Best trip ever....Uganda.

So i've just returned from a two week spell in Uganda where the sun shines, the water is warm and the whitewater is massive. Spending most of our time in the Dorms at Nile River Explorers set us in the perfect location to paddle both the day one and day two sections of the river.

The White Nile from the Air.

I flew out from Heathrow Airport on Sunday 14th Feb with Ed 'Egg' Kay. We arrived at NRE the following afternoon where we were greeted by a great view and cold beer. We booked ourselves into the Dorms and had a few more beers while we caught up with our old friend Jon Best who has been living in Uganda since Early December. The following morning we headed out to do our first Silverback run, a quick blast of blind grade 5 whitewater from NRE to the take out below Silverback where we were met by our Boda Boda drivers (Little motorbikes that you sit on the back of). The run takes around half an hour and we were back in time for a chapati lunch.

Bujagli Falls on the Day one section

The best Chapatis ever

A few days later after some heavy nights in the bar and some fun paddling we loaded up a car and headed to Nile Special. This was the first time I had ever used a tow rope and it took a while to get use to it, however it was definitely worth the effort as the wave was great. We also did the full day one section following a raft, great fun but i got pretty badly sun burned.

Using the rope

After nearly a week we were joined by Pete 'the Scud' Scutt and Richard Marrill. Now we had a good crew the first thing we did was another day one trip so that Pete and Rich could get a good go on the River, at the end of the day we finished by doing all of Itanda Falls a big (fairly scary) grade 6. That evening much celebratory beer was consumed and the next day was much more docile.

A bounce on Special

A tasty river lunch

Later that week we did the day two section which includes Kalagala falls, vengence, hair of the dog and Kulu Shaker. This section is also home to some great river waves including Nile Special and Mutts Nuts (A morning wave which is easily better than Special).

A Crazy Boda journey

Uganda is one of the friendliest, greenest countries I have ever visited and although the people are poor by Western standards they are fairly well off compared to some of the other african nations as they can cultivate crops and keep animals. Its a great place to be and I would definitely say it is the best holiday i've ever been on. I could say so much more but you would probably get bored of reading about how much i enjoyed it, just get out there if you can.

The view from the bar.