Flamingoes and Rafting the Nile

After a day at the cricket in Kampala, where home team Uganda began the day by thrashing a much less impressive Ghana (less impressive than the day before that was), and ended the day with a loss to the #1 ranked team from Namibia, those of us who let the truck travel ahead of us (7 of us) caught up to the truck through a 2 hour minivan ride to nearby Jinja.  

Jinja is located right next to the Nile, and is very much an adventure-seekers paradise, with activities such as white water rafting, kayaking and now even jet boat riding available to the ever-increasing number of tourists (whilst we were in Jinja the campgrounds we observed were packed with a combination of other overland trucks and general tourists to the area).  

Jen and I got up early the following morning for a full day of white-water rafting on the Nile through Grade 5 rapids.  I’ll admit that I was a little apprehensive about what exactly I had signed up for, and my very vague recollections of white-water rafting in NZ when I was 13 or 14 years old at school camps were not very favourable.  I remembered white-water rafting to be extremely cold and a process of holding onto the raft for dear life as we navigated through water that was only inches deep but littered with thousands of sharp rocks.  As it turned out, white-water rafting on the Nile was quite different.  The sheer volume of water eliminates any need to worry about the rocks at the bottom (well, but for a few rapids), the rapids were a good couple of metres deep and as the water poured over it created waves in the run-off.  I thought it was great fun - no pain if you fell out of the boat (which happened often) and massive ups and downs as we ungainly made our way over these water waves - all in all making for an exhilarating ride in comfortably tepid water.  Sure, falling off the raft in the first place generally involved a bit of dis-orientation and normally a mouthful or two of Nile water, but this didn’t bother me so much.  Jen perhaps wasn’t quite as excited to be thrown off the raft whilst descending rapids, but I am sure with a bit more practice she will be fine!  

Par for the course of the day...

Most of the day actually involved a large amount of paddling.  Our guide suggested that we travelled a total of about 26km along the nile - most under human power.  By the end of the day, the paddling, coupled with the strain involved in lifting oneself back onto the raft after an involuntary (i.e. tipping over a rapid) or voluntary swim (to cool down in the midday heat or tackle in a friend) my arms were about ready to drop off! 

The following day we jumped on an almost brand-new jet boat (owned by a kiwi guy who had imported the boat from NZ as we understand) for a 1 hour spin around the nile.  Obviously the jet boat couldn’t go over the big rapids we had done the day before, but only a small disturbance in the water is necessary for some big-air and a good soaking.  We had a great laugh - especially when the jet boat was used to spray a wall of water over an African local who was bathing (naked) on the side of the Nile.  Hilarious!

From Jinja we have headed back to Kenya and onto a couple of the game parks here, Lake Nakuru (famous for its flamingoes) and Lake Naivasha.  Our game drives involved sightings of the typical African animals (thousands upon thousands of Antelope, Zebras, Giraffe) and a few of the less common, being the birdlife (obviously the flamingoes were in abundance at these game parks, but it was the first time we had seen them on our travels through Africa) and Rhinos.  Today we have just come back from the Crater Lake National Park (some 20km or so from Lake Naivasha) where, instead of driving through the park, we went on a guided walk.  Certainly the response from the animals to a 2-legged rather than 4-wheeled threat is quite interesting.  With much less noise we could clearly hear the Zebra communicating with one another, and curious giraffe and antelope led for some good animal face shots.  

Flamingoes and Pelicans against the sunrise

Pelicans

Maribu Storks - about 3 feet tall and very ugly

Mother and baby Rhino

Flamingoes in the distance, Pelicans on the shore

Camera envy...

On the road to Crater Lake National Park - this time I had the camera at the ready!

Dung beetle - a real highlight for the day - rolling a ball of dung from
Buffalo Droppings to take home to his girlfriend...

Crater Lake

Greater and Lesser Flamingo

Colobus monkey (with baby clutched to her chest) at Elsamere

After a hearty lunch we went to Elsamere for high tea, the home of Joy Adamson, who wrote ‘Born Free’, a story about a lioness that she raised (Elsa) and the reintroduction of Elsa to the wild after being raised by humans.  The high tea involved a large selection of delectable cakes (quite a treat as we have had very little cake over the last few months) which we gouged ourselves on (figuring we had earned the treat after a 2.5 hour game walk earlier).  

From here we now head North to Ethiopia and its capital, Addis Ababa.  Supposedly this involves the better part of 6 days driving given the low quality of the road ahead and distances involved.  Don’t know how internet will be through Ethiopia, but look forward to keeping you updated in time.