White Water Rafting the Nile River

Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “Do something that scares you every day.” We definitely did that in Uganda, my parents more than me. On our third day in Uganda, we decided to Whitewater raft the Nile River. When we got into the raft, we did some drills like how to get in if you fell out. We gave a pathetic show of getting in. As we started towards the first rapid, it sounded very loud. My parents looked nervous. They were relieved that we were unable to do it because it was a Class VI rapid, and we could only go up to Class V. We got off the raft and walked through a beautiful little village with walkways going to the woods and pathways across little streams that snaked through the whole village. The guides helped us back into the boat and we headed to our first rapid. It didn't look that big until we were right there, and it was huge. The guide told us to get down into the boat and hold on. As a wave of water washed over us, the boat tipped 90°, making it completely vertical, and I watched, laughing, as my dad fell onto my mom, knocking them both into the water. The sheer force of the water ripped off my mom's helmet. As a sacrifice to the Nile gods, my mom gave up her favorite hat when her helmet came off in exchange for her life. 

The precursor to my parents first fall

The fall

The after math

We made it through the second rapid without any trouble. It was so much fun that we got out and portaged the boat to do the rapid again. We then had a long flat portion where the guide gave us pineapple for a snack.

After about 30 minutes, we got to the next series of 10 rapids. The waves were huge! The first few were Class VI, so we had to get out and walk around again. We launched the boat before the final two rapids in the series. Where we launched the boat there was a dead tree that was full of thousands of golden orb spiders. The spiders hung from one side of the trail to the other on a precariously dangling web. They were NOT tiny spiders. They were enormous apple-sized spiders, and there were thousands of them.

We were going on two back-to-back Class V Rapids, and our guide said, “If you fall on the first one, you swim through the second one.” It was the biggest rapids we had ever done, and my parents were legitimately scared for their lives. I wasn't. My mom says that’s because my frontal lobe isn't fully developed. I don’t know what she is talking about.

We made it through the first rapid. The boat flipped completely on the second one because my mom was not paddling hard enough. When we fell, the three of us got stuck in a whirlpool, and we just circled each other for a while, going around and around until we swam to get out.

On the fifth rapid, a class IV, I sat on the front of the raft and got blown back into the raft, and it was really fun. On the 6th rapid, which was a class one, I swam through it intentionally. 

This is a golden orb spiter

This is when the raft flipped

This is when I sat on front

Overall, it was an enjoyable experience that I would definitely do again. My parents would not. One of the reasons that they wouldn't do it again is the dangerous parasite (Schistosomiasis) that is in the water. We only learned about the parasite after rafting. Luckily, it is easily treatable with medication, which we got (just in case) at a pharmacy in Kigali. Even with the parasite, I do not regret rafting. It was one of the funnest things I've ever done!