Uganda is somewhere I wanted to go as soon as I got into playboating but thought I would never have to skills to do so. I would watch videos and see pictures of these professional kayakers styling it and thinking “if only I was good enough to paddle that sort of water”.
It just goes to show if you want something enough and keep at it you will get there.
In summer 2012 me and my friend Jacob would talk about future trips on our to do list. Uganda came into the question, we did a bit of research on how easy it would be to organise a trip there in the winter. It all looked pretty simple considering this is Africa, but that’s often the view of an optimistic 17 year old.
It was a possible maybe for a few months then surprisingly became a definite when we bought our flight tickets! Jacob decided he wanted to go for 2 months as it was his gap year, I was still at college so I couldn’t go for that long but I decided a month of paddling should be enough! I had a message before the trip from Edd asking if he could join us. Three is a nice group size. We booked a 3 day guided course with Kayak the Nile as we didn’t want to get out there not knowing anything about the area or the river.
Anyway, when the time came for us to leave home, it all felt very surreal not to come back for a month. We met Edd at the airport; all of us very excited. We had a flight to Brussels then to Entebbe. We arrived in Uganda about 1am but were still surprised when stepping out the plane to the hot earthy African air. Jacob had booked us into a hotel that night, the taxi picked us up, shoving the kayaks on the roof (not tied on!). The hotel was a site of paradise, and it was one of the cheap ones!
Kayak the Nile picked us up in the morning, this time tying the kayaks down. It was a 3 hour journey to Nile River Explorers (NRE) This is where we had our first taste of the culture of Africa. It was mad! Everywhere was so busy coming through Kampala, it was full of people trying to make a living with whatever they could. The roads are just crazy there! This lasted for about 2 hours then we reached the countryside which was full of farmed fields, lush green vegetation and banana plants with mud huts tucked away in the greenery.
When we finally reached NRE Sam showed us around the place. We were due to be spending 3 days there while we were on the course. NRE is a beautiful camp overlooking the part of the Nile that used to be white water until the Dam that was put in that made it into a lake. Sad times.
Our first day of white water was upon us, we met our guide David (one of the locals) and drove downstream to below the dam to set off on day 1. I was very surprised when one of the local children started walking off with my kayak, they walk them about 500metres to the river for you and David paid them a bit at the end. They are mighty strong for 6-10 year olds!
We got on the warm yet refreshing water and set off down the first rapids. I have never paddled any big volume rivers so this was a shock to the system, being pushed about a lot and not being able to roll so easily. It was at this point when I was worried I might not be good enough for the river and wondered if I had made a mistake coming here so young.
We paddled our first proper rapid that was called Overtime. This could be on a British river as all the volume is going over the other channel known as Dead Dutchman. Jacob asked if we would paddle Dead Dutchman, David said “only if you want the rapid renamed to the Dead Englishman”. There is a simple lead-in rapid going on down to a simple 12 foot waterfall. After a few more rapids you come to superhole which is a fun little hole/wave to practice cartwheels and loops. We arrived back at camp nervous what tomorrow would bring as we were told day 2 was a lot bigger.
Day 2 was bigger. We started at Super Hole then to Itanda. Itanda is one of the biggest rapids on this stretch with huge waves and nasty holes all over the place. We decided to wait a while to run this and only ran the chicken shoot starting halfway down the rapid, and even that was huge! Then came Vengeance that was a sequence of big holes and waves, this was our first proper feel of big wave trains and we loved it! Hair of the Dog rapid was next, this is one big long wave train with a meaty wave to surf if you’re brave enough. Kula Shaker is the next big rapid that has lots of fun waves and holes to play on. Then comes a bit of a flatwater trek on down to Nile Special and Club waves.
It generally goes that Club wave works in the lower water in the morning and Nile Special works at higher levels in the evening. The levels change throughout the day due to the dam release. We spent a lot of time here at the waves with the Hairy Lemon Island just 5 minutes downstream.
We reached the Hairy Lemon Island and campsite at the end of day 2 where we would be staying for the rest of the month. This island is literally paradise, there are monkeys jumping above your head in the palm trees, pools to swim or play volley ball and chill-out shacks to relax in.
We knew that the US Jackson Team would be staying on the island with us so we were pretty stoked when EJ and Dane Jackson came up and introduced themselves to us. I had only ever seen these guys in kayaking videos on the Internet so it was very surreal to be paddling with them. There were also a lot of other talented and professional paddlers there such as Nick Troutman, Bren Orton, Clay and Stephen Wright and Martin Knoll.
Day 3 of our guided trip saw us get a lift up to Kalagala rapid. This rapid is parallel to Itanda and Hypoxia, as they are in different channels and are all huge rapids. We decided to wait a bit to paddle it and have some more practice first. We paddled on down to the Lemon using some different channels this time.
David decided to give us some coaching on getting on Nile Special using the rope. There is a rope clipped onto a rock upstream of the rapid with a handle at the end to hold onto. With the right technique you can drift out to the wave, which you can’t paddle onto it at these levels. You would usually pay one of the local kids to pull the rope back in for a couple of hours. I got onto the wave first time but this must have been beginners luck as I only got onto the wave a few times again that evening. A few more practice session and I had it dialled.
After a fews day of full on paddling you definitely feel as if you need a break. Jinja is the nearest big town to the Island at about an hours drive away. We took a taxi that got caught speeding, of course he got away with it somehow, this being Africa. Jinja is a nice town if you visit the right places. Jacob and I found ourselves in a dodgy, run-down machinery market were a man followed me with a metal pole. When I turned round he just smiled at me and laughed. We did find the right market in the end and it’s mad in there, you can easily get lost! Jacob had a great shopping list consisting of a mattress, washing bowl, phone, pillow, biscuits, tarp, ruler, needle and thread. He managed to find everything! It was then time for some Westerner food in Flavors Internet Cafe and then off to the Lemon for a sunset Special session.
A lot of our time was spent on the waves just upstream from the Island. Once I had got used to the rope I could actually concentrate on trying to handle this wave! After a few evenings on it I was starting to get bigger bounces and bigger blunts. It’s rather amazing, yet annoying, to see some of the pros do tricks you can’t do, but they manage without a paddle! I had a few beatdowns on Club wave and was close to swimming a couple of times but luckily it never happened.
The Lemon suddenly got a bit noisier one night. This was down to the party goers coming to stay (the Aussies). Pretty much everyone on the island decided they wanted to run the river from Superhole down one day. We fixed up a truck as there would be 13 of us. We drove with 3 on the top of the cab, 4 in the cab, 7 in the back with 13 people’s kayaks and paddles and Jacob was on top of the boats. It was about an hour’s journey down some bumpy dirt tracks; not the most comfortable of rides. It was worth it in the end when we had a mass paddle down the river. Superhole was a bit crowded with 13 paddlers on it so we headed down to Kalagala with full intention of running it today. We spent a bit of time scouting it then 11 of us decided to fire it up! This was by far the biggest rapid I had ever paddled and I was pretty nervous but well up for giving it a go. As long as you make a crucial ferry glide to river right and have a bomb proof roll at the bottom you’re all good. It’s a great feeling when you do roll up and look back at what you have just run. It’s just about dropping in and tucking up, it was a surprisingly soft landing. Everyone was good that day and lots of fun was had! We all paddled down the rest of the river playing on any waves possible.
It was great paddling with such a mixture of nationalities. We had 5 Aussies, 3 English, 2 Americans, 2 Norwegians and 1 South African in the group. I was getting used to the big wave trains by this point and they are so much fun!
Unfortunately Edd didn’t make it to this paddle, he was feeling ill so we decided to get to the medical centre in the morning. We went to town while Edd was getting checked out and by the time we went to see if all was finished we were told he’d gone on a boda boda (motorbike taxi) to have a warm bath (he had been craving one). We found him again eventually, although he was unimpressed as the bath wasn’t that warm. Luckily he didn’t have anything seriously wrong with him so we headed back to the Lemon. Unfortunately he went home a couple of days after as he just wasn’t feeling it.
We had heard all of this talk about Itanda so decided to go and see what all of the fuss was about. The Aussies had the same idea so we had a team to run the rapid! We scouted for a long time looking and memorising the line down this monster. In the end me and Jacob said we would go first, we did rock, paper, scissors to see who would have to go first. I lost so went first. We both trekked back to our kayaks and started ferrying across to the lead in. This was definitely the most scared I have ever been before any rapid because I knew if I got it wrong it would not be a fun swim and I would get a lot of down time. Jacob and I decided to train it one after the other about 25 meters apart. I went first, dropping in to the big lead in ramp and capsizing, but rolling up still with time and still on line. You then have to paddle like crazy river right and hit the line just behind Pencil Sharpener, a huge diagonal curling wave, without going in it! Then you have to charge hard right to miss the Cuban which is a big crashing wave/hole. I missed it and Jacob just clipped, getting flipped but was far enough right to wash out of it. The next challenge is to cut behind a nasty hole called Ash Tray and this time charge left to miss another monster of a hole called the Bad Place. Both me and Jacob missed these holes and came out of the rapid alive and still in our boats. It was the best feeling, looking back at what I had just completed successfully, as I always thought this would be way out of my league.
We got out and celebrated with the others. It was now Tom and O’s turn. They also both had successful lines even if Tom did overtake O mid rapid. The others portaged with the idea of maybe doing it another day.
Something very special about Uganda is the abundance of wildlife there. We were continuously seeing bugs and birds but had no idea what any of them were. There were also little green snakes that you would see in the roofs of the huts trying to catch the geckos. One time when Jacob was happily chilling out reading in the Bern Cave hut, I heard a thud and then saw Jacob jump a mile. A snake had fallen from the roof right beside him and was poised ready to attack. We were told these snakes are not poisonous but will bite. On the first night of staying on the Lemon I looked out at the outer of my tent and to my surprise saw a big praying mantis just chilling out in my tent, it was still there in the morning. The monkeys jumping around above your head all day, luckily, are good monkeys and don’t cause any trouble whatsoever.
As you can imagine, transport over there is pretty hectic. One of the cheapest ways to get around is by boda boda and we used these quite a bit to get up the river and to and from town. We would strap two kayaks onto one boda boda and then both sit on another. They were also by far the most fun form of transport, especially if you’re with a big group as they love the race. It’s definitely more dangerous than the river! Another cheap way is to use a matatu, this is a Kind of mini bus where they cram as many people inside as possible. And there is the truck to hire out but that’s definitely not the most comfortable of rides and takes a long time! We had a lot of arguments about money with drivers but that’s all part of the fun, always trying to get the price down as they are charging you ‘white peoples’ rates.
As soon as the Aussies arrived the parties began, there were a few of them! I didn’t really drink at all before I went out here but the Aussies soon had me doing Bujagali Sunsets. This consisted of lighting the Zappa on your hand, tipping the fire into the double shot metal cup, sticking it to your nipple, then you do a little dance followed by drinking the shot then put the cup down on a straw on the table and suck up the fumes. There was a lot of talk and planning for the legendary ‘booze cruise’. This was a sunset boat Cruise for $45 buying you the Cruise, food and all the booze you could drink. It was to be fancy dress so we all headed into Jinja market to find some ridiculous clothes. It was looking like the boat would be full of professional kayakers with all the Jackson team there and Anton Immler would be joining us. The Aussies turned up on bodas in their slutty costumes. The party got messy pretty quickly with jumping, dancing and nakedness, not naming any names. They said this was the biggest and noisiest booze cruise they’d had in the 8 years it had been running. Nothing to do with me. After the cruise a few of us decided to head over to a local bar across the road from NRE. It was an experience to say the least, with funny things being smoked and chewed. A few people were in too much of a state to venture out. Dane was out of it by about 8:00pm and had to go to bed.
We did quite a few more river trips while we were there, I did Itanda 3 times in total, all successful! I witnessed a couple of people going straight into the guts of Cuban on the biggest day. One of them managed to roll up in the foam pile and surf it out and the other just got pushed out the back and rolled up just missing Ashtray. I ran Kalagala a total of 5 times I think, again all successful. The big waves just became more and more playful as I got more confident with them.
I would definitely recommend it to any white water kayaker with grade 4 experience and a reliable white water roll. We went at the right time of year as there were so many other paddlers on the island to paddle and party with. It’s great for a little winter’s retreat to get away from the frozen finger paddling in the UK.
I will definitely be back to Uganda, but not sure when, as I want to focus on some creek boating for a little while. Thanks a lot for reading!
You can follow Jake’s paddling exploits here.
That sounds fantastic!!