On Saturday morning, February 11th, we awoke early to prepare for our first adventure. Most of us had only had a few hours sleep after arriving at our hotel at 1:30 the night before. As we are unable to do our Buy-a-Net work on the weekends we have a few exciting events planned to keep us engaged and energized. What is the best way to overcome the jet lag from an eight hour time change? Answer: White Water Rafting on the Nile River.
We set out at 6:30 a.m. to meet a tour group travelling a few hours to Jinja, the proclaimed source of the Nile. Our tour group, Adrift, runs exciting rafting tours on the many rapids of this famous river. After a short period of training we set out in our raft. Some of us were feeling a bit anxious, especially when we could hear the raft approaching the rapids. Each set of rapids were different but equally thrilling. The best way I can describe it is imagine riding an unpredictable roller coaster that has a tendency to throw you overboard into raging water. Sounds like fun? It was! After the first rapid I was hooked.
We had initially booked for a half day but when we arrived at our site for lunch we all agreed to stay on for the full day. We were so glad that we did because the rapids got even bigger and more exciting after that. One volunteer described it as sliding into a tsunami. I have to agree. At another spot on the river we did what was referred to as surfing. This involves sliding into a low area of raging water where the boat slips back and forth, much like a skateboard in a half pipe. Eventually, after rocking back and forth several times the boat gets nearly vertical and we were dumped out into the river. Great fun!
Our guide, Josh, was also Canadian. He was from Pembroke, Ontario, where he trained. He has led guided rafting tours around the world and is now living in Uganda, running tours for Adrift. He was very talented and kept us safe. Despite that, you do get bumped occasionally and the next morning we all compared our "River War Wounds"! My claim to fame was a bruised cheek and underarm, where a flying paddle or two connected. Funny thing was, with the adrenalin flowing I barely felt it at the time.
I must say that I approached the entire experience with some trepidation. It was not an activity on my "bucket list" but sometimes it is good to conquer one's fears! After all, how often does one get a chance to raft on the Nile River. Oh, and for those of you who know about rafting I was told to point out that we survived class V rapids. Apparently, that gives one bragging rights!
Along the route there were photographers posted and they took some great shots. I have had some difficulty downloading them but when I do I will post them later as proof. In the meantime if you want a chance to see what we were doing check out the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlwLRXdcrjM
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