Well. The season is finally kicking off and the first of the kayakers have arrived. As usual it is the Irish that are here first, with a small contingent rocking up on Monday night, and more on the way. As well as the odd Kiwi and South African, there’s finally a nice amount of coloured plastic adorning our lawns. Bringing with them the essential supplies to keep us happy, we have a nice amount of Iron Bru and Cadburys chocolate to last us the next week or so!
The Dam!! Not all bad news – you decide…
Well, there may be nothing we can do to stop the dam being built. But it may not all be bad news. To understand this you need to know that even with the current dam there are a number of international treaties regulating the amount of water that can be released. Obviously Egypt and the Sudan would be pretty screwed if the Ugandan authorities decided to turn off the water, and as such there is a minimum requirement they have to release. Next you need to know a little about how they propose to build the new dam. While they actually complete the main parts of construction they are going to turn the water down low. So logically, in order to maintain the overall status quo of the river, BEFORE and AFTER the main construction process they’re going to pump a load more water than normal down the river.
It’s obviously more complicated than this – and we are also going to have to be careful during the construction process and aware of certain man-made hazards. However it does look likely that we are going to experience the Nile - for a short time at least – how it used to be… High! This means among other things that we can look forward to Malalu, 50-50, Surf City and Back-Wave working again. Sweet!!
It’s still not fully clear on the entire timetable of work – they still need to improve the roads before major work can begin, and all the 600 new families expected to arrive in Jinja during construction are not yet here. But I’ll keep you posted as I hear more.
Well it’s a big party tonight in celebration of Aliya finally leaving the Black Lantern. The only theme being drink till you drop. Yesterday I broke my paddles at the bottom of Escape Hatch, which pissed me off, as I didn’t even hit a rock. I also got my haircut, and now have short hair!! The first time for six years! So life’s still ticking by over here, and it’s pretty nice to still have the river to ourselves. But it’s going to get busy soon, and everybody’s resting up in anticipation of the busiest summer yet!!
Peace.
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