Out of all of the adventures in Uganda, one at the top of my to-do list was raft the Nile. Before six weeks ago, I had only ever rafted on the Lehigh River in Northeast PA, which has class 2 and 3 rapids (not really that tough). The Nile, on the other hand, has class 5 rapids which you are all but certain to flip the boat on and go crashing into the river. Fun right? A group of friends were planning a rafting trip and luckily there was room for me and a recently convinced, albeit nervous, Katie. We departed from Kampala bright and early in the morning, headed for Jinja and adventures on the river. Getting to the river for rafting was an adventure unto itself as we arrived at camp and then had to get on a (Katie’s words) “metal box shipping container that was horrible and probably the worst thing ever” truck. I was going to say large metal passenger truck with benches (it really wasn’t that bad) but Katie sums it up much better. The truck took us to the company’s other camp where we got helmets, vests, and the ever important rolex. We then drove another hour to get to the river.
Finally at the put in for rafting, we gathered into our boats and headed off. First thing was safety lessons as our guide went over what we should do for all different cases during the trip. Eager and excited to begin, we started paddling and immediately went flying off a 10 foot rapid! The trip definitely started off on a high note with that drop and we were told that it was the worst rapid of the day (Editor’s note – It wasn’t. The guide was lying. Like how he said that this was his first day as a guide. Again a lie. End note).
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| Heading down the first rapid, and we didn't flip! |
One class 5 rapid down we paddled hard and were met with the imposing force of a class 6 rapid. Class 6 rapids are in most cases, except maybe in some cases for some experts, unraftable. We hopped out of our raft and walked around the extremely impressive and scary rapid, and jumped back in our raft right in time for the second class 5! Before hitting the rapid we had the choice of doing the crazy path or the easier one. The guys wanted crazy but the girls wanted easier. Luckily for the gentlemen, it was one of their birthdays and we won the right to get crazy. We paddled hard out into the middle of the river, took a hard right into the rapids, and immediately went airborne as the raft flipped on the first major rapid. I’m surprised there is water left in the Nile because we drank so much water after falling in that it was hard to breath when we finally popped back up to the surface. Another thing to know is that when you fall into the water, the guides tell you not to try to swim to the surface because when underwater you have no idea if you are actually swimming up, down, left, or right. Instead, you are supposed to tuck your knees to your chest and wait to bob to the surface and finally catch your breath (easier said than done).
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| Excited to be hitting the next rapid! |
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| And the rapid takes us for our first dip! |
We survived our second class 5 rapid and continued down the river. There were plenty more rapids after that one, but they were way easier to handle than the monster one behind us. The final rapid before the takeout was another challenging class 5 called Nile Special which has two side rapids called Bell and Club (all three named after Ugandan beers). We hit Nile Special with gusto and made it up and over with no issue and started celebrating. The celebration was a little premature as either Bell or Club cracked us in the side and flipped the raft before any of us knew what was going on. We floated down the river a bit then finally climbed back into the raft for the take out.
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| The river takes us for one final dip! |
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| Holding on won't save us now! |
We celebrated that night with plenty of beer and food to commemorate our achievement. Only a fool would dare challenge the mighty Nile River again…
