Living in Uganda

At the moment I'm staying in the NRE campsite by Bujagali falls. It's pretty cool here. It's right at the start of the Silverback run so is a perfect spot to stay. there's a bar on site which sometimes has a great atmosphere. There's about 10 kayakers between here and the Eden Rock campsite across the road. I should move over as it's cheaper and quieter but it seems like a lot of effort.


The crowd at NRE changes all the time. Truck loads of tourists traveling Africa arrive for a for a few days at a time and the weekends are also busy with volunteers who have some time off. They are all here to raft so the night usually kicks of after the video of that days rafting which is shown at 9.

The rainy season has well and truly arrived too. It rains torrentialy almost every afternoon (today being a nice exception). Yesterday brought the heaviest rain I have ever seen. Bucket loads of water came down. There was a river of water flowing through the bar where it was only raining heavily as compared to the sheets of water falling outside. The river, which is only about 200m from the bar was completely out of sight. After it passed it transpired that the rain had brought down most of the tents in the campsite. Luckily mine was one of the few that escaped.

The rain also has an effect on paddling. The Boda-Bodas wont operate in the rain so we have to try time our Silverback runs to avoid the daily deluge. A Boda-Boda is a 50cc scooter which are fairly common out here as taxis. We get them to meat us at the get out bellow Silverback and we load ourselves plus our boats and gear on to get the 20 minute ride back to the campsite.

As for paddling I've spent the last few days paddling with some English lads plus a guy from NUIG on the Silverback section. Today I did my first back chanel, blade runner and also managed a dry head line down the Silverback rapid. (Still haven't manged to clean the second hole on the Bujagali left line though). We'll spend another day or two here and next week I'll probably head to the Hairy Lemon with the English guys. The Hairy Lemon is another campsite at the bottom of the day 2 section and is right beside Nile Special and the Club wave which are big playwaves. Myself and 2 paddlers from Southampton Uni may also take a few days out for a Safari next week too.