White Water Rafting

Some time ago, Krista had the good fortune of going with a gaggle of girls to the headwaters of the Nile River for what is quite possibly the best white water rafting in the world.  After hearing her glowing report of the trip, I was excited (and scared) for my own opportunity to rise to the challenge of grade 5 rapids.  Since they had such a great time, Krista and her friends recommended we also go with Nile River Explorers when we finally muster the courage to have our own adventure.

Here's what Nile River Explorers says about the rafting trip on their website: "We have chosen the perfect 30 kilometer stretch of the Nile River. The first few rapids are low grade, 1’s & 2’s, and give clients a growing sense of confidence. As the river meanders through beautiful scenery, we guide the rafts into the mighty challenges of some of the best grade 5 rapids in the world. Twelve major rapids are rafted plus lots of lower graded runs; all selected to maximize your safety and fun."

Fellow missionary Rev. Jacob Gillard and I had been waiting for some convenient excuse to go on this trip and finally found it as some of our summer volunteers here in Uganda were coming to the end of their weeks of service.  So I, Jake, Alec, Liz and Christine made plans to meet in Jinja for a little rest and relaxation (of sorts).  For Jake and me, that meant rising early in the morning and meeting the rafting company's shuttle bus here in Kampala.  That bus took us to Jinja where we met up with our friends and enjoyed a nice breakfast followed by some basic instructions about the day.  After picking out helmets and life jackets, we boarded some trucks to head to the river.  We had seven rafts on our trip and lots of people wanted a video record of the journey, so the videographer from Nile River Explorers came along as well.  At the edge of the river the large group was broken up into the rafts and our little group of 5 managed to all stay together and gain another pair to fully load our boat at 7 passengers plus our guide, Alex. 

After some basic instructions in the water about climbing into and out of the boat, and helping right the boat when it overturns, Alex had us jump out and float individually down the first little rapid to put us at ease and help us practice the proper technique for if (when) we fall out of the boat.  You're supposed to float on your back with your feet up facing down river so you can see and so you don't bash your legs on rocks underwater.  It's a reasonable position to maintain - at least it was in that little itty-bitty rapid.  It didn't work so well when I lost the boat further downstream and couldn't even tell which way was up! 

There are a ton of kayakers who accompany the rafts - they're there to act as spotters so if (when) your boat flips the kayakers are on you just about by the time you pop up out of the water.  Then you can grab onto their river kayak and they'll try to drag you back to the boat.  There's also a large raft called the "safety boat" that ideally will never flip - it has huge oars set up like a rowboat and a big buff guy to paddle it.  It carries the first aid kit and lunch and is also available to carry anyone who decides mid-way through the trip that they aren't enjoying getting flipped out of the rafts. 

We flipped a total of three times.  The first was on a (measly) grade 3 rapid called 50/50.  That's cause boats flip about 50 percent of the time on that rapid.  On that first flip I managed to hold on to my paddle 'cause that's what Alex drummed into our heads - don't let go of your paddle.  But I didn't manage to do the other thing Alex drummed into our heads - don't let go of the boat.  It's utter chaos under the water - you have no idea which way is up and your limbs are pulled by the currents in all different directions.  Finally, if you don't struggle too hard, you pop up some distance downstream having spent all of maybe 10 seconds underwater.  But it's a long 10 seconds.  Those currents are why you don't wear shoes or sunglasses or hats - the Nile will claim them and they'll come out in the Mediterranean. It's also why they ask you right at the beginning to tighten the drawstring on your shorts. Apparently the Nile has a habit of claiming swimtrunks as well.

Flipping in Silverback RapidsThe second rapid we flipped on is a grade 5 rapid called Silverback.  It's brutal.  This time I managed to hold on to the boat... but lost my paddle.  I think when that panic and adrenaline kick in there's only room for one thing in my brain - so it's either the boat or the paddle.  We enjoyed a leisurely lunch for a stretch of meandering river - pineapple and crackers.  The weather cooperated - not too much sun beating down on us but no heavy rain either.  I put sunscreen on 5 times throughout the day and still managed to burn my thighs.  In parts of the river you can jump in the water and swim and float alongside the raft.  Other places you're not allowed because "this is a croc pool."  Most people seemed willing to follow the advice of the guides on such matters. 

After lunch we continued shooting a few more rapids and finally got to a grade 6 (I think rafting grades on a 5-point scale, so 6 is "unshootable").  We offloaded and walked past the worst of that rapid - the boats were ported across as well and then reloaded for one last little part of the river.  There were two ways to shoot this last section - something like a grade 2 or 3 hugging the shore or a grade 5 in the middle through a rapid called "The Bad Place."  The 3 boys on our boat managed to talk the 4 girls on the boat into going to The Bad Place.  We never had a chance.  We put out into the middle and flipped almost immediately.  This time, the instructions weren't "hold onto the boat" or "hold on to the paddle" but "if we flip, let go and swim to the right."  I managed that although I did finally hit the shore well downstream from where we get out of the river. 

Some chips and water held us over from the river edge back to the camp where we enjoyed a huge dinner buffet and a few drinks looking over the cliff to the meandering Victoria Nile.  Then back onto the bus for the trip back to Kampala. 

To download the video, right-click on the link below and select "Save Target As..." or "Save Link As..."

• Full Resolution Field Film - Rafting (261 MBytes)
• Compressed Field Film - Rafting for preview (9 MBytes)

What an amazing adventure! And I even managed to return home safe to my pregnant wife. What was I thinking going white-water rafting through grade 5 rapids with a baby on the way? Maybe I was thinking this is the last time I'll be doing this for a while.  -Shauen