How to die in 20 seconds or less
a.k.a. A Near Miss on the Nile
Deep breath.
I was suddenly under water with bodies coming down on top of me. I am not sure how I managed to stay calm in all the chaos, but it was crucial to surviving.
There were five of us in the same boat; a raft to be more precise. We had been thrown into the raging rapids a few times already courtesy of Nile River Explorers, a white-water rafting outfitter based in Jinja, Uganda.
It was a lot of fun, but this wipe out was different.
I was stuck below the churning water wondering which way was up. I felt more waves crashing over me as my leg made contact with a boulder. My knee, shin, foot and toes dragged across the jagged surface.
I wanted to utter a few choice expletives, but I felt somewhat confident that nothing was broken. Then something — perhaps the raft, a person or a boulder — struck my head. My neck cracked.
“Damn,” I thought. “Back to the chiropractor if I’m not paralyzed.”
I was bashed again, and perhaps again after that. I wasn’t quite sure any more.
I opened my eyes in the murky yellow water, which looked like I was inside a glass of Mountain Dew soda. The direction of fizzy bubbles told me everything I needed to know in that instant. I broke the surface.
Deep breath.
Oops, I swallowed some river water on that one, but I had made it, albeit battered, bruised and bloodied. But NOT broken.
I can’t say the same for my helmet.
EPILOGUE: After watching the video, the whole incident took about 10 seconds, but it felt like forever. An x-ray at home confirmed nothing is broken, but the tendon in my pinky toe snapped and got infected. The doctor isn’t sure it will heal properly, but it’s in a splint just in case!
