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Rafting the White Nile
Quote of the day: "The river looks angry today my friends..." courtesy of David. Let's just say "we survived"!! Awesome day! Travelled to Jinja in Uganda - the Source of the Nile River (disputed though apparently...) to take on the grade 5 rapids! For those who are rafters/kayakers that may not sound like much, but I don't think I've ever been so scared in my life...
There were 6 of us from our tour in the raft - including Mike who's 66! Impressive effort I thought! They eased us into it with a couple of grade 2 and 3's and I think I swallowed the most water of the day on the first grade 1 rapid which we were kicked out of the raft on and floated down - I don't manage well with a life jacket on! The Nile doesn't taste great I have to say ahaha. The first grade 5 was good fun but we came undone on the second and ended up in the washing machine surrounded by kayakers and a flipped raft! I'll never forget the look on Penny's face as long as I live! We then got to 'Overtime' our next grade 5 which they take on depending on the conditions. The head guide got out and spent 10 minutes checking it out before we all went over... We stupidly went and watched the other rafts go over before us - didn't look pleasant from where we were standing. They kept getting caught at the bottom of a 3.5m drop... Far too many expletives later we made it through (with the help of the safety boat and a rope out of the fall...). Mike didn't see any of the rapid. He told us afterwards that he was wondering why everyone wasn't cheering at the bottom of the drop and when he opened his eyes the waterfall was right in front of him... just one of the stories that's going to be relived and embellished over and over again the next few weeks. He rang his wife later that night and told her that he went on the 'cruise down the river'. It's hard to portray the day in words unfortunately but it was awesome and the best way to see 30km of the Nile.
So, the river wasn't too angry and I have a new found respect for water. Had a blast!
cj xox
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