Sunday, May 20, 2007

rafting the nile

Yesterday I rafted the nile river. (well, not the whole thing obviously)
I’m not sure how to summarize the day but it was pretty unreal, grade 5 rapids(the biggest are grade 6) and they were HUGGGGGEEE!! Our boat flipped I’m not sure how many times, I think there were 12 rapids and we flipped of fell out on at least half of them. A couple times were downright scary, and on the last one “the bad place” my face smashed someone’s helmet and I got a swoillen lip, and then when the guide pulled me into the boat DURING a rapid his paddle smashed my eye, so now I have sort of a black eye. Neat.

Our guide, a finnish dude, have quite the hay-day of making us terrified, and I’ll tell ya it sure worked. I just had visions of when I first did white water kayaking in new Zealand and freaked out, closing my eyes and throwing my paddle in the air and going down a set of rapids half underwater and unable to flip myself back up.

So, my way of dealing with an upcoming rapid? Squeeze my eyes shut, hold on for dear life..hahaha..sometimes throw my paddle and curl up in a little ball and pray for it to be over soon. Maybe I’m just not made for whitewater, maybe Vicki, you should stick to lakes. Hahaha. I actually enjoyed most of it though, it sure is a rush. And the nile is sooo warm and beautiful..lots of birdlife. No crocs, however on the bus ride back into town we saw one down below.

The girls and I are doing a safari up at murchisen falls in a couple of weeks, and one girl leslie and I are looking into taking on Rwanda for a few weeks when we are done our stint here in jinja mid july. The mountain gorilla trek seems too good to miss, and we want to see the genocide memorials and the mille Collins and all.

Well, I shall be off…until I have another adventure to tell you of..

MUCH love
vicki

4 comments:

Stephanie and Brad said...

Victoria, you are so brave. That sounds terrifying- I'm impressed you went on that. Although it was the nile, that's pretty darn cool. I'm so glad to hear that you're doing okay there. I hope you have lots more great adventures. I think of you often. I miss you tons. We love you!

Chanel K said...

You're AMAZING & sooo lucky. Just think of your dear old friend Chanel sitting in a thunder-storming Hong Kong, programming away, trying not to think about the ex-bf who keeps messin' up her travel plans...life is funny sometimes!

I can't even imagine what it's like for you there right now, but I LOVE reading about it!

Keep strong & have fun!

Miss you lots & love you tons!

xoxo,
Your Asian correspondent.

Amanda Brown said...

Hi, Vicki! I am so glad you made it there in once piece and are already having some crazy adventures. I miss you!

Vanessa said...

WOW. Thats all I can say is WOW!. I'm slightly jealous, but oh so delighted to hear about all your adventures!!! Love ya!