Back In England

Just incase anyone didnt know, we are all back and well. We had an amazing time. We just have been spending the past few days getting used to the manic way of living in england and getting used to the cold. Emily has been to the hospital and got her arm checked out and it is only sprained. I have just got round to adding some photos to the picasa album so check them out!
Mike

Last day at NRE today :(

Sad about leaving NRE today,it feels like home away from home, although i am looking forward to going to the lemon. Im going to miss the dogs here most i think. Anyway, in response to dads comment about dissertations im going to try to keep this short and sweet.
I spoke to rooster about my shoulder the other night and he took me to a friend of his in the bar who happened to be a doctor from germany, called sebastian. So he had a look and said that one of three things has probably happened, depending on whether i hit it on a rock or pulled it bracing or something. So it's possbly a minor bone fracture, small separation of the AC joint (not sure what that is) or damage to the ligaments between the top and back muscle of my shoulder. He wrote down some painkillers and dosages and said that if its still bad when i get home to get it checked out, but that if i went to a clinic here they wouldnt really be able to do anything and its not serious enough to warrant coming home. Also to keep it in a sling and not move it for 3 to 4 days and then see how i feel (which is really rubbish, its unbelievably frustrating for this to be our last week here and not to be able to paddle). I got one of the painkillers he recommened and they sort of worked but they also made me feel a rather groggy so im going to see how i go with out them. It feels a bit better today anyway.
As mike has said, we're going to the lemon tomorrow and connection to the internet is doubtful so this may be my last post. Will probably check the internet early tomorrow morning though.
Take care, Em

Off to the Hairy Lemon

Today is our last whole day at NRE campsite, so the last time we can run the day one section, and then we are off to the hairy lemon tomorrow afternoon for some day two fun and Nile Special sessions. We are told that the internet is broken at the hairy lemon so as we are on the middle of an island at least 30 minutes from the nearest town we wont be able to update the blog. Unless they fix it. So if you dont see any post on the blog for the next week dont be surprised, we will speak to everyone back in england. Also i would like to apologize for the lack of photos being put up but the internet is to slow (even at the quickest internet cafe in Jinja) to upload photos, We have got lots of pictures and vids though which we will put up when we get home.
I am sure em and jack will post up once more before we leave.
See everyone in England
Mike

T.I.A.

This Is Africa. This is the reason we haven't written another post since mine a week ago. We have been infected with Africa Time, which means things move very slowly, are often late or just don't get done. So although we've been paddling, into town and been teaching Aminah occasionally we haven't done much that we thought worth writing about. Until today. So yesterday we planned to take me (Em in case you didn't guess) down some of the harder rapids, but we never got round to it, so we did it today. I did ribcage fine (this is the rapid i swam on in the first week) and then ferried across so that i could do the left line of bujagali. I got through the first wave fine and actually really enjoyed it (the ramp into it was steeper than i had expected) but i went over just behind the wave. It then gets a bit blurry and i swam. Which was fine, i had time to wave to jack so he could see me swimming and then i balled up to go through the next bit. It was a bit rocky but i wasn't under water long (i think i actually made it into the eddy higher up than i would have done if i was paddling!). It was only as i went to swim into the eddy that i realised my arm (left) really hurt, so with help from jack (who then left to climb through the 'jungle' to get my boat which had stopped in the eddy above the second bit) i got out on to the rocks to have a bit of a sit down. I stretched out my arms to test my left shoulder and see where i could and couldn't move it to. Anywhere too forward or too high was (and still is) pretty much out of bounds. Then when jack got back to me i got in my boat and we ferried back to river right so we could get out and walk back to the campsite. That ferry was not pleasant (its hard to go from left to right using only your right arm and even then only weakly because i couldn't push with my left arm the way you would with a right paddle stroke) but it was easier than i thought it would be. So we walked up, got changed and now here we are. It feels like i've pulled the muscle or bashed the shoulder on a rock although i don't remember hurting it (the first i knew of it was when i tried to swim into the eddy at the bottom). So im going to wait a couple of hours, see if any swelling or bruising appears, get rooster (one of the raft guides we're friends with) to have a little look and then possibly see one of the doctors about it. Although i don't think i'll need to do that, i think it's just going to need a bit of a rest and some gentle mobility to stop it ceasing up. So that's it by way of excitement this week. Jack says i would have been fine if i had worn my 'safe passage over water necklace' that one of the ladies here made for me, as he and mike did but im not convinced. Anyway i'll let you know how it goes, hopefully i can get some painkillers and carry on paddling, haha.
Missing you all loads, love Em xxx

Coaching

Just finished 2 days (monday and tuesday) of coaching and i feel like i've been beaten with a stick. I dont think i've ached as much since the liffey descent where it was hard to even walk.
Anyway, the first day i had one on one coaching with a guy called david. We paddled from the dam down to NRE campsite (the one where we're staying) which is an easy section, just so that david could see how my roll was on flatish water. We stopped at the campsite to have lunch then went to superhole for the afternoon. So the aim was for me to try to get into the hole and then when i went over to practice moving water rolls but i was either missing it (because you have to ferry across quite a fast moving green tongue to get to it) or getting into it for a while and then coming out but not going upside down. So i started trying to get into the hole and if i missed it i had to go upside down and roll in the wavey bit afterwards. That was fine most of the time, until later on when i was getting tired when i didnt roll twice, once i swam and the other time i eskimo rescued.
Day 2 i woke up so tired and achey i didnt really want to go but i got my stuff and i got breakfast and sat in the bar until it was time to go. We were joined by another coach, Anna, who had just returned after a year at home. So we started the day at superhole doing the same as we had the previous afternoon. I swam once fairly early on but then i began to loosen up a bit more and found it easier to get onto the wave and if i missed i had a couple of really good rolls so there was definately some improvement compared to monday. We than went on to do the day 2 section and i got to have my first look at itanda and i have to say it is a very impressive/intimidating rapid. We sat there to have lunch. We moved on and there are four rapids on the day 2 section with big bits of flat between them. The rapids are vengence, hair of the dog, cooler shacker and then nile special. All fun, just big big waves etc. I didnt go upside down (david and anna were impressed cos most people go over on those waves, although i thought it was a bad thing cos i sort of wanted practice rolling unexpectedly). I had most trouble staying upright on the bits afterwards where there are loads of boils and eddy lines and whirlpools. On the flat bits between i did more rolls and double pumping so went upside down a lot.
Having a rest day today. Will probably only get on the water later as me and jojo are teaching rooster (one of the raft guides) how to roll and one of the local girls, amina, how to paddle.
Speak soon, love Em xxx

Hairy Caterpillars

Yesterday a group of us went to Superhole, which is a play spot mid way down the day 1 section.
After about half an hour of paddling there I found myself so insanely itchy that i had to get out of my boat and sit in the eddy and take my rash vest off. It turns out that whilst i was hanging my kit out to dry last night, Hairy caterpillars decided to have a party in my rashvest and boardshorts. I am now covered in red blotches. Although speaking to the locals it should be gone in 24 hours. Bad times. Still enjoying the paddling though.
Mike

Itanda Falls

Me and mike just got back from running the whole of day one, what an insane paddle,
We both finally managed to head dry silverback (not roll) and also both ran Itanda Falls, the grade 6 rapid at the bottom of the day 1 section.
The rapid has multiple holes that are easily twice as tall as i am.
We followed down our friend mark who knew the line, and i got pushed 3 metres off line by a massive boil on the lead in ramp, missed the ramp and plugged a hole that last time someone went into, they spent a good 3 minutes getting trashed, so after by some miracle i punched through that hole, i managed to bump into mike as i'd slowed down so much, i then managed to hit the cuban, the biggest hole on the rapid which is almost river wide, straight inthe centre, instead of sneaking around, again by a miracle i managed to get the nose of the boat up and got over it.
Mike got a sweet line and it's all on video.
Probably have a lazy day tomorrow as today was an intense day. but so worth it.
Talk later
Jack

Good news!!!

Hi everyone, Mike and I have just checked our uni grades for this year and we've both passed, so both well happy :)
Had a pretty good day today. Went on a walk around the nearby villages this afternoon which was really nice even though it started raining halfway round.
Speak soon
Take care, Em xx

First Week

We have just nearly finished our first week out here. It has been a fairly lazy week but we have got out paddling every day. After we came back from the hairy lemon. We spent a day down at superhole. Which is another awesome playspot. Today we went and paddled Some of the back channels, Bladerunner and escape hatch. Aswell as all the normal rapids, the hump, 50:50, Silverback (which none of us have managed head dry yet). Emily had a swim on Ribcage but apart from that we havnt had much carnage.
Although we have taken lots of sweet photos we havnt been able to upload any yet, As the internet isnt exactly broadband(takes roughly 5mins to load a page, infact in the time I loaded this page I have completed 4 games of solitaire).
The public transport out here is hilarious although very scary. The food is amazing and so cheap, although both me and em have got dodgy stomachs, but its all cool.
We are going to try and find a good internet cafe in Jinja so that we can put some photos up in the next fews days.
Speak laterz
Mike

Wow

After our plane had an engine go on the landing in Rwanda and again in Entebbe, we finally arrived, we got to the campsite at nearly 4 in the morning. We didn't see a lot that night but the next day as amazing, The rapids were bigger than anything we've ever paddled and the water was warm. We just got back from spending the weekend at the hairy lemon . Had a wicked few sessions on nile special. It's insane.
This place is better than i imagined, so so cheap and everyone wants to help you.
Took a while to get used to boda boda rides (mopeds with your boat). Mike wiped out on his first time after his boat hit a tree. but he's all good and unhurt.
Paddling day one again tomorrow. Pictures should be soon.
Jack

Packed and ready to go

Hi everyone, just to let you all know, i still havent got my phone back so i will probably only be able to talk to people on here or facebook. I finally finished packing today, well i say finally but i only started today so it didnt take too long! Said goodbye's to my family and i'm now at mike and jacks house, ready for an early start. Packed a lunch aswell, although it'll probably be breakfast, of a cheese and coleslaw sandwich, biscuit made by nan and a chocolate chicken that she got in russia. Anyway, this blog was really just a test run to make sure i could do it, so im sorry for the waffle....
Speak to you soon,
Emily xx

Preperation

Having just got back from the French Alps this Tuesday, I am spending this week running round trying to sort things out, so we are ready to fly out on Thursday. Just thought I would set up this blog so people back home can see what we are up to, what rapids we have run and to have somewhere to keep up a swim count. We are all super excited and cant wait to get out there. Watch this space!
Mike