Rafting the Nile

Good news everyone, the quarter-inch long piece of sea urchin that's been stuck in my foot since Christmas came out. Also, I went white-water rafting on the Nile near Jinja, Uganda. I'd never been rafting before since I refused to go during sissy family reunion opportunities. I'd been jealous of a few river-rat acquaintances that spent summers guiding on the Colorado, but after finally going, all I have to say is "eh." Don't get me wrong, I had a ton of fun, but Lonely Planet calls this "one of the most spectacular white-water rafting destinations in the world," we did several class five rapids, and we flipped a bunch of times, but it was never even remotely scary. I'm not saying that I'm a total bad-ass and nothing scares me, because I get scared all the time crossing steep icy slopes above long drop-offs, being exposed during lightning storms, or getting extremely wet and cold in snowstorms, but I'm a pretty poor swimmer and yet this was cake. Maybe I should do it again and tie weights around my ankles so that I stay under water longer, or maybe one of my river-rat friends will tell me "the Nile is weak compared to the Colorado; Lonely Planet is full of it" but until then, I'm going to go through life thinking that maybe kayaking is rad because you could just ride down a rapid, paddle back up its eddy, slide back in and run it over again all day long, but I can do without rafting.

Two more weeks left. I've got to do a major update of the World Bank report this week, I plan on chilling in Busia next weekend, and I'll be in Nairobi the weekend after that going to Nairobi National Park and getting ready to head out.

Comments

  1. mike11:10 PM

    Dude, rafting with a bunch of 6th graders I was counselor to on a class III scared the shit out of me, because they couldn't paddle at all.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Marcus8:28 PM

    You also get scared when crossing rivers on rickety footbridges.

    But seriously, what about the scenery? Spectacular?

    ReplyDelete
  3. The Onion12:56 AM

    I wouldn't really call that scared, just moving very deliberately and singing very loudly to distract myself. And you must make it clear this is not like the "rickety" bridges in Peru, but the "one piece of wood every meter, mostly just a couple of wires" bridges. Anywho, the scenery was good: tons of birds, a monitor lizard, but no crocs.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Matt8:32 PM

    I wish I could do _anything_ dangerous. The closest I get is telling my 6 year old he can't have any more candy.

    Rafting the Nile sounds like fun.

    ReplyDelete

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