Why Uganda again? Out for my third trip and final trip down Silverback. Every time I’ve been out to Africa it’s been in belief that it would be my final opportunity to run the fabulous Silverback rapid, sadly this time it would appear that it’s finally true. The Dam builders have given February 28th as the final day that river craft will be allowed down Silverback. From that day onwards things will suddenly change, Silverback will quickly be blocked off and the water allowed to flow through the new hydro-dam at the former Ugly Sisters Rapid. What will happen to the river above Silverback when this happens is anybody’s guess. It’s not entirely known if the river behind the dam will rise any more, or if infact it will drop at all bringing back Total Gunga from it’s watery grave. What is expected to happen is sometime from 6months-12months after Silverback (and Jungle Book) is blocked off the river will start to back up. It might take several months to 1 year for it to reach the up to Bujigali and finally to the top of the Hump. There were rumours that the level could be 6metres higher than the top of the Hump which would flood a lot more land than expected and totally ruin any chance of any playwave being formed at the top of Hump or one of the other back channels, which fingers crossed might happen! Will the level change at all during the day or seasons bringing sections back or not? Sadly we have to wait to find out.
Photo – Matt Bibbings
What we do know is that the flow released out of the Dam should be increasing up until the Cut-off point, where they will then drop the river down to a measly 600cumecs whilst they block off Silverback. Then After the dam is finished the river will be on full release (Lake Victoria has risen back to the levels of 10 years ago), so this will change several things. Several features and rapids become very different at High Levels. Hypooxia is only ever run at high levels so there will be more opportunities for this insane rapid to be run, Itunda becomes much meatier and Dead Dutchmen actually becomes easier apparently. The play wave at the top of Hair of the Dog rapid known as the Mutts Nutts wave will sadly be too high. The biggest change will be down at the end of day 2 with the Club and Special Waves. If the Dam is not switched off at Night then with the high flows the Club wave will be unlikely to run very often. However this should mean Nile Special will be running in the mornings and afternoons and very likely that it will be high enough for Malalu Wave to come in, in which case Nile Special will be a paddle-on level and a fairly big holey-wave. However the Malalu Wave is supposedly a really nice Smooth big wave. Sadly I’ve never had the pleasure.
The Rafting Companies will move down to starting at the Overtime Rapid and running down the Day 2 section and finishing at the Hairy Lemon, where a new building has been built to cater for the rafters. The Lemon has a new owner, Paul who was one of the first to explore the Nile 20 odd years ago, he explored the Murchison Section with the idea of setting up a Rafting Company, having discovered Grade 5/6 water full of crocodiles and hippos they stumbled upon the Bujigali section of the Nile and setup Nile River Explorers, Paul left leaving the new company in his friends’ hands. He’s now bought the Lemon from Rob and there has been many improvements on the Island, new (flushing!) Toilets, New Showers, the food has improved and the bar was staffed by a paddler so needless to say we helped get the barman drunk a few times!
Unfortunetly this might not be the end of the story for damming in Uganda, despite the Bujigali Dam being over 3 years delayed and costing far more than originally expected and reported to actually push up the costs of electricity for the average Ugandan, it seems that there are plans for another Dam. This Dam would stretch across the Malalu Section of the Nile and it would back the river up to the bottom of Itunda/Kallagalla/Hypoxia. It would be a massive undertaking and dwarf the size of the Bujigali Dam. And what would it mean? Well it would effectively destroy Rafting and kayaking on the Nile. The Hairy Lemon would be flooded and Nile Special and club waves would be submerged. It would destroy tourism and be a massive loss for the local economy. Something tells me unfortunetly that one day it will be made. Africa and Uganda are developing, they need more power, Hydro is still seen as an easy source of power, and political powers in Uganda aren’t known for their long-term thinking. There’s also plans for a Hydro Dam at Murchison Falls, which would be unlikely to effect the main Murchison Falls themselves but be built over the Independence which is just to the river right of Murchison Falls.
This trip was a last minute decision for me, I knew people were going to be there, and couldn’t think of a better way to spend New Year’s Eve than by paddling down Silverback and having a party at the NRE bar. So I flew out the day after Boxing Day to join, Matt Kenna, Matty Nicholas, Doug Cooper and Adam Ramadan. Day 1 was an epic paddling adventure, up early for a run down Silverback with some people I had met the night before. Back to camp load up car, down to Superhole leaving all my kit with Dougie to take down to the Lemon whilst myself and Emily did a superhole sessions and paddled the day 2 section finishing with a short Nile Special Session. Club in the morning then straight back up to Bujigali for another Run down Silverback and up early the next morning to prepare for the party. Doug and Kenna had arranged a pig for a pig roast and we had a superb meal with additional chickens and salad and chappatis and managed to feed a good 30 people.
We also had time to pop into Jinja market and find the most outrageous outfits for the party at NRE. Needless to say when we descended on the party everyone stopped and looked! The next day we chilled out at the 5* Nile Resort Hotel swimming, getting a massage and having some good food in town. I managed to get a run in on a section I had managed to miss from my previous trips, The top section of Escape Hatch was an entertaining run with an interesting entry line taken by Adam resulting in most of us rolling up underneath some trees and ducking our way down the river. Unfortunetly my run down Blade Runner was slightly less than perfect following the Austrians down without inspecting I flipped at the top and ran the entire thing upside down and came off with a bruise and bleeding elbow, which probably required stitches but decided I’d prefer not to have any African Surgery and decided to chance it with a dressing. Almost 4 weeks later and it’s still not quite healed, but thankfully I managed to fight off infection with some antibiotics and various combinations of waterproof dressings and Duct Tape.
A few days down at the Lemon and it was time to surf Club and Special, big waves, big moves and slightly frustrating big queues. It was entertaining to watch some of the best in the world paddling and made for great photos. A few runs down day 2 and the fun of running that section alone makes me want to come back again. Kallagalla is simply one of the best ways to start a river.
The Best way to Start a River – Facebook Video Link
Easy line on a big volume drop, big adrenaline rush straight into some fun rapids ahead. The Day 2 section is a great stretch of river, it might not have the reputation of the Silverback section but there are some fantastic rapids, most which are long and difficult to film just aren’t shown enough. Once The Silverback section is lost the Day 2 section will explored even more, Sam Ward says there’s at least 3 lines down Hair of the Dog and there’s plenty of back channels that can be explored and the rapid Novocaine which is hardly paddled has a few lines down it. It’s a tremendously fun section that is really good for all abilities and I really hope more beginner and intermediate paddlers will go out there and realise it’s the perfect place to learn and improve, fun big volume, not many rocks to worry about and beautifully warm!
We left the Lemon after one last Special Session, and got a Matatu back up to Buj, and drank several beers on the way, upon getting to the Bar I random kiwi guy was asking if anyone wanted to go boating as the river was really high. Never having had the opportunity to run the river high I decided to make the most of this, and drunkenly got kitted up walked down the steps to the river to find it only a measly 1.5-2metres higher than I’ve seen it! As there were no Boda-Boda’s we decided to run just down to Buj, taking Rib Cage and the right side of Bujigali. No moonlight and no head torches we were paddling on instincts, reactions and memory. The river was so much bigger than I’ve experience before and it was absolutely incredible, just paddling that short section I was able to imagine what it was like 10 years ago when that level was the norm.
Silverback, 80ft of constant gradient dropping 15metres, almost the entire Nile squeezed through a gap the size of a dual carriage-way. More water comes from the right now as the dam builders edge ever closer and rock is moved in preparation of the block-off, this creates a folding seem down the length of the tongue, bigger than it looks in any photo or video it make the ramp a challenge and to hit the sweet spot of the V you have to get it just right, clean the first hole and you bang on line for a beat down in the 2nd, escape that the third hole will crush you and send you slamming into the 4th. The 4 holes had changed since my first trip, each one even more chaotic and more diagonal which tended to fling you more to one side or the other making it even hard to plan a line. My first two runs down this rapid it was kind to me, I cleaned it having avoided the meat of the third hole, I would then spend every run until my last day getting all sorts of backloops, flips and aerial mystery moves. My last 2 runs down Silverback really define the experience, complete contrasting runs. First run of the day Adam goes ahead to film, I hold back waiting, head down the ramp hit the breaking seam too early and i’m off balanced, roll over and drop through the first 2 waves backwards, turn to see the third hole cresting, at it’s breaking point right above me, I tuck dropping in to it sideways… The wave flattens me, the biggest hit I’ve ever taken from pure water, sends me deep, very deep, i reach to check my deck convinced that it just imploded such was the force of the water, but my overthruster has done it’s job, I surface behind the 4th wave and eddy out. By this point on my trip my shoulders had become strained from paddling and I felt that was the last paddling I could do. Fitting I thought that the most chaotic and crazy rapid I should probably ever run should as it’s last memory remind me just how powerful it really was.
A few hours later a sunset session beckons and I decided to push my luck one last time, my arms were shattered but could just manage one last run down Buj, cleaning both lines, then I drifted down to Silverback, saving every last drop of energy for one last attempt to tame the mighty Gorilla. This time I lead in focused on the point I want to hit, several times this point had allowed me to clean the first 3 holes only to get eaten by the 4th. This time I styled it, straight through the guts of every hole, riding up the 3rd monster just putting in a hanging draw stroke to take me through the wave upright and I had the line to allow me to power through the 4th. I turned and smiled. That was the final run to remember, right through the guts and cleaned all 4 holes. We stood in the shallows of the Eddy whilst the local kids paddled our boats, we looked at the Sunset over the Dam and one of the kids told me how he wanted to be a kayaker when he grew up. They all wants jobs, all want to earn their way and it’s so very sad that the community around there will be so damaged by this Dam.
The Locals are particularly spiritual and Bujigali Falls is seen as a spirit of good luck, they believe that it will always protect them and this dam will bring prosperity to them. Sadly I can’t see this being so, flooding their spirit of good luck will stop a lot of Tourism, even now there’s less and less rafters coming to NRE, the days of 8 or 10 rafts going down-river appear to be gone, only 2 or 3 rafts per day were leaving from NRE this trip. And with the rafting moving down-stream, even though they will still be based out of Bujigali it’s hard to imagine the same atmosphere in the NRE bar with kayaking being restricted to the end of Day 1 and Day 2 as it’d be hard to reason why to spend much time at NRE. Local Restaurants and shops are going to suffer, Boda-Boda drivers will no longer be doing shuttle runs for kayakers. Places like Eden Rock will be left to NGO staff and overland trucks to fill the rooms. There’s a whole group of people who make a living at Bujigali Falls entertaining the public, local boys kayaking, descending the rapids on oil cans, all of this will go, where will they go to now to feed their families?
I feel like now I should do a shout-out for Softpower, a charity set up by a Kayaker, based in the area and dedicated to improving life through Education. If for some reason anything I’ve written burns particularly deeply for you think of the Locals who will have to live with the consequences of this dam, and maybe give a little to try and help the next generation. http://softpowereducation.com/
I really hope I get another chance to visit Uganda, I really hope that after the waters have settled life there will continue to be as amazing and fun as it’s always been out there.
More Photos here on Facebook
After the completion of the Dam the Following Rapids will have been Lost:
Rib Cage
The Hump
Bujigali
Brickyard
Widowmaker
Babymaker
Blade Runner
Escape Hatch
50-50
Total Gunga
Surf City
Ugly Sisters
Silverback
JungleBook
Headbanger
Below the Dam the following rapids will still be there:
The Dam wall Section to NRE*
Overtime
Dead Dutchman
Jaws
Bubogo
Superhole
Kallagalla
Hypoxia
Itunda
Novocaine
Vengance
Hair of the Dog
Kulla Shaker
Nile Special
Club
Malalu
…and many unnamed backchannels on Day 2.
