Sad News and Bad News from the Nile
Very sad news yesterday, as we were returned from our day trip down to Itunda, we were told one of the French paddlers had swum on the standard 'hump' line (the holes are quite sticky at these low levels). He was swimming towards the eddy and then disappeared into the seamline between the water flowing from ribcage and the water coming out from the hump (not a major eddyline by any means), he did not resurface. It is thought he had a foot entrapment. Our thoughts are with his family who received the news last night, and with his friends - particularly those who were with him and were helpless to do anything to help. Some of our group later went to see if they could see him in one of the eddy's, there was nothing else we could do to help. Some of his kit was found but sadly his body has not yet been recovered. It seems it was a very unlucky accident (the first of this kind on the Nile) and is a very sobering event, although the Nile River is generally friendly it is still a serious piece of water and needs to be treated with respect.
The water level situation seems very trivial after what happened yesterday, but the water level of the lake is now so low that they are releasing 40% less water out of the dam. This means that all of the traditional playspots will no longer exist, although there may perhaps be some others that turn up. This again seems trivial as we are not the ones that are really affected by this, as all of the businesses and residential areas in the Kampala/Jinja area have to exist with very little electricity - it is switched off for 12 hours every other day. Very few people can afford to buy/run a fuel-run generator. Everyone is hoping the rainy season will kick off soon.
The water level situation seems very trivial after what happened yesterday, but the water level of the lake is now so low that they are releasing 40% less water out of the dam. This means that all of the traditional playspots will no longer exist, although there may perhaps be some others that turn up. This again seems trivial as we are not the ones that are really affected by this, as all of the businesses and residential areas in the Kampala/Jinja area have to exist with very little electricity - it is switched off for 12 hours every other day. Very few people can afford to buy/run a fuel-run generator. Everyone is hoping the rainy season will kick off soon.
posted by flea at 9:56 AM 
6 Comments:
Please do you know his name ?
If you can, please extend our sincere wishes of Strength to his familly, friends from our CLub member at the Cornwall Recreation Whitewater Club.
It is a sobering reminder that will sit in our memories always.
His name is Marc, I don't know his second name. I am very sorry I didn't give his name before. I thought his friends here had already contacted people at home, but I wanted people to know what had happened before untrue rumours started.
Hi,
so how is the river like right now? Any play left? I´m flying in in a couple of weeks and am just wondering if i should try to cancel my trip because of the low water or not?
My friends and i were very saddened to hear of such a tragic loss, please pass on our most sincere regret and condolence to all those affected by such a terrible event.
I met Marc and his crew at the Hairy Lemon about two weeks ago. Really nice guy. Every time something like this happens, I feel like being part of the whitewater community is both a blessing and a curse. The blessing it that we all share a common bond- so it's really easy to make new friends-guys like Marc. The curse is that the next day, week, year, or whenever, the same thing that bonds us together can take those friends away. I've thought about it a lot, and I think that might be part of the reason the river bonds us together.
My condolences to Marc's friends and family. I hope that they can find their own peace with the river, each other, and with Marc. Be safe out there
Jeremy
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