The other guys were more river runners than play boaters (with the exception of Max who had hurt his back) so i knew the guys would get restless before long and want to head back to NRE. With the Montana boys having moved up to NRE a few days ago, things on the island were pretty quiet, and so was the queue in the eddy at Nile Special. For me at least, this place was pretty close to paradise, chill out in the morning after breakfast, then head for a play on club wave while the river is still low.
Club wave is a really good wave, and gets trashier as the water levels come up through the day. Its great for big air and big trashings, and everyone had a fair amount of each! I had a lot of fun on that wave. After a session on club wave its time for lunch back on the island, then a bit more chill time in the sun or in a hammock in the shade with a book and a drink to wait for
the water to rise and Nile Special to come in, in all its glory! Getting used to the tow rope can take a while but its well worth it. I had some amazing sessions there and there's nothing like watching the sunset from the eddy while someone tears the wave up in the fading light.A few days into my time at the lemon, Steve Fisher sent a truck down to pick a bunch of us up and take us to Kalagala, the plan, to run down the day 2 section to his island and then party our asses off! Max, Pablo and Si had left for NRE the day before so I had been chilling with some new friends who all came along for the party. There was Vanya, Alexy and Katya from Russia, Thomas from Switzerland, Steve from New Zealand and Vito from the UK. We arrived a bit late at Kalagala and the rafts and other paddlers had already set off, so we put on, most of us running the falls, and raced down the next rapids to try and catch up with them. We caught up with the last of the group just before Steve's island, but it was all good as someone h
ad already got the BBQ fired up and the booze was already flowing! We partied until sunset when-shock horror!- the booze ran out! Vito and I decided it would be a great idea to head back to the lemon before everyone else so we could catch special on the fly and have a ride... I cant really remember the paddle back top the lemon, it was dark and i was pretty drunk, but i do remember stacking it trying to catch special and then getting a beating and struggling to roll... maybe not such a great idea after all...The rafts and people soon arrived back at the lemon in search of more booze... the music started pumping and the booze started flowing, it was a good night! The next day however was less than good... I was hanging worse than usual, and it was late afternoon that i wondered why i was shivering in the full heat of the African sun. That night the aches and sweating convinced me that all was not well, and the next day i was too weak to paddle or do anything much. It was ok though, just a bit of "man flu" i kept telling myself...
Fortunately for me Alexy had come down with something similar and Vanya convinced me I should come to Nazigo with them and take the malaria test. I was starting to run out of pain killers so i went with them, knowing full well i couldn't have malaria... Upon getting our results at the clinic (i call it that for lack of a better word haha) it turned out both of us had malaria. Alexy was given a course of coartem to take and i was put on an I.V. drip right there and then, and pumped full of fluids an quinine for the next 3 days... Not the nicest experience I've ever had, especially since the friends i was with were up at NRE and had no idea!
So I missed out on paddling for a few days, but started to feel better surprisingly quickly, it wasn't until i started paddling again that i realised how weak i was. Its infuriating to be at one of the best play spots in the w
orld and not be able to give it 110%, but i guess i was lucky to be paddling at all so soon (and maybe just a bit stubborn too hahaha). Soon my frustration drove me back upriver, but i couldn't quite face the idea of staying at NRE again, so went across the road to Eden Rock, a nice chilled campsite that's close enough to NRE to go party when you want, but allows you to escape the madness too, which was fortunate since Timmy Flowers was in town...
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