"GET DOWN!" View image

Two...one...crash straight into the wave, boat flips sending me flying. I'm underwater and see whitewater swirling...can't breath. I have a lifejacket on so I should come up soon. OK, still underwater. I surface but another rapid swallows me before I can take a breath. Water in the lungs, under for a few seconds, come up for half a breath, spit out water, look up at towering wave, crash, underwater again, being pulled through the rapid but it feels like I'm stationery, just being sucked down in a whirlpool. Why did I do this? Here comes another one. This is crazy, I'm going to drown. Surface, try to catch my breath. Someone hauls me onto the boat. Damn.

"Only 10 more rapids to go, guys!"

"The source of the Nile is one of the most spectacular white-water rafting destinations in the world...offering exhiliration without compromise," says the Lonely Planet East Africa. After going through the rapid dubbed 'G-Spot'--yes, this is funny to Bambara speakers--and nearly drowning, I was ready to compromise. Clearly the worst risk v. reward proposition in my life.

Several years ago I talked an unsuspecting girlfriend into a day long rafting trip on the New River in West Virginia. We navigated all 40 or so rapids--including a couple grade 5's--cleanly. We didn't capsize despite it being our first time. (OK a few of the rapids strained the relationship, but it was fine after a few hours). I certainly wouldn't have survived 10 minutes on the Nile with Rebekah--she would have murdered me after the first wave.

The last rapid (or more appropriately 'waterfall') in our 30k run was called Itanda, or The Bad Place. The baddest thing about the Bad Place is that you get out of the boat and see what you're in for before doing it. Only 5% of the boats make it through cleanly.

Well, Father Cam, Cam, Neal, Steve and I--led by the Amazing, life-saving Alex View image--got back in the boat, took The Bad Place full steam ahead and got our tails thoroughly kicked. But it was fun.

I needed three days of intensive gin and tonic therapy to recover from rafting the White Nile.