Uganda life 2009

I was recently back in Uganda for my regular short winter trip to sunnier climates. Being the weather witch that I am the water levels dropped pretty much the day we arrived, having been at perfect paddle-on levels for Nile Special since November!

This did mean that club wave was good,

Pringle clean blunts on club wave

Peter Csonka - air screw on club wave.




though it also meant that the club wave in the morning and Nile Special in the afternoon combination meant everyone was out on the water at the same time so it was usually busy, especially when some paddlers were taking up to 7 minutes on the wave!!

Eddy queue at club wave (photo: Georgie Preston)






As there is no longer a good playwave on the day 1 section most paddlers tend to just spend a couple of days at a time at NRE/Eden rock and then camp out at Hairy Lemon - so it was a busy Island, especially during the Northern Hemisphere winter-time when most countries are sensibly doing winter sports (unlike us British paddlers who have to paddle in our winter time!). So a mixture of Slovakian, Russian, Swiss, Austrian, Brits and Spanish frequented the Island. (I'm sure most were leaving shortly after I did, no doubt leaving a fairly empty eddy!)

We thought Mutts Nutts (on the day 2 section) would probably be working - a good way to avoid the queues at club wave. Unfortunately there is a really short window during the morning when this comes in and when we went up there it was too high to be working.

Nile Special was running at a low level but it seemed different to the last time I was there (Jan '07) which could have been because the water levels were still rising when it got to afternoon tow-on levels. Due to the dam work they were still releasing a fair amount of water, but only for a short time in the afternoon/evening which meant the highest levels (paddle on levels) got to Nile Special at about 3.00 in the morning. We did get up one night for a middle of the night raid, but unfortunately the moon was not out and I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face - we went back to bed!

Me, Nile Special (Photo: Claire/Gus/JC or Jim!)

So, the levels meant it was really flushy, often totally greening out and the eddy was horribly surgy. I'm sure at one time I could hear a voice whispering 'it's not as good as H....' :) We all perfected the front-surf-to-flush manoeuvre (which became affectionately know as the 'Poppadom') and were guaranteed to pull that one off far too many times during a session. However, it was also always possible to get some big air,




Me, Nile special air (Photo: Jen Chrimes)






and even just front surfing was, as always, good fun. The tricky bit was working out how to make the big bounces into a move.





Pringle - Nile Special air.



Everything else is still the same at Nile Special - the same boys are there working the rope (the girls are still working in their huts), though now they will sometimes wear a buoyancy aid and helmet (unlike some of the paddlers - don't know why, but I'm not sure what kind of impression that gives to the locals!). Though things have moved on as the children now ask paddlers for school fees instead of water bottles!

A local boy 'working the rope' (Photo: Jen Chrimes)








The Silverback section has changed a lot since I was last out there due to the dam work that has started.

Dam work at Silverback (Photo: Georgie Preston)




The most significant difference is the loss of both the Total Gunga rapid and the Ugly Sisters wave. However, the run down to Silverback is still good fun, though feels a lot shorter, and the prospect of a potential beatdown in Silverback always gets the heart racing. This was particularly the case for me after experiencing a full rapid-length airless beating where I rolled up several times but was still underwater! This rapid has changed massively over the years - in high water levels ('04) the waves were huge but relatively friendly, since then the height of the waves has decreased but at an inversely proportional rate to the power that they hold. The rapid had once again changed in the couple of weeks before we arrived due to rocks falling in from the dam-work and despite assurances from the dam-workers that no more would fall in - this is building work.... in Africa, so who knows what may happen!

Generally it is fairly easy to make the first 2 waves upright, but it was the 3rd one that would often get me. A few times I was a little too complacent when I made it through the 3rd one upright, gave a sigh of relief only to have the 4th one break hard on my head!

We took a girly road trip (note for future road trips: a 3 hour drive in Uganda uses half as much fuel as a 3-hour journey in GB!!) up to Sipi falls which is a great place to visit for a short break away from the river: lovely scenery,






















One of the many waterfalls at Sipi.








waterfall-walks and some fantastic food (cooked by paddlers!) at the fairly luxurious Sipi river lodge. I found it hard to believe that a group of British paddlers would be able to produce a place of the quality of the lodge - especially having seen them up to their extremely drunken antics in the NRE bar!! The've done a good job.

Despite the levels and the crowds it was a great trip, made all the better by the knowledge that I'd missed all of the snow in England (although, making snowmen may have been fun!). The dam work is continuing surely, but fairly slowly, and they have now 'guaranteed' that the river will stay the same until Spring 2010, so there's still a few more chances to get back out there and enjoy the day 1 section.

This is my grocery store! Outside NRE (Photo: Jen Chrimes)








I'm now training for the GB team selection event at Hurley, which is just a little bit different to Nile Special - update on that soon.

I've uploaded some photos on the Palm website.