Well, the time has almost come to say goodbye to this amazing place. I have really enjoyed my trip out here and will be sad to board the plane home later today.
Following our return from Safari on Sunday night we planned to spend Monday night at the Hairl Lemon campsite. We organised a Mutatu (taxi) to take all of our kit down whilst dropping us off at Kalagala falls so that we could paddle down. In the end only Max, Harry (Gimp) Martyn and myself were up for paddling down and the rest remained in the Mutatu for the journey. Having heard some not very nice things about Kalagala, we all made the decision to put on immediately below and run the grade three lead out as a gentle warm-up. Max decided to make it slightly more challenging and run the left line which went into a big wave at the bottom. Max hit this and was flipped. Next thing we knew we could see his helmet floating down river next to his up-turned boat. Max had swam on possibly the easiest rapid we had paddled! While all this was going on, Gimp was playing with a tree on the eddy line – trying to roll up using the branches dangling into the water! The remainder of the trip down was uneventful, except for enjoying fresh pineapple (best I have ever had) on one of the flat sections. We had bought it from one of the stalls outside NRE before we left and simply cut it into quarters for us to share.
Upon arrival at Nile Special wave we set up a rope for tow-on, before spending the next hour and a half failing miserably to even get close to catching the wave! Just as we gave up and headed to the campsite to get out, we saw loads of other paddlers paddling up for a session. They had slightly more success than we had experienced, with maybe 80% of attempts to catch the wave succeeding.
Tuesday morning started slowly, as everything at the Hairy Lemon seemed to recommend. It is one the most chilled out places I have ever been to. The campsite is on an island in the river, only accessible from the bank by a small wooden boat. There is no electricity on the island – everything is powered by solar or gas. There is no running water either, and the toilets were simple long-drops. As the morning wore on I decided that I had to experience Club wave, which is one of the waves in the wave train for Nile Special and works in the mornings when the river level is lower. The decision paid off and Max and myself had a great time surfing. I even managed my first proper blunt! We retird back to the campsite for lunch of beef chili, chapatti and potato salad before spending the afternoon relaxing, waiting for Nile Special to come into condition. By about 2pm almost everyone on the island was asleep, it was so chilled!
We were treated to a high water level in the evening, which meant that when we headed out for our Nile Special sesion at about half four, we would be able to paddle onto to wave – none of this messing around with this seemingly impossible-to-master tow-rope! The queue was almost as bad as a 3-gate session at Hurley on a Saturday, with everyone getting thrown around in the eddy by the surges and the crazy eddyline. The feeling of surfing a wave as big as Nile Special is unforgettable. The bounce you could obtain was some of the biggest I have ever seen, with people managing to get completely clear of the water with ease. All sorts of moves were being thrown down, with everything going big!
As the clock ticked towards half past six, it was time for Martyn and I to say our goodbyes to the people we have spent the last two weeks paddling with as we headed back to the campsite to collect our kit and get the pre-arrannged taxi back to NRE for our last night in Uganda. On arrival back at the campsite we dropped our kit in our dorm and headed straight to the bar, where we spent the evening chatting to a couple of Danish guys who have been travelling around East Africa for the last couple of months.
Our plan for the day is to do a run down to Silverback, for one last run down the rapids that will all be lost when the dam ins completed, before getting our shuttle back to the airport this afternoon for our flight home.
I have met so many great people, seen some truly fantastic places and padded some amazing whitewater during my short trip to Uganda that this is a place I will really miss and hope to return to some day not to far in the future.
I am now off for a shower which backs out overlooking the river here. There is no wall or anything between you and the view over the river. You feel slightly exposed when using these showers but the view is definitely worth it.
Once I am back home I will sort through the many photos and upload some of the better ones, so keep your eyes peeled.