Kayaking in Uganda.

MadYaker

I'm hoping to head to Uganda for a bit of a kayaking on the white nile next summer. Has anyone here ever done it? I'm looking for as much info as possible. River guides, travel info and costs etc. I know a few guys who have done it before so I'll be talking to them as well but I'm looking for as much advice and info as possible. Thanks!

wet-paint

Find Pineapple wine, and buy it, and drink it.

Score a volunteer.

Sample the wares of the pharmacies there.

Buy a foam mattress in Jinja, better than any air bed.
/edit - Oh, and pick up a copy of the Red Pepper from time to time. It's bloody hilarious.

nookie

This post has been deleted.

Zuppy

Thanks for posting all that.

nookie wrote: »

Okay so first of all - your in for an amazing time - Uganda is properly amazing place.

There's so much you should know before heading out, I'm not sure where to start so I'll start for the important stuff. How long are you heading out for? What malaria prophylaxis are you taking? If your only out for a few weeks, I'd strongly recommend taking Malarone. It's expensive but the alternatives can have some unpleasant side effects. Make sure you bring some immodium, diaoralyte and a small first aid kit with antiseptic and band-aids. Trust me - your gonna get the runs and if you break your skin, it will get infected.

Other things to consider:
- Bring a mixture of dollars and schillings out with you, if you need cash Jinja is the only place near the river to find an atm and that your card might not work - you may need to try a few different banks.
- When your packing it's best to pack mostly old clothes and nothing white. The soil over there is red and the dust gets everywhere and destroys everything.
- Don't bother bringing a dry top - you'll never ever wear it. Couple of thermals and shorts are all you ever need. Make sure you bring at least one long sleeve one for evening sessions on Nile Special.
- You can arrange a shuttle from Entebbe to the river with Kayak the Nile, or Alex a local boda driver (I can pm you his no. if you need). Either way it'll cost about $60 to get to the river.
- Best way to get around at the river is on a boda-boda (Motorbike). They're dirt cheap and everywhere. Haggle with the driver to get your price (It'll seem ridiculous because you'll be haggling over the equivalent of 20c but that's how they roll) Also once you start talking to one driver - he's your driver - its considered bad form to play one off against the other.
- If there's two of ye and ye're bringing boats - hire two bodas put your boats on one and the two of ye get on the other. Otherwise you'll be tearing down dirt roads with your boat on your knees and realising that when you inevitably crash - the cockpit rim is going to take out all your teeth.
- If you happen to be unfortunate enough to be in a boda crash (happens often enough) and your not to badly hurt its best to discreetly and quickly get the hell out of there. Things can get a bit hairy very quickly when accidents happen and it's best not to be around.
- If your a light sleeper, bring ear plugs - there's these little beetles there that sound like tiny men with angle grinders and they are unbelievably loud and will keep you up half the night.
- Don't wander around barefoot.

As for the river itself - its fantastic. Since the dam went active only the day two section remains but there's still plenty to do there. The two main places to stay at the river are NRE and Hairy Lemon. NRE is at the top of the old day one section and close to Jinja but there's no paddling to be had there anymore so your best bet is to base yourself at the Lemon, which is at the take-out of the day two section and five minutes from Special. Also it's an island in the middle of the river and an awesome place. It's expensive to stay there but you get three proper meals cooked for you and the food is good and imho totally worth it.

In terms of boating - at Lemon, Nile Special and Club wave are just around the corner - you can grab a boda upstream to Superhole or if the levels are high enough paddle downstream to Mulalu and then boda it back to lemon.

If your wanting to run the river and all the rapids - your best bet is to grab a rafting truck up to nre and then follow the rafts down the next day and get one of the safety boaters to show you all of the channels. Most of the river is easy - its long 2-5km flat pools followed by 200-300m long big bouncy rapids. There's only a couple of rapids that you really need to be careful on but the guides will be only too happy to point them out to you and tell you many nasty tales of paddlers who fell off line.

One other thing - make sure you visit Jinja market - get yourself and amazing suit and have yourself a formal paddling day :-)

[edit]

One final thing:
Be aware of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schistosomiasis - it's very prevalent in the water over there. Its worth picking up the medication for it over there as it costs $2 as opposed to nearly €100 here.