Father - Son Trip : Rafting on the Nile

Over the Easter Break our family went to Queen Elizabeth and dad and I went rafting on the Nile! It was awesome! We went with 5 other father-son combos on the trip and rafted on Grade 3s and 4s. Here is a basic outline of our schedule:

Day 1: We got up very early to get all the way to Jinja, and then arrived at the pick-up point. Then, we got suited up and took off to the river (which seems like a name of a water body that doesn't even come close to the vastness of this "river"). We took 2 rapids before stopping on an island to eat a spectactular lunch brought through the rapids by an expert kayaker, and swam through some small rapids. Then we hit two more rapids before arriving at an island where we would stay the night, called the Hairy Lemon. There we played American football and volleyball in the water, and played some games at night.

Day 2: Again we got up bright and early for the next part of our journey, which was by far the best part of the trip and almost definitely the most exciting thing that I've done in Uganda so far! We let our rower do all the work for the first calm 15 km of the river while we swam and pushed each other off the raft. Then, we came to a grade 4 rapid and went through it. We then took an upstream current to an island right by the rapids and had lunch. There, we went boogie boarding on the rapids, but not how you would think. This is going to be an in-depth explanation so get ready...
It was stationary! Basically, the water flowing downstream hits a rock jutting out of the riverbed and is forced to go around. Then, an upstream current is formed when the water fills in the spaces behind the rock. However, the water falls off of the rock and collides with the water coming downstream, making a sort of wave, but it doesn't move. The island that we stayed at was very close to this wave so we just waded as far into the water as possible and leaped into the current. You had to kick as hard as possible so that you wouldn't get washed over the wave, and then, once you caught the wave, you just enjoyed the ride. The only thing that you had to do was keep yourself facing straight. Since there was so much water coming in both directions, it felt as if you were flying at about 100mph, even though you were going nowhere. It was sooooo much fun. Then my 8th grade friends and I got adventurous and waded against the current as far as possible and leaped out so that we got tons of momentum going down the rapids, and then tried to catch the wave.

Aftermath:
Extreme sunburn!

I really want to thank Dad for taking me on this great trip!

O ya, and sorry that I don't have any pictures. Only one dad was smart enough to bring a camera and he hasn't sent the pix around yet. If I ever get them I will definitely publish them.