of rapids are called the bad place and believe me it deserves that name. The power of the water is so awesome that it is necessary to get out of the river and carry the raft down stream. We did get to raft through the lower half of this rapid and it was the jaw dropping end of the rafting trip which saw us cover 30km.
Will I do it again, absolutely!!!!! Now, anyone for the Ruwenzori’s??????
