Rafting on the Nile! ... Jinja day 2

I only have one (small) photo from the rafting (check why below) so I threw in a photo of the way back to Kampala and of the cruise on Saturday

UPDATE: got two photos of our boat in action, you'll find them at the end!

Sunday morning I woke up early (well… I do most days anyway) and decided to go check out the ‘showers with view’ they have, which are supposed to be showers that look out over the Nile (the camp was build on top of a hill looking out over the Nile). On my way, however, I got distracted by a large number of red tailed monkeys, the ones we tried to find in Mpanga forest a week earlier. Whereas we walked for hours in the forest to find maybe 5-7 monkeys, here there were maybe 25 happily jumping, eating and playing in the trees right in front of my face. I ended up sitting there for nearly 40 minutes, looking at these wonderful animals chasing each other, playing around, eating, jumping trees etc, both adults as young ones and even a few babies. As it got a bit later the monkeys moved further away and I decided to skip the showers with view; they didn’t look like they had warm water and I had enjoyed a lot of view already anyways! I took another (long!) warm shower and packed my stuff. Today was ‘the big day’, we were going rafting!

We got picked up at the camp and brought back to the Jinja town location of Nile River Explorers. There we dropped our luggage that we wouldn’t need (i.e. everything except for some dry clothes and sunscreen) and got tea/coffee while we got our first instructions. After the introduction and some general info we had to pick our life jacket and helmet, which after some trying we all managed to do. I bought glasses retainers for my glasses (considering I’m practically blind without them I rather wasn’t going to lose them!) and was all set to go! The place where they drop you is about 45 minutes driving from Jinja, so they gave us some breakfast to eat on the bus: a mix of fresh fruit – pineapple, passion fruit, banana, water melon – and a ‘rolex’, which is a chapati with an omelette rolled into it, also called the East African burrito.

Upon arrival at the rafting site we covered ourselves in a first load of sunscreen while the rafts were unloaded. Although it was still cloudy it looked as if it might, hopefully, clear up at some point during the day. Little did we know that almost as soon as we were on the water the sun would come through and shine bright all day! We got further safety instructions on what to do during rapids and on how to avoid possibly dangerous situations and after a while, and a little bit more scared of what was to come, we made groups of 6-7 to fill the boats. We said we were happy to be in a boat with people who didn’t necessarily want to flip all the time and who also just wanted to have fun, and ended up with a family of three from London, an (older) lady from somewhere in the middle of England and a girl from Wisconsin, USA. The four Brits were on a 10 day tour through Uganda and Rwanda as holiday and the American girl was doing an internship for USAID and decided to stay for the weekend after they had a training in Jinja earlier in the week. Our guide, Josh, was fun and clear with his instructions and we were all ready to hit the river!

In the water we first went over some basics and then got to the point we all knew was going to happen, a first practice of what to do when the raft flips over and you end up in the water. Fortunately, the Nile river is not only popular for rafting because of its rapids, but also because of its warm water. Falling in the water is actually lovely and that made the whole thing a lot better. We thus practiced what to do when the raft flips, what it looks like to be under the boat while the boat is upside down, what to hold on to and how to get back in. In the meanwhile we had floated towards the first rapid, out of eight in total! Before each rapid Josh would explain to us what the plan was, i.e. if you fall out or if the boat flips: what to do? Sometimes you have to let you and float, sometimes you have to hold on to the boat, sometimes you let go and swim either left or right… We got through the first one without too much trouble and were a little more relaxed after having done one and knowing roughly what to expect.

The remainder of the trip was pretty spectacular. Three times the waves managed to knock our raft over and we all got launched into the water. The first time I ended up under water, got up under the boat, was confused, got sucked under again and then got back to the surface near the boat. In a way it was funny to see everyone’s face during those whitewater moments (maybe 10/15 seconds) before the water is perfectly calm again. Most looks were those of terror and fear, before realizing all was fine, we were still alive and you could float around or swim back to the boat. The second time we had to hold on to the boat in case it flipped, which it did. A huge wave first nearly washed me out, before a second lifted to boat just a little too much and we fell over. I managed to hold on to the boat and floated further. While the water was a little calmer we hurried to pull everyone in before a smaller rapid approached that we survived without issues, some people lying in the boat like fish with their legs still in the air. The third time we flipped was the last rapid, where all but one of the rafts were turned upside down. I ended up floating, surrounded by giant waves on all sides, no clue where I was, went under briefly and then got out only to find everyone scattered in the river and the boat still floating around the rapid nearly 50 meters back. We swam around until we got back in and were tired after all the adventure and happy to be finished. We did have some rest in between the rapids of course. The whole trip took nearly 4/5 hours and sometimes there was almost 40-50 minutes between rapids, which meant we had enough time to relax, swim, row, enjoy the beautiful surroundings, apply layer after layer of sunscreen, drink water and have a small snack of fresh pineapple and some biscuits. On the way we passed some kids playing in the water, people doing laundry, people washing themselves or just doing other things on the banks of the river. These people must live a pretty remote and maybe primitive life, but oh what a spectacularly pretty landscape they live in!

Upon arrival we got lunch and drinks and we got offered the opportunity to buy photos of our boat. They sold CDs for 80 dollars per boat, which of course is a lot of money. Because the lady from London had a GoPro attached to her helmet and made a couple short clips and some photos we decided not to buy the photos, even though some were pretty cool! She will send the videos to us when she has time so we can relive some of the trip again! We took a group photo with Josh and then it was time to say goodbye and head back to Kampala, back to normal life! Of course we were a little sad to leave the holiday life behind, having spoken to some volunteers, backpackers and other travelers who could do fun things all day, but then again, that’s not the main reason why we are here. It was good to be out of the office for a while, but we’re working 9-5 for a reason. Monday I had my first interview planned (which, as I write this on Monday evening, went well!) so we couldn’t take too long to switch back. I can also reveal now, a day later, that although yesterday everything felt fine, on Monday half my body hurt as my muscles clearly informed me that this was more exercise than they were used to. Especially my neck, back, arms and hands were (are!) protesting today, but I always take it as a good sign that they hurt, at least it means I used them!

Here are two photos of our boat, that the rafting company put oinle. I am the one with the yellow helmet in the front corner! In the second photo Anna is sitting next to me. The third photo is of all of us walking past a grade 6 rapid, which is too dangerous for anyone to go through by boat.