I got back from Uganda this morning. I'm exhausted after all the travelling but really pleased with the trip overall. The last few days of paddling were pretty action packed as I was paddling quite a bit. We took on some more back channels, multiple Silverback runs as well as hitting up Kalagala and the day 2 run again to help Enda get his confidence back after a particularly scary swim.
Enda came on a back channel run with myself and Jethro a few days ago. We went over to run Blade Runner, the leftmost of the back channels, which has a large hole to dodge at the entry to the channel before the rapid. The move to dodge the hole is tight and the consequences of missing it, as we found out, can be quite severe. A small submerged rock bounced Enda away from the eddy and backwards into the hole where he took a severe beating for quite some time. Jethro and I rushed to get a rope ready to send in to pull Enda out, but the hole was pulling hard to the right (towards the entry to Escape Hatch/Widow Maker) so by the time we were ready Enda was too far away for us to reach. After hanging on for what seemed like an eternity from the eddy Enda came out of the boat and swam. He was just upstream of the island separating Blade Runner from the Escape Hatch/widow maker channel and swimming hard back towards us. Unfortunately he didn't make it and there was nothing Jethro and I could do as we watched him wash down towards the other channel. We broke out of the eddy and ran down Blade Runner blind and then ferried across the bottom of Escape Hatch to see Enda floating way off downstream having just swam through Escape Hatch (the line I'd missed when trying to paddle it only a few days before). It was still a very rough swim, especially after the beating he took in the top hole, but miraculously he didn't end up in Widow Maker. Thankfully a group of rafts who'd been running Bujagali spotted us and helped Enda into their raft while Jethro and I caught up. We were all quite shaken by the whole incident, Enda walked off at that point and Jethro and I finished the run. Even after such a rough experience Enda was back paddling the lower section again in no time to build up his confidence again and after a couple of days was styling the lines down Vengence and Kula Shaker.
During our last couple of days I pushed myself hard to get a clean run of the Silverback rapid. the water levels were up somewhat on what they had been which made this a bit more challenging and the results were pretty much the same; some fantastic air as the waves threw me about and then an almighty kicking as the main wave crashed on me. But I'm happy to report that on Tuesday, our last day of paddling, I managed a clean run. We did an early morning run, before we even had breakfast and it was a great way to wake up. It was the first time I actually made it to see the main Silverback wave (the fourth BIG one in the train) every other time I'd either been airborne or capsized when I hit it. But this time I made it upright to see this giant wall of water jack up in front of me. I'd like to say I got through it owing to some particular skill but it was a bit of a hit and hope moment, thankfully I timed everything right and managed to ride up the face and punch through the foam pile before it crashed on me and ended up with a clean run. With my goal for the trip accomplished I was grinning the whole way back to the campsite on my boda.
I took it easy for the rest of the morning and started making some preparations for packing up to leave on Wednesday but after such a good run in the morning I was temped back out onto the water. A small group of us went out for another run taking in Blade Runner and on down to Silverback. To my surprise the same move worked on Silverback the second time around as well so I came off the water thrilled with my double clean run. At this point i suppose it was karma that on the way home my boda broke down twice, ran out of petrol, and managed to get lost. Maybe I should have known something was up when he arrived to pick me up and proceeded to spend 5 minutes using a stick to remove mud and gunk from the engine of his bike. But with no other option for getting back there was little else I could do other than take a lift. When we ran out of petrol the driver took off into the jungle leaving me standing on the trail with the bike and not much of a clue when or if he'd even be back. Thankfully, after about 10 minutes he reappeared (from a different direction than where he set off) holding a coke bottle with a minute amount of petrol in it. It seems it was enough to get us home which makes me wonder what exactly those engines are running on.
So after two clean Silverback runs and an eventful trip home I decided to call an end to my paddling for the trip and end it on a high note. We went into Jinja to have a decent dinner before packing up and leaving on Wednesday.
So with the Uganda trip over I'm working on pulling together photos and videos from everyone we paddled with over the course of the trip. I'll post those along with some commentary as soon as I get them. As for what the future holds for paddling adventures there's a lot on the cards. A few of us discussed a short mission to Turkey next year sometime so that could be on the cards, or maybe even a return to Africa.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Friday, December 5, 2008
Hitting up the back channels
We've been based back up at the NRE station for a few days now and I'm still trying to tame the Silverback and actually get down it without a roll. It's an ambitious task because there's so much luck involved but it's possible so I'm going to keep trying to get a clean run.
I've also started paddling the back channels of Bujagali Falls to tick them off the list. I've run Brickyard a few times now at different water levels it's a great little run with some big holes to punch and a pour over to dodge at the very end, but it's a nice steep fast run as long as you can stay off your tail and not get looped. Which, I've managed to do so far. Blade Runner is the leftmost of the back channels and is a really picturesque rapid. The line is relatively simple to run but finding it if you mess up the entry move through a sticky hole would be difficult and it's definitely one you want to avoid a roll on. I'll definitely be heading over to that part of the river again to get some pictures of Blade Runner, though I'll have to borrow a camera as mine has stopped working for some reason (Junior, you'll be getting a call when I get back).
I also went over to do Escape Hatch, which is just above Widow Maker and earns its name from the fact that you start running Widow Maker and then ferry HARD left for about 70 metres across the river right above the drop into Widow Maker. Unfortunately for me I dropped into some holes on the run in which took off a lot of my speed so when the time to make the move came I didn't have the speed to make the ferry to the left. Widow Maker at the current water levels is aptly named, it'd be a terminal run. Thankfully, having missed the move to run Escape Hatch there's still a last ditch option before Widow Maker. I paddled like I've never paddled before, ferrying to the hard right hand side to catch a last ditch eddy just above the lip of Widow Maker from which (after taking a few minutes to compose myself) I was able to run down another channel and into the second part of Brickyard.
Shaken and somewhat stirred I called it a day for paddling that day and went back to camp to review the footage from the headcam. Unfortunately the video quality doesn't show Widow Maker very well. But I can certainly say I've had a good look at it and been as close to it as I'm planning to go unless something drastic happens the water levels before I go home.
On the lower section, I ran Kalagala the other morning which is a very impressive looking drop on the channel next to Hypoxia. The run itself is mainly psychological, the hardest part is paddling out of the eddy. After that you just avoid a small hole and then paddle hard down close to the right bank so that you don't drop into a keeper hole on river left of the drop. There is a significant amount of water going over the drop so the landing is quite violent and regularly breaks paddles. That said it didn't thrash me around quite as much as I expected. However, I did end up caught in an eddy that is fenced off by the outflow from the drop. After battling for about 10 minutes there was a gap in the surges and I managed to paddle out and down into the rest of the rapid. I think next time I won't go quite as far to the right and won't have to deal with the eddy. Enda took some good photos of my run, which I'll post up once we're back to civilisation and reasonable internet speeds.
I've also started paddling the back channels of Bujagali Falls to tick them off the list. I've run Brickyard a few times now at different water levels it's a great little run with some big holes to punch and a pour over to dodge at the very end, but it's a nice steep fast run as long as you can stay off your tail and not get looped. Which, I've managed to do so far. Blade Runner is the leftmost of the back channels and is a really picturesque rapid. The line is relatively simple to run but finding it if you mess up the entry move through a sticky hole would be difficult and it's definitely one you want to avoid a roll on. I'll definitely be heading over to that part of the river again to get some pictures of Blade Runner, though I'll have to borrow a camera as mine has stopped working for some reason (Junior, you'll be getting a call when I get back).
I also went over to do Escape Hatch, which is just above Widow Maker and earns its name from the fact that you start running Widow Maker and then ferry HARD left for about 70 metres across the river right above the drop into Widow Maker. Unfortunately for me I dropped into some holes on the run in which took off a lot of my speed so when the time to make the move came I didn't have the speed to make the ferry to the left. Widow Maker at the current water levels is aptly named, it'd be a terminal run. Thankfully, having missed the move to run Escape Hatch there's still a last ditch option before Widow Maker. I paddled like I've never paddled before, ferrying to the hard right hand side to catch a last ditch eddy just above the lip of Widow Maker from which (after taking a few minutes to compose myself) I was able to run down another channel and into the second part of Brickyard.
Shaken and somewhat stirred I called it a day for paddling that day and went back to camp to review the footage from the headcam. Unfortunately the video quality doesn't show Widow Maker very well. But I can certainly say I've had a good look at it and been as close to it as I'm planning to go unless something drastic happens the water levels before I go home.
On the lower section, I ran Kalagala the other morning which is a very impressive looking drop on the channel next to Hypoxia. The run itself is mainly psychological, the hardest part is paddling out of the eddy. After that you just avoid a small hole and then paddle hard down close to the right bank so that you don't drop into a keeper hole on river left of the drop. There is a significant amount of water going over the drop so the landing is quite violent and regularly breaks paddles. That said it didn't thrash me around quite as much as I expected. However, I did end up caught in an eddy that is fenced off by the outflow from the drop. After battling for about 10 minutes there was a gap in the surges and I managed to paddle out and down into the rest of the rapid. I think next time I won't go quite as far to the right and won't have to deal with the eddy. Enda took some good photos of my run, which I'll post up once we're back to civilisation and reasonable internet speeds.
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