Floating Down the Nile, Sometimes Peacefully, Sometimes Not!

I was still pumped up from the bungee jump when we set out on the rafting, so I immediately jumped in the front of the raft (the wettest, wildest seat on the boat!) I was joined at the front by a Québécois guy. (Later we had the chance to discuss the upcoming federal election; he thought it was cool that I wanted to vote Bloc!) The rest of the raft was filled with an assortment of British, Aussie, and Dutch girls who volunteer at a school in Kampala. With our Guide Shane, there were eight people in the boat. There were two paddle rafts, a couple of kayaks (to paddle out and rescue us when we fell off) and a big oar raft, otherwise known as the safety or suntan raft, which carried our supplies.

We started in a calm pool above the first small (grade II) rapid. Shane showed us how to paddles, back paddle and “get down”. Get down means crouch in the bottom and hold on for dear life! He also took us through flipping the boat and told us that if the boat flipped and we came up underneath, there would be an air pocket there. And he showed us the proper way to pull someone back into the boat.

The first half of the day was a lot of rapids close together without much paddling in between, except to get us in position for the rapid. One of the Dutch girls decided after the first few rapids to go on the suntan raft, so there were now six rafters and our guide. We only went through one grade V, where I got knocked off and pulled in by one of our kayakers. No problem. The grade III and IV rapids were good fun, getting slashed and the boat being knocked around a fair bit.

Then we stopped at an island in the river for lunch. What a great lunch. Dark brown bread, a selection of veggies, cold cuts, and a huge pile of shredded cheese! (Cheese is a big luxury here, and was the cause of great excitement among the rafters.)

Then we set out for the second half of our trip. After lunch the rapids were bigger but more spaced out. In between were long calm pools were we could jump out of the raft and float around for a bit, wearing our life jackets. It was gorgeous; at one point I was floating along and came within about a foot of a cormorant. The water was warm, the sun shining down, and the scenery gorgeous. I couldn’t believe it; I was floating down the Nile!

It was hard work though, when we weren’t swimming, paddling the raft long distances to the next rapid. Definitely a workout!

The first grade V of the afternoon was Retrospect. It was here that I had my terrifying, I’m going to drown moment. The first couple of waves were great, knocking the boat up and coming down on top of us. Then the boat got hit hard, it went way up and I was in the water. It happened fast, and I didn’t get a good gulp of air before going under and when I came up the boat was above me. Ok, I think, look for the air pocket. But there is no air pocket. The boat hadn’t flipped. And I could find my way out from under it with all the crazy currents tossing me and the boat around. I was freaking out, it felt like I was down there for hours (in reality it was about 20 or 30 seconds). I couldn’t find my way out, couldn’t find the damn air pocket, I thought I was drowning. In my panic I screamed for help. But I was under water, no one could hear, and it used the last of my breath. Luckily just then I popped up beside the boat, and Shane pulled me back in. Then he was right back grabbing Ellie, who had also been trapped underneath, and was having a small asthma attack. We later marveled that we hadn’t bumped into each other down there, and commiserated on our search for the air pocket that wasn’t there.

So after that I was pretty freaked. We had to portage around the next grade V, Overtime, as the water was too high, and I can’t say I minded. Then we came to our second to last rapid, a grade III. Shane asked if we wanted to flip the boat in it, as practice for The Bad Place where the boat would almost certainly flip. The rest of the group was up for it, so I went along, even though I wasn’t feeling great about being in the water at that point. So, we flipped the boat, and although I managed to keep a hold of the raft and my paddle (first time of the day I didn’t loose the paddle, I realized I was way too freaked, and too close to panic to go through The Bad Place. I had already been to a bad place that day, a very bad place!

So when we portaged around The Dead Dutchman (a grade VI rapid) I decided to join the Dutch girl in the suntan raft. We still got knocked around a bit, but we could hold on with both hands, and we skirted the edge of the rapid rather than going through the guts of it. Then we got to watch the other go through. Everyone got knocked off and we pulled a few of them into the safety raft.

Then it was onto the bus where a cooler of cold Nile Specials (beer) and pop was waiting to ease our thirst and up the celebration factor as we drove back to camp. No laws about open liquor in vehicles in Uganda, and hey, so long as the driver sticks to pop a cold beer makes a long bumpy journey rather more pleasant!