View of the Nile from NRE, photo by Natalie Pretty Sunset Picture by Natalie Kramer Boats at the Hairy Lemon

Leif and I went to Uganda from Dec 16th to Jan 18th order to escape the snow and overall winter conditions that he merrily pursued once we got back (see the Poland creek report). In a nutshell, the trip was all that we hoped for: WARM. Leif and I both had playboating goals to achieve during our trip, so accordingly, we spent most of our time on the Nile Special and the Club Wave. We stayed at the Hairy Lemon where we were treated quite well. Thanks Maureen and Michael! By the end of our trip, Leif was consistently throwing huge right and left clean blunts and I learned and actually stuck a few helices.

PLAYBOATING SHOTS

Natalie's rope face, photo by Leif Leif's game face, photo by Natalie Photo by Leif Big Donkey Flip, photo by Natalie One of Natalie's first clean blunt attempts, photo by Leif Leif throws a left clean blunt, Photo by Natalie Kramer photo by Leif Leif helix left, photo by Ivan Leif's big Helix, photo by Josef Fun with the double surf, photo by Ivan

Unbeknown to us beforehand, fluid team paddler Markus Leppaenan and Maria Stelzig from Germany also came to Africa to escape the cold wintry conditions in Europe. You can check out Markus's blog about his trip at: soulboater.blogspot.com. We spent a good amount of time paddling with them in their styley matching small red Nemeses.

Markus Leppaenen, Photo by Natalie Kramer Markus. Photo by Leif markus. Photo by Leif Maria rides into battle. Photo by Natalie Maria Stelzig, photo by Natalie Kramer

I would really like to thank Jaime from Kayak the Nile for lending us some boats during our trip. Although most of the time we paddled the Large Nemesis and the Small Flirt, we were able to borrow the some Spices to explore the back channels of Bugagali Falls. Since this area is soon going to be underwater due to the construction of a dam at Silverback Falls, Leif and I made sure that we explored all of the channels. Some photos of us sporting the Spice are pictured below. This was the first time that either of us had ever tried the Spice. We we both quite impressed. They paddled great, stayed online and were even more stable than the playboats in the big water.

RIVER RUNNING SHOTS

The "Spicey" thumbs up, photo by Max Coney

The Spicey thumbs up.

Leif running Bladerunner, photo by Natalie Kramer

Bladerunner.

Natalie enters Brickyard, Photo by Leif

Brickyard.

Dropping into Widowmaker, photo by Max Coney

Dropping into Widomaker.

Leif and Natalie getting trashed in Widowmaker, photo by Max Coney

We are actually both getting trashed in this photo. Widowmaker.

Dam construction at Silverback, photo by Natalie Kramer

Dam construction at Silverback, December 2009.

This next picture of a bird (I believe a Kingfisher?) swallowing a fish bigger than its own body was just too cool not to include.

Kingfisher eating a fish

And, of course, if you want to see many more photos from our trip and a longer write-up you can visit our Uganda post at www.leifandnatalie.blogspot.com