BootsnAll Travel Network



Articles Tagged ‘Nile River’

More articles about ‘Nile River’
« Home

Nile Wild

Tuesday, January 6th, 2009

Day 281

 Jordana and I were sitting in the chilled out bar area of the hostel here at Red Chilli last night, reading the guidebook about Uganda.  As I mentioned before I don’t really know much about Uganda and besides Kampala and white-water rafting I wasn’t sure what we would do here.  There is tons to do here and if wasn’t for the recent history of the country then tourism would probably be a massive industry here.  With the glacier covered Rwenzori mountain range, rare mountain gorillas, safaris, lakes and of course rafting the Nile Uganda has an incredible amount of attractions in a small amount of space.  We spent yesterday checking out Kampala.  The most pleasant and enjoyable African capital we’ve been in since Maputo, Mozambique.  It’s a green city with good food, great nightlife and it’s not as dangerous as other capitals.  Best of all only 1 hour away in the town of Jinja is the source of the Nile, the longest river in the world with some of the wildest rapids in the world.  Today we were headed their to run the source of the Nile.

We booked our trip with the company who started running the Nile more than 30 years ago, Adrift.  They picked us up at our hostel in Kampala, joining us were an American guy, a Dutch guy and a speedo wearing Belgium.  I mean come on man; it’s white water rafting here!  We aren’t sunning ourselves in the French Riviera.  We departed Kamapala and snaked through the terrible morning traffic out to Jinja.  The source of the Nile isn’t as special as you may have thought.  The river flows from Lake Victoria and immediately stops at a dam.  Just beyond this dam is Adrift’s put in point, which is a beautiful setting.  Looking down below at the wide fast flowing Nile I was both excited and nervous about this day.  We’ve been rafting a couple of times before and in Panama we hit some class 4 rapids.  The difference here was that we would be running several class 5, the biggest you are allowed to run and it wasn’t the size of the rapids that made me nervous.  It was the incredible volume of water, the river is absolutely massive here.  Our guide explained that this fact makes the Nile one of the safest rivers to raft, the advantage being that it’s so deep you shouldn’t get stuck on any rocks or get a foot stuck on a downed tree in the water.  After a safety briefing we were fitted with lifejackets and paddles and were off.  We walked down the steep embankment and climbed into the raft where the Nile was fast flowing but looked tame.

Just down river we practised jumping out of the boat and then climbing back in.  It’s much more difficult then you would think to climb back into the raft.  I was trying to pull myself back in when I see Jordana floating off in the current.  She couldn’t swim back to the raft through the stiff current, next thing I see is one of the safety kayakers telling her to hold on to the back.  We weren’t even in any rapids yet and one of us was being saved!  After that we practised flipping the raft, just in case that happens today, we were told it will happen today.  To get the raft back over everyone gets on one side and grabs hold of the guideline while the guide stands atop of the overturned raft, attached a rope and pulls.  We all go under water and he raft flips back over.  I wondered how this would work in the middle of the river today with some intense rapids.

The raft approached the first rapid; I couldn’t really see it which kind of worried me once I realized I couldn’t see it because of the drop in the river.  We dropped into the rapid, and I was shocked how large it was and how quickly we were sucked in.  I was quickly swamped by a wave and in a flash we were out, floating quickly but calmly along.  I said it when we rafted in Panama and I’ll say it again, rafting turns you into some whacked jock.  “Yeah!  Hell Yeah!!”  We all yelled out as we paddled away from the class 3 rapid, it felt much larger due to the volume of water.  Hitting that first rapid really gets you going though, you want more and you want bigger.  I did, until we saw “Big Brother”, the first class 5 rapid of the river and the first class 5 rapid we’ve ever run.  Big brother was massive; we approached it with our guide telling us it was not a place we wanted to flip.  I was thinking we’d try and not flip anywhere today.  “Oh shit!”  Yep that was my first thought, or maybe I yelled it out, I don’t remember as we fell into the rapid.  We sunk down and then were tossed up and to the left, it was exhilarating and terrifying.  We were through and hadn’t flipped.  Everyone had smiles on their faces and we thought it was over.  “Get on the right!  NOW!!”   Our guide barked at us.  We had run up on a large boulder and the water was pushing us up the rock.  I thought we were going to flip for sure, but with everyone on the right and the guide pushing off the rock we dropped down and made it out.  The support raft actually had flipped in “big brother” just before we ran it and one of the guides was actually pretty shaken up after being under for a good 10 seconds.

We cruised along the river with villagers watching us as they washed their laundry on the riverside.  Just beyond big brother the Ugandan government plans to build another dam which would completely alter to river and make this section un-runnable.  The river we rafted back in Panama was facing the same issue.  We approached another large rapid, it was only a class 3 but again with the volume of water it appeared much larger.  We fell in sideways and the left side of the raft, my side, began to rise.  The raft lifted straight up and I looked down at Jordana as she rolled out into the raging rapids.  I knew I was going to fall straight in but I thought maybe I could hold on to the raft.  I was high out of the water when I just couldn’t hold on anymore.  I came falling straight down on the others already in the water.  It’s a strange feeling being dropped into such a torrent of water.  I remember going under, trying not to fall on anyone and then my instinct was to grab for the raft which flipped on the other side of me.  I managed to hold on to the line and rode the raft out of the rapids into a calm part where our guide climbed atop and I helped him flip it upright.  I was looking everywhere for Jordana, I knew she was OK but I didn’t feel relaxed until I saw her floating along towards the raft.  Everyone worked their way back in the raft and we were off again.  The rest of the day was fantastic, so much fun and so much water.  We flipped a few more times and while I managed to hold on to the rafts guide line each time, Jordana was tossed into the water each time.  She said she just couldn’t think to hold on to the line when she was thrown in.  I on the other hand tried to never let go of that rope.  If I was going in the first thought was “hang on!”

The day was coming to a close as we approached the last rapids.  We actually had to come ashore and carry the raft around the first set of rapids since they are class 6 and not runnable,  Our guide told us that a guide had once taken a group down the class 6, he missed the take out spot.  They flipped and everyone had some serious injuries, needless to say he was soon out of a job.  The class 6 rapid was incredible to watch.  The only thing I’ve seen that comes close is the Niagara River just down from the whirlpool.  We all walked around the rapid and then were told to stop.  “We can’t go in here”, Jordana said to me.  “No, has to be down there.”  I said, pointing to a still rough but much calmer section then where we now stood.  “Is this where we put in?”  We asked the guide.  “Yeah, that’s the “bad place” and this is “fifty fifty.”  He replied, telling us the name of the rapids.  The bad place?  Yeah it looked pretty damn bad.  I figured it was still part of the class 6 rapid.  We climbed in the raft and paddled into the rapid.  I was in the front left and I don’t think we were in the rapid for more then 5 seconds.  We rounded the rock protecting us and dropped a good 2 meters then a massive wave hit me right in the chest, it felt like someone had tackled me and thrown me into a river.  I went under and for 2 or 3 seconds (felt like a minute) I couldn’t come back up.  Have you ever had that feeling?  Being underwater and not being able to come up for air when you are gasping for it?  I tired to remember to keep my feet up, look for the raft and try to hang on.  None of that was working here, I was in a washing machine being tossed about like my dirty boxers.  Finally I popped up and it was calmer, I saw Jordana next to me.   Never in my life have I seen a person with such fear in their face, she was whiter than Michael Jackson.  “You OK?”  I asked, but she didn’t respond.  “OH, one more wave, close your mouth!”  I shouted as we were swamped by a huge wave.  Then it was over, the current pushed us into calm waters and we swam with the little energy we had left to the raft.  Both of us had to be pulled in by our lifejackets.  “That was amazing!”  I said to Jordana.  “I don’t like being under,” was her response.

We pulled ashore and some locals from the nearby village helped carry the rafts up the steep embankment while tons of children watched.  At the top the bus was waiting for us with some cold beer that was much deserved, well it felt deserved after rafting the Nile.  We made the trip back to Kampala in the afternoon rush hour traffic and finally arrived back at the hostel at 5pm.  We both showered and were pretty wiped out from the day.  It was an early night after dinner.  Rafting in Panama was a great experience and the jungle scenery was stunning but today, the Nile?  Well my words can’t even begin to do justice as to how wild it was.  One of the most enjoyable experiences on the entire trip so far, I’m thinking we should go back tomorrow!