For a long time, and many times, the River Nile has been
refered by man as a source of life, prosperity and great wonder. But this great
wonder has been undiscovered by few adventurers, thrilled by this mighty river
than by experiencing grade 5
white water rafting at its source in Uganda.
On a personal adventure and testimony, Rafting
as an activity had always seemed like a night mare to me.. as a tour guide for over 6 years now,
taking tourists at this activity has always been my joy because I knew
perfectly well smiles will be the outcome in the end of this water adventurer,
I always freaked out and felt I was loosing my clients in that long river not
knowing I was being left out on one of the amazing activity with water,.
So here comes a day, honoured to be a driver guide of a family
from newzland, Andrew and Benice with their son Francis who seem to love this
activity and this seemed their number one interest of their adventure, they
talked about it on our way to Jinja as I navigated the road and corners where
the source of this river is and where the rafting is done., as usual I remained
silent and waited for the smiles as usual, in the morning (un prepared) woke up
early just to make sure they get ready for their all day activity minus me, and
when I saw them boarding this truck that takes them to the briefing and
starting point, im like I should make sure my clients are safe and all goes
well reason I decide to go with them for the briefing, remember I got my long
pants on (jean trousers), when we get there, I see them wearing the head gears
and a life jacket and I am like I can also put on this just for a picture and
lie to my friends that I rafted the nile, which I did and was looking great, so
a rafting guide sees me and is like you look nice in these gears, im like thanks,
he goes on lets go and just keep a look at your clients as they enjoy, im like
will I be on the water, and he’s like yeahh, there and then I get goose bumps,
and I go nooo thank you. He insists, there is nothing going to happen, we stay
together in the safety boat and all you will do is look on to the others, now
here I feel some confidence though still freaking out, but the word “safety boat” gave me the courage to,
because he further explained to me the purpose of this boat, only carries safety
equipments , rescues flipped rafters, medical equipments for first aid, so here
I think to myself, this is no bad and asked myself, if it was going to flip
then there was no reason to keep safety medics or be called “safety boat” or a
name of the sort, so here a courageous Alex gets on the safety boat and we
start to roll, confidence I got further from the lead guide who gives us
instructions/brief of what to do just incase you flipped off the boat, but I was not
going to flip off the safety boat anyway. But knew exactly what to do just in
case all thanks to the briefing. I was told to remove my long pants and remain
with my Short I had wore inside the jean trousers reason was it was too cold
that morning so I decide to wear another little long trousers not knowing it
was going to be of help to me that day..
so here im on the river with my optional shorts and a t-shirt...i looked like an african tennager from an evening day farming, "the peddle looking like the hoe"
Had we moved like 2000metres from the banks wen
I looked behind only to see one of the boats flipped but that was done
intentionally so as to get these rafters used to the waters, and to myself im
like wooh wooh, im finished if this happens with no idea what we were about to
find the grade five.. usually the safety boat goes ahead of the raft boats so
as to be ready for rescues along with the safety kayaks, there were around 7
raft boats, 7 safety kayaks and 1 safety boat.. so the safety boat goes ahead
to the grade five and all I did was hold tight the boat ropes, held my breath, folded my whole
body and engulfed myself closing my eyes praying this comes to the end over
this rapid, and bummmm we are over it, so was eager to see what happens to the
raft boats, one, two three, fouth boats went over, some flipped off the boats,
all were scartered on this 50m width river, but the safety kayaks are so fast
to have all these scaterred MUZUNGUs all together to our safety boat, and
eventually its all done and boats settled and calm as we sail and muzungus are
all telling their tale and feelings foe the rapid. Some thought that was the
end of it all all were happy and smiling to the adventure, it took us 30mins
before we got to the second rapid , same thing happens, other boats flipped
others dint , everyone was smilling all along and so happy, and its at this
time I thought to my self I must be missing out on something very
interesting sticking in this no fun "safety boat". On the second rapid comes my clients boat, their guide takes them
on a “cliff” like water fall, and I was thinking to myself, what is this guy up
to? Nevertheless dint know this guy was good at his game and knew which button
to press. So my clients boat rafts backwards and falls off the cliff like water
fall of the river, due to this all rafters fell backwards and unfortunately
they all fell on my client, (I called her mum benice) she hurt her chest limb
and it was too painfull, now to me I was like I need to get off this water if
at all this is what is going to happen at all flips, I realy felt her pain, so
we had to have her off the boat but one other thing that kept me going was
Francis their son, this guy was on the raft boat and I was on the safety boat,
this young boy was loving this all thing with passion and was way younger than
me, he was just 15years and I was 28years. Im like, how comes this young boy
does this and I (a 28 yr old) will freakout like this??, everyone was enjoying, even mum benice who
was hurt and off the boat in the mid of the activity felt she needed to stay, I
could see it on her face but she always said “as long as my boys are happy, im
will be ok”.. so I get all the African braveness that had hid in myself, and
was like Alex, you can do this as well if Francis can do it. So wen benice
gets off this boat, I take up her position and i go for the last four rapids,
after the first im like thisss is owky, we go for the second and to be sincere
this was it for me, trust me, It’ll beat you, challenge you and have you
screaming for more, and when we got too close it suck us in and spit us
straight back out again., there is always relaxation time and lunch time on the
relaxed waters, You’ll get all the white water action of our one day grade 5
rafting and more. There will be plenty of time to relax and enjoy your
surroundings, admire the abundant birdlife, watch the fisherman cast their nets
from dugout canoes, wave at children collecting water and smile at the ladies
doing their washing. After the last rapid, i was like the master of all, I
loved it, summersaulted back off the boat into the waters and swimming at ease, all I was
wishing was if I had started from the beggining all along. After the activity,
cold beers, sodas, juices and BBQ were all waiting for us for us to mash, we
had all this to ourselves , me being the only African rafter who did without
plans, I might have been the happiest of all. All along there was a cameraman
taking pics of us and at looking at them, let me awe to what I was upto.. a
group of these rafters will share their groups pics of around $80.. to me it
was worth the pay with my fellow rafters… to be sincere it was one of the best
moments on water and live to tell, I have returned there with friends once to do the
same activity and my friends have loved it so much as well.. for the past 5
years as a guide, I never knew what fun my clients were going in for. In all
this is an activity worth and adventure..
Basically if you want to have an amazing activity of a lifetime, whether guided tours, car rental and car hire in uganda, self drive to this part of uganda, trust us at Auto Rental Uganda will tailor your safari to your personal preferences, taking into
account not to loose of the smallest details, accommodation booked,
activities arranged with the best guide for you.
www.autorentaluganda.com
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