Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Adventures, Passports and Stitches

Well in the last week the group split up a bit for some adventures with Steff and matt heading off to see the gorillas, and marj, kat and kylie went to Sipi Falls but with my shoulder starting to feel better and also having had enough of traveling in matatus (mini busses packed with people, chickens etc) for a while I opted to stay at NRE camp.
A new groups of Irish paddlers turned up and Thatcher and Josh volunteered to show them down the river, Walker and I walked down to Bujagali falls to watch. Unfortunately one of the Irish girls whacked her head on the first rapid and I said I'd walk out with her, this then turned into a walk to the clinic and holding her head while she got three stitches as well - but she seemed to take this in her stride - apparently not the first time she's been concussed.
Steff also had her bag stolen on the way to the gorillas, so due to the fact that there is no Australian embassy or consulate here she now can't fly home today and has to wait for a replacement passport. The Canadian consulate acts as an agent for the aussie consulate in Nairobi - so everything has to be sent there and back again... oh well there are worse places to be stuck really.
The last two days I've been back paddling the river - so much happier now I'm paddling again. Another Irish paddler turned up yesterday (there seem to be a lot of Irish around) and we took him down the river, the first run down was uneventful but he had a swim on the first rapid when we did an afternoon run. It was just above Bujagali falls and there were a whole lot of tourists watching and one of the local guys threw him a 20ltr plastic Gerry can as extra floatation however he managed to swim into an eddy just above the rapid (after me yelling at him "let go of your boat and SWIM") - I chased the boat down the rapid and apart from a few new scratches on the boat we were no worse off.
At the bottom of one of the larger rapids a monitor lizard sat on a rock eating a rather large but also dead snake and there were monkeys in the trees overhanging the river - I love Africa!
Right now it's absolutely belting down rain .... hmm this will make the motorbike (boda boda) ride home from town interesting as the rich red soil turns to rich red mud and it's kind of slippery - oh well if it keeps raining like this I'll pay my boda boda driver and just get a taxi back...
anyway hope all is well back home, I hear there is no rain there yet - no rivers running. Fingers crossed there's water for the Lea race.

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