A 3 hour tour...

We just returned from a weekend trip to Uganda. We went rafting down the Nile River. Now, did you ever think you would EVER hear me say that I’ve been rafting down the Nile!? We went with two other families. And one of our expat friends offered to lend us their minivan so two families rode together while the third drove their own car. It’s suppose to be a four hour drive to Jinja, Uganda where we start on the river but due to road construction it took seven hours (some of it driving night, yiks!). And crossing the border into Uganda was literally like a visit to that town in Star Wars where Luke and Obi One meet up with Han Solo; no bar with band though, just chaos; money changers everywhere, people who want to ‘help you get across the border’ everywhere. We had our own ‘‘help you get across the border’ guy, named Noor, who sort of ‘streamlined’ the process of getting us processed at the border… $$$

We stayed in a fairly nice resort Friday night and early Saturday morning met our river guide, Juma, who show the way to the put-in point. We left our cars by the river in a gated and guarded compound, walked down a high escarpment to the rivers edge. We boarded two big rafts, each with a guide, and there were two kayakers who spun around us thru the whole trip, they were there just in case…

I have to say the river is beautiful. Although it’s not a muddy river it reminded me of the Mississippi River with its wide girth, and like the Mississippi, happily (otherwise we wouldn’t be rafting) no crocodiles! Seems the Ugandan army shot them all for food long ago.

Even though the trip was “family friendly”, with class 2-3 rapids, Esther stayed with the nanny on land. Both rode in a truck to wait for us at the campsite. Most of the trip we were just floating and swimming along down the river with only three rapids on the first day. After the first rapid Max was very fearful of anything that even looked like foam in the water. We talked a lot during the rest of the float about his fears. On one hand he was afraid even to go floating in the calm part of the river and on the other hand he would say “this was fun”, so, obviously conflicted.

We put-in at 10am and by 12pm we were on the banks of the river having a picnic of fresh fruit and sandwiches provided by our guides. Then off to the last rapid before camp. All these rapids had names; this last one is called The Nile Special. Turns out that this particular rapid is a place were world class kayaking competitions are held. People from all over the world come here to compete.

There was a lot of flip flopping of passengers between rafts as we floated along, and as we were approaching The Nile Special, Max wanted to transfer to the other boat, we were close to the beginning of the rapid but we made the transfer anyway. So Michelle and her two daughters, Kayla and I were left in the raft to ‘assumed the position’ (kneeling against the side of the boat and holding on to a rope) which our guides had asked us to do, we could see the kayakers already playing in the rapids when we started in.

It wasn’t the biggest rapid we’d been in but it was long. And not too long after we started I heard Juma (our guide) make this ‘sound’; a sort of grunt/groan that seemed to suggest “oh shit”’, and as I was wondering just what was going on, it happened so fast, totally caught off guard, our boat flipped up and turned completely upside down, putting me face first and fast into the Nile.

Ever wondered what it would be like to be inside a running washing machine? I can tell you! I think the whole thing only lasted 30 seconds but it seemed forever to me at the time. I had my head above water only once during the whole thing but I was going to hold on to the boats rope no matter what! It’s weird what you think about during these sorts of things, my first thought was thank the lord Max was not on the ,then I wondered how the others were doing, then I thought about NOT loosing my wedding ring(?)…

Soon, though, I popped up in calm waters and a second later Kayla popped up next to me. Turns out she had found ‘someone’s body part’ while she was tumbling and held on through the whole thing. It was my arm, it turns out, but I had no idea she was holding on to me. Juma was standing on top of the upside-down raft, I handed him my bag containing phone and camera ( inside plastic bags) and Kayla and I just hung on the side trying to calm ourselves. Now, I am also noticing that I can not see anything…my glasses are gone. No, they were not tied down on my head, it was suppose to be a family-easy-drift trip, dang it!

We couldn’t see them on the other side of the raft but Michelle and her two kids were being picked up by the kayakers. They were pushed a long distance from us. Although people in the other raft were shaken up when they saw us turn over, they made it through fine. And here's the kicker for me, as we were all being brought in the other raft like the catch of the day, I hear Max at the other end of the raft say “ boy, I really like these rabbids (rapids)!” Man, he just wanted to see his ole’ man get dunked I think!

Juma was pretty upset with himself, he says he should have never made that last transfer with Max, threw his trajectory off at the rapid. Oh well, shit happens. My mobile phone did not survive but miraculously the camera did which is why you can see photos of the rest of the trip! I was pretty depressed as I now faced the rest of our time here, 2½ more days, with no glasses, blind as a bat.

We stayed in a small hotel/campsite called Harry Lemon’s. It’s on an island in the middle of the Nile. Mostly serious kayakers were there, camping is available, nice surroundings, or so they tell me, although if I looked thru my LCD on my camera I could see pretty well, so I had my camera up to my face a lot… without photographing.

Next day on the Nile was pretty easy, only one rapid. I was pretty nervous but ya gotta get back on that horse, right? We stopped here to picnic and…ride the waves! There was one spot were if you went out on a boogie board you could surf and the water would keep you in the same spot.

We made it home safe with no other incidents. My arms are still sore and bruised a week later. My brother sent replacement glasses from the US (good thing I had an old pair at home though) which should arrive any day now. We had a good time... I think, at least I have a cool story to tell!

Lots more photos here in the gallery!