We left at 8am on a bus for Jinja. Adrift was the company and to be quite honest, I was scared out of my mind for today! White water rafting on the Nile for the first time is daunting to me. My throat was still bad, but I told myself that I came all the way to Africa for the experience so I'm not gonna back down now. Also I had just learned about all the blood sucking/infiltrating/killing parasites that live in the Nile from school and my immune system was down from the strep so I thought I was being semi-badass haha We had heard stories about people flipping and crazy Aussies as tour guides so I was praying that we didn't get any of it! We lathered up in sunscreen and sure enough I heard: "Welcome mates!" Oh no...of course my guide is an Aussie. Perfect! (not..) We got our gear and headed out with a team of 8. Duncan, Aussie, gave us all the safety precautions and off we went. 8 rapids, 4.5 hours. The time between the rapids was nice and quiet. Just paddling and talking. Right before we approached the first rapid,
Kristen asked: "Duncan, what grade are these rapids?"
Duncan: "These are all grade 5 and 6."
Me: "Does the grade go to 10 then?"
Duncan: "No. 6 is the highest and you will not survive those."
We'll stick with 5 then! I said a prayer and off we went. Scary!! HUGE waves and Duncan's urgent voice with paddling was stressful enough. A couple fell out and panicked b/c we weren't supposed to flip that one b/c it was particularly dangerous...right before the waterfall. Sure enough we flipped the next one. It seems better to just jump in instead of taking the hit but no! The waves are so big that you get trapped. It's quite frightening and I may or may not have let out a few expletives. All the rapids have names. The two Grade 6 rapids are named: Hypoxia and The Bad Place. They are such beautiful demonstrations of God's nature and yet spell death. You are really at the hand of Mother Nature then. I flipped 3 more times and it was equally scary for all. Let's just say that I was glad I went but was glad it was over. I really think it would be so much more fun the 2nd time around. I wanna do it again!! It was thrilling now that I think of it.
This was one where Duncan was trying to do a "dry flip" (flip on the bottom of the raft while it was turning over...while staying dry). Needless to say he got it.
Facing what seemed to be death and absolute insanity. Definitely in a boat with adrenaline junkies :)
This is the Zambezi River in Zimbabwe, Africa. It is the most dangerous river in the World!! That would be amazing to do next time ;)
We had a late lunch at the river where we met/talked to a few more people. I really admire people who are living their lives doing what they love. People in general love their life/job/family/etc. People are SO driven by money in America that they end up having careers that they hate!! These people just get by with what they need and get odd ended jobs in order to travel to the next place :) I want to do that!! They are so incredibly happy and let me tell you...that kind of personality is definitely intoxicating.
We have connections in Australia now so it's on the list for a future trip! We went back, showered, and headed to the outdoor patio for some beers and pizza. I wish we could have mingled more but most were already in clicks. There were a group of Euro guys at the table next to ours but of course we did the little girl thing and laughed/snuck some peeks haha. We went back to our cute little cottage to have some wine, chocolate, and fruit. I've missed fruit so much. None in South Sudan except 2 bananas. Toilets and fruit...commodities!!! Tomorrow is the market!
The whole group in front of the Nile about to take off for the day!! So pretty!!
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