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On 14th June we crossed over into Uganda and bushcamped at the side of the road soon after. It was my cook groups night to cook the evening meal so on the camp fire we made spag bowl and apparently it was very nice. On 15th we drove 400km to Kampala, the capital city of Uganda, along the way we stopped at the equator and played with the experiments, you know, which way does the water go down the hole and all that. By late afternoon we'd arrived at our campsite in the city of Kampala for a few days. It took for ages to find our way around this huge city, not the most pleasant that we've been to so far. As soon as I had a chance I was in the shower and it was hot (a first for ages, perhaps since I left Cape Town!). The following day we spent in the city mostly at a shopping mall! Well we needed to stock up on supplies and eat good food (choc cake and real coffee, yum yum). I spent the morning updating my blog whilst some people went to the cinema. In the after us girls had a
pedicure - seriously needed, all that hard skin!! We continued with the girly theme and went to see Sex and the City at the cinema in the evening - a nice relaxing day.
On 17th June we drove for a couple of hours east of Kampala to a town called Jinja, the Source of the Nile. It was here that we would spend a few days and go Grade 5 White Water Rafting! We spent the morning looking around the town and then after lunch we drove 10km out of town along the banks of the Nile to Nile River Explorers Campsite. It was in a great position on a cliff high above the Nile and overlooking Bujagali Falls, the first Grade 5 rapid on the Nile. That evening we celebrated in the bar as it was Sam's birthday and watched that days rafting experience on the big screen.
After seeing the footage of the white water rafting yesterday I was a bit nervous about doing it. We decided to have a today exploring the local village and relaxing by the Nile and to do the white water rafting the following day (19th June). 15 of 21 of
us signed up for the rafting so at 8.30 am on 19th we were taken into Jinja to the sister hostel of the camp for a big breakfast (pineapple, eggs, bread, chipati's, tea, coffee). We would be needing a lot of energy for paddling! We got suited up in life jackets and helmets and made our way just beyond Owen Falls Dam on the Nile where the rafts were put into the river. In my raft was Sam and Gil at the front, Chrissy and Trudi, Christina and me and Jo at the back with our guide Francis. Francis was very good and he gave us a safety briefing and instructions on the things he would shout when we were going down the rapids (i.e. paddle left, get down! etc). We even practiced the raft flipping over on the flat part of the river so we would know how to recover if we flipped on a rapid! The water was fairly cold but I guess I had to get used to it as we would have many more encounters downstream! Our first rapid was a grade 4 which went well and we stayed i the raft. It was quite sneaky
really as it was on a bend in the river so we could actually see the extent of the rapid until we were going down it. The next rapid was Bujagali Falls, a grade 5 (the highest you can do) which could be seen from the camp. Those people who didn't do the rafting in our group were waiting down by the rapid with the cameras, hence why I have a few photos attached. The build up to the rapid was immense, Francis told us the details about the rapid about how the raft might flip and what to do if it did then we had to practice the paddle movements which we would be using in the rapid. By the time it was our go I was terrified! As we went down the drop, my heart was in my mouth. As you can see we survived the rapid and even managed to stay in the raft. It was fantastic.......bring on the next rapids. During the day we did eight rapids in total ranging from grade 3 to grade 5. We flipped the raft on two rapids, one called '50/50' (a 50% chance of getting through without flipping - not
our luck) and one called 'Silverback'. The first time we flipped was very scary for me it felt like I was trapped under the water for ages in a washing machine effect but the second time re boosted my confidence as it was fantastic to be thrown out of the raft and washed downstream into the hands of the safety kayaks. On the last rapid, we had to get out of the raft walk round and put the raft back in the water lower down. This is because the first part of the rapid is grade 6 and it was guaranteed you wouldn't come out alive and the second part was grade five known as the 'Bad Place' - doesn't bowed well does it! There were three options to tackle this rapid, chicken, 50/50 and guaranteed to flip. Some of the other girls were shaken up by the prospect of flipping again so we went for the chicken run, although we didn't flip it was still exhilarating. As we were the first raft down we go to watch others from above, several got flipped and stuck in the Bad Place (a massive hole swirling round), not for the light-hearted! Back
at the campsite we were supplied with a huge BBQ and salads, just what we needed after a hard days work! In the evening we watched our rafting day on the big screen, it was so good that I bought the DVD (I'll be having a showing when I get home!).
On 20th June we had planned to leave Jinja and head into Kenya but John on our trip had got ill and needed to go to hospital so we decided to spent another day in Jinja. I decided to make the most of it and hire a motorbike (local name Boda Boda) and driver to drive me into Jinja to the Source of the Nile as it may play a part in my PhD when I get home. It was relatively unspectacular marked by a board sponsored by the local beer, I'm glad I went though. Apparently it takes 3months for the water to get from here to the Mediterranean Sea. From here I walked around to Lake Victoria which accumulates the water for the White Nile. It was a lovely walk through areas of grand colonial houses with views across the lake. James my Boda Boda driver picked me up later and took me back to camp where I had lunch with some of the gang.
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