So my adventures in the last 2 weeks have been pretty exciting J to sum it up, I saw Uganda and played the adventurer in the air, on land and in the water. It started on a Wednesday afternoon, of me heading into Nairobi to catch a bus with 2 interns (Stephanie and Tamara) as well as 2 Swedish guys who are working at Kimathi on their Masters Thesis. We naively thought we would take the night bus, because that way of course we could get some sleep, right? Wrong… Have I learnt nothing about the quality of roads in Kenya???? Needless to say, the roads were absolute crap, for a lovely 14 hours, and the five of us had the back row in the bus which as we all remember from elementary school, means that when you go over a bump, you get some air… J This was on top of other bus issues we ran into, such as us being booked for the wrong bus ride, being pulled over by cops an hour outside of Nairobi because of suspected hijackers (2 people were taken for questioning and left the rest of us very apprehensive for the remaining 13 hours) As well, the last 3 hours of the trip, the bus was making horrible noises and going around 40 km for which I am glad I don’t know what those sounds mean and am slightly grateful for my ignorance with mechanics or I think I would have been even more concerned when we were driving in the middle of nowhere. Regardless, we arrived in Jinja, a little city on the edge of Lake Victoria, at the source of the Nile, safe and sound on Thursday morning.
Upon arriving in Jinja, we took some boda boda’s (moped/motor bikes) to the Nile River Explorers Campsite about 10 minutes out of town, which has the best bar in Africa overlooking the Nile and Bugagali Falls. I stayed there the whole time while in jinja in the dorms which were like 5$ a night and nice and relaxing. The first day, we just hung out, drank Nile Special Beers and ate these things called a Rolex ( a chapatti rolled around an omlette with cabbage, tomatoes and onions, and sliced avocado) which are so good and made right in front of you and did I mention delicious and like 60 cents?? While we were in Jinja, it was the World Nile Kayaking Championships there, so there were a bunch of kayakers from around the world as well as lots of tourists- which meant that the bars were rowdy at night and there were crazy competitions to watch during the day. On Friday, we went to watch the free style competition, which was really cool to see the tricks these guys do on the waves, and I also got a wicked tan J I also swam for the first time in the Nile that day ( which was nasty and dirty brown in some places, but not as bad as I had assumed it would be considering the community uses the nile to swim, bathe, wash and do laundry.
Saturday was when my extreme guts/ athleticism/craziness began J I went tandem kayaking down the Nile, which went through class 1 to class 5 rapids. It was so intense and I’m so glad I had not gone rafting before that, because the waves are really intense and I don’t know that I would have gone kayaking if I knew the waves I was getting into. So when you tandem kayak, you are in a 2 seated kayak, with you in front, hitting the waves first and an experienced guide behind you controlling the boat. My guide Henry was awesome, as opposed to Tamara’s guide, who had some issues and was not as experienced as Henry … This meant that the kayak flipped more often for here, and did not necessarily flip back :S So Henry showed me how we would roll if the kayak flipped, and we started going down the rapids. After that it was a free for all. It was so intense going into the class 5 rapids, but luckily we only flipped once in a rapid, thought the waves were so intense, and we couldn’t flip back over so I had to pull off the kayak skirt and just swim down the rapids so that I wasn’t trapped attached to the boat J Needless to say, it was awesome and I loved it. Scary as hell at some times, but so incredible how you go head first into these huge waves. At the end, we got to this one huge rapid that the kayaks can’t make it though, appropriately called The Bad Place, and hopped in one of the Rafts and went thought it that way. We flipped almost immediately, I got sucked into what’s called a Washing Machine where you get stuck underwater and don’t really know if you are moving up or down. It felt like forever that I was underwater, probably only like 10 seconds, but I remember thinking, Shit- I’m not even rafting and I’m going to drown because I fell out of this stupid raft- needless to say, I surfaced, survived, though had a lot of water in my ears for the next day or two. I even survived it without any injuries, unlike Tamara who split her lip in two by biting it when her kayak flipped. Actually, that is not entirely true as I found a mystery bruise on my leg, bright purple and about the size of a tennis ball, but I have no idea when or how I got it J But it was really awesome and loved it!
That night we partied with the competitors who are absolutely nuts. Example: lots of stupid white guys running around naked and one crazy guy taking a bite out of a dead rat… ewww. The next day, I had the world’s worst breakfast including deep fried toast but we then went to watch the Kayakers final race. Its actually really funny because after they do a 10 km kayak race They have to race back on boda bodas , go through an obstacle course of boats with their driver, and then funnel a beer. Really a good show to watch J That was also the day I decided to go bungee jumping, so we took a ride over to the tower, and I signed my life away :) You know, I’ve gone sky diving, and I felt like jumping off a ledge 44 meters up towards the Nile River was way stupider. There were 3 of us going that day, and I insisted on going first, because I figured if I didn’t do it first and had to watch someone else go first, I might chicken out. The explanation of the process was really short, which was a little unnerving, but then I sat down, they wrapped my feet in towels for padding, then tied a cord/ rope thing around it and carabineered me to a giant white latex cord… then I had to shimmy my way to the edge so that my toes were hanging over ( without tripping and falling I might add), grab hold of the bar above my head and find my balance. Now, when the jump master told me to let go of the bar, I kept telling him to just hold on a wait for a minute and to shut up and not rush me. J I was so scared that I was going to screw up, or not be able to jump at all, but when he just sait 3-2-1 bungee, I knew I had to go otherwise I would have psyced myself out and not do it at all J so when he said bungee.. I just leaned forward and just fell off this ledge.. it felt so unnatural but was so cool. I did a water touch with meant that my hands and the top of my head went in to the nile, but then I bounced back up for a while, a boat came to get me, thenI went to the bar to have a beer and deal with the adrenaline J Once again, It was awesome, though I don’t think I would do it again.
After that, it was back to the campsite, we went swimming in the nile and just hung out. One of the other days, Tamara and I went quading for 4 hours thought the countryside of Uganda which was so much fun, although I did almost manage to flip my quad… don’t ask me how, I have skill for managing stupid things J It was really fun, so dusty and we were so dirty when we got back. I thought I got a killer tan that day on my arms, but after a shower, I realized it was all dirt… too bad…
I spent a couple days in Kampala, the capital, by myself ( well not really by myself, I met some cool people staying at the hostel like this couple from Oregon, Tara and Karl, who had been at the campsite too and are kayaker. So we hung out at night at the Red Chili Hideaway ( hostel in Kampala) where I stayed in nice cheap dorms again. Kampala was a nice city, clean and friendly as opposed to Nairobi, which should be called Nairobbery. ( in fact, all the people in Uganda were really friendly, and I felt really safe the entire time I was there) Kampala also had some great Indian food which I ate for several meals. I finally managed to drab myself away from Uganda after a week and a half, longer than I had intended to stay, but Uganda will always have crazy memories for me J I also has a favorite pair of jeans that I left because I ripped them so badly, as well as a great pair of sandals that broke on my last day… tragic in fact J Anyways, after another long 16 hour bus ride back to Nairobi on a much more comfortable bus ( bit more expensive but worth it) though on the same crap roads, here I am back in Kenya for the last month and a half of my internship. Though in reality, of the next 6 weeks I’ll be here, I’m actually going to be traveling for almost 3 of those week: to the coast, to Ethiopia, and maybe to one more national park in Kenya called Hells Gate. And that’s on top op all the work and wrap up to do here in Nyeri as well as the election buzz… Its going to be an interesting couple of weeks and it will also be really strange to be away for Christmas. But you know, I’ll try to make the best of it while I am sitting on a beach in Lamu soaking up the sun …
