After bungee jumping, we got ready to go white water rafting down the Nile. Several of us, including me, were nervous as we had heard stories of the rapids and had seen the rapids further up the Nile on the road to Gulu. I have been rafting many times before including an outward Bound experience in high school, but I was still nervous. The head guide gave us a talk before we loaded into the boats, and his talk was basically this: “Do not take anything that you want to lose. The water is rough.”
Once we got our life jackets, helmets, and paddles, we headed down to the boats already on the water. There were 10 boats in all: 8 boats of rafters and 2 supply/rescue boats. There were also 8 single kayakers; these were there to rescue us from the rapids and pull us to safety if needed. The IC group had 18 people rafting: some from Group 2 and then several IC members who work in Gulu, so we were split into two boats of 9 plus the guide. The guide in my boat was named Tutu, so we became known as Team Tutu. He had been guiding with the company since its inception 13 years before, and he had grown up on the Nile. His mode of transport to and from work was his kayak. He was awesome. The other members of Team Tutu included: Justine, Lance, Catherine, Bill, Tammy, Kate, Ryan, Nick and me. Tutu asked us if we wanted a mild or wild ride, and we all nervously looked at each other and replied, “Wild!” What were we thinking?!?!?
Once we got into the raft and on the Nile, Tutu began our training. We practiced paddling, getting down in the boat, and how to hold on. He then moved on to the bigger stuff. He told us that if someone fell out, the person sitting across from him was responsible for getting them back in the boat. I look across from me, and there sat Justine. Now, Justine is one of my favorite people in the world now, but she is maybe 100 pounds soaking wet; we looked at each other, and I just cracked up and made the suggestion that we trade places with someone else. I will admit that I had little faith that she would be able to pull me out of the water should I have fallen in. We practiced with her side first, so she fell into the water. I jumped over, grabbed her life jacket, and hauled her in. Then it was my turn. I fell into the water, swam to the boat, and she and I made eye contact. She grabbed my life jacket, I gave a kick, and the next thing I knew, I was in the boat!! I looked up at her in amazement and said, “You have got to be kidding me.” Just to make sure that I had not imagined what just happened, I made her pull me in again. Which she did with such ease; Justine is one bad mama… We then practiced what to do if the boat flips over as well as a couple other “what ifs”. Then we waited for the other boats to catch up. As all of this training was going on, we began going over smaller rapids. Once we cleared each one, I turned around and asked Tutu what class it was, and he mostly replied 1 or 2. I knew that these were smaller rapids, but it did not do much to calm my fears of the Class 5 that I knew we were approaching.
The first class 5 that we approached was difficult to see because in normal society, you would not call it a rapid; you would call it a waterfall. From our vantage point, it just looked like the river stopped flowing. Tutu gave the orders that we would paddle forward, turn the boat a little and then get down in the bottom of the boat and hold on. There was nervous excitement as we listened attentively, and then the rapids came. It was amazing and nerve wracking at the same time. With Tutu’s expertise, we made it through wet but still in the boat and no one lost. It really boosted our confidence, and afterward, we all did our trademark cheer of “TUTU”.
The next rapid was a Class 3, which made me feel a little better until Tutu said that we would flip in it. His advice throughout the day was to stay close to the boat and hold onto the rope attached to the raft. I am not going to lie when I say that it made me feel very nervous to be churned around while still holding on to a rope. As we neared this rapid, we stood up and waved to the video camera and then prepared. We paddled in, and the next thing I knew, the boat was capsizing toward me. I fell into the water and ended up in massive churning water underneath the boat. I tried several times to get away from the boat to no avail and began to panic a little as I was still underwater. Then I remembered Tutu’s advice to swim to the light. I had my eyes closed, and I remember for a brief second thinking, “I don’t want to open my eyes in the Nile and get some nasty infection.” At that point, I believe survival mode kicked in and opened my eyes for me. I found the light, kicked hard with everything I had and surfaced. The boat was upside down but right there, so I grabbed on and looked around. There were several others around me, and we all just looked at each other in amazed bewildered. I then noticed Tutu on top of the boat giving hand signals. He finally flipped the boat over, and I ended up still in the water but beside Kate. She looked at me and said, “Catherine’s hurt.” We finally climbed into the boat and were able to stop and look at the situation. Catherine was in the rescue boat being tended to; she had dislocated her shoulder. We got to the side of the river and sat. Her shoulder was still not in place, and the head guide was nervous to move it back into place in case it hit the nerve. The next move was to get the rescue vehicle to a place she could get out of the water and get her to the medical clinic. To do that, we all had to travel through another rapid, although Tutu said it was only a class 2. The rescue boat consisted of one rower with two long paddles; the head guide got one of the members from his boat to get in the rescue boat and brace Catherine so she didn’t move any more than necessary. And we headed into the rapid. I was amazed to watch the rescue boat navigate this rapid with no worries whatsoever. We all made it safely through and stopped again at the base of a small hill. They got Catherine out of the boat and were trying to get her up the rocks. All of a sudden, she lay face down on one of the bigger rocks, let her arm dangle over the side of it for a couple of seconds, and her arm popped back into the socket. I was in awe as I think most everyone else who saw this happen was. How cool was that!!! They placed a triangle sling on her arm and led her to the rescue vehicle. We were down to 8 in our boat and a little subdued because we were all worried about her as well as wondering who was going to get hurt next as there were still rapids to navigate.
Tutu snapped us out of it by declaring a free swim. We took off our helmets and jumped into the Nile. Tutu did a couple of flips off of the end of the boat, which prompted Ryan and several others to try. Needless to say, they did not have Tutu’s finesse. After about 15 minutes of free swim, we hopped back into the boat to prepare for the next class 5 rapid.
Tutu told us this was a pretty big rapid, and there was a good chance that we would flip. I replied to him that none of us wanted to flip or fall out of the boat. He said ok and that he had a Plan A, Plan, B, Plan C, and Plan D to prevent that from happening.
Plan A: Paddle hard.
Plan B: Make sure your life jacket is on tightly.
Plan C: If the boat tips up, do not lean.
Plan D: Hold on.
I told Tutu that I didn’t think he could technically call Plans B-D actual plans. Needless to say, I was not feeling too confident about what was coming up, especially when he said this rapid consisted of 4 large waves and a section nicknamed “the washing machine” that we did not want to fall into as there was no way for us to be rescued and that we would only get rescued once it had spit us out. He gave the order to paddle hard, and I did just that. I have never paddled so hard in my life. He then yelled, “Get down!”, and we all jumped to the bottom of the boat and held on. Words cannot express the feelings coursing through my body as we moved through this rapid; maybe because it was pure adrenaline. There were several moments that I felt the boat flipping, but it never did. We all made it through the rapid in the boat and relatively unharmed, and I give full credit to Tutu for making that happen. It was amazing!!! We were all stoked on the other side and high fiving each other and calling out, “TUTU!”. It was awesome.
There were several other rapids that we went through, and all were lots of fun. We then made our way to Lunch Island, a tiny island owned by Adrift where the rafters eat lunch. The lunch consisted of potato salad and sandwiches. You created your own sandwich, and the choices were incredible. We actually had real cheese, real deli meat and lots of fresh veggies. It was the best sandwich I have ever had (probably because it was the first one in 6 weeks). Once lunch was over, we headed across the Nile to the take out point. We walked to the truck waiting to take us back to Adrift, and while the boats and equipment were being loaded, we were handed beer to enjoy.
The day was amazing and exhausting at the same time. It was a phenomenal way to end our stay in Uganda.
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