I took an evening flight to Kampala, spent the night, then headed to a place called Jinja the next morning. I was supposed to get a lift from the company I had contacted for the kayaking school but there was some miscommunication so I was on my own to figure out how to get out there. With the help of some people on the street I took a motorcycle taxi to a busy transit junction some kilometers down the road and the driver then helped me find the right “taxi” (a mini bus that serves as public transit) to get me to where I was headed, then another motorcycle taxi to bring me up to the campsite and kayak school where I spend the next few days.
As soon as I arrived I jumped right in and did a half day lesson. We focused more on strokes and drills and he tried to teach me the Eskimo roll – it’s a lot harder than it looks! Because you are sealed into your kayak *upside-down* in the water things don’t make quite the same sense in your head as when you practice right side up. I think I managed one or two good rolls. The next day we did a river run with a few class II+ rapids. While it doesn’t sound like much, it was pretty exhilarating.
The following day I decided to take a break from being on the river and took a walk down to one of the class V rapids to watch the rafters and the locals who jump in only carrying a jerrycan as a floatation device (!). That afternoon I went to see a women’s group which does weavings of all sorts with another Canadian girl I met while watching the insanity at the waterfalls.
I moved down to Jinja town that night and the next day we spent puttering around town doing some souvenir shopping and we happened to find a fantastic little coffee / sandwich shop with REAL coffee and AMAZING sandwiches – certainly not expected and a great little surprise. I continued to putter around the next day and then found myself relaxing at the only public pool in town (probably the only pool period), and enjoyed a nice long walk back to the hostel.
The next day I prepared myself for the insanity. Six class V rapids. EEK!! There was a fairly large group of us who signed ourselves up for this and spirits were high as we drove to the launching site. I ended up going with the group that wanted the trip to be pretty crazy but not suicidal. We *didn’t* choose to go with “Satan” as our guide.
Our guide expertly took us down the river and flipped us whenever he felt like it…which was pretty much all the time. At one point somebody had the great idea that we flip our raft upside down and go over the rapid like that. Needless to say as soon as we hit the bubbles we were all thrown off. The best one, though, was the one where he told us to close our eyes and paddle and he would tell us when to open them. Of course we complied and when we were told to open them we were faced with a wall of water dead ahead which we were to barrel through. It was a great experience!
That night I stayed to play a few games of giant Jenga which became pretty intense. After a few drinks we all became a little impatient and it became a game of speed Jenga. Beware of falling wood blocks!
The next day I was heading back to Kenya and was going by bus so I could see some of the scenery. The green was lovely :)
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