Kenya

The Land of Adventure

Situated on the East side of Africa, Kenya was rumored to be a whitewater kayaking meca. After a short trip there last November I was very keen to go back and explore more rivers. Chris, Sim and myself had three days of exploring with one highlight being a first decent of a perfect 20 meter waterfall on the Nyamindi river.

Nyamindi (First Decent)

Basing out of Savage Wilderness our days were full of exploring sections that had been run and sections that where fresh for the ticking. The rain was pouring every night and the rivers were perfect.

Working on the Nile its not hard to go kayaking, however the main issue here is trying to set up some sort of a mission as people work sporadically. One of the first people I asked was Anton and without hesitation he was in! 100% commitment, which is hard to come across. As the mission started to take shape we managed to recruit Timmy Flowers. Timmy with his local knowledge was a huge part, knowing the condition of roads, dealing with police checks, etc. our low rider car stuffed full of kayakers, kayak gear and carrying three creek boats did tend to attract attention.

Paddling wagon

Webuye falls, Day 1 - we started the trip from jinja at 6 in the morning and drive to the Malaba border crossing. Here we had a 2 and a half hour wait to get through. Once through we went straight to webuye falls which is a series of channels with many waterfalls and rapids to scout. After scouting from the road side and Being very excited to get on the water we decided to try some of the rapids on the liver left channel. With the water level being a bit on the lower side only this section was runnable. After a few fun rapids and an epic boot to finish we got back in the car and head to Gilgil to our friend Tim for a BBQ and some whiskey.

Tana Classic Waterfall

Day - 2 after a map party in Timmy's house we loaded the car with one extra passenger (Timmy) and we were off to sagana in search of more epic water and hopefully more first descents. When we did get to sagana we needed to go kayaking so a blast on the Tana was called for and the banter was had with the lads on the water. This is the classic raft section in sagana but at the end it has a very nice 8 - 10 meter waterfall to play on. After a few runs on that we ended at savage wilderness for a lovely dinner some beers and to organise our days kayaking for tomorrow.

Webuye Falls

Day - 3 after a rainy night in savage wilderness we all woke up full of enthusiasm for kayaking today. Hoping that the water that fell last night in the (asars) would effect the river we had in mind for today. The Tanya river had rose over 6 inches in the night so spirits were high. After wolfing down breakfast we got on the road to the river we scouted on Google earth. To our surprise we ended up at the nyamindi a river Chris, sim and myself did the first decent of the upper section a few months ago. It was clear that the water level was to low however the classic waterfall called shoasty boasty was good to go and at the take out. This waterfall has a sweet lead into a 50ft drop. 3 clean lines later and we were on our way back to savage wilderness to find the put in to the lower tana. This section is a classic however we heard that at high water it has a good kick. This was the total opposite to our low volume waterfall. Loads of water pushing hard down the river and plenty of lines you had to hit. This was to much fun with only one sketchy moment which involved a ferry glide in some very powerful water just above a big rock, it looked like a difficult ferry but very doable however we didn't notice the rock in the middle of the flow that killed all our speed and sent us all into the rock and down the seem next to it. We all made it through with our dignity in tacked.

Webuye 

Day 4 - after a night of discussion we decided to head around to the east side of mount Kenya to check out a river called the Thuchi. This river had some very promising prospects. Plenty of gradient and it looked like it would have volume due to the rain catchment area feeding it. When we got to the put in we couldn't believe our eyes. It looked like a perfect flow, it was a first decent, the shuttle was easy from bridge to bridge and the sun was shinning hard. We got geared up, splits, first aid, mobile phone, food, water basically everything we needed to be prepared for an epic river ahead of us. We got on and the river was smooth granit rock and a kilometre in we found some nice rapids and a portage that dropped around 30+ meters. After this it all went down hill unlike the river. We had estimated that the river would be 12 km long but it was looking way longer than that. Loads of flat water, acasha torn bushes across the river and the river splitting into channels laid ahead. Oh and the thought of hippos in the pools shock this up a bit. It started to get worrying after hours of flat water. Timmy at one stage asked some local Kenyans how far the road bridge was away and the answer was up stream 5 km, down stream 5 km and then 1/2 a km down stream. We took the last answer and hoped. It took us 5 and a half hours to cover 20 km and by the end of it we were glad to find the take out and a nice motel.

Shoosty Boosty 

Day 5 - after a night in a dodgy motel where the toilet didn't flush and the shower didn't work we got our gear together and drove towards the Nithi river. After some epic driving and scouting we decided to get on the river. This section was low volume and gorged in. The valley itself was so beautiful and the river was an amazing place to be. With help from the adoring locals we managed to put on the river and off down the gorge we went. Within the gorge we found some lovely rapids nothing to difficult with the main danger coming from trees and logs in the river. Due to these logs we had to do 3 portages. At one stage in the river we came across a cave full of thousands of bats. It was amazing, I was the first down and startled the bats there was a flash of bats out of the cave and a kite (bird of prey) came fling in and grabbed a bat, another bat had fallen into the river and was trying to swim back to the shore but got swept down stream then returning a few seconds later. Once we finished on the river we got our shit together and drove to Neru to a lovely hotel with good mosi nets and some nice Kenyan meat!

                                                                     Thuchi River 

Sadly due to the lack of rain and water in kenya we had to cut the trip short. We had loads of fun on our little mission even if we didn't get to run anything to big. With Expedition Inception in November it was great experience for me to get. The challenges both on and off the water in Africa are not easy and the more experience i get the better. Check out Expedition Inception on Facebook, like and share to see how it plans out.

Surfers/Kayakers Ear

With my thirtieth birthday slowly creeping up on me and having spent the last 13 years of my life chasing a kayakers dream of throwing big move’s, running big drop’s and basically exploring different parts of the world I am currently on the receiving end of a condition I knew about but never took any action against, SURFERS EAR. My background in sport does not only involve kayaking, it ranges from Thai Boxing, Rugby, Mountain Biking and Hill Running to name just a fraction. I understand the importance of preparation and the importance of taking care of your body for longevity of a sporting career. With an honors degree in Physical Education and Sports Studies, I have spent countless hours looking at how sports athletes can make themselves stronger, faster and most importantly last longer. Especially people like us kayakers we generally get involved in this sport for the sheer love of the feelings it gives us, the noise of your hull echo after landing a big airscrew or landing a big boof.

Itanda

            I am writing this little blog to try and create some awareness to the young kayakers and anyone else involved in the outdoor industry to take care of their ears when on the water. I can remember a stage in my kayaking career where an influential kayaker mentioned the importance of wearing ear plugs to me so taking his advise I went and purchased some cheap plugs and tried to kayak with them in. Within 5 minutes on the water I took them out and never wore them again. I couldn't hear the water and it was so different I couldn't get used to it. So after that I never wore plugs till now! Yes over 10 years later. Here is a quick look at what Surfers ear is, which is taken from http://www.pamf.org/ENT/services/surfersear.html

Surfer's ear is a serious condition that affects hearing. Medically known as "exostosis of the external auditory canal," surfer's ear is caused by repeated exposure to cold water and wind. Cooling of the ear canal stimulates bone growth that narrows the canal and blocks the eardrum. This narrowing traps water and earwax in the canal, often resulting in painful ear infections and hearing loss.

Sounds pretty bad right! So right now I have ¾ closure of my left ear and ½ closure of my right ear. Not only does this tell me that I roll more on my left but it’s affecting me horribly in general life.  I have only now started to feel the effects of this and it is way worse than I imagined. I have currently had an ear infection that has stopped me from sleeping, the pain started down my jaw line, all around my ear and within the ear. Not only that but I have had to stop kayaking due to the pain. Antibiotics, painkillers and quiet time by myself was a daily routine. Would you believe that this is not the worst of it? Because my ear is in such bad shape my left ear closed off totally and I lost hearing in it for over a week. My father has had an issue with his ears for as long as I can remember, basically he has very little hearing in one ear and that's it. I have always been aware of this but I can remember times in my life where I had to repeat myself to him and I got frustrated with it. Not in a malicious way but I just found it hard to understand why he couldn't hear me when I spoke loud and clear to him. This experience over the past week has put me in his shoes and it has hit home pretty hard. The loss of hearing in one of my ears made me, cranky, irritable, unhappy and a target for people to make a joke about. I know it didn't last very long but I promise you one day is too much. Background noise was the worst, I literally could not sit at a table of people and get involved in the conversation because I couldn't focus on one person talking. Working on the river was very hard, the constant noise of whitewater in the background made it almost impossible to hear people.

Topping all this off – I currently work on the White Nile in Uganda and I have so many places to go and kayak and explore. With my ear worsening I am in desperate need of the surfers ear operation.

Ideas to help you prevent Surfers ear.

·      Bring a hat and wear it after you get off the water, wet ears and cold wind is not good.

·      Wear earplugs. (Ones that are designed for cold water)

·      Get your ears checked regularly.

·      Wear ear plugs even in warm water.

The ear plugs I started with (Fig 1) were a general pair of plugs that was said to be designed to stop water getting into the ear. I can tell you now from experience they don't work!! Don't waist your money at 20 euros your better off buying a few beers out on a Saturday night!

(Fig 1)

After these I started to use blue tack (Fig 2). This was great, no water got in. The issue was I couldn't hear a bloody thing with it and when I took them out to hear and coach putting them back in was a nightmare and they didn't work very well because they were wet inside.

(Fig 2)

The set I am using at the moment are (Fig 3). These plugs are designed to fit my ears and were done by a company specifically focusing on these types of plugs.

(Fig 3)

I hope this blog has helped some people and maybe created awareness of what can happen down the line if you don't take precautions. This is my experience and is unique to me so don't take my word as gospel. One size does not fit all!

Happy paddling everyone.  

Nile River Festival 2014

This year the festival not only changed dates but also had new organizers, Sam and Emily the new owners of Kayak the Nile. I’ll start this blog post by thanking them for doing a great job making the festival enjoyable for both the competitors and spectators.

 Nile Special Play Wave

The format for the weekend started on Thursday with big air ramp, Friday was the extreme endurance race that ran from the silverback dam to the Hairy lemon (40km), Saturday was freestyle on Nile Special wave and Sunday the Hendry Coetzee Itanda extreme race.

I’ve spent the last 8 months working here in Uganda for Kayak the Nile and Love it Live it as a coach and guide on the Nile River but I’m going to write this review based on my experience of the festival. After a long days work on Thursday I was straight off the river and down to the big air ramp at NRE campsite. NRE being my base for work you would have expected that I should have seen it if not tried the big air ramp previously. However coming off a 7-week work stint I wasn't so lucky. When I did get down to give it a go I was happily surprised by the quality of the ramp. It was amazing, so good that a few competitors even competed in their carbon boats. The competitors ranged from experts to total beginners trying everything from airscews, face plants, and sliding trough flames covered in petrol to riding other competitors down the ramp. Judging was based on how cool the move looked, skill and quality of the move and if it was very special you even won a free Nile Special beer to enjoy whilst watching the other competitors. I was very lucky to pick up fist place, which I think was based on constant flirting and winking at the judges and not landing on my face off the ramp. That night the party in the bar was just as much fun with a lot of zappa and funnels drunk by the majority of the competitors.

Quick nap before the race

The next morning I woke up early to try and get rid of my hangover with bacon and egg burgers and a lot of water and coke! Luckily I managed to sort myself out in the nick of time for what I think was the most difficult race of my life. Just so people know my background, I have a lot of years of experience in endurance sports ranging from down river, to mountain biking, to marathon running, adventure racing, etc. and that's just naming a few. So I was teamed up with Sam for the race and I was excited to compete. I thought this was a strong area of my paddling, I knew the river and I had a strong partner however I was in for a surprise. I’ve now been paddling the Jed for the past year and it has to be the perfect size for me. I’m 80kg and well able to handle this boat. However within the first 50 meters of the 40km race I realized when it comes to racing on flat water in this boat I was way too heavy. I followed Sam for most of the race trying to keep at his pace but the effort I was putting in was too much for the distance. I spent the whole race trying to see if I could speed up by changing my stroke technique, I was pushing my weight further back in my boat but there was no change. I had a few moments where all I could do was count my strokes and compare my stroke rate to Sam’s. It was ridiculous! My stroke rate was 2-3 times higher than Sam’s. We started to fall behind the front runners and Sam being his cheerful self kept me entertained by telling me jokes and calling me fat, which actually made me keep a good stroke rate up for the race. There was a stage where we were approaching Itanda and I needed to make the decision to run or portage, of course being my stubborn self I was fully convinced I would be ok. Thankfully I was ok with not the most stylish line ever but a cramp in my left chest muscle at the top didn't put me in the best position for the rest of the rapid and following that my left groin muscle cramped up just as I hit the bad place. All in all a great run down the hardest rapid on the river. Following that I made a promise to myself that when I turn 95 ill come back and run Itanda as I felt that old at the top. When we approached the finish in 8^th position we were greeted with an obstacle course followed by a funnel which I refused to do with beer and did 3 cokes instead. I was then ridiculed by the lovely girls who were giving out the funnels for not doing the funnel of beer. I had to take this on the chin like a man so I went to bed at 9 straight after dinner.

After 11 hours of sleep I woke for breakfast the next morning feeling the total opposite of ready for the freestyle event. After breakfast I did what most athletes do I went back to bed like a baby needing a nap after food, I was so broken from the race the day before. When I returned after my nap I went to get some of lunch before the comp started. While I sat there and struggled to eat I was shown the rules of another competition going on at the same time. This competition involved two athletes (Nick and Tom). The rules included

Ground Rules

1.    Buffalo rules apply (you have to drink with your bad hand, if you don't and someone calls buffalo you need to down your drink)

2.    You must have a beer at all times.

3.    Headbands must be worn at all times.

4.    No shoes in the house. (house was made next to the wave)

Main Rules

1.    Spin/round house = yell boooo drink 2 fingers

2.    Anyone wearing a Go Pro = funnel

3.    Panam = jump 180, moon the competitor and drink 3 fingers

4.    Airscrew = yell “screw you” and drink 3 fingers

5.    Combo = yell fries and a drink then drink 2 fingers

6.    Any clean move = imitate cleaning yourself and drink 2 fingers

7.    Helix = funnel

8.    Swim = funnel

9.    All competitors must wear a BA and helmet.

Nick and Tom competing hard during the freestyle 

With this in mind I got geared up and headed to the wave. Amazingly when I got to the wave there was a huge number of people there to watch the event. 200 plus people from all over the world turned up. Of course before the event it is important to have some practice runs in and with the drinking competition in full swing we decided to see how committed the lads were to the cause. Anton and I were the only two on the water and our main focus was to see how much we could get the lads to drink. The best move was of course the helix to swim!!

The competition itself was scored in a way were the competitors had the freedom to try big moves, an expression session. It was 8 competitors in each heat and 30 minutes to do as many big air moves as possible. This had to be the best set of rules I have ever seen and for me as a competitor it was a lot of fun and it gave me huge freedom to try bigger and better moves. By the end the winner was obvious with Sam Ward putting on a show for everyone to enjoy with some crazy combos and seriously big air moves. I picked myself up a second place, which I was very happy with. Of course that night we once again partied hard and with Sam not able to eat gluten he donated his crate of beer to me, which was a nice beginning to the party that night.

Sunday morning was a very interesting morning not only did I have a terrible headache for reasons unknown but the day started with protest. Without mentioning names, for some reason we turned up at Itanda and people were trying to charge each competitor $15 and $15 for their kayak this also was for the spectators charging them $15. After some mud wrestling and a 2 hour wait we finally got in with the help of the police. The Itanda race was the idea Hendry Coetzee and is done in his memory, it involves competitors racing down Itanda in a timed race with the top 5 then going through to an expression session. Being a pretty big rapid, the nerves were going in the eddy at the top, “it's the loneliest place on the river” (Jamie Simpson).

54321 GO! We sprinted at the top and by the time I got to the lip of the ramp my arms were already burning, Sadat was ahead of me coming to the lip of the ramp and I knew I needed to do something special to get ahead of him. I decided to take a really tight line at the lip of the pencil sharpener to try and make up time however with the unpredictability of the boils on that lip along with my lack of energy I had a bit of a moment causing me to spin half way down the rapid. I still managed to get into the eddy at the end through the bad place however my time was not fast enough to qualify. The expression session at the end was an amazing final seeing different entry lines at the top of Itanda along with some surfing in the pencil sharpener and some classic bad place finishing. 

The event was overall a huge success and so much fun as a competitor. I have no doubt next year will be even bigger and better.

Results

RESULTS 2014

Big Air Ramp:


1. Colin Wong (IRL)


2. Sam Ward (GBR)

3. Ben (UG)

Endurance Race: 




1. Jackson Two and Musa Mutamba (UG)


2. Yusuf Basalirwa and Hassan Kanoli (UG)


3. Sadat Kawawa and David Luhiho (UG)

Nile Special Freestyle:

Mens-


1. Sam Ward (GBR)


2. Colin Wong (IRE)


3. David Moore (UG)

Womens-


1. Emily Wall (GBR)


2. Lowri Davies (GBR)


3. Jessie Stone (USA)

Hendri Coetzee Memorial Itanda Falls Race:


1. Sam Ward (GBR)


2. Yusuf Basalirwa (UG)


3. Jackson Two (UG)

Overall Women’s Champ:


1. Amina Nailrya (UG)

Overall Men’s Champ: 


1. Sam Ward (GBR)


2. Colin Wong (IRL)


3. Anton Immler (SWE)

Quadyaking!

Bored kayakers

So with the serious lack of water we had to come up with something to do to keep the thirst at bay. 

So what better to do than tie a kayak to the back of a quad bike and bomb around a field in it!!

Cheers to Johann and Marius for film and putting it on YouTube. Might be a good idea to wear a helmet  the next time!