Ugandan Wildlife and Paddling Update!

By Stephen Wright

It’s been more than a month in Uganda and I’m still loving it here!
There’s just nowhere else on earth with this kind of wildlife, climate, and
paddling opportunities. Every day we wake-up on the Hairy Lemon island to
70+ degree sunny weather, eat fresh pineapple, bananas, watermelons, eggs,
beans, and chapates. Then we go paddle on lower-water Club Wave, followed
by some serious chilling-out, Ultimate Frisbee, Volleyball, Sudoku Puzzles,
and image/video importing. After lunch, more of the same until 4:00 or so
when we go paddle Nile Special until dark. Then it’s dinner and early sleep
only to wake-up the next day for more of the same.

It’s been great to paddle with Team JK members EJ, Dane, Emily, Ruth
Gordon, Nick Troutman, Joel Kowalski, and our newest Frenchman team paddler
Yoann Amouriq. We’re enjoying shooting for the new JK promo video and
several of us are training for World’s on the Ottawa. Since Joel’s arrival
we’ve been utilizing his waterproof housing for strange and awesome video
angles of Nile Special surfing. There’s nothing quite like the sight of
Joel and Nick with entire video cameras bolted on the top of their
helmets–it’s a level of visual baffoonery that I rarely get to enjoy.
Fortunately the footage is beautiful. Occasionally we take a trip to run
the day2 Section and enjoy a wave at the "Hair of the Dog" rapid called
Mutt’s Nuts.

Enjoy the photos of wildlife and paddling. I’ve been LOVING my new
70-200 F/4L lens–what a great purchase. Monkeys are constantly moving
around the isand, so I spend a little time most mornings stalking them in
hopes to get the elusive photo of one jumping. They regularly leap more
than 20 feet from tree to tree. There’s also a photo of a Monitor Lizzard,
which was at least 4 feet long, and an Emerald Snake that was hanging-out
just above breakfast yesterday morning. The huge birds are some sort of
Ibus, and the dragonflies are abundant in LOTS of bright colors.
I have only a week of paddling left in paradise before returning home to
the DC area for a few weeks. I’ll be teaching a weekend of clinics on the
Potomac on Easter weekend, then up to Canada for World’s. If you’re
interested in the clinics, check-out the registration page:
http://www.whitewaterjourneys.com/ProClinics.htm

This has been an awesome place to be! Look for more updates from Jeremy
Laucks on his sight www.chasingrain.com as well as LOTS more here on
jacksonkayak.com.

Live from the Hairy Lemon,
Stephen Wright