ThePADDLER 66
Come back to paradise
Story : and photos : Bartosz Czauderna
Like every winter , I went to Uganda to spend my time training and enjoying perfect kayaking conditions of warm water , no rocks , friendly people and general easy life with multiple spots to play . This year we were glad to make it there with our Polish friends despite all the covid difficulties . Luckily the numbers around the Nile were fairly low , and we had to take tests before flying and , of course , follow local restrictions . However , we had managed everything , and it was worth it !
HIGH WATER RELEASES
But honestly , for the idea of isolating , this was probably the best place , living on the bank of the Nile , just playing on the river every day and being able to work from there . It felt easier to handle the isolation than back home , where I had been stuck with limited options of moving around . This year , especially unique , was the very high water releases that started happening in the first half of the year . Over the last ten months , Uganda has been on high release making White Nile a completely new place in terms of white water , creating many completely new waves !
After unprecedented flooding around the region and a year of low water releases through the dams , Lake Victoria was at its highest-ever levels . Emergency releases started to help drop that level were sending 2400 cumecs through the dams , double a normal high water release of 1200 and triple the typical release since completion of Isimba HPP . The temporary high flows led to recreating all the rapids that we already knew by heart and bringing on the big wave game to Uganda !
UGANDA