An early start to our next destination Jinja. (Never woken up so early continuously!) After a long days drive we were greeted at The Nile River Explorers camp with a magnificent sunset and an extra cold Nile special. After setting up camp very quickly, we were spoken to by the evening manager about all the different activities that were available. I immediately booked the White water rafting excursion and then managed to convince Sav and the American couple to do it as well. We met another tour group full of South African Stellenbosch students. After teaching them how to play Presidents and Assholes the evening quickly slipped away. I climbed into bed at 2.30 and set my alarm for 7.30 to ensure I wasn't late for the rafting meet up. I managed to fall asleep quickly and never stirred until the ringing of my alarm.
DAY 10
Feeling a little sensitive on the drive to the official Rafting camp ( a few too many beers) this was soon replaced with butterflies in my stomach! Nerves are not supposed to be a bad thing! haha. We were then introduced to our rafting leader- Davey- who recognized me (I had absolutely no idea if I knew him or not, he was Scottish, how would I know him?). After the fitting of helmets and life jackets, the whole car ride and getting into the water I was still puzzled as to how Davey knew me. When I asked again he then explained that he met my sister when she did her trip through Africa (about 6 years ago) and that when he was in SA he came over to our house for a braai, (still didn't quite remember it but at least it settled my confusion). Sav and I were in the front compartment, the German couple and the American couple in the second compartment and then Davey in the last compartment. We did another quick safety drill before drifting towards our first rapid. The quiet was soon replaced with a rumble! Rapids are very noisy. More butterflies! While paddling fast Dave screamed: "Forget everything I've just taught you, we are going over a waterfall. !!! Hold on." Moving as fast as we could and holding on with white knuckles we fell down the waterfall managing not to flip. Phew. Later when we had our first flip it wasn't too bad. The majority of us managed to hold on (I held onto the rope along my side) with all my strength. After each of the first 4 rapids their would be large "pools" of flat water. The largest taking us about 40minutes to paddle. At the last rapid before our lunch break we flipped again. Sav and the American lady ended up far away from the raft, the American guy was hanging onto the opposite side of the raft from me and the German couple were both hanging on while the boyfriend was trying to calm his girlfriend who was panicked and crying. While trying to move along the rope towards the German couple (I thought she'd been hurt), I was sucked under the raft and became squished between the raft and a huge rock. (GOT HAVE GOTTA GO) Ouch. I let go of the raft and just floated down the rest of the rapids as my legs were numb. Once I was pulled into the newly righted raft. Davey checked my back out (it was sore but I was fine, my ankles were quite scratched up). He then told me that he wouldn't have believed I'd hit a rock if it wasn't for the algae left on my rashvest. Ha. :) Pineapple, biscuits, water and more sunscreen was then applied before we started our afternoon rapids. These were spaced closer together than the previous ones. I moved to the middle compartment and the German guy moved to the front (my back and ankle were pretty sore) plus I'd seen Sav and I getting flung around a lot worse than the others had been. At the end of the rapids we lifted the raft to the trailer and were greeted with beer and a proper lunch. Yum! After skoffing down a beer to reduce the taste of Nile water in my mouth I grabbed a plate full of food. Another beer and we were ready to go. The car full of semi dry people, life jackets and helmets as well as more drinks. I sound a bit like a drunk, oh well haha. Once we returned our life jackets and helmets to the rafting camp Davey then drove us back to our campsite (which happens to be where he lives too) I sat in the front while the others all stood in the gated back. After a good shower and some story telling we played a couple more card games before going to bed really early. What a great day :)!
Crazy dreams.
DAY 11
I had always planned on SUPing (StandUpPaddling) the Nile since I saw it on the activities list. One of the Australian girls and Sav decided to join me. It was incredible. Our arms were a bit stiff from yesterday's white water rafting haha. Jumping off the SUPs turned into mainly bellyflops as the board shot backwards, but the cool water was fantastic and refreshing to lie in. A trip to the market then followed. INTERESTING! Whole sections of the building (it was a huge building full of stalls) had live chickens (a loose turkey), small and big fish while other parts had handbags and clothing. After a while exploring the nearby roads we each bought a Fanta, (not Beers) sat on the pavement and watched everything happening around us.
Arriving back at camp and having a quick shower before dressing up slightly before getting on our booze cruise. SO much free alcohol. Many strong drinks, bad dance moves, titanic poses and shots soon followed. Walking back up to the campsite is quite steep, full of many stairs, so as you can imagine it was not easy and or fun (although it must have looked pretty funny?). Sav got quite sick while the rest of us were mostly fine, we even ate a whole bowl of Nachos (best nachos ever) and some chips. I ended up staying up a bit later chatting to a few of the other campers and our rafting leader Davey from yesterday.
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