Well, it turns out I spoke a bit too soon in my last blog post on Thursday. Following my post we went to run some backchannels – namely Bladerunner and Brickyard. Bladerunner we have run before so know the line well. Max went down first and just flipped in the hole and the bottom. I went next and managed to screw up the break-out from the eddy above the rapid. The normal line is left, but I ended up running it just right of centre. All was going well until I landed in the inoccuous looking hole and the bottom which proceeded to give me a working. I was in there for longer than I wanted to be going round and round, end-over-end, trying my best to escape the grasp of the hole. Eventually I managed to flush out and roll up. Kip ran it next and messed up at the start of the rapid and did the remainder either backwards or upside down. Martyn then came down without any issue at all. There is video and photo of us all running this.
Next up it was time to inspect Brickyard. This is a rapid none of us had done before, nor had we watched anyone do it. We knew the line was left and from inspecting it we could see this went. We just weren’t sure how easy it would be to make the line for the second part of the rapid. If we missed the line we would either end up going over a lot of rocks, or just simply end up in a nasty looking hole! We ended up walking away from it to come back another day. Instead of Brickyard, some of us decided to have another go at Bujagali Falls. Kip ran it first down the right hand line, in Max’s boat, and ended up getting worked for a couple of seconds in the whole at the bottom. I ran it next and, just as I hit the hole at the bottom, my deck imploded (I broke my deck on day 3 so have been using a borrowed one since. This was very tight on my cockpit and was only a matter of time until it popped). I then proceeded to go down under the hole, resurfacing what felt like a few seconds later slightly downstream with my boat full of water. Unfortunately the easiest way to get to the bank from here was to climb out and swim. At this stage I would like to point out that my boat was upright when I exited it and that I did not pull my deck release. This is all on video as well.
Friday was spent travelling up to Murchison Falls National Park for safari. It was about an 8-9 hour drive, most of which was down unsurfaced roads. On arrival in the park we headed up to look at Murchison Falls itself. This is probably the most powerful piece of whitewater anywhere in the world as the entire River Nile is forced through a gorge about 7 metres wide and over a set of falls about 43 metres high. From here we headed up to the campsite we were to stay at. During the night we endured a another tropical thunderstorm and can happily say that the little pop-up Quechua tents are thoroughly waterproof!
Saturday saw an early start (0600!) in order to get the first ferry across the river for our game drive. Kip and myself spent the majority of the ride sat on the metal roofrack of our Mitsubushi Delica as we saw Lions, Elephants, Buffaloes, Antelopes, Giraffes and a whole host of other animals and birds. In the afternoon we took a boat trip up the river to see Murchison Falls from the bottom. On the journey we saw Hippos, Crocodiles, Elephants and a wide selection of birds. The falls from the bottom is just as impressive at it was from the top. For Saturday night we were to share the campsite with a few Warthogs who were happily roaming around.
Yesterday (Sunday) we spent the day travelling back to the NRE campsite at Bujagali Falls. This morning a couple of people are popping into Jinja before we all head down to the Hairy Lemon campsite for this evening. We are going to get all of our kit transported down on a truck and we will be dropped off at Kalagala Falls on the way, from where we will paddle down to the Nile Special wave and Hairy Lemon campsite. Martyn and myself are travelling back to the NRE campsite tomorrow evening before we fly back on Wednesday 🙁
I have had such an amazing time out here – the places I have seen and the people I have met will stay with me for a long time. If you have the opportunity to come out here, jump on it.
Off for breakfast now – Chapatti with omlette rolled up in it.