Glen's Rambling

Those who've been there call it the green room. It's a place deep in a violent river rapid where tonnes of water curls in on itself and forces you down, holds you there, resisting all your panicked efforts to return to the surface. I was, suddenly, in that room. I don't recall it actually being green; just dark all around, and very very confusing.

Moments before I had been front-left paddle in a 14-foot inflatable expedition raft. Behind me Davey on the oars was steering us through the angry rapids, and simultaneously barking one word instructions - "Forward!", "Hard!", "Harder!" - to myself and expedition leader Pete, who had taken the front-right position. As the raft nose-dived over a liquid cliff and into the huge hole below, Davey's last command was "Get down, hold on". I failed at this simple task. The Nile hit our raft hard and fear alone couldn't maintain my grip on the safety rope. I was instantly out of the raft and under the Nile.

The raft was in the middle of a rapid called Hippo's Walk. River guides, like rock climbers, like to give names to the problems they are trying to solve, to be on friendly terms with the danger. We were on the White Nile, three day's rafting between Karuma Falls and the well known Murchison Falls to the west. No commercial expedition had ever attempted this stretch of whitewater before; we would be the first.

Northern Uganda - Murchison Falls National Park, nearly four thousand square kilometers. The Victoria Nile cuts it east-to-west. For nearly two decades this area played unwilling host to the notorious Joseph Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army. They are now long gone but they, along with the Ugandan government which they opposed, have effectively depopulated this area. Without human interference the wildlife has flourished, and the park has some of the highest concentrations of hippopotami and crocodiles in Africa. As well as elephants, lions, and several other species which do not share our view of who is at the top of the food chain. As Pete had pointedly said before we left civilization, "This place is dangerous, bru".

How my situation came about did not concern me much as the green room kept me it's guest. I clutched my paddle pathetically as the water buffeted me around in the darkness. I could only wait until it released me to the African blue sky, foamy whitewater and, hopefully, the thin orange line of the rescue rope arcing towards me from Pete and Davey's raft.