Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Paddling experience in Kigali, Rwanda By Zack Boles:
Pretty intense! The paddling has been pretty sweet on the Nile! It is incredible to be able to combine amazing boating, with going on safari's and such. Now to be in Rwanda, is a pretty phenominal experience all in itself. It is an amazing landscape here...reminds me alot of costa rica. Some of the world's last mountain gorrillas are within the mountains here, which I thought was cool, and the city is incredible! It's amazing the difference between here and Uganda.
With international support after the genocide, they have licenced boda drivers, streetlights, clean streets, and friendly people. The people are very laid back. I suppose that's also partly due to the extremely horrific times they have endured...a white dude walking around doesn't mean that much to them. I went to a memorial centre yesterday and it was very intense. It was quite shocking, and I learned so much. I have to be honest in saying that I had to leave near the end of the tour because my emotions were getting out of control. I really felt I was going to collapse, which was an intense feeling and hard to explain. I guess that will happen when you're seeing pictures of a genocide that happened on the very streets you are walking, at the sight of a mass grave of over 250 000 victims with open graves.
Anyway it's been a really mind blowing experience, and I am looking forward to getting back to the wave!
And now that I am back in the area, I have been wanting to run this particular log chute for years, but it’s super shallow. I got my new Bliss-Stick Scud on Friday and felt it was the perfect boat for it! Kicked me up, and cleared the rocks no problem. The slide was about 75 feet long, so no room for paddle strokes...just held the paddle up above my head. No room for a boof stroke either really...so it was a bit sketchy going into the less than 3 feet of water at the landing. But 3 successful runs of Crooked Slide Park (Don’t think anyone’s done that yet). It was cool too because my Grandpa was there and he was on the original crew about 50 years ago building the log chute. He had a smile ear to ear…
