Nile River adventures
My last day in Uganda today, and I’ve decided to get some downtime in order to pack and get organised before leaving tomorrow. The rest of the team went out to have lunch in one of the Watoto villages after church whilst I elected to remain at the hotel. Good thing I did, it’s taken me over 2 hours to get sorted.
Yesterday we went rafting the Nile River at Jinja - one of the best white water rafting spots in the world I am told, with plenty of big grade 5 rapids and falls. And what a great day we had. I was with a fantastic group - four of the more adventurous members of our medical team plus two English guys and a Dutchman.We decided from the outset that we were going to go hard - for every rapid if there was an easy option (aka “chicken”) or a risky one, we would take the crazy route. Consequently I think we ended up being flipped or thrown out of our raft more than any other group and with plenty of cuts and bruises amongst us, but it was well worth it. I can’t wait to see the DVD of the day’s action. The only time we didn’t manage to go the hard core route we flipped before we even reached the rapid - we were paddling hard to the left, where the faster, bigger rapid was, but the current pushed us hard up against a big rock on the side of the river. Our boat flipped and got sucked under the rock. Two guys ended up going down the difficult part of the rapid on their own, minus the boat. I found myself in an air pocket underneath the boat, and then we managed to flip the boat and scramble back on, just in time for the current to take us down the right, easier option. Another time we put the lightest member of our crew (Dr Jess) at the front on the boat whilst the rest of us crowded at the back - as a result when we hit the falls our boat went vertical and high. We managed to remain afloat though thanks to the efforts of Jess who was hanging on for dear life even as she was flung sideways in the air out of the boat. If she had’ve let go our boat would have completely flipped, but hanging on she provided the counterweight allowing us to land right way up. Ours was only one of two boats to try this crazy manoevre, and the only one to come out intact. Once again, can’t wait to see how that looks on the DVD.
Tonight we’re off to a concert featuring a musician from the church here amongst other people. I’m looking forward but hope it doesn’t go too late, since my transportation for the airport leaves at 4am tomorrow 
Then my itinerary is a morning flight down to Johannesburg, then several hours in the airport lounge probably, then leaving at 5pm for a flight across to Sydney. This arrives at 2pm on Tuesday, and then I have a 5pm flight back across the continent to Perth, arriving at 8:45pm. I rang the airline to try and get an upgrade for the Jo’burg to Sydney leg but it just wasn’t possible. I expect my next update will be from Johannesburg tomorrow - hopefully if the net is fast enough I can post some pictures.
Categories : Africa, Travel, Uganda | 0 Comments
