Sarah, will you stay in Uganda and be my second wife?


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Africa » Uganda » Eastern Region » Jinja
October 3rd 2007
Published: November 2nd 2007
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Nairobi to Jinja


Jared paddles Itanda FallsJared paddles Itanda FallsJared paddles Itanda Falls

Grade 6 rapid.... Cuh-razy!
For the third week of our holiday, Justin, Brigid, Sarah and I went to Uganda for a 7-day beginner white water kayak course on the Nile River.

The kayak school is at Bujagali Falls, not far from the town of Jinja (about 2 ½ hours drive east of Kampala). They have an excellent set-up there, with a number of choices of accommodation and places to eat on site. We almost didn’t need to leave the place (except that we had stupidly forgotten to change any money at the airport and had no Ugandan currency - a major pain in the behind given none of our cards worked in the machines at Jinja… ah, traveller’s cheques…), it was that good. We quickly got into a routine, which involved a not-so-early brekky at the café next door to our accommodation, meeting at the kayak school at 10am to start our morning session, paddling until lunch time, chapattis (actually, kind of a chapatti-souvlaki hybrid… very tasty) for lunch and a bit of time to digest, back on the water until about 5, change into dry clothes, head to the bar for some beverages and to watch the sun set over the river, then
Jared at Super HoleJared at Super HoleJared at Super Hole

Showing us how you're supposed to do it...
dinner at the very good Black Lantern restaurant (where there is a waiter, Bill, who believes he’ll be the future president of Uganda). I think most of us had chicken tikka masala and sticky date pudding at most meals. Why change when you’re on to a good thing?

The kayak course involved learning basic skills to allow you to go through rapids and deal with eddies and currents, and also tried to teach us to roll the boats so that we could right ourselves when we flipped (Justin was the only one who managed this while on the move, righting himself after getting swamped by a rapid… only to flip again and nearly be swept down a grade 4 - and rocky - rapid!). Despite the above scary-sounding story, this stretch of the Nile is supposed to be excellent for beginners as most of the rapids are in deep water, meaning you’re unlikely to get a face full of rock when you go over (and the water is very warm).

For the course, we were joined by an English guy, Stewart, and an American girl, Erin. The six of us were accompanied by our Canadian instructor, Jared, a Ugandan assistant guide, David, and an assortment of gnarly dudes from round the world - experienced kayakers who’d come to holiday in Jinja. Jared was a fantastic instructor - a very good teacher, and excellent value for his use of ridiculous words like sweet and gnarly. The kayak technique is very different to outrigger paddling - Sarah and I were really at no advantage for having paddled those boats. Most of our sessions were on the ‘dam wall’ section of the river - we’d jump on the back of the kayak truck and be driven down to just below the Nile Dam, where we’d set off to paddle the 5 or so rapids back to the kayak school. The rapids on this section are relatively small - none bigger than a grade 2 (although some of them don’t look so small when you’re coming in to them!). It was an excellent section to get comfortable on - we went from just hurtling over everything (and flipping a lot) on the first run, without regard for where was a good spot to be, to learning how to read the water, to ferry across the river and deal with bloody eddy lines
Say no to sugar daddies...Say no to sugar daddies...Say no to sugar daddies...

Anti-HIV campaign billboards on the highway
(where the flow of water changes direction… guaranteed to flip you if you’re not concentrating)… and flipping not quite so much. Brigid wasn’t all that keen on the ferrying and slow stuff - she just wanted to go over the rapids. Her low centre of gravity and general co-ordination meant that she rarely flipped in a rapid, although she did get kind of stuck in one which made it look like she was surfing. Jared was mighty excited by this, saying to her ‘Brigid man, you’re frickin’ stylin’ man’, which has been the source of endless amusement since…

We had an afternoon of paddling down at the ‘Super Hole’ too - a spot that is actually good for surfing the kayak on the wave from the rapid (and which has eddies that allow you to end up back where you started from). It’s also regarded as a good place to learn how to roll the boat in moving water given that it’s almost guaranteed that the wave will flip beginners at some point. After flipping at one point, my toenail felt a little wobbly (one of the ones that got mangled on Kilimanjaro). When we finally got out of
Ugandan housesUgandan housesUgandan houses

On the road between Entebbe and Jinja
the water, I realised the whole nail was bent back at right angles to how it should be…. Mmmmm! The end of that day was a little hairy - from Super Hole we had to paddle down near to where the truck would pick us up near a Grade 6 (read bloody huge and you may die - this is a rapid that even the rafting trips walk their rafts around) rapid called Itanda Falls… past a section of the river where apparently there are crocodiles… and then over a couple of smaller rapids, before getting out about 100m before Itanda. Jared had gone down this section a different way as he was going to show us how you paddle the Falls, so we were with David and a crazy Irishman (who is a kayak instructor in Ireland) called Graham. Graham stopped us all before we got near the last rapids to tell us that, whatever we did, we were absolutely not to flip on these rapids as we’d be in deep trouble and probably get swept over the falls. Obviously this freaked us right out and, after paddling through the first one and getting safely into an eddy, we
Nelson Mandela National StadiumNelson Mandela National StadiumNelson Mandela National Stadium

Not sure why Nels has a stadium near Kampala, but I took about 47 photos of it for Brigid...
decided to get out of the river and drag our kayaks overland past the last rapid to avoid such a fate!! We were all pretty glad we’d done that, as the falls are very close to where we got out. Jared then put on a show for us - running the falls really easily and reminding us how much of beginners we still were (not that I’d be crazy enough to go over those falls even if I were an experienced paddler!)!

In the middle of the week, we had a half day off the kayaking to go on a rafting trip and see some of the grade 4 and 5 rapids that we couldn’t go over in a kayak. It was pretty fun, but also a crazy hair-raising experience in such big water. The four of us were in a boat with our guide and steerer, Juma. As well as being a raft instructor, Juma is an international level kayaker and a musician (he wrote a song called ‘Uganda is Better’, which is about his first time overseas - at a kayak competition in Australia!!). He was a pretty funny guy and seemed to take great delight in
Mmmm beer...Mmmm beer...Mmmm beer...

Justin drinking a Nile Special while watching the sunset (over the Nile) at Jinja.... it's a tough life!
stirring us all up - telling us he’d only been doing his job for a couple of months (he’s worked there for 8 years), and giving us words of comfort such as ‘WHEN we flip on this rapid’ (we found out later that about 60% of the flips there are deliberate and the guides try to gauge how much flipping the group really wants to do) and ‘this is the only spot on the river we’ve ever had to do CPR on someone; if we flip here you’ll stay underwater a VERY long time’!!!! Very reassuring!! We flipped twice for the morning - Justin and I were at the front of the raft and tended to get catapulted away from the boat despite trying to hold on. Poor Sarah and Brigid got stuck under the boat instead, which wasn’t much fun at all for them! The rapids we stayed upright in were pretty fun, but none of us liked the flipping much and we were pretty glad to get out of there in the end. Unlike the kayaking, which I’d definitely do again, I’m not sure that I’d want to raft again as you have no control over what happens
Stewart, Sarah, Erin, Brigid and JustinStewart, Sarah, Erin, Brigid and JustinStewart, Sarah, Erin, Brigid and Justin

Would have been a nice group photo except for those hooligans pretending to be gold-toothed pirates using the labels from their Nile Specials...
to the boat and are completely reliant on your steersperson.

We were exhausted by the end of the week but a little sad to be leaving when it just felt like we were getting the hang of things. It is a course I’d definitely recommend - the school went out of their way to make sure we had a great time, and the set-up and people are fantastic. We kind of had to get out of there in the end though, after David (assistant guide) asked Sarah to stay in Uganda and be his second wife!!!

So, it was back to Nairobi (with the obligatory wait for delayed plane in Kampala - seeing the sunset over Lake Victoria as our plane took off did almost make it worth it, though...) where we all went our separate ways - Justin back to Australia, Sarah to Dubai for a few days before going back home too, and Brigid and I back to Kilifi. It’s been an absolutely fantastic 3 weeks holiday and we all wished it didn’t have to end.

Kilifi has gotten a lot warmer since we left - the short rains are due to start too. It’s
Sunset over the NileSunset over the NileSunset over the Nile

Great view from the bar, eh?
been pretty hard to get back into work this week; we’re both pretty restless and keen to travel again. We’ll have some enforced travel in a couple of weeks as Brigid’s tourist visa is about to expire (and her work visa has not yet come through despite being sent off over 5 months ago), so we’re going to Rwanda for a few days...

Hope you’re all well. Thanks to everyone who’s emailed and apologies to those I’ve not got around to replying to yet - I’m getting there… Love, K x





Additional photos below
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Justin contemplating Bujagali FallsJustin contemplating Bujagali Falls
Justin contemplating Bujagali Falls

This is one of the smaller rapids we went rafting on the previous day...
Bujagali Falls againBujagali Falls again
Bujagali Falls again

The Bujagali Swimmers and Divers plaque refers to a group of local nutbags who dive into this rapid (note there are lots of rocks here and it's quite shallow) for money... very, very dangerous...
Walking back from Bujagali FallsWalking back from Bujagali Falls
Walking back from Bujagali Falls

Everywhere here the foliage was very green, dirt very red...
Kayak truckKayak truck
Kayak truck

This truck took us and all our gear down to where we were paddling each day (and got stopped at the bridge at least twice a day by policemen wanting bribes...)
Our kayaksOur kayaks
Our kayaks

Down near the start of the dam wall section
One of the rapids we ranOne of the rapids we ran
One of the rapids we ran

Looks pissy here, didn't look quite so small coming into it... We did go over some bigger ones though...


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