Into the Heart of Darkness (1)
Trip Start
Jun 02, 2007
1
17
21
Trip End
Aug 07, 2007
Jinja, Uganda
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
We took the bus from Lugogo mall to Jinja on Friday morning at 7:30am. I had planned on sleeping most of the way, but the landscape was just too beautiful to miss. We crossed the nile on the main bridge. The morning was hot and sunny so you could see almost all the way out to the source of the nile from the bridge. We arrived at Nile River Explorers Backpackers lodge at about 10am and went to check in at the reservation desk. Unfortunately, when I got the front of the line I was informed that while they did have our reservation for rafting, our hotel booking had been lost and they were booked solid!! They offered us to bunks in the dorm, but neither Emily or I were overly impressed about spending the night in a hostel dormitory at the Backpackers site. The other site, where we were originally booked, is right on the river up on a huge cliff overlooking the rapids. Backpackers, on the otherhand, is a tiny dusty lodge in the middle of nowhere. We decided to take the dorm beds, since there really weren't too many other options and headed into the lodge for our pre-raft breakfast of pineapple, watermelon, samosas, chapats, toast, and tea. We changed into our rafting attire. I thought I looked quite cute in my bikini and tank top, but we were informed that Bikinis were an absolute no, and shirts that covered your shoulders were highly recommended (In retrospect, I don't know WHAT I was thinking the first time around) so I had to change again.
We were shown a quick video of what to expect, but I was far more interested in talking to the other travelers and most of the video was lost on me. The trucks arrived, life jackets and helmets were given out and off we went. The bumpy ride down to the rafting site on the back of a flat bed truck was definitely a key part of the experience. For the first time since I arrived in Uganda, the local people greeted us with an equal mix of enthusiasm and contempt. Some people smiled, waved and shouted greetings, others threw things at the trucks, shouted obscenities and flipped us the bird. Not really sure what all that was about. I was a little taken back by the whole thing.
We were told by a group of rafters from the day before that we should try to get in a boat with "Alex", so when we got to the raft site I made it my mission to seek him out. He wasn't hard to find, he was sitting in a boat with another Ugandan singing pop songs at the top of his lungs. Emily and I agreed that he was the right guide for us, and stood next to his boat. We were soon joined by two young English guys and a young couple (about 20 years old) from South Africa. Most boats have 7 paddlers and 1 guide, but our boat was to be the guide training boat for the day for a new guide named Nathan, so we got 2 guides (Nathan and Alex) and 6 paddlers.
We were about to push off into the nile, when the head guide received news that 2 people had not signed the waivers. Emily and I looked at each other nervously... Waivers? What Waivers? I guess in the confusion of our lost reservation, the check in lady had forgotten to have us sign the waiver forms. Thankfully they keep a copy in the first aid kit, so it wasn't that big a deal... just a little embarrassing to have to hold up the 40 other rafters... ooops!
After signing we pushed off and began our journey down the nile. Emily and I joked with the two English guys about their being in the front of the boat (which is reserved for the strongest, bravest paddlers because it is the position that gets knocked out of the raft most). It would turn out that it didn't much matter where you were in the raft. Everyone got an equal share of the fun and terror.
Before we hit the rapids we had some learning to do. First we practiced the different commands and paddle strokes. Then we had to jump out of the boat and demonstrate that we could get back in. Finally we had the "flip test", where Nathan flipped the entire raft and we had to right it and get back in as quickly as possible. We passed all the lessons with flying colours and were deemed "river ready".
The first sets of rapids were level 1s and 2s. We had no trouble paddling through them, and I was beginning to feel quite confident in my paddling ability. When we hit the first level 3 rapid, Nathan tipped the boat on purpose and we all went flying into the rapids. They weren't particularly strong, and I only went under for a second before popping up next to the boat and climbing back in. When we were all back in the boat we all congratulated one another, confident that we could handle anything the river could throw at us... how wrong we were.
The first level 5 rapid was "the highest". It wasn't the longest in terms of the number of waves, but it was essentially a small waterfall about 18 feet high. The first few boats went over without incident. Then it was our turn. Instead of going over the assigned part of the waterfall, our boat veered to the left where the rapids were rougher and faster. Our boat got sucked in between two rocks and stopped half way over the edge. Nathan and the other guides told us to jump up and down to try to free the boat. None of us felt too good about jumping up and down suspended above the edge of a level 5 rapid, but we did as we were told. The end result was all of us sliding down the raft and landing in a giant heap at the far end of the boat, hanging over the edge. It became clear that there was no freeing our boat. The guides signaled us to crawl out onto a rock in the middle of the falls that divided the rapids into left and right. The camera man filmed our evacuation. Once all 7 of us had assembled on the rock (which was about the size of a tractor wheel) another boat came up from below the falls and we were lowered into it. Once we were all safely in the rescue boat we had a good laugh and cheered. The other boats were all laughing at us hysterically. We must have been quite the sight.
The next sets of rapids were 3s and 4s. We were warned to make sure that the boat did not tip (b/c the water was shallow and there were sharp rocks), which we actually managed to pull off without too much difficulty. Then it was time for lunch and a bit of relaxation in the sun. The weather was gorgeous, and Nathan told us we could go swimming if we wanted to. Everyone took advantage of this offer and we had back flip competitions diving off the side of the boat. After our swim we dried ourselves in the sun and worked on our tans. We shared a round of jokes while we ate our lunch of pineapple and crackers on the water. As we floated down the river the banks, which were mostly lined with thick forest and large boulders, we occaisionally came across clusters of local people swimming and doing laundry. I couldn't help but feel like I had somehow been transported into Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" and was traveling down the river towards dangers unknown (melodramatic I know, but you really had to be there).
It was so nice to just lounge about in the sun as we floated down stream, I was almost disappointed when they told us to throw our life jackets and helmets back on to prepare for the next set of rapids.
Okay, I'm out of time... orthopedics calls. You'll have to wait for the rest, cheers all!
