Diary of Nile river adventure

A team of white water rafters and explorers are travelling the length of the Nile, from Uganda to the Mediterranean - the first such attempt in more than 30 years.

With the help of aid organisation Care International they will learn about the challenges facing people living along the river and what can be done to improve their lives.

The core team set off on their five-month adventure from Lake Victoria on 17 January, covering the first 300 kilometres (186 miles) in just under three weeks.

They met people displaced by civil war in northern Uganda, endured leeches, and visited a Care-backed project in a fishing village.

Natalie McComb, a ground crew member of the 'Settle the Nile' expedition, charts their progress in an occasional diary.

5th February: North-west Uganda

We arrived at Red Chilli Rest camp in Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda's largest and most spectacular national park in the north-west of the country.

The team take time out after a safe arrival

We completed the major Karuma to Murchison Falls section in a record time of 4.5 days!

There has been an abundance of hippos, crocodiles, army, rapids, good times and great laughs.

From here on we are moving into somewhat uncharted territory.

31 January: Farewell Karuma

We are up at dawn. The safety raft is taken to the bridge and the paddle raft is taken down the hill to the base of Karuma Falls. We load the cruiser and drive to the bridge to watch the rafters.

Once on the bridge we are joined by about 200 local villagers. The excitement is tangible and even the traffic is stopped in either direction.

Stage 1: Route through Uganda

We realise the safety boat may need an extra life jacket so I race off through the thick jungle to get one.

Even though I move about 300 metres up the edge of the river, the noise of the water is so loud and the vegetation so thick I cannot see the boat.

I spy a brown snake lying in the track but no time to stop, so I leap over it and on!

After giving them the life jacket I race back to the bridge. Just in time as well - the paddle boat came over the first lead-in rapid and shot under the bridge extremely quickly.

The men hit the first wave and miss the hole, but the force of the impact makes Dave and Hendri flip out of the boat.

There are army guards on the bridge.

They manage to hang on but they have lost power on the right side of the boat. They smash into the second wave, nearly make it over the top but the river drags them back down and the boat flips!

The crowd give a collective scream, and cries of "they are lost" and "they have failed" erupt from the terrified villagers!

However, the safety boat is there and everyone is rescued, the raft turned upright and they are gone, off down the river.

Bingo, Nat, Maddy, Kerry, Ian Clarke and Amber go back into Karuma town. We sat down for a lunch of matooke (hot mashed plantain) and stewed beef, and lots of water to wash it down with.

Elusive campsite

We then head over the bridge and find the turn off to Chobe Lodge to set up camp. Chobe is a derelict hotel that used to be a very posh place back in the 60s to 80s.

Holding tight - the rafters face some tough rapids

We got onto the track only to find after about 50 metres it completely disappeared. We had to go back to Karuma to get two Uganda Wildlife Authority guides to come with us.

They soon found the overgrown track. We drove through elephant grass up to 12 feet high, cross-country, around fallen trees.

At times, we had to get out the pangas (machetes) and hack our way through. It took us about three hours to go 14 kilometres.

Twice we stopped and lit fires to burn the grass - on the rangers' authority. This time of year is extremely dry and it is customary to burn the bush back.

We were stunned by the beauty of Chobe. It is completely derelict now, so we parked in what must have been the old lounge and set up camp on the verandah overlooking the river.

We hear shouts from below and the rafters arrive - totally excited at having run something like 16 rapids.

We tried to raise the raft crew on the walkie-talkies but no luck, so us girls decided to explore the lodge.

In the corridor, we noticed knee-deep, black, very fine silt, like dirt, piled up. Bat guano!

We climbed three storeys and in all the old rooms find scribbles on the wall from the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels and from President Museveni's National Resistance Army.

Some of the messages are poignant, others pornographic, some smeared with what appears to be faecal matter.

We find a ladder leading to the roof. The view is superb and there are flocks of bee-eaters in all the treetops.

We can see right up the river and the old bougainvillea and jacaranda add splashes of pink and purple colour everywhere. The lodge was apparently last in use in 1985 and is now very overgrown state

We hear shouts from below and the rafters arrive - totally excited at having run something like 16 rapids.

The team fix a tear in the raft

They were delayed by a tear in the floor of one of the rafts, caused by rocks, and had to wait a couple of hours while the glue dried before they could get to Chobe.

We have a team meeting that night and decide the rafters will continue with no support from us ground crew.

The bush is simply too thick and hard for us to go and meet them at our next planned stop.

We pack more food for the crew and then get them set up for a few really wild and remote days on the river.

And so the journey continues.

30 January: Nervously waiting

We get up around 7AM and make a breakfast of scrambled eggs and fresh bread. Time for a bath so we make our way down a steep bank to the river.

Women are washing their clothes and men are fishing. We strip off and jump straight in, after making sure there are no crocs or hippos around.

Soon we are surrounded by naked, squealing children, all trying to get their pictures taken, which we do.

We decide we are bringing a unique form of live entertainment to the bush

Around lunchtime we are joined by friends, and a journalist who will travel with us for a while.

They all head to Karuma Bridge to have a look at the massive rapid that is running underneath it. Two buses at some time crashed over the edge and have been left there.

The rapid is huge - and the water runs extremely fast and high under the bridge. The water makes a huge standing wave with a dangerous hole, leaps out of there and straight into another huge wave and hole.

The boys spend a lot of time deciding which line to run.

There are army guards on the bridge. This is the northbound crossing point and there have been troubles on the road to the north and Gulu town.

Gulu is a hotbed of military activity and the main frontier town to the war in the north.

We are glad to hear that all has been quiet there recently.

However, we are not particularly concerned about the LRA rebels at this time.

I notice the crew is particularly nervous about the run the next morning. Fair enough! I will watch from the bridge.

29 January: Above Karuma Falls

At the camp above Karuma Falls we repacked, cleaned kit and shooed away curious onlookers.

We decide we are bringing a unique form of live entertainment to the bush!

Baking bread, cooking and enjoying luke warm Nile Special Lager sets the mood for the day.