Rafting with Ethan

These next two posts are FINALLY the end of blogging about Adventures with Ethan.

Enjoy! We sure did! :-)

After going rhino tracking, we headed back to the Red Chili, and spent the last night hanging out with our safari mates. We enjoyed the Sunday night barbecue, and hearing stories from Joe one last time. :) Monday morning, the bus from Jinja came to pick us up, and we almost missed it because Ethan was trying to order his breakfast and read the newspaper. :) But I ran out after the bus and flagged it down to come back and get us. Then we headed an hour up the road to one of my favorite African towns...Jinja. Jinja is the cool little Asheville-like town, where Lake Victoria merges into the Nile, and you can also find the source of the Nile. I rafted the Nile last year, and didn't want Ethan to miss out on this crazy adventure. We made it to the Nile River Explorers camp, and had breakfast and were debriefed about the river. Then we got our gear and loaded the open-air bus up to the put-in.

We navigated through Class 4 and 5 rapids all afternoon, and were thrilled, but exhausted when we finished. We flipped on three rapids, two of them Class fives! We rafted with a family from New Zealand, but the mom got out after the first rapid and rode the rest of the way in the safety boat. :) After the second flip, we were under the boat, and my helmet came off. When everyone finally popped up, the dad was gasping and screaming because apparently he had leaned over the boat where my helmet was, to try and pull me back in, but when he grabbed hold of the helmet, that's all he got! So he panicked. But I was ok...just floating a little ways down the river. We had a good laugh about it later at the camp. :)

Our rafting buds...the Leckie family from New Zealand. They were great company for two nights at camp!

Happy and tired!

On the river we sliced open a pineapple for lunch, but when we were through, we were treated to an AMAZING barbecue back at camp overlooking Bujagali Falls. It really hit the spot!

We could have stayed in the hostel at camp for free, but Ethan and I decided it would be worth the $7 upgrade so these sweet tents overlooking the falls. This was probably my favorite place that we stayed the entire trip. It reminded me of camping, but in a classy way. Simple, rustic, and wonderful! We hated to leave this place. I could have stayed here forever. But we had more places to see. After a couple nights, we left for the Jinja bus stop, and waited 2+ hours in a crowded matatu to head up to Mbale, and then hitch our way up to Sipi Falls. It was a great experience for Ethan to ride the crazy, crowded matatus, and even better to wait in the hot sun until they fill up. We had to fight off the street peddlars for over an hour, selling everything from cheap perfume to fake Rolexes to cheap Motorolas and maps of Africa. Love the African market! But we were glad to leave too....another 3.5 hour ride up to Mbale!

Talk about a shower with a view!

Sunset over the Nile