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Published: August 7th 2007
Peaceful Nile 1
We did our flat water training in the eddy at the bottom right.The blue-green water of the Nile rushes past me and the rock approaches at a frightening speed. I flail my arms, trying to gain control of my kayak and wish that I hadn’t lost my paddle, all the while thumping on the side of my kayak to indicate to the guide that I need help. All of a sudden a whirlpool opens up less than a foot from the right side of my kayak and I get pulled in. I start spinning, losing sight of the rock that I am trying desperately to avoid. And to add to all that, I’m upside down, having been power-flipped by the rapids, I’m running out of breath, and my head is heading straight for the rock which is sticking a foot out of the bed of the river. Right on cue, my head hits the rock. A second later my noggin bounces off another rock. I spend the next five seconds thanking God for my helmet. Then I feel a powerful thump on the side of my kayak and start running my hands along the sides to find the source of the thump, which I know is my guide running into my kayak with
Peaceful Nile 2
The section that Stewey and I went down in the afternoon. It has mostly Class 2 rapids with a few 1's and a 3, but we avoided the 3. his. I find the tip of his kayak and grab it, twisting my hips to roll my kayak while levering off the other kayak to lift myself up. I come out of the river sputtering and coughing, gasping for air and cursing fluently at my folly. My guide, Stewey, laughs and paddles off to find my paddle. Once I have it back in hand we head back upriver to the head of the rapids and discuss where I went wrong. We agree that I didn’t edge enough (tilt the kayak with my hips), so the water had hit the edge of my kayak and flipped me.
This was the third rapid that we had gone over on our trip down the Nile (a part of it, at least). The first one was barely more than choppy water, but proved to be an excellent spot for fairy-gliding (passing across a flow, pointing up-river) and surfing (holding a position in the flow). The second was very large, with a few smallish waves followed by a massive one. When going over rapids, you want to go over the waves where the water is green, because where its white the water is rolling back
Rapids 1
Class 1: barely worse than bumpy water. on itself and will catch you and hold you at the top of the wave, a precarious spot from which you can easily be flipped. Needless to say, I got stuck at the top of the wave as I miscalculated where the green water would be (it shifts a lot) and hit the crest where it was white. I managed to surf the wave for about ten seconds before finally hitting a really powerful stroke and getting past the white part. After that I rode the flow for a few hundred meters before breaking out (leaving a flow) and heading back upriver with Stewey to do some fairy-glides, surfing, break-ins and -outs and other fun tricks. Stewey showed off a bit and road a whirlpool for a while (with the nose of his kayak pointing down the vortex), holding himself nearly perpendicular to the river for quite sometime before pulling some funky maneuver and popping out of the whirlpool like a cork. I then got stuck in a whirlpool, though I was flat on the water so all that I had to do was keep balanced until it died down a bit (only ten seconds or so) and then paddle
Rapids 2
Class 2: Faster and deeper, with a strong eddy line, whirlpools and other fun things. out.
The third rapids that we hit weren’t that big, necessarily, but since the Nile is deep, even small rapids can have challenging features, like large whirlpools, rips (where the water folds in on itself at the boundary between eddy and flow) deep basins (where the water drops down and forms a half-pipe-like shape which looks deceptively calm, but is flowing extremely fast and has sharp changes in water direction at its edges). It was when I tried to fairy-glide one of the basins that I got flipped (not for the first time while going down the Nile, but the most dangerous and scary time). I was supposed to edge my kayak downstream so that it wouldn’t get caught by the down-flow on the upriver side of the basin. However, I did not edge enough and my right (upriver) side got caught on the down-flow and my left (downriver) side got caught on the upflow at the downriver side of the basin. Right side goes down, left goes up, Kevin goes under and my paddle floats away. Since you can’t shout when you are upside down under water, you bang on the bottom of your kayak so that your companions
Rapids 3
Class 3: Normally this would be a 4 or a 5, but since it is so deep its easier to navigate and to avoid rocks. Still, pretty dangerous. To get over this one you have to go down the small smooth spot on the left. will know that you need help, then start running your hands up and down the side of your kayak so that you can find their kayak faster when they make it to you. It only took Stewey ten seconds to make it to me that time, but ten seconds of holding your breath being spun around underwater with your head hitting rocks is a long time. And since my kayak has a deck (water proof cover for the opening so that you don’t get lots of water in the kayak) its not possible for me to exit the kayak without pulling the strap at the front of the deck to pop it off. I was just thinking of doing this when I got pulled into the whirlpool, which started pulling my flailing arms around, meaning that I couldn’t reach the strap to pop the deck. So I was stuck waiting for Stewey.
It was terribly fun though. I know it may sound stupid, but being upside-down in the Nile, desperately trying not to die is rather exhilarating. As long as you don’t panic and start thrashing everywhere and blowing all your air out, you can actually last underwater like this for quite some time. The longest I ever remained under was at least twenty seconds, after a failed surf on a very fast flow. I lost control of the kayak and the current spun me. So under I went, and I just held my breath, giving a little pressure to my nose to stop the water flowing in, while keeping a hold of my paddle with one hand and banging vigorously on my kayak to attract Stewey’s attention. It wouldn’t have taken twenty seconds for him to reach me normally, and it didn’t, but the flow carried me down stream really quickly, so Stewey broke into the flow to follow me. But by the time he reached me I had exited the flow (by luck, trust me, I had no control over where I went) and so he comes shooting out of the flow and runs into me so hard as to push me even further away. This caused quite a crick in my back, let me assure you. But eventually he made it back to me, I grabbed his kayak and up I came, sputtering and cursing again.
Unfortunately, Stewey didn’t always make it in time and I didn’t always keep my cool, so several times I ended up popping my deck off and slipping out, which is problematic since water then enters the kayak (not that it will sink, but its annoying and makes it harder to flip it back over), plus I then have to get back in the kayak, which involves Stewey holding one side down while I climb in the other. The next thing that I need to learn is the Eskimo Roll, in which you flip yourself back over.
We (Jacintha and I) started learning the Eskimo Roll in the morning (when we were on flat, still water, learning the basics), but its tough, and I didn’t get the hang of it before heading down the river in the afternoon. Stewey, of course, is a master at this technique, and will often flip himself over and roll back upright all in one move, just to cool himself off. I didn’t need to do this, of course, as I was going over unintentionally quite often.
Jacintha did not go down the river in the afternoon as the morning session had tired her out and she didn’t feel that she had the energy. I tried to convince her to come, to no avail. I think she might have made the right decision, though, as by the end of the trip down the river I had pushed myself beyond my limits and the tendons on the inside of my right elbow had started to spasm, locking my arm in the folded position, making paddling impossible and control over the kayak very difficult. I managed to get to the end of the run without any serious injury (other than to my pride), and Stewey offered to continue teaching me the Eskimo Roll on flat water. I declined, as I felt that if I went under one more time I wouldn’t be coming back up on my own steam, so I wouldn’t learn a thing. It is a task for another time.
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Mark Baker
non-member comment
Head-Smashed-in Kevin
Dear Kevin, Nice to hear you made it home to Rwanda in more or less one piece. We were worried when we didn't hear anything after the ATV adventure. I also heard Jacintha's side of the story in an email from her. The kayaking sounds completely awesome. I would love to go but I don't think my old bones and tendons could hack it. Jacintha sounded like the smarter of the two of you. I had no idea that it was white water kayaking on your first time in a kayak. I tried the rolling back upright manoever years ago and failed too. I couldn't figure out where up was when I was upside down. Keep us posted on your continuing travels. Thanks for adding pictures to your previous blog entries. Love, Daddy