For the past month I’ve been in Uganda running Kayak the Nile which has been amazing. I’ll add another post soon with photos and video from my time here so far, but for now I wanted to share this information about the timing of the Silverback closure due to the construction of the dam.
The official date of closure of the Silverback channel to river craft is now set as Feb 28th – less than a month away. Below is the response from Nile River Explorers Rafting.
For kayakers, the effect of this closure is initially not as dramatic. Kayaks will still be able to paddle the rapids prior to Silverback and portage Silverback to continue down the Day 1 section. Only when the dam is actually put in place will we start to lose the rapids upstream of Silverback as the water backs up – it is estimated this is around 12 months away yet.
That said, I’m taking every chance I can to paddle all of those rapids before they are gone forever!
If you are thinking of coming out to Uganda, my advice is do it! Even if you can’t make it until the dam is in place, there is still a great range of rapids and playspots below the dam and the promise of higher flows will make it a lot of fun all round.
Time to get back on the water. Happy paddling all.
