White Water Rafting on the Nile - sounds fun. Adventurous. Life changing. Peaceful even. It all started out pretty positive. We missed the 16foot waterfall and ironically, it was all downhill from there. Olow, our Ugandan native raft guide, led us on the “wild side” of the first rapid where we were flipped immediately in what we thought would be the time of our lives. While previously flipping sounded fun and adventurous, it was in actuality death defying and terrifying. Chancy, picture this, is being bobbed like an apple, trapped like a rat under the raft. While she says she was under for a whole minute, it was probably more like 10-20 seconds. She looked like a wet rag doll when we pulled her limp body back into the safety of the raft. White as a ghost. Silent as a monk. Chancy’s silence was an ominous sign. She was pretty ter-ri-fied. I had also been under the raft but pulled myself out from it and was tossed about as we rode the rest of the rapids out. Thankfully, Olow was by my side to calm the panic attack that was happening. These rapids were like nothing I’ve ever seen. Honestly, after that first flip, Chancy and I considered switching to the safe raft. (Thankfully, we didn’t because in hindsight we had a great time and live to tell about it).
The second rapid we debated for about 30 minutes whether to take “the chicken line” (as Olow so detestably called it), the class 4 rapid or the class 5 rapid. Well after much debate and trepidation, we requested the class 4. Kyla, in her bossy little cute self, says says “LETS DO THE FIVE!!!” and pokes her oar at Chancy and stares her down saying “Chancy?” Chancy, not fully recovered from vomiting the Nile says - “No, Kyla. I don’t wanna die again.” Little did Kyla know, I was right behind Chancy shaking my head and wanting to go on a raft called “Kindergarten” – wishing it actually existed. We think we make it through. We hear cheers and applause from the other 1% rafters in the background. Well whatdya know? We flip again on the last rapid. It’s another rollercoaster of death. “PADDLES FORWARDS TEAMS, PADDLES FORWARDS! PADDLE HARD! PADDLE HARD! HOLD, HOLD!” …and we’re in the water again. Meanwhile, while we are sucking on the Nile like fish, the other rafts went down the class 5 and came out dry and smiling. That’s when we nicknamed ourselves “the unlucky 99%” because obviously we were not in the thriving 1%. We got dragged throughout the water like ragdolls, pulled back into the boat, and we are exhausted, defeated, whipped. We realize after we get back in the boat that Matt has ripped his pants from Kingdom Come. He was concerned that people saw more than they bargained for – Marcy assured him that everyone definitely did. We have met our match. Chancy has now lost her left contact and cannot see. She was walking around like a pirate. I guess it was better that way – ignorance is bliss.
We paddle to the next rapid where we have to walk around it on land since it’s a class 6. (Yes, they have even more terrifying rapids than what we experienced). So as we are paddling to land, Olow is just a screaming at us to “PADDLE HARD, TEAM! PADDLE HARD! HARDER, HARDER!” Obviously I think we are headed straight for the class 6 and I am paddling my little heart out by this time. The thought of a class 6 makes me sweat even now. I’m freaking out. I can hear it in the background calling me to my death.
We reach land. We get to walk near the class 6. It’s terrible. It’s as long as a football field and as scary as walking into a gladiator ring where you know you have a 50/50 chance of dying. I won’t even get too close to it in fear of falling in.
We have one more rapid before lunch. I’m the last to get back in the boat. My hands are trembling. We are immediately launched into the end of the class 6 rapid where it turns into a class 5. We make it through! This one was called “grave.” Surprise. Surprise. We rename ourselves the 1% due to our new found success. Kyla is over there on the other side of the raft rowing like a champ. She needs a 10 ft clearance just to get her stroke in.
Lunch: The pathway to lunch is up the hill where they have prepared a feast of chipatees (a fried flat bread), and a spread much like make your own tacos. They have passionfruit juice at the end. Once I got my glass, I noticed there was dirt floating around in it. I figured if the rapid didn’t kill me, this surely couldn’t. I drank 2 glasses. I looked over and everyone seemed to be having a great lunch. Chancy looked a little road hard and hung up wet, but the break was really nice.
Back to the water: We somehow make it through the next series of rapids without flipping. Making it through is so fun and exciting. We ride the waves instead of drowning in them.
We knew it was too good to last. At the very end, we flip yet again. By this time, we’re used to it, or as used to it as we could get. He asked us if we wanted to go big or go home. We wanted to go home. Olow told us the last one is like 50/50. Half a chance we could flip, half a chance we won’t. Stirling later says he was sending out positive energy that we would make it. Well I was in the back of the raft countering that with my negative, pessimistic energy. I knew it wasn’t 50/50, but more like 99/1 and that we were on the 99% of that . It was over and under for us. I’ve got my eyes closed the whole time until I open them and realize we are a good 10 feet perpendicular to the rapids. I hear Jason coming in hot above me and chancy. He is literally catapulted off the raft, leaping over us, 10 feet in the air, stride in a runners sprint. We’re hitting the water, and he’s not even gotten wet yet. We rode the rest of the rapid out and stayed in the water for a good ways just floating until we got to the end. At this time, Andrew decided to be our tour guide and pointed out some interesting wild life on the river banks. Without his narration – our peaceful floating would not have been the same.
At the end, they cooked us kabobs and had cold beer for us. They put together a slide show of each of the different groups’ pictures. I’m not being biased when I say all of the groups are smiling and waving in their pictures while our group has the look of utter terror as we plunge to our death. Kudos to Stirling, Matt, Jason and Andrew who went along with us and our nervousness. (but in all honesty, I think they used us as a scapegoat because they too were terrified deep down inside). It was a great day! If I was asked again to go the next day, I would say absolutely not. But in a year, I might consider riding the rapids again.
Still Alive - Hannah Scott and Chancy Gulotta
What a great experience! Y'all have been through so much as a group of friends, this is the icing on the cake! Thank you for the blow by blow- I am thrilled you all survived and enjoyed the experience. I have a clear visual of chancy!
ReplyDelete