Rafting the Nile

A little known fact about Uganda is that the Nile River originates here. It begins in a city named Jinja and travels northward across Africa, eventually going through Egypt and emptying into the Mediterranean Sea. The river is vast and beautiful. Parts of it flows quickly, other parts are smooth and calm.

During the past few days all the WorldVenture missionaries living in Uganda have met together in Jinja to share where they are at and to cast vision for the next few years of ministry. Although happy to attend most of the meetings, I was able to ditch out one day in order to go rafting ☺.

The Nile is an interesting river. The stretch that I rafted on contains many rapids—from class 2 rapids up to class 6! Most of the rapids, however, are not formed because of rocks. Instead, the rapids are formed because of the amount of water that is fighting its way along the riverbed. The rafting trip was an all day experience, and we were able to navigate our way through 10 rapids, half of them level fives.

We sat eight people to a raft, plus our river guide. My friends Holly, Megan, Phil, and Deborah were in the raft with me as well as three others who were from the UK. Our guide’s name was Juma. Big J (as he told us to call him) has been guiding for over 10 years and grew up here in Jinja.

At the beginning of the day, everyone donned on life jackets and helmets and then loaded up the rafts. We spent some time practicing how to row together, how to get in and out of the raft, and what to do if the raft flips during the middle of a rapid. Once our guide was convinced we were ready, we set out.

Right before we reached a class 3 rapid, Juma asked us if we’d like him to flip the raft for us. Nobody really responded with a yes or no, so he concluded that the decision was up to him, which basically meant he was going to flip us! So, we rowed hard into the rapid and then hunkered down in the middle of the raft to ride out the waves. When a big wave hit us, Juma manipulated the raft a bit and over it went!

There is nothing like the feeling of falling out of your raft in the middle of a rapid. It is terrifying, exhilarating, disconcerting, and exciting all at the same time! I landed in the water to the right of the raft and then had to focus on timing my breaths so that I could breathe in between waves. I bobbed along for only a short while before one of the kayakers (who travel with the rafts) came near to rescue me. I got on the front of it and he paddled me back to the raft. It was great!

We only flipped our raft one more time during the rest of the trip. It happened on a class 4 rapid and was completely unexpected this time. We were about halfway through this rapid when two big waves crashed into us. We weathered through the first wave, but the second just threw the raft right over. Everybody made it back safely to the raft once again.

One of the biggest rapids we went through was called Big Brother. It begins with a two meter drop off, after which are 5 big waves that hit you one right after another. It was quite a rush. My raft made it through the whole way, but one of the other rafts flipped! This was probably my favorite rapid.

The last rapid of the day is called “The Bad Place.” It is a class 5 rapid that comes directly after a class 6 rapid. Rafters aren’t allowed to go down class 6 rapids, so we got out of our raft and walked alongside the river for a bit. Now, the Bad Place consists of a 2-3 meter drop at the end of which a huge wave barrels into you—guaranteed to flip your raft. If you paddle hard enough you can make it past the hole and go down a channel that is only a class 4. Here you have a fifty-fifty chance of making it through. But if you don’t paddle hard enough, you slide into the Bad Place and flip. A third option is to go the safety boat route and skirt along the edge of it all down a class 3 channel. I hate to admit it, but our raft opted for the class 3 channel of the river. If we could have been sure we’d make the class 4 channel, we probably would have done that, but nobody wanted the guaranteed flip.

Anyway, I had an awesome time rafting, got sunburnt, of course, and am extremely tired and sore today. But, given the opportunity, I would jump at the chance to do it all over again.


Our rafting group (L to R): Andrew, Katherine, Phil, Me, John, Juma, Holly, Deborah, and Megan