Notes from Stephen, Wan, Kweilin, and Li

Li Tsun's homepage

Atom RSS for your feed reader

 

Jinja, Nile rafting

I felt like I almost died rafting the Nile today. I came closer to death than I've ever felt. I'm glad I experienced almost dying, but I would not make that same trip again. In fact, I wouldn't have even made it the first time if I could understand what I was going to go through.

My dad asked what my sister and I would advise someone else considering rafting the Nile, and we both said "Don't do it." The thrill is not worth risking death. I doubt our advice would stop anyone, though, because it's hard to explain the feeling of drowning to someone.

My dad said that we got a taste of what the tsunami victims experienced, and I agree. It was much safer for us, of course, because we were guaranteed to come up after the rapids. The tsunami victims had no such guarantee.

The rafting trip lasted the whole day. My dad and sister and I went. My mom opted out. We hit two Class 5 rapids and a few others in the morning, had lunch on an island in the river, then hit a few small rapids and one last Class 5 in the afternoon. Our boat capsized on both Class 5 rapids in the morning, and we took an easy line through the last Class 5.

The first rapid was an exciting Class 4 called "Bujagali Falls." We had seen this set of rapids from shore, and it looked big. It was still scary in the boat, but once I was through it and we didn't capsize, I thought, "That was easy."

On the next rapid, a Class 5, our boat went vertical and everyone went overboard. I came up for air but got whisked down again, and this time I went deep into dark water. I flailed and gasped for air but only brought in water. I brought in water for maybe 10 breaths. I started thinking that I was going to die. "I can't die yet," I thought. "I've just started my career." I thought I'd get a second chance when I surfaced unconscious because the guide could do CPR on me. I kept my eyes open the whole time and struggled toward the surface when I saw sunlight. I couldn't believe I surfaced with consciousness. I took several quick breaths. Once I knew I was going to survive, my thoughts went to my sister and dad. "Where is my sister? Where is my father?" I asked the guide. "They're fine," responded Jane. A guide pulled me into the "safety boat" and I just sat exhausted and shocked for a few minutes. I had heartburn because of the lactic acid buildup from lack of oxygen. My ears hurt because I had gone so deep. I felt nauseated because of the water in my ears.

My sister and father had similar feelings of drowning, althought they didn't go as deep or stay down for as long.

The name of the Class 5 rapid where everyone went over is "Total Ganga," which is Swahili for "Total Chaos."

We stopped for lunch soon after Total Chaos and had sandwiches on an island. My mom met us there. We told her about almost drowning and said that we were happy she chose not to go on the trip.

Two types of boats came on the trip: paddle boats and safety boats (also called "oar boats"). The paddle boats carry up to 8 paddling clients and a guide, and the safety boats are for clients who don't paddle. The guide in the safety boat sits in the center with two big oars.

I spent the rest of the afternoon in the safety boat because I was too nauseated from my dunking to row. My sister and dad took it easy through the last Class 5 because, in my sister's words, "I have nothing to prove. I've experienced swimming through the rapids."

The kayak champion of Uganda, Geoffrey, works with the rafting company we went with: Adrift. We watched him surf the largest rapid of the day. He's amazing! He was a little dot in a huge standing wave of white water, and he was surfing it. He flipped 180 degrees and made surfing the deadly rapids look easy.

Another highlight was when another kayak champion pulled two paddle boats using his oar boat. We all just sat and relaxed while he pulled. Thank you, Tutu!

Drowning is a horrible way to die. I felt helpless yet frantic. Knowing how to swim was probably a disadvantage because I panicked more when my swimming (flailing) didn't bring me closer to the surface.

We learned that the brother of one of our rafting guides drowned just a couple months ago swimming Bujagali Falls with a jerry can, which is a 2 ft by 2 ft water container. He lost control of the jerry can and got pinned under some rocks. They only found his body three days later when his body bloated with water and floated to the surface.

The young men who swim Bujagali Falls with no life vest and just a jerry can are called Bujagali Swimmers. They keep swimming the Falls for tips from spectators after the man drowned two months ago. Since the drowning, they've started attaching the jerry can to their wrists with a cord.

posted by Li at 11:39 AM