White Water Rafting on the Nile

Today was one of the most terrifying, exhilarating, exhausting days of my life! I went white water rafting on the Nile. I feel like that short sentence by itself could be the end of this post. It just sounds so surreal, but I’d like to provide a play-by-play of the day and my heart rate roller coaster!

My morning actually started out with a knock on the door, waking me from my way too short sleep. I instantly realized I had slept through my alarm! The man at the door was the bellman that had arranged a taxi for me and was wondering where I was. I had less than 5 minutes to get ready and get to the cab in order to get to the hotel where the shuttle to Jinja was picking me up! Heart rate: 130+

The taxi took me to Humura Hotel where I met up with David Yeh (another WDI intern working in Kampala the next couple weeks) and we were picked up by the Nalubale shuttle (travel company for the rafting) to take us to Jinja. On the shuttle we were joined by a group of people, mostly from Seattle, that David met a week or so ago and headed out for the 2 hour drive to Jinja. I slept most of the drive up. Heart rate: 80

When we arrived, the Nalubale staff had breakfast waiting: coffee, tea, chippati and egg, and bananas. We quickly ate, changed, and lubed up with sunscreen before heading out. The drive to the source of the Nile took about 30 minutes. When we arrived, the view already was just amazing! We got in our boats and went through about 30 minutes of safety briefings/lessons on what commands the guide would use for rowing forward and backward and getting down in the raft to hold on. We also practiced flipping the raft, getting stuck under, and swimming out from under. The only thing I could think: Are we really going to flip over?? Heart rate: 110+

So we are off…we hit the first rapid and although I was nervous and water crashed into the raft, everyone stayed on. OK, this isn’t going to be so bad. Heart rate: steady around 110

Boy was I wrong. After some rowing on calm water, we hit rapid number 2, affectionately called ‘Chop Suey’. Well that’s exactly what we were! After a couple bobbles, an enormous wave (probably a 5 foot wall of water), flowing backward, came roaring at us and that’s the last thing I recall until I realize I am under water. The water had a nasty yellow tint and I couldn’t tell if I was going up, down, or just spinning in circles. For several seconds I panicked and just flailed under water, with no success. Thankfully, my left brain kicked in and remembered that the guide said to “just trust the lifejacket”, so I went completely still and just held onto my jacket and prayed for what seemed like an eternity! I finally started to see some light and then I was at the surface. I think I was underwater for a good 7-10 seconds, so I must have flown from the raft to get so deep. (We ordered the video from the trip, so we’ll see what actually happened from the footage!) Heart rate: 175+

After being rescued by one of the safety crewmen on a kayak, I was back in the boat. After some initial reluctance that the rest of the trip was going to include life threatening moments, I was back to laughing with the group and ready to take on the next rapids. In between the rapids there was about 30 minutes of rowing through very calm water. It was actually quite taxing on my arms, but the view of the water and trees along the side was just breath taking. We saw monkeys in the trees, tons of crazy looking birds, and a massive swarm of bats. Heart rate: 80

We went through 4 rapids in the morning, had a lunch of ham roll-ups, pasta salad, pineapple and carrot cake (which was an amazing break from local African food), and continued with 4 more rapids after lunch.

In the afternoon, we managed to only flip the boat once on the rapids called ‘Hair of a Dog’. Yes, they name them all with wacky names! On the second flip, I was much more prepared. I kept my eyes open this time, so when I hit the water (not submerging as far) I knew where I was and how I got there! Everyone on our boat again was in the water, but since we flipped on the first big wave this time (and there were 2 more after the first one), we all floated/bobbed/swam/drank a ton of Nile water through the second 2 and scattered in different directions. Thankfully, the rescue crew was there again to bring us back to the boat, but this time it probably took about 15 minutes to get us all back together!

Overall, the day was amazing. I was asleep in the car on the way back to Kampala before we even left the parking lot! My heart rate is finally back to a normal resting rate, but I still feel like I’m swaying in the water. I would absolutely do it again and I definitely plan to try out some rapids back in the states!