Well it was time to make the most of my wonderful leaving
present from work. It was a last minute booking with a few other people and I
had to get up pretty early on Saturday morning for the 6.45am pickup from the
hostel. Come 7.15am there was still no sign of my pickup. A couple of short
phone calls later the administrative mix up was sorted, but I had to hop on a
boda to go to Oasis mall to meet everyone else. It was much quicker than the
matatu making a round trip to Backpackers.
Having met up with everyone else there was another wait for
the matatu and off we went to Jinja (pronounced Gin-jer) after a stop at Red
Chilli, the other big backpackers hostel in Kampala. On the journey the one
thing that the Top Gear boys didn’t exaggerate about was the ridiculous amount
of nasty speed bumps everywhere on the roads. We went through a couple of
largish towns, but the rest of the time we were treated to more of the
beautiful lush green rolling hills of Uganda.
After a couple of hours we started to go through the suburbs
of Jinja on the West side of the Nile before going over a dam and into Jinja
proper on the Eastern side of the Nile. Jinja is Uganda’s second largest city
with a population of about 120,000, a tenth the size of Kampala.
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| View of the Nile from the campsite |
Eventually we arrived at Jinja Backpackers and went through
the usual registration with disclaimers, a quick orientation, sorted out life
jackets and helmets and picked up our breakfast there, of a Rolex and fruit
salad. With food and bare essentials in hand (sun screen, spare contacts, towel)
we hopped on a safari truck for the hour or so drive to the start. When we got
there we had a safety briefing before being divvied up in to 5 boats of 7
idiots and one guide. We got Josh who went into a lot more detail of what to do
in various situations and we practiced a flip in the calm waters.
Suitably pumped up with adrenaline we headed of for the
first rapid which was a grade 5, but we passed through fine and it was a good
confident start to put any fears at rest. Especially after the start of the
first set of rapids we were asked how we wanted today to go, crazy or safe. The
other crazies and I shouted the loudest so we won that undemocratic vote.
Looking back at the rapids it was a total drop of about 20 feet with lots of big
peaks and troughs before emerging at the other side.
Set of rapids 2 I think was a Grade 4 and despite getting to
it first we were the last boat to go down the rapid. Strangely the same thing
happened with the first set. We got to see first-hand every single boat
preceding us flip. We didn’t need to wonder what our fate would be, and
unsurprisingly after getting through the start of the rapids fine we flipped.
It wasn’t a bad flip, everyone held on to the boat as instructed and we soon
righted ourselves and got back on board.
In case you hadn’t realised by now I’m an unreliable
narrator, mostly for the purposes of making things sound more interesting than
they are, but occasionally because I can remember everything properly. That
said apologies for any inconsistencies in this tale. Unlike the Zambezi at Vic
Falls there are quite big gaps in between the sets of rapids that allowed us,
when not rowing to jump in and have a swim. I purposefully ended up in the
river about 4 times during the 5 hours or so we were on the river.
We had an early lunch break of a pack of glucose biscuits in
the raft. There were like Malted Milk biccies, but without the Malt. Not bad
and useful fuel for the day. There were a few more sets of rapids that we
enjoyed unscathed. All great fun and exhilarating, but eventually we came up to
a set of rapids that had a massive Grade 6 followed by a Grade 6. Since we were
all novices we disembarked before the Grade 6 and got back in the raft in
between to try out the Grade 5. Again despite being one of the first to arrive
we were the last to go down. We couldn’t quite see, but after we emerged from
this one unscathed as well we saw that all the other boats had flipped.
At some point we had a wonderful lunch of fresh pineapple on
the river. The pineapple here is as you’d expect superb and seeing the support
boat pilot deftly chop up the pineapple in to chunks held in by the skin with a
machete was very entertaining. I think I had about three quarters of a
pineapple, it was glorious.
Just a couple more sets of rapids to go and again we were
the last to go down after seeing all the other boats get through without a
flip. The instructions from Josh were pretty clear. Try and stay with the boat
if we flip on the first as there are some whirlpools, but if it’s too difficult
let go and go feet first with your feet up and head for the right hand bank. We
got instructions like this at the start of every rapid so we were always well
briefed before heading in to the Danger Zone.
Off we set and we ended up spectacularly flipping right at
the start of this set of rapids. I managed to keep hold of the boat and my
paddle but I was in front of the boat going down the rest of the rapids. Unfortunately
this meant that the boat kept on ramming into me and sending me spluttering
under the water. The last time I went under for what seemed like an age, but
was probably just a few seconds, I thought bugger this and let go of the boat
and assumed the position.
I then proceeded to head down the second set of rapids on my
own. The water was pretty deep so not much danger of getting hit or stuck on
underwater rocks, but there were the whirlpools to contend with. I was
frequently submerged and upon each resurfacing gulped as much air, and as
little water down as possible. After a few minutes of this hairy experience the
river calmed down and I was clear.
Looking back I was a good couple of hundred meters from the
murderous boat and so tried to get towards the right hand bank were a couple of
the safety kayaks were only about half the distance from me. After one kayak
had picked up another floater mounted just underneath the front with his legs
wrapped round it, I went to the back and mounted / beached myself on the back
leaving my legs free to kick for additional propulsion. Our boat was still far
away so we went to another boat and were give a short lift.
After a brief chat the guide on this boat was surprised that
we’d flipped on that rapid and said it must have been a) because Josh was new
and b) was trying to kill us. Josh had been guiding for about a year, but was
obviously the newbie on the team. That it turned out was the reason why we were
always the last boat down the rapids. Brilliant.
One last Grade 5 to go, our instructions were that if we
flipped let go and we’d be OK. No need to stay with the boat. This roughly
translates to “We will flip on this rapid”. Especially so as we saw every other
boat flip and that it was the last of the day. We flipped, I ended up under the
boat, but again it didn’t like me and wouldn’t let me stay in any of the air
wonderful air pockets, I did however get two more loose paddles. Having had
enough of the psycho boat I got outside it and drifted down the rest of the
rapids using the wooden paddles under my knees to keep me in a relatively
relaxing lying position. This time I was even further from the raft, but close
to the support boat. I got inside that for the last bit of rafting at the end
of the day.
Apparently the rest of my crew mates held a memorial service
in my honour as I was so far from them; they honestly had no idea where I’d
ended up. Eventually even with help from the safety kayaks, they gave up the
search for me assuming my body would wash up somewhere down river or be croc
food.
At the end reunited with the essentials that we didn’t take
on the river i.e. towels and dry clothes, the sun screen came with us and
despite being copiously applied throughout the day my knees are burnt, we were
treated to food and drink. I went for the ‘B’ diet of beer, beef, baguette,
butter, baked potato and beans. The beef was nice lean sliced roast beef and
the beer was included in the price so I got through three and a half before the
hour long drive to the campsite.
We also got to have a look at all the pictures of our boat
during the day with an option to purchase for $80. Since most weren’t
interested this wasn’t a value purchase. A shame as some of the pictures were
awesome. As I was at the front of the boat virtually all of them have me
grinning like an idiot no matter what’s happening around me. The second flip as
I previously mentioned was spectacular and well photographed. We went down a
two metre high dip to be met with a two metre wave. We met it head on and the
raft went vertical before flipping over. I must have been a good three metres
in the air still holding on, smiling like the Cheshire Cat. I’m impressed I was
able to keep hold of the boat in the circumstances.
After getting our fill it was back on the truck for another
bone crunching ride through numerous villages. It didn’t help those that had
drunk a bit too much liquid or had a small bladder, or unlike me didn’t go to
the loo just before setting off. Still there was a loo break about half way through,
that was curtailed by several local children shouting and pointing at the
peeing Muzungus.
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| My home for the night |
The campsite was on the other bank of the Nile and the
rafting company Nile River Explorers have recently introduced a ferry that cuts
at least an hour of the journey time. The same boat is used for sunset cruises
at certain times. On the other side we schlepped up many steps to the campsite
reception. Included in the price is a night in a six person dorm, so I used
this as a discount on one of the well-appointed permanent safari tents. My tent
‘Golden Backed’ was pretty nice.
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| Inside of the tent |
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| Another view from the campsite |
I was originally planning on doing the two day rafting
experience, but glad I didn’t. The second day is apparently much more leisurely
with fewer rapids overall and generally smaller grades. Plus given the lack of
skin on some of my fingers and knuckles, burned knees and overall exhaustion,
one day at a time is enough. I will however return as if you go back within 3
months it’s only $65 so two first days costs about the same as the doing the
full two dayer, but is much more adrenaline filled.
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| Some fishing boats on the Nile |
The trip back from the campsite was interesting we had to
get a boda for miles on dirt tracks to get back to Jinja, then a two hour plus
public matatu ride from Jinja to Kampala was cramped. Then it was another boda
to get through Kampala to get back to Backpackers.
I made a mistake in an earlier post. It’s Samona not Samora,
and I’m a bit more perplexed as to whether Samona is a person or not as today's
winner is the numerously seen ‘Use Samona’. Could still be a person, but I’d
worry for them given the number of people who ‘Heart’ Samona, and now the
number that want to use Samona.
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