Africa Swims

I’ve never flipped and swam so much as I did in Africa. 11 swims and 8 flips, all of the swims have a story behind so I thought I’d write a report of the 11 African swims.

The Omo River was the first river I did in Africa, but nobody swam here due to the fact that if you swim you could very well get eaten, by the crocs or the hippos. Good incentive not to swim.

So my first swim was the first rapid of six runs I made on the Zambezi River. Rapid #1, also known as the Boiling Pot, is actually a major peel out from an eddy river left, where you have to cross heavy current pushing first into a big hole and then into the wall. The current escapes to the right. Almost inevitably there is a high side need at the hole or the wall or both. We paddled out into the current and we got to the hole sideways (typical run, as your working to get across), so Kevias, our guide called a high side. We high sided well, but the boat did a 180 putting me on the low side and I fell out. I fell out in swirly water, but I was laughing as the swim was not bad and I was thinking it was a pretty funny start to my Zambezi adventures. While in the swirly water, the safety kayaker came paddling over to help me (which I did not need) and proceeded to slam me in the face with the nose of his kayak. I came up spitting out teeth and had a pretty good cut on the lip. My two front teeth were chipped pretty good and I looked like a member of the local Tonga tribe, who chips their front teeth to make them sharper.

Two rapids later was Morning Glory (number 4), which is one of the two worst to swim on the river. At the top Kevias was trying to get right of a big hole, didn’t make it and we flipped. It was a long swim with lots of eddy lines (at this 25,000 cfs water level) to take you deep. This swim would make the top ten worst swims list for me.

The second day was smooth through Numbers 4 and 7, the two that you don’t want to swim. At number 8 you have a choice of going real big to the left with a guaranteed flip in what’s called Star Trek, or center in the Muncher which is still very big with a 50/50 chance of flipping or river right is the sneak route called Kentucky Fried Chicken, which our crew the first day opted for after the swim in number 4. Today we decided for the Muncher. Chris and Michele, traveling partners in Africa, rode up font with me to kind of high side the front of the boat for this huge hole. Anyway, the boat did not flip but all three of us, Chris, Michele and myself ended up in the water.

On my third trip we had a different guide, named Kelvin. All of the guides in Zambia used a lot (pretty much every rapid) of “hold ons”. In rapid number seven, called Gulliver’s Travels, the worst rapid to swim, we were too far right, and as a raft guide I knew that turning the boat left and a forward command would easily have got us back on line, but in Africa instead they call “hold on” and we went into a big hole on the right and flipped,. We were way up high in the rapid, above a bunch of waves and holes called Land of the Giants. Chris and Eric (another travel partner) swam real deep at an eddy line. I was able to hold onto the boat, but with my broken arm still in a cast I couldn’t move from out under the tube. I was underwater as long as Eric and Chris putting this swim in the top five worst swims of my life. My fifth swim of the trip, was when we got back up on top of the raft after the flip in 7, we floated into a big hole in rapid 7-B and got dumped back into the water. Yes, this counts as a separate swim as we were high and dry and went back into the river unintentionally.

My fourth trip was the only Zambezi trip without a swim. The fifth trip was our group trip, we had eight of us (all folks I know that were here to raft with me). It was an extremely smooth day as we did no hold ons and smoothed pretty much every major rapid. However after rapid number 3, Michele decided she wanted to swim rapid 3 ½, which is generally not a swimmers rapid. Following Michele’s lead everyone but Chris, who was guiding and myself jumped out to swim the rapid. Chris and I were lollygagging along, when Chris saw the big hole in 3 ½ coming up and said “maybe I better paddle.” We hit the hole and flipped.

My sixth trip was a three day Zambezi trip. The plan was to do the big peel out at #1, cross the current and eddy out river right below the rapid. Above rapid 1 is a pool where you can paddle across and get right to the base of Victoria Falls, one of the seven natural wonders of the world, This can only be accessed from river right, the Zimbabwe side. We would portage our raft upstream to above rapid 1, so we could paddle across and see this view of Vic Falls, a view most people never get to see. One thing we hadn’t planned on was flipping. Yes, we flipped in #1and the boat along with most if us, swam through number 2. So instead we had towalk up to the pool and swim across to get to the base of Vic Falls. This was one of the most special places on my Africa trip.

The flip in #1 was not an issue for the gear as our gear for night number one was brought in at rapid number 10 where we camped. Chris was on the oars of our stern mount raft for #s 12 and 13. Number 12, the Three Ugly sisters, leads right into #13, Mother. Chris was far right in the third sister and tried to get back to the center to square up for the big hole in Mother, but didn’t make it and we flipped the raft full of gear. The swim wasn’t too bad and the gear survived fine.

On to the White Nile in Uganda. The first of two trips I did I was put in the safety raft for my casted arm. I didn’t swim that day. The second trip I went with my friend Jane. The trip style on the White Nile is to offer guests mild or wild and if they go wild you try to flip a lot. Our crew wanted wild. At a rapid called 50/50, meaning the chance of flipping, the first two boats of our three boat trip flipped. So, I thought “hey the odds are good” but we flipped as well. The biggest rapid on the White Nile is Starbuck and due to a new dam on the river all of the 90,000 cfs is pushed into the main part of this rapid. The first four waves of this rapid are some of the biggest I have ever seen. It’s a long rapid with three waves after the fourth that are very big as well. I watched the raft in front of me, which had trip participant Carmen in it, flip in the first wave. They had a long swim. Our boat went through the first four waves and we started celebrating. At wave number six we were a little sideways but we high sided it through, then at wave seven the high side wasn’t good enough and we flipped. It was a fun swim since it was at the end of the rapid. My last swim of Africa was on that same trip at a rapid called Booboogo. If the guide wants ot flip it is easy to do. I knew Jane was going to try to flip us so I went for the mega high side, but to no avail, we flipped.

My final river was the Tana in Kenya and I managed to stay in the boat there. Of the 11 swims 9 were fun (except for getting smashed in the face with the kayak) and the ones in number 4 and number 7 sucked.