The first part of the week, which had been in the works for months, was a trip to Uganda to go white water rafting on the White Nile with a group of 12 friends from around the Limuru area. We caught a bus in Nairobi early on a Saturday morning, and 14 hours later (including a two hour "break-down" stop at a gas station) got dropped off at a gas station in Jinja, Uganda. The rest of the group had taken an overnight bus the night before, so Preston and I found ourselves alone, in the dark, with no cell phone service to call them to pick us up. Luckily, we were able to get a gas-station security guard to flag down a motorcycle taxi, and we both hopped on for the 15-minute trip to the Adrift rafting base. We spent the rest of the evening eating pizza and hanging out with friends in an open-air restaurant/bar that sat literally on the edge of a cliff overlooking the moonlit Nile River near its source in Lake Victoria - beautiful!
After spending the night in a dorm room with all 12 of us in bunk beds stacked four-high, we woke up in the morning to a furious thunderstorm on the tin roof. Amazingly, as soon as we got up the storm gave way to the sun and we looked out on a gorgeous rainbow framing the mighty Nile River - what a way to start the day! After a hearty breakfast and the entertainment of watching people bungee-jump off of the nearby cliffs (only 44m, not worth it...), we got suited up with our life jackets, helmets, and paddles and made
our way down to the river, where we met our rafting guide, a Ugandan named "Big J." We asked Big J to give us the "wild" version of the rafting, and he definitely came through! For about three hours in the morning we went through a succession of class III, IV, and V rapids, highlighted by a crazy class V in which all three of the rafts in our group flipped. Luckily, the air was hot and the water felt great, so getting thrown out of the raft wasn't a bad deal! We stopped for a huge buffet lunch on an island in the river, and after stuffing ourselves with fresh fruit, guacamole, sandwiches, and hot tea we were ready to go for part 2.The afternoon rafting consisted mostly of slower-moving river where we alternated between paddling and swimming alongside the raft, but the 4 rapids that broke up this peace and beauty provided enough excitement for the whole weekend! We went through one class V called "Big Brother," in which our raft flew head on into a wave that looked to crest about 10 feet over our heads as we approached it - I felt like Moses looking at the walls of the Red Sea! Then we reached the final rapid of the day - it is split between a class VI and a class V, so we got out and carried the boat around the top half, then put in to the river for the class V - still a stretch of rapids about 200m long. This was where Big J took our request for the "wild" ride seriously by steering us into a particular hole known as "The Bad Place." All of the other rafts avoided it (for good reason!), and as soon as we entered the rapid the boat started spinning like a top. 6 of the 9 people in the raft were sucked out of the boat, including Big J, and I was pulled by an irresistable force into the middle of the river. After a few seconds of struggling underwater, I popped up just in time to go flying over a giant wave and bounce down through the rest of the rapids, finally getting picked up by a rescue kayak about 200 feet from the boat and the rest of the group. It was definitely one of the biggest adrenalin rushes I've ever experienced - awesome!
After spending the whole day on the river, we were all tired but full of hilarious stories and crazy moments to look back on. We relaxed in the evening at a camp near where we finished rafting, enjoying a beautiful sunset and a delicious steak dinner before our bus ride back on Monday. The whole trip turned out to be amazing - definitely one of those memories that will stick with you for a long time!
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