This weekend wasn’t much different than a typical World Race weekend, other than the fact that we rafted down the Nile River AND bungee jumped over the Nile River! This weekend was a much needed break filled with adventure through mother nature. I loved it!!!
It started when my squad (The Q) came together to stay at a hostel in Kampala on Friday night. It was a lot of fun catching up with the other members of my squad and hearing about their months so far. I will even add (although some members of my squad might get annoyed since I was one of the few who actually had a hot shower) that I had the best shower of my World Race life that night! I think God just wanted to bless me with it’s calming effects. :]
The next morning we woke up early and got on a bus headed to the Nile. It was actually a rainy and cold morning might I add. We stepped off the bus and mud squeezed through the space in between my toes. It was gross, but it was also quite awesome to know I was out in the midst of nature about to have the time of my life.
Our squad split up into 4 rafts with 8-9 people in each. I was in a raft with 8 other lovely and powerful women. We got in our raft and met our guide, Olwo (spoken like the Spanish word “hola” but rather with an “o” like “holo”). He was a very funny African man and told us many ridiculous stories, although sometimes I think he made some of them up!
After we got in our raft, we had our normal practice stuff before we began the adventure…such as how to paddle, “getting down” in the boat when a big wave hits you, etc. BUT they also added “flip drills” to the list. That is where we had to practice flipping the boat and learning to survive if we were caught under the boat when it flipped, etc. I have been rafting twice before back in the States and I’ve never had to practice being trapped under the boat! The practice drills confirmed my knowledge that it was going to be an intense day on the river! Also the fact that we had at least 5 or so kayakers as well as 2 ‘safety boats’ who followed our group and were there to help rescue us in the rapids if we were to fall out. Yep, never have I had that much “safety crew” around me either. It was going to be an intense day…and I’m not so sure we were all ready for it. Haha!
But off we went…
Our first rapid was a class 5 rapid with a 16ft waterfall! It was incredible! And we managed to not even flip the raft either! AND might I add that we were the only raft out of our 4 rafts to even paddle hard enough to make it to the waterfall. Woohoo!!
After a few more intense rapids, walking around a breathtaking view of a class 6 (unraftable) rapid, watching other people fly out of the raft (and not me), and the best lunch I have had on the Race yet, we came upon a few more rapids. This time, we managed to flip and of course we all flew out of the boat. After surviving that rescue, we managed to flip again on the next rapid too! This time I actually felt like I was on the verge of death though…along with the rest of my rafting team. I remember opening my eyes and seeing the raft on top of me. Except I couldn’t get it off of me and I was swallowing a ton of water from the Nile. I came out of the water and another wave hit me. And then it hit me again. And again. The next thing I knew there is a kayaker in front of me telling me to hold on. I grabbed a hold of the back of his kayak and he tried to take me to the safety boat. We then noticed a large rock in front of us and knew I couldn’t be safely pulled up in the raft in time, so the man in the kayak turned around and told me to “KICK HARD!” because we had to make it around the next set of rapids. Thankfully I came out of that rapid alive and laughing about the situation. I even managed to stay in the raft until the end of the day’s journey down the Nile River. :]
And if I didn’t feel like that was close enough to death… I decided to jump off a 145ft high platform over the Nile River 2 days later!!!
I said I would never ever bungee jump in my life. But how can you pass up an incredible opportunity to do something as crazy as that in the middle of Africa?!!
These experiences are only making my bucket list that much more crazy. ;]
