Whitewater Kayaking on the White Nile

I completed another personal first this weekend. On Saturday I went white water kayaking on the white Nile. A brief history and geography lesson; during the 19th century, there was a great rush to find the source of the Nile. Explorers such as Speke, Livingstone and Stanley spent years exploring East Africa trying to establish which of the great lakes was the source of the Nile. In fact, Stanley, trying to determine if Lake Tangyanika was the source, followed the Congo River to the Atlantic ocean. As Stanley was in the employ of the king of Belgium, this effectively gave Leopold control over central Africa which led to decades of plunder and devastation far beyond what the other europeen powers were doing to their colonies. Some might say the DRCs current problems were a result of Livinstone’s explorations.

Thanks to Livinstone’s explorations, Lake Victoria was confirmed as the source. (It’s is actually only the source of the White Nile, with the Blue Nile originating from Lake Tana in Ethiopa, the two rivers meet near Khartoum – but that’s another story).

So after traveling to Kampala on Friday, I headed off to Jinja on Saturday morning and met up with my instructor Ibra at 10am. We got into the water with our kayaks 10 minutes later and within two hours I had successfully completed an Eskimo roll. I’ve always been in awe of those kayakers who could complete one, so you can imagine my joy when I was able to do it myself. After lunch we headed up to our launch point which was just over 3 kilometers from lake Victoria. Over the next hour and an half we passed through six sets of rapids, of which the largest was a class 3. Well, Ibra said it was a class 2 on the Nile but that most foreigners would classify it as a Class 3. Once I’d gone through it, capsized and then ejected from my boat, I also gave it a class 3 rating. Of course, considering I capsized and ejected after the first set of rapids (class 1), I can’t really consider myself an expert on river rating systems. I also never managed to successfully correct a capsize with an Eskimo roll. Doing a roll on calm water and in the rapids are two completely different things. But a super fun sport. Going to look into it once I go home.

Spent Sunday and Monday trying to use as many different modes of transport to get from Kampala to Mbarara. Used a motorcycle taxi (boda boda) to get to the minibus (matatu) park. Took a matatu from Kampala to Entebbe. Took the new ferry to the Sese islands in the centre of Lake Victoria. Swam in the Bilharzia infected waters (the only reason I did this was because I was swimming next to an irish physician who insisted that I should take the shistosomosis medication once I left the country anyway, so I might as well have a good reason for taking it). Rented a motorcycle on one end of the island and drove it to the other. Boarded another ferry off the island. Caught a ride in the back of a pick-up truck of an American missionary who used to be a helicopter pilot in the US Air Force (how do I manage to meet so many missionaries in Uganda? I met twelve Baptist volunteers while rafting). Final leg of the journey was a 3hr bus ride where my seat was my bag in the middle of the aisle (not enough seats, and I didn’t want to wait for an emptier bus).

The night before we left, we hit the same club as we did the first time, but this time managed to convince two of the girls to come along. The highlight of the night was hearing the reggae song Barak Obama. They’re still going wild for that guy.