Over
the weekend of May 17th-May 19th, most of class and
myself took a trip to our neighboring country of Uganda. I live about 2 hours
from the Malaba border town, which meant for once my travel to this excursion
wouldn’t be ridiculously long. We started our journey to the border, got our
visas and crossed into Uganda. Although its right next to Kenya, and a key
country in East Africa, Ugandans do not have the same level of Kiswahili that
Kenyans do, however, we noticed that they usually have much better English. The
country was also very clean, and the roads were paved with guardrails and lines
running down the middle to indicate lanes (not always the case here!).
We
arrived at our hostel around dinnertime, and ate and relaxed before the long
day of rafting we had coming up. The next morning we traveled to a spot in the
Nile, and we had breakfast and were given safety instructions. We had nine
people to a boat, because we 18 people in our group. The day consisted of
rafting through 8 rapids, which ranged from class 3 to class 5! We had a really
great time, and even took our first rapid down backwards! We got out of the
raft and swam around, fell out on other rapids and just enjoyed the experience.
Several of us had been rafting before, but never on class 5 rapids, and never in
Africa on the Nile! Afterwards we came back to our hostel, and had a great
night with friends and all the other guests who were staying there!
My boat crew with our guide before heading out for the day!
Taking the first rapid down backwards!
Going through another rapid!
The
next day most of us braved the experience of bungee jumping over the Nile. I
took the plunge first, and it was amazing. Not something your body really
understands while your bobbing up and down, upside down, but it is definitely a
thrill! Something to check off the bucket list!
Bungee jumping over the Nile river!
Close up! Having a great time!
That
night after everyone had done their jumping, and we relaxed for a bit, we took
a calm boat ride on the Nile in the late afternoon/early evening. We were able
to see the source of the Nile, which are Lake Victoria as well as underwater
springs that exist in the area where the Nile and the lake meet. We also learned
that the lake was only renamed Victoria after her visit to the country. The
previous name I can’t recall, but it’s meaning was that the lake was lined with
gravel on the bottom.
Sign marking the source of the Nile river!
Sunset over the Nile river!
The
weekend was by far one of my favorites so far here in Africa. I got to share
some awesome experience with the people who have become my home away from home
and it is something that I’ll never forget.
