May 13, 12:29 PM
Whitewater on the White Nile
Like many of the world’s rivers offering dangerous rapids to raft and kayak down, the Nile, just north of its source in Lake Victoria, attracts an international crowd of young people seeking to work as guides.
When we took a 30 kilometer voyage Wednesday, we met a Costa Rican dude, an Italian guy, and a Tasmanian chick. (Yes, Tasmanian.)
But the baddest cat on the river is Jeffrey, a Ugandan who grew up in a village on the Nile’s east bank and took his first trip over the rapids while hugging a plastic gas or water can that, for reasons that aren’t clear to me, everyone here calls a “jerry can.”
Jeffrey’s about 6’ 3”, and his back looks to be about 1 meter across. He’s the national freestyle kayaking champion and, watching him blast through water that looked like a slighly more horizontal Niagara Falls, we could see why.
We’d already been through several class five rapids—five being the classification for the craziest rapids that can be rafted or kayaked with a reasonable amount of safery. Our boat had flipped several times, leaving us in a state of wild (and fun, let’s admit it) panic while we fought to get back to the raft, get it upright again, and pull the rest of the crew in.
But we beached the boat and had it carried over land when we got to Itanda, a pit of churning water that stretches for what seems like a kilometer of the Nile’s course.
We waited along the banks to watch Jeffrey make his kayak run, and as we looked at the foaming, churning water, Paulo—the Costa Rican guy who guided our boat—told us that he had only dared to do Itanda once during the 4 months he’d been living and working in Uganda, and he’s a kayaker who’s travelled all over the world. Many other kayakers who work professionally as guides or instructors won’t do it at all. Jeffrey does it just about every other day.
After a few minutes we saw a little yellow speck, Jeffrey’s kayak, and a swirling windmill of kayak paddle and arms. He flew through the foam and spray, sometimes disappearing and reappearing again, and though he looked to be out of control at times, Paulo told us Jeffrey had to know exactly where he was and make exactly the right move at every meter of the rapid’s course or it would be a fatal mistake.
In the village, Jeffrey didn’t get to go to a lot of school, Paulo said. “He missed the part where they explained what death is.”
Soon Jeffrey’s going to go to Italy to work as a rafting guide for three months. He’s already been to Australia for a kayaking competition, but he told us that the river was a little too small for his taste.
Travel update:
After rafting we spent a few days in Jinja, the town on the Nile’s source, and I had the opportunity to attend a conference put on by Makerere University on the state of democracy and human rights in Africa. Sadly, it was a stretch for me to get to go, so Jerri couldn’t join me. She found some other interesting things to do, however. More on all that later.
Today we’re off to Sipi Falls and Mt. Elgon for some hiking; it should be a blast. Hard to believe we have only 10 more days in Africa.
Your kayaking sounds like lots of fun, once you get past the “Danger Will Robinson”-ness of it! We miss you much!!
Jeff & Craig
— Jeff May 14, 03:42 AM #