Going clean on Nile Special. Photo by Aran Kilroy.
Nearly a year ago I sat down with myself and had the annual debate about what to do for the summer. This time, I was in the brilliant position of having a full three months off and money to spend, thanks to the work placement I did last year. So I decided to do something big. I looked into several options, including Norway, and doing another European road trip. However none of them really looked like they could offer anything to match the warm water, big volume river running and big wave freestyle of Uganda. So despite not knowing a whole lot about the place, and not being able to talk anyone into coming with me, I went ahead and booked flights anyway. Since it's a long distance away, to get the best value from the trip I decided to spend a full month on the river. As soon as I had those dates tied down the summer couldn't come fast enough!
All packed up and ready to go. I think the message got across, Cowy arrived mostly in one piece.
After chatting to a few people who had been there before, and a few emails to Emily at Kayak the Nile (kayakthenile.com) I had a lift from the airport to the river sorted, and more of an idea of what I was letting myself in for. Everyone I talked to said the place was amazing, both the paddling and everything else that goes with it, and as the months passed by and the trip got closer I got more and more excited. I also found out that Aran and Roisin from NUIG were going out at a similar time to me, and Conor, Shane and Alan from Dublin were going towards the start of the summer. So I wouldn't be the only Irish paddler out there.
The first Special of the trip. Possibly the most anticipated beer in history!
For anyone interested in travelling to Uganda, there's a lot of useful information online. Andrew Regan has put together a pretty comprehensive guide, which can be found here: Planning a trip to Uganda. One thing that seems to have changed since then is the price of living over there. The Hairy Lemon now costs $30 per night. This includes three meals of probably the best food I have ever eaten and is located a 10 minute paddle from Nile Special. It's probably the closest thing to heaven you will find on planet earth! If you can afford it then it's definately worth the cost.
The only way to access the island is by canoe. There are few people, the only electricity is solar, there's only phone signal if you stand on one specific rock, and the only running water is what's been pumped from the river by a water wheel. It's heaven! ...did I meantion that the food is amazing, and 90% home-grown on a small organic farm on the bank of the river beside the island?
Since the construction of the dam at Silverback the old paddler's Mecca of Bujagali, which used to overlook legendary rapids like Widowmaker, Silverback and Bujagali falls, now sits on the shore of Bujagali lake. This is still a good place to hang out and meet people, especially if you're travelling by yourself, but the logistics of getting from here to the river are pretty complicated, and expensive. This is where the non-paddling tourists stay, and where all the raft guides and kayak instructors come to hang out. It's a pretty sure bet that there will be a party of some kind here every night, and at weekends it can get a bit wild! When you factor in the costs of food, beer, camping and lifts to the river it's actually more expensive to stay in Bujagali than at the Hairy Lemon, and you get to paddle much less. The budget way to do a trip to Uganda is to rent a mud hut close to Nile Special off a local. Bring a petrol fired stove, buy big bags of rice and beans (which aren't a whole lot cheaper than Irish prices, at 50000 shillings, or €20 for 10kg of rice) and paddle yourself silly on Nile Special rapid twice a day!
Sunset looking over Bujagali lake from NRE. While it's not Bujagali falls, it still looks pretty good.
The choices for flying out there seem to be Turkish Airlines, Emirates and Brussels. Turkish tend to be cheaper, Brussels will take kayaks for free when booked through Kayak the Nile. Boats and bags getting left behind is a very common occurance, it happened to me going both directions. The airlines will drop your gear to wherever you are, usually the next day but make sure you bring enough stuff in your carry-on bag so that you can survive until the rest of your stuff shows up. I ended up staying in a dorm in Bujagali for a night and the rest of my camping and kayaking gear showed up the next day. Not the end of the world.
With regards to the difficulty of the river, I heard a lot of very good kayakers talking before I went and all the talk was about severe beatings, long hold-downs and other unpleasantness. So I was pretty apprehensive before I went out, since I had never paddled a big-volume river before and had no idea what it was going to be like. It turns out that all the stories of horrible swims come from Itanda, Dead Dutchman and Hypoxia. These three rapids are pretty full on, with Dutchman and Hypoxia being another level of crazy above Itanda. Apart from those three, the rest of the river is far easier than you might expect. Sure, there are difficult lines and big holes around if you go looking for them but if you have someone who knows the lines most of the rapids are as simple as paddle down the centre of the big green tongue and then enjoy the huge wave train at the bottom. All of the rapids finish up in long flat sections so there is more than enough time for picking up the pieces in the event of a swim.The water is warm and deep, there are no rocks around so the worst case scenario is that you go down for a bit of downtime in the case of a swim. The rafts constantly paddle into the biggest holes and waves they can find and then flip on purpose, if those punters can handle it then so can you! Of course if you have a solid moving water roll then that's not even an issue, even if you flip on a wave train none of the waves will hold you and you'll probably be down and onto flatwater again before you've even got around to rolling.
I can't decide if Itanda looks crazier from above or below. Pictures really don't do it justice!
Since there aren't many rapids left, the majority of them are pretty easy and there are long sections of flatwater between them, for me paddling in Uganda is all about the freestyle. The are waves to surf all the way down the river, and Nile Special and Club waves are awesome. Nile Special and Club can take a while to get dialled in, Special has a fairly difficult tow onto it and they're both super fast and bouncy. Trying to control a boat on that size and speed of wave is not something that you ever experience in Ireland but once you get the hang of it you can go huge and the feeling of flying is addictive! The paddle from the flow into the eddy at Special is as difficult as any of the rapids on the river bar the big three, it's a mass of boils and whirlpools just aiming to catch you and flip you upside down before you've realised what's happening! The only solution is to sprint as soon as you fall off the wave and get across the eddyline in the shortest time possible!
Loving life in the air above Nile Special. Photo by Aran Kilroy.
Of course, the kayaking in Uganda is only half the story. The lifestyle over there is the main reason why people come back again and again, and why a lot of people arrive and don't ever leave. It's hard to imagine a place being more laid back and chilled out. The local people are incredibly friendly and welcoming, and how they get by on so little is inspiring. Travelling around is nearly as fun as kayaking, and far more dangerous! The roads have to be seen to be believed, anywhere else in the world they would be regarded as for 4x4s only but here they just pile up to 6 people onto a Boda Boda (125cc motorbike) and carry on regardless. The mix of trucks, minibuses, cars, motorbikes and bikes, all overloaded, is nuts but somehow it all works, most of the time. A 1.5 hour car journey did take us 4 hours, 5 breakdowns and two cars at one stage but you just have remember that you'll get there eventually, and whoever's waiting for you will know exactly what's going on as it happens all the time over here. The constant stream of tourists through Bujagali means that there's always an excuse for a party, it's incredibly easy to be out every night and almost forget to go kayaking. Eventually though your body will give in and demand to be brought back to the Lemon, where the perfect cure of eating well, sleeping over 12 hours a day and kayaking twice a day will have you feeling as good as new in no time, though you still won't want to leave!
We had no idea of the mission that this journey was going to turn into. But we got there in the end!
If you do eventually get worn out from all the kayaking then no problem, there are activities on offer to suit everyone's tastes, from rafting to horse riding, mountain biking to SUP tours. This also means that non-kayakers will find more than enough to do to keep entertained. Highlights include Kayak the Nile's introductory kayaking sessions, which allow anyone to have a taste of kayaking in warm, deep water in beautiful equatorial surroundings. It's a world apart from learning to kayak in Ireland in winter! If that sounds a bit too leisurely, they also offer an extreme tandem kayaking option, where you'll be put in the front of a two man kayak with one of the expert local guides in the back and sent down some of the best rapids the Nile has to offer.
Unfortunately, a time limit has recently been imposed on all this. Plans to build a dam at Isimba, below all the normal kayaking and rafting take-outs, were recently approved and initial works on the site have already begun. This dam is due to be completed in three years time and virtually all of the remaining whitewater on the Nile will disappear under another massive lake. Lobbying and campaigns to have the size of the dam reduced to preserve at least some of the rapids appear to have had zero influence. The benefit of this development to the national economy is open to debate but what cannot be argued is that this will kill off adventure tourism in the area. What will happen to all the local people who depend on tourism for their income remains to be seen. Going by previous events, people whose land is flooded will be inadequately compensated, if at all. Unless things change drastically, the message is 'go now, and experience one of the worlds best playgrounds before it's too late'.
Kayak the Nile have lots of useful information about travelling to Uganda and the activities available in the area on their site, Kayak the Nile.
To find out more about the proposed dam development at Isimba visit the Save Adventure Tourism in Uganda blog, Save Adventure Tourism in Uganda.
Here's a video I put together to document the trip and raise a bit of awareness about how little time is left out there, since information about the second dam doesn't really seem to have filtered up to the northern hemisphere yet. The youtube version is blocked in Ireland due to copyright so if you can't see it watch it on Vimeo here: Dammed: The Clock is Ticking for the White Nile.
Need a Boda? You never have to wait for very long.
When you call a taxi, you're never really sure what vehicle is going to turn up. This was one of our more interesting ones, a flatbed truck that threatened to bounce Roisin out over the side with every bump.
When you hear stuff running around on top of a roof, it's either rats or monkeys. Better hope it's monkeys.
Ugandan health food shop. Dem body builders have to get their nutrients somewhere.
Enjoying a beer after our last paddle on the Nile. After this we watched the sun go down and we were treated to a goodbye lightening show on the horizon.
