Day 9: Sunday, Nile River

We had a slow start to Sunday. Pav and I showed up late to a late team breakfast with Leanne and Teja already at the table. The driver, Waiswa was already parked outside waiting for Pav and I to leave for the market to get our swimsuits. We grabbed a quick bite before heading out. It would soon be noon, and we didn’t want to miss our tubing experience floating down (or up, Northwards) the Nile at 3pm.

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We were joined by Easton and his roommate, Caleb. We were also ‘babysitted’ by Darius, who came along just to make sure we were alright on a Sunday afternoon. After we were briefed and suited up in our lifejacket, we were led down a long flight of steps to the riverbank where our tubes waited. It was a line of donut-shaped floaties stringed to a kayak, where our guide Jeffrey would lead us down the river. Nile was a dream: the water was clear enough that we could see our toes swimming in it; the two sides of the river brimmed with life with flora and fauna of every tropical variety; kingfishers dipped into waters and monkeys swung across trees; the sky leaked through the clouds and cast heavenly rays on the trees and water on our horizons. Slowly but surely, we floated towards Egypt, 2000 miles away while our guide shared some interesting touristy facts with us. I still wonder about the cave where the witchdoctor was purported to do his thing – curing maladies, granting wishes and solving problems all-around. We were specifically told not to swim into the cave.

Of course, we never made it to Egypt but the optimistic amongst us would say we made it halfway there. Looking down the river with my eyes closed I can clearly see the towering pyramids, the wonders of the world. I had to quickly snap out of it as we dismounted from the tubes on-by-one. Jeffrey cut open a refreshing pineapple for each of us to share and said his goodbyes as we boarded Harry’s motorized boat to go back upstream where we came from.

We ended the day rejoined by Janis and enjoyed a good dinner as a team with Dr. Vicent and Easton.