The Allison Kelly Adventure and Rafting the Nile

Trip Start Sep 08, 2007

Trip End Apr 30, 2008

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Flag of Uganda Jinja, Uganda
Tuesday, February 12, 2008

As many of you know my good (though over-eager-to-get-to-customs) friend Allison was joining me for this next leg of my trip, and I was to meet her at Nairobi airport as I came in from Kiliminjaro airport in Tanzania. I had been under the assumption (foolishly it is now apparent) that we would wait for each other at the rather nice coffee shop right near the gate of her arrival and right before the Kenyan customs/immigration authority. I had arrived before her, so I thought I would meet her at her gate when she arrived. As I watched the stream of people come off the British Airways flight, I was puzzled to note that she wasn't among them. Now I didn't get there right at the beginning of the flight departure, but figured SURELY she might idle a few moments to see if I might be around - i.e. in said coffee shop! I certainly didn't panic at first, thinking she must have gone to use the facilities or maybe having missed me at the coffee shop, went elsewhere to look for me. Numerous times did I walk back and forth through the airport terminal (which was mercifully small) with no luck. I asked at the BA counter but they were unable to help, and I even had her paged over the intercom - twice. Finally, getting a little panicky, I decided I'd go to customs, figuring she must have simply gone through without realizing. As I walked down the ramp toward the immigration area, low and behold, a red-headed girl with a relieved face was walking towards me. I was instantly flushed with relief at seeing her, although I couldn't hide my consternation as I exclaimed "Where the hell have you been?" - apparently she was under the impression that we were to meet IN the customs area, and she had been trying to get a hold of me.

Apparently the plane ISN'T ready to board

Of course, she never thought to have me paged, nor did she bother checking any of the flights from western tanzania (she did however check all the other flights in east africa if my understanding is correct!). And never mind the fact that she didn't get the pages I sent for her (in her words: Oh, I thought I heard something about a passenger, but figured it wasn't me - BRILLIANT!). Notwithstanding all of this 'adventure', we were reunited at last and ready to being our trip into the great unkown of East Africa!

We spent the first night at a rather swanky hotel in Nairobi - more to calm our parents worries by not going actually into that troubled city (although not as troubled as said parents believed in my opinion). We then set off BACK to our favourite airport and flew into Entebbe airport in Uganda (just outside of Kampala, which was our final destination). We settled into a quite nice hostel just outside the city centre and immediately looked into white water rafting at the source of the Nile - somethig we had both read about and heard rave reviews from friends who had done it! With that booked, we took a walk into the city centre.

Kampala is an impressive city. The people there are in constant movement (anyone reading Allison's blog - I apologize for it's length/wordiness - will probably see a similar description) - everyone is going somewhere (or maybe nowhere at all - it was hard to tell in the orderly chaos!). I was immediately struck at what I took to be a rather higher standard of living compared to what I was witness to in Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar and Arusha (although Dar is probably the only one of similar size and importance).

So close, yet so far away

The people by and large dressed well, and not only did we notice the men, but the number of women dressed in business gear gave us a sense of greater gender parity in this region than what we had expected (of course, all superficial observations!). The city was quite sprawling and dusty, but we both came to appreciate it and enjoy it!

The next day was our big trip out to the Nile! Although I had done rafting before, I was extremely excited to ahve the opportunity to do it in such an impressive location - the source of the Nile River of all places! And apparently this is an opportunity that may not be open to all in the future - the Ugandan government is building a dam that will likely neutralize most of the rapids - yay progress! We were also treated to our first "boda boda" ride - a motorcycle taxi that loaded the two of us up to take to the bus to Jinja. While there was ALMOST enough room and I did worry about falling off, we made quite safely (of course not before numerous people pointed at Allison's short shorts - shameful really).

Rafting was fabulous! We had a great group in our boat and went over a number of Level 5 rapids - although we were in the "Mild" ride (concern for Allison losing her contacts if submerged led us to decline the "Wild" ride), we ended up going through a number of "wild" rapids due to our inability to paddle out of them! (Allison may describe to you my loss of a paddle during the ride, what she may FAIL to tell you was that our guide had to CONTINUALLY instruct her on how to use the paddle in the first place - she couldn't seem to figure out which way was backward, and which forward!). All in all, it was a fantastic day and Allison and I had to keep reminding ourselves that we were sitting in rafts in the middle of the Nile in the middle of Africa!