Trekking, Kayaking Expedition ‘Northern Trek’ - Uganda, July / Sept 2003
Tayforth Universities Officers’ Training Corps
During Summer 2003, 48 officer cadets from Tayforth UOTC made a kayaking and trekking trip to Uganda in East Africa. They also participated in a project task, which would see the completion of 9 water catchment systems, 3 wells and 7 kms of road, now affectionately known as Tayforth Road. The cadets were sent in 3 groups with 8 male and 8 female cadets in each group. They were based at the aptly named "Kisozi Hilton" camp on the White Nile about an hour north of the second largest city in Uganda, Jinja.
 Kayaking white water in the ‘Mighty White Nile’ |
The adventure training side of the trip was to test everyone’s nerve, especially when it came to the White Nile kayaking, undertaken in groups of four. Cadets spent 2 nights on an island in the river and on the final day paddled 16 km downstream back to base camp. Instruction was given for this journey on the first two days; however, some were initially not entirely confident that this was sufficient preparation for the grade 3 rapids on the mighty river! However, all made it through, sometimes with or without their kayak at certain points. |
 Trek around the source of the White Nile |
A 50 mile trek was attempted in the Ugandan heat in groups of 8 over 4 days. This proved a challenge of both endurance and map reading skills. Each night was spent at a different campsite, 2 of which were at scenic spots on the banks of the Nile and 1 night in the grounds of a primary school amongst hordes of children. However, everyone enjoyed the journey through the country, which Churchill described as the "Pearl of Africa," – and especially when helped by friendly and welcoming Ugandan people, some of whom escorted the groups for large stretches of the trek. Special highlights included the crossing of the dam at the source of the Nile which provides power for countries across East Africa, as well as Uganda itself, and seeing some of the bigger rapids of the Nile such as the ‘Dead Dutchman’ (named after a man who attempted to go down the Nile from source to sea in a giant inflatable swimming pool and failed). |
 Second group |
For the projects, the cadets worked in communities where clean water was badly needed. The cadets were able to work in conjunction with Ugandan technicians from the BUSOGA Trust, a British funded charity, and eager members of the communities who were to benefit from the use of the wells and catchment tanks. This stretched diplomatic and management skills, but the cadets enjoyed the challenge with language barriers and initial apprehensions soon overcome by learning some of the local vernacular or by teaching the mass of children at the project sites the theme to the "Great Escape". Practical skills were also learnt with plastering and brick laying becoming not quite second nature. |
The group donated five used PCs to the local Namasagali University following which a number of cadets were invited to attend a Graduation ceremony. Subsequently, students from the university visited our base camp to meet cadets and find out about student life in the UK. Six other computers were donated to a number of secondary schools in the area, and a number of cadets helped with the installation in classrooms and showed the school children school how the computers worked.
The Mobile News Team also was to visit one of the groups for a week. This was to produce a series of exciting news articles to be shown on Grampian television, seen in the unit’s recruiting area.
The 3 groups all had highly successful trips and liked the communities they got to know and worked with. Everyone benefited and learned a lot from the experiences in the heart of Africa, many hoping to return in the future.
2Lt Freddie Macnair