We needed time to get all the preparations ready for an attempt of the Murchison Falls Section of the Victoria Nile which is an 80k section flowing through the heart of Murchison Falls National Park. This involved getting permits, permission, equipment, transportation, and other things. This river has been done 5 times with four of five being assisted by rafts. The first descent was in the 90's. The last descent, by Hendri Coetzee in 2007, was the first self-supported descent of the river. Additionally, he did it by himself.
Appearently, a group of Germans attempted the river around the end of 2007 but only made it 10 or so miles down the river before bailing and had to call the German Embassy to get them out. A ranger at Murchison Falls told us one of their boats was bitten by a croc but we weren't sure of the validity of this - although it is very believable. If someone could clarify this we would appreciate it.
The section itself is through complete wilderness, where humans generally do not belong; where we are a few notches down the food chain. This section of river is home to the highest concentration of hippos in the world. An estimated 20,000 in the 80k stretch. Our group, Rush Sturges, Tyler Bradt, Lane Jacobs and Anton Immler (SWE), saw a guestimate of about 4,000 hippos in the three days. They are in maybe 90 percent of the eddies and at times we were forced to run semi-blind horizon lines because the eddy above the drop would have a pod of hippos in it. Other times, we were forced into channels by process of channel elimination because of hippos. We were constantly tapping our boats trying to alert the hippos of our presence. The hippos would rise and look around at us and generally would keep their distance. Only a few times, when we had to eddy out and scout a rapid, would they approach us. They are appearently responsible for more deaths than any other animal in Africa but had a very different attitude towards us than the crocodiles.
In comparison to the crocodiles, the hippos are tame. The crocodiles are extremley aggressive and territorial. We saw 13 crocodiles and 5 of them chased us. The longest chase was almost two minutes and our arms were going lactic because of sprinting. It is terrifying because crocs can swim maybe almost twice as fast as we can sprint. Luckily, in every chase, we were able to get to a horizon line and enter a rapid at which point the crocs didnt want to follow. In the chases we were constantly looking back at the croc and at the horizon line and seeing which one we would meet first. Every time we would come to a point in the river in which we couldn't see a horizon line we were dreading paddling across it. The safest spots in the river are the rapids.
The fourth chase, was on the second day and the crocodile was maybe about 18 feet long. The scene of this chase is forever ingrained into all of our minds. We were paddling along and came up on a grassy beach by the river with impalas, baboons and warthogs all together on the beach. It was so peaceful and serene. We we looking at it in awe and next thing we know, Lane sees this massive croc swimming very aggressively towards us at a distance of maybe 50 meters and yells to inform the rest of the group. By the time we go to the lip of the horizon he was less than 10 meters away.
In addition to the wildlife the river-right side, the Gulu district, is the frontier for the Lord's Resistance Army although they are in failing peace talks with the Ugandan government for the last two years. The situation is much better than it was when Tylerwas on the third descent in 2005. At the putin bridge then, there were about 50 soldiers. This time there were only five. This rebel army operates in the border areas between Uganda, Sudan, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo. While we were driving to the putin I picked up an East African Newspaper and read that 300 people had been abducted from the Central African Republic a week earlier and were forced into military training. It seems Joseph Kony, the rebel army's leader, is not serious about peace talks. Appearently, he hasnt even had his negotiator show up to peace talks in the beginning of April 2008.
The river itself is high quality Class V, some class VI, big water and pretty continuous the whole way. We had a few portages and a few scouts. It wasn't really possible to take many photos of the rapids because in the event of a swim, which did actually happen on the third day, you would want everyone around to help rescue and fend of wildlife. The river banks were covered in jungle and it was so wide that it wasnt really possible to document the vast majority of the rapids. Here are some photos of our trip. Unfortunatley, I was not able to get as many whitewater shots as I wanted but there are a few. Enjoy.
Soldiers at the putin bridge curiously watching what Tyler is packing.
Tyler in the runout of the first rapid, directly under the bridge.
Lunch, Day 1, shortly after the first croc chase.
Camp on the first night. We heard hippos throughout the night.
One of the many hippo trails going into the bush and down to the river which are everywhere on the river. We used these to scout, portage, and camp.
Scouting a channel from above on the left side above the major rapid/portage, "Go Right". It looked like a clean shot through a green window but ended up being a HUGE 13 foot green face. We didnt think anyone had run this channel yet but maybe???
This is us scouting a channel on the river left side. Classic Africa bush full of all the scary beasts. 
Panorama of Rush at "Go Left", right before Lane came within 3 feet of a croc trying to scout. 
The entrance to "Go Left"
Tyler and Anton working out our line down "Go Left".
This is why you go left at "Go Left". Hard to get a size perspective from this photo but this crashing wave is about 20 feet high or so and goes straight into a pool full of hippos and undoubtedly crocs.
The view from camp two which is of the rapid "Vidiot". This was one of the bigger rapids we ran and was about one kilometer long.
Rush scouting the "Matrix". We had do do some hippo dodging to get into the eddy to scout.
One of the hippos, rising and blowing mist, we had to dodge to scout the matrix. These guys were not happy and wanted us outta there.
Panorama of the "Matrix". The big eddy on the right - same as photo above - was the one with pod of hippos.
Tyler checking out some elephants on day three. The momma was washing the baby in the river with the other one eating leaves out of the trees.
Same elephants but view is from lane's boat.
Tyler in a random rapid on day three.
First part of the very impressive Murchison Falls.
The team stoked to be at Murchison Falls after three long days.
