White water rafting the Nile in Jinja, Uganda

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20 June: Jinja, Uganda

Today was our day of white water rafting on the Nile. so exciting! Off at 8AM we stopped by the rafting place for briefing, life vests, and helmets. We were then off with a take away breakfast of fruit and tortilla rolls ( I had just the fruit). While in the truck, Samantha and I were seated in the back with two guides. I was talking to Ben about working with the rafting company and his life in Uganda. He was excited that if he did well this year, either this August or next, he may go to Colorado which was fun to talk to him about having been from there.

We arrived at the river an hour and a half later and set up to raft. In our raft we had, Tamara, Samantha, Michael, Charlotte, Mirium and myself. Our guide was funny saying he was from Italy just ate a lot of chocolate. We did some practicing in the slow part of the river before hitting our first 4 rapid. We even did a practice run of having the raft tip over. The first four rapid we were to go over was an 8 foot waterfall. It our raft as well as three of the five missed it because we didn't paddle hard enough. Along the way, the rapids were all fours and fives. Our first flip happened to be on a four where I was rescued by one of the small kayaks. Then on one of the bad fives, we flipped over on the first part and therefore had to go through four more rapids in the water. I was lucky having found the side of the raft and held on for dear life with our guide. Along the river, there also was a long period where we had to paddle through the calm area that was about an hour and a half. Our arms were so tired by the end. Almost half way thoughts the rafting trip, they provided us snacks of pineapples and biscuits (I enjoyed about 3/4 of an entire pineapple as I Clint eat the biscuits). At the end, the provided a nice buffet lunch of curry, rice, potatoes, veggies and many other good tasting food. After eating and trying to dry off by the little coal fire, we go in the truck to head back. Along the way, many were enjoying beer and the fresh air. We had to stop twice for Michael and Charlotte to go to the bush toilets.

After a day of rafting, we decided to go try the nicer restaurant behind our campsite. While Mark was doing the monster burger challenge (which he did not complete), Tessa, Vicki, Samantha, Julie, Mark and I went and enjoyed a nice dinner. I had a nice steak with a glass of red wine which was enjoyable.

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