Another great trip to paddlers paradise...
One of the amazing sunsets at Nile Special
At
first it looked like this whole journey to Uganda was off to a bad
start: a call from Turkish Airlines that my flight was cancelled due
to bad weather conditions! Luckily I just had to take an earlier
flight - what turned out to be good: take off was delayed over an
hour and the landing at Istanbul was one of the scariest I´ve ever
had!
The connecting flight to Entebbe was exhausting because of a
small kid just on the other side of the aisle who screamed almost the
whole flight- I was trying to get some sleep (which was hard even
with earplugs) - but imagine the mother...
Finally
arriving in Uganda at 4am everything went perfectly: the taxi driver
was waiting for me and in no time we hit the road. Except for a short
stop to get something to drink the drive was OK. I kept falling
asleep and we reached the Hairy Lemon in the shortest time ever (due
to the non existent traffic). I arrived in time for an early morning
cup of tea and to a warm welcome by Anita, Grace and a little later
Paul. Breakfast was delicious as usual - ripe fruit and eggs and
freshly baked bread - I especially love the pineapples or ananas, as
they are called in Uganda!
Ananas as they are called in Uganda
Some more Ananas (pictures taken at the Soft Power Health Clinic, Bujagali)
There
already was a big crowd of paddlers at the Lemon when I arrived –
they were from all over the globe: USA, Russia, France, UK, Germany
and also the Austrian freestyle team. In addition to that there were
some more paddlers living in the village just upstream of the Nile
Special rapid – lot´s of people are fun at the Lemon, but the
queue when paddling was going to be huge.
But
still it is always good to meet old friends and meet new ones and
spend the time paddling and playing games on the island or just
relaxing during the hot hours of the day!
Elli on Club Wave
Elli
Elli
EJ on one of his daily fishing trips
Luke on Club Wave
Denise with a big bounce on Club
After
setting up my tent I went for my first paddle on the Nile in my
GuiGuiProd Helixir. I was really excited to see how this kayak would
perform on a big wave. I did see Quim paddle here last year and
videos of other waves but I had no idea how fast and loose this kayak
is on a wave! I still had trouble controlling the kayak but a few
times I glimpsed it's potential: quick turns and big aerial moves!
Excited to see where this goes in the next days!
On the third day we had an amazing rainstorm: dark clouds were moving in and it started to rain: Just a little bit at the beginning but it soon turned into a proper storm. Wind was picking up too and blew the rain straight into your face when paddling back into the eddy. Above the water there was a fine mist - all these things make for an amazing atmosphere! And the smell of the wet ground after a long dry period of mmore than 5 weeks is very special too! These times, early morning fog and during a sunset are the times I love most for paddling on the White Nile!
On the third day we had an amazing rainstorm: dark clouds were moving in and it started to rain: Just a little bit at the beginning but it soon turned into a proper storm. Wind was picking up too and blew the rain straight into your face when paddling back into the eddy. Above the water there was a fine mist - all these things make for an amazing atmosphere! And the smell of the wet ground after a long dry period of mmore than 5 weeks is very special too! These times, early morning fog and during a sunset are the times I love most for paddling on the White Nile!
Then
on my 5th day on the Lemon we went for a night paddle. The full moon
was just one day ago and the sky was clear so we headed out around 2
in the morning. I never experienced something like this before: The
waterlevel was higher then I ever saw it before and compared to
daylight Nile Special felt small - probably because of the limited
sight-distance. Even the near to full moon only provided very scarce
illumination. So we had to rely on our perceptions of the movement on
the wave and moves went a lot easier than in daylight! I did clean
blunts left and right - and found it very hard to repeat them the
next day!
By that time I started to get used to the Helixir - it's an amazing kayak! And the first day of coaching with Sam Ward at Mu2 wave did help me a lot! Especially with airscrews, as I had a wrong understanding of how the movement worked. Mu2 wave is a smaller not so well know wave a little downstream from the Hairy Lemon and with the very crowded eddy at Nile Special (sometimes close to 20 people) it was great to have this wave to ourselves!
By that time I started to get used to the Helixir - it's an amazing kayak! And the first day of coaching with Sam Ward at Mu2 wave did help me a lot! Especially with airscrews, as I had a wrong understanding of how the movement worked. Mu2 wave is a smaller not so well know wave a little downstream from the Hairy Lemon and with the very crowded eddy at Nile Special (sometimes close to 20 people) it was great to have this wave to ourselves!
After
a week of paddling I decided to take a rest-day and visit my friends
at the Soft Power Health Clinic at Bujagali. No one there knew I was
coming so it was a big hello when I arrived – those guys seemed to
be so happy that I visited them – it felt like coming home again!
Slides for microscopic examinations drying in the sun
Esther winnowing rice the traditional way
Some tomato plants in front of the new SPH building
After spending the day in Bujagali and Jinja I went back to paddling! Club Wave actually never showed up on a perfect level, it usually was trashy and very high! But on some days Nile Special came in around noon so some of us asked Grace to hold some lunch back and for a few days we shared the wave among 5 people only!
In-between
the paddling there were lots of other things to do: play Frisbee
Golf, slackline or play bananagrams – which actually was my
favorite!
Towards
the end of my short trip – only 2 weeks this time – Jessie Stone,
founder of the Soft Power Health Clinic in Bujagali came down to the
Lemon too! We had a lot of catching up to do – so many news about
the clinic and unfortunately about the proposed dam too! When
paddling at the Mu2 wave we could actually see part of the building
site on our way back: for all the people who will have to leave their
villages the government is building new homes – they just flatten
all the trees and create a huge, dust area in which people are
supposed to live later on. It´s a shame how these things always turn
out really bad for the local communities! Here´s a very informative
video about the Isimba Dam:
Myself on Special - Pic by Julian Gmoser
To
help me with my preparation for the 2015 Kayak Freestyle World
championship I had a 2nd day of coaching with Sam Ward
form Kayak the Nile – this time on Superhole to work on the
technical details of a few different moves.
It
was a great trip once again, getting to know new people, meeting up
with old friends and get as much time on the water as possible!
Thanks
to all of you for making this an amazing experience!
Here are some more pictures of the various paddlers:
Marcel on Nile Special
Elli on Special
Thomas
Thomas again
Hayden
Dane
Marcel
Lowri
Luke with a nice blunt
Bren
Bren and Paul
Jana
Elli
Julian
On
one Friday the Ugandan Freestyle team held their monthly competition
in preparation for this years World championship in Canada. It was
good to watch those guys on the wave with Nich Troutman and Dane
Jackson scoring the rides.
Besides
that it was awesome paddling with those guys too! 4 World champions
(EJ, Dane, Nich and later Emily too) staying at the Hairy Lemon and
paddling every day – it was amazing.
Here are some pics of the Ugandan Freestyle Team (and some other paddlers):
Kalob from Canada
Emily
Sam Ward
Emily
Lowri
Crowd on the shore enjoying the show
Marcel
Lowri getting a Rockstar for testing
Looks like she´s stoked!
Uganda Freestyle Team
The beginning of a wonderful sunset - best light conditions for a shooting!
Will
One of the kids from the village handing the rope to the paddlers
Isn´t that beautiful?
Bren starting a perfectly executed Airscrew at sunset!
Paul the poser ;)
On one day Julian Gmoser offered to take some pictures with my camera - thanks a lot: