'Hairy aquatic terror takes none'

Miraculously I didn’t hurt or ache the next day, which was lucky because I had an exhausting morning shopping for chairs, ebony goblets and candle sticks. This is the first time I have thought about home since the start on this trip, somehow I have managed to remove myself completely from my world back in London - something which has done me the world of good.

After our mammoth shopping trip we headed back to the Heaven – a tranquil lodge on the banks of the Nile over looking the rapids, which we were to throw ourselves down in a 9 person inflatable raft. We had a briefing from ozzy, adrenaline junky Rubens who looked like he’d been plucked from the bush and popped into a wet suit. We jumped in and paddled off with Rich left on the bank taking his amazing wide angled photos of our group donning hard hats and life vests.

We turned a corner on the calm flowing banks of the Nile to look down at our first rapid and see carnage. To me it looked like a 20 foot, vertical drop into a waterfall that I couldn’t deduce how we would arrive safely at the other end. When Rubens asked if we were all up for it, there was a resounding YES! The excitement was too much to give up and have to walk over the safe path to the other side. There were canoes and rafts everywhere on the other side. Rubens gave us our instructions; we were to paddle as hard as we could – go in left and then turn hard right so we would avoid the massive flat rock, sticking out in the middle of the water, that we should not under any circumstances go near. Off we went, not left, not right, but straight ahead and so hard that we paddled right up on top of the rock, mounted it and slid to the end so we where half-hanging over the edge of the waterfall unable to move. I think Rubens might have wet his pants a little at this point, we will never know. He quickly formed some kind of rescue plan, by getting one of the rafts below to paddle to the edges of the rocks and us to slide down the slippery rock face on bottoms to the safety of their raft. He then backed up our raft, got it to the safety of the dry land pass and back in to the water where he picked us up again. I could not stop laughing, how we managed to get into this predicament escaped me, Rubens was also at a loss for words – it had never happened before.

We carried on - not with the extremes of the first waterfall, but did have some pretty vigorous rapids to get through and in-between we discussed the diseases, bugs and infections you get from the Nile. 5 minutes later we jumped in for a swim. I’VE SWUM IN THE NILE. I wonder if the same excitement is achieved by foreigners if they swim in the Thames? It was a 'mega' swim, one of the best, mostly because my life vest aided me in zooming along and splashing. We paddled along until we saw our final destination insight – Hairy Lemon Island.