Breanna River Rafting

We managed to hook our selves up with the “Explorers White Water River Rafting Company”. What a wicked, awesome, adrenalin-filled day on the Nile River it turned out to be! Started off with a buffet breakfast to pump us up with energy before we met our fellow rafters, A Polish couple (Ruddick and Kate), Nakhuru, a Japanese guy and our guide instructor Ruben from New Zealand, a very awesome crew indeed. The whole day reminded me of how we ran our river rafting tours in Chilliwack and all the muliti-cultural students we took. So that was cool.
We geared up with our helmets, life jackets, paddles, sunscreen and hopped on the back of the truck with the rafts in tow which took us to the launching sight. On the way we passed over the Jinja damn wall which separates Lake Victoria from the Nile River. It was very kind of Ruben to point out the crocodile that was lying on the river bank reminding us of how this river can be dangerous in more than one way. EEEP. We got our full safety briefing and demonstration then practiced the drills, commands, hand signals, what to do “if” or “when” so and so happens and flipping the boat etc before taking off into the unknown. The weather was perfect for us! Bright hot sun, clear blue sky and water warm as anything!! I loved it because I didn’t need a wet suit!!!! Yey!
The paddling arrangement was Ben and Ruddick as the muscle in the front, Kate and I in the middle watching their backs, then Ruben and Nakhuru taking up the rear power. Some of the names of the rapids where “Rib Cage, Bujagali falls, Silver Back, Point Break, The Pyramid, 50/ 50, Over Time, Bad place,” etc, crazy names! The rapid called “Chop Suey” is where I was Chop Suey’ed right out of the raft. I didn’t think I’d be the one falling out first at all but the river gods had another plan for me I guess.
The series of events happened like this:
Headed straight for a huge waterfall and furious rapids thinking “Oh, crap that’s a big one, I’m a gonner, better hold on tight”. Ruben shouts out the commands to brace and get down, we get down and pray for our lives. Crash into wave. Get tossed around in the raft, “Why am I not hanging on? Where’s the rope? Grab rope. Water floods the raft, we hit another rapid then myself and the paddle get launched up and out, flying through the air landing smack on my back into the rushing river. “Oh, crap I lost the paddle, “OH CRAP another huge rapid”. Rapid swallows me up and spits me back out. Come up for air. Grab on to the safety Kayak and swim like hell back to the boat where I’m yanked back in by Ben. That’s when we all started laughing. Glad I made it through that one alive! Haha! Super fun and exciting! At one point we actually lost Ruben to a massive wave, “Great we lost the pro”. Next thing I know Ben starts shouting out commands and taking over until we could pick Ruben back up at the bottom of the section. That was funny.
Had a nice long lunch break, eating crackers and slices of delicious pine apple as we slowly floated down the calm area of The Nile River for 45min. The second half of the day was just as good but Kate was too scared by the first half to continue doing the grade 5 level rapids and chickened out by hopped aboard the big safety raft that was also with us. At one point we had to get out and walk around a grade 6 rapid because the water was too low and it wasn’t safe. That really sucked. It would have been awesome.
Saw lots of Fish Eagles catching their lunch along the way, the scenery was very beautiful, too bad we didn’t have more time to spend hanging out there. The day ended too quickly as it always does when you are having fun.
The total distance covered was 30km and we went through 16 major rapids. We were lucky to walk away without having any serious injuries, only the regular chaffed arm pits from rubbing on the life jacket from so much paddling, a few blisters, bruises, sunburns and one of my finger nails bend all the way back twice. That bled and hurt quite a bit. Once everything was packed up again we got a lift back to the campsite and had an amazingly huge, yummy barbeque. The food felt so good in our hungry bellies and the cold drinks disappeared quickly. We all had a blast! It was worth it for sure!!
The next morning however the aches and pains of it all really started to kick in and sunburn is always a sore the day after. All in all it was excellent and we’ve got some wicked pictures to go with it!
Now we are off to continue the journey and into Kenya we go!
Love to all!!
Breanna