It was a beautiful morning today – fluffy white clouds and blue skies all around. We had a lazy brunch at Crocodile ( a continental restaurant in Kisementi) – Spaghetti Carbonara for me and Tilapia for Sandeep. The food was actually quite good and a welcome break from the rice and beans we had been eating all week. We then spent the rest of the afternoon browsing the local grocery stores and craft stores. On our way back, we dropped in at Adrift, a company that specializes in rafting expeditions on the Nile- they assured us that no swimming experience was necessary to go rafting. After some consideration, we decided to go ahead and made reservations for the following day.
The Source of the Nile was much debated until the mid 19th century when European explorers such as John Speke and Henry Stanley finally proved that the Nile flowed from Lake Victoria. Jinja is a local town on the banks of Lake Victoria, from where the river begins its 4000 mile journey across the Sahara desert. Adrift picked us from the guesthouse around 7:30 in the morning and we were in Jinja by 9:30. The skies were overcast and there was a light drizzle but that did not stop us. Still, the water felt warm. After a couple of practice runs, we headed straight for the rapids. I fell out of the raft twice but was rescued within seconds by the rescue kayakers. We flipped twice – the first a practice session and the second on a Grade V rapid! (BTW, rapids are graded from I to VI with V and VI being expert levels). Sandeep managed to stay on the raft except when we flipped – he really seemed quite good at it. Overall, we rafted 31 Kms and scaled 11 rapids in 6 hours under the expert guidance of our guide, Cam. It was an amazing experience even though we were both exhausted and sore the next day.
Next rafting trip - Colorado river and someday, the Zambesi !
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