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Published: April 17th 2006
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white water rafting
Into the Nile washing machine. Time to hold your breath. (Not my photo) Jinja lays claim to the source of the Nile, the mightiest river in the world as they say. The town lies on the shores of Lake Victoria, and it's out of this lake that pours the water to create one of the most spectacular white water rafting destinations in the world. Seeing as it was very unlikely that we would ever get the chance to come back here again, we decided to take the plunge and see just what the rafting actually entailed. So it was with a great deal of ignorance and excitement that we found ourselves hopping on board a red inflatable dingy. I teamed up with Kim and 4 other girls, plus a female instructor, which on first reflection put a smile on my face. It didnt last long as an hour in I suddenly realised that the girls might not have the strength to paddle too hard, and that the rapids where spread out over a 24 km stretch. Whilst the current would carry us along in many places, in others a great deal of paddling would be needed indeed.
We set off on a relatively calm stretch of water and this gave us a chance
camp site
Rafting camp site to practice following the instructions shouted by our instructor Jane (mainly get down and hold on). We were all in good spirits as we negotiated a few small waves in the water which rocked the boat a bit and prepared us (we thought) for what lay ahead.
The first sense we got of the approaching rapid was the sound of roaring water. As we approached closer, I could see that the river narrowed and fell down what seemed like 50 feet through rocks causing ferocious waves and pools. Jane steered the raft so that it was in the correct position to enter the rapid and told us to paddle hard to hit the oncoming waves. I was at the front of the raft so had a great view of the impending doom. We paddled hard until we hit the first wave and then got caught by another that started to spin the boat around on it's axis. Some more paddling got us back in the correct position and we headed into the last few waves of the rapid. Just as it looked like we had got away with it, the raft suddenly flipped up and over. I had no
Nile Black Cranes
Some Black Storks take a paddle, Jinja, Uganda idea what was happening other than that I had a face full of raft and then i was under water with the raft on top of me stopping me from coming to the surface. Then the current got hold of me and took me down further and away from the raft. The current was so fast that it was impossible to fight nor did I have any idea what was up and what was down. I relaxed and in a few seconds popped up at the surface about 50 yards from the raft. I was carried along by the current until a saftey canoe managed to rescue me and give me a lift back to the boat where I was relieved to see that Kim had made it back on to the boat too.
Fresh from the scare on the last rapid, we had only a minute or so to prepare for the next one. This was a category 5 rapid which is the hardest one you can do (Grade 6 is unnegotiable i.e Niagra Falls). We prepared ourselves to go in again and held on for dear life as we slid into the white water and started to get knocked about like a pinball. Almost immediately we dipped down into a huge hole and a wave came and flipped the raft over again. I was thrown clear and went through the rapid with just my lifevest for company. Having flipped the raft on the first 2 sets of rapids everyone was pretty freaked out and one girl called it a day there and then. It's fair to say that I was well and truly bricking it as we entered the third rapid. It was cheekily called the G-Spot and started with a drop of around 20 feet into a wall of white water. I guess if you could choose the way to meet your maker, going down on the G-Spot might be a good one (think what a great epitaph you could have). I hung on for dear life waiting for the boat to flip over but somehow the white water separated and allowed us clear passage. OK, maybe not in the style of Moses but it certainly felt like a miracle at the time. The feeling of jubilation at still being in the raft was immense and ws the highlight of the day.
Funnily enough, we managed to stay in the boat for the remaining 7 rapids as well, including the last rapid called the bad place (and it was very bad). We even got to go for a drift down the Nile on one stretch where they don't tend to get to many crocodiles although I did see a few on the bank while we were in the water.
Altogether another fantastic day. (MD)
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Amanda
non-member comment
Brings back my memories of rafting down their, luckily our boat only flipped slightly on the last rapid and I stayed in the whole time. But an amazing experience! x