Meet Our Guides
One of our greatest assets is our highly experienced and fun loving guides - true professionals, who know every bend in the river. Their knowledge of the Nile and enthusiastic attitude will keep you smiling and laughing all day.
Nile River Explorers concentrates on making it all work with the industry's best guides and employs more year round professionals than any other adventure company in Africa. Most have more than a decade on the Nile, and have the experience, local knowledge and character to take you on an unforgettable ride. The river will leave you astounded but it is the guides you will remember.
All our guides have valid First Aid Certification, as well as IRF approved Rafting and Swiftwater Rescue certification. All Trip Leaders are required to have a minimum of 5 years experience on a variety of river conditions in several countries.
We always hire experienced foreign guides to help out in the busy times, as we believe that this provides a much-needed injection of experience and up-to-date knowledge into the crew.
 Juma grew up in Jinja, and is one of our most accomplished river guides, kayakers and a trip leader. Locally he is better known as “Via- Man”, winner of the Eastern Uganda Artist of the year award in 2008 for his Afro Beat hits. He has been working on rivers for eleven years, starting out as a kayaker.
He has represented Uganda in the world kayaking championships in Australia, and has guided rafts on the Zambezi, and in South Africa, France and Scotland. His infectious humour, and cool competence make him a favourite, and if you are lucky he might break out in song as you float through the pools. |
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 Alex (they call him Kikere, the Frog) is a huge presence on a river trip, and his lanky frame, large smile and wild backflips make him easy to recognize. He has been working on the Nile for 12 years, and has delighted many customers with his entertaining patter and athletic ability.
As well as being one of our most experienced guides, he is also our Raft Maintenance Manager, and can be found between trips making sure our equipment is kept in top shape. |
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 Henry is our most experienced river guide, having started out with NRE when we began running trips in 1996. He has a wonderfully calm presence, and a quiet humour which shows itself as you drift down the river.
His knowledge of local history and wildlife is enthralling (we call him Local), and he is skilled at driving any craft down the river – whether raft, kayak, river-board or tandem kayak. |
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 Paulo started kayaking and guiding 12 years ago, and is another of our reliable stalwarts. He was just sixteen when he started working with tourists, young enough to believe that he should not touch the sunscreen in case it would turn him Mzungu (white). Known as Mbati (Duck) for his ease on water, he has the biggest store of jokes of any of our guides, and chases the hugest waves on the river.
He is Uganda’s top freestyle kayaker, and has represented Uganda at two world championship events, the most recent being in Switzerland in 2009. He has also traveled widely, taking part in a first descent of the Kagera River in Rwanda, and paddling in France and South Africa. |
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 They call him Little Peter as he looks about 15, but don’t be fooled, he is an extremely able guide, with 10 years of experience on the Nile. He will baffle you with his zany sense of humour and silly voices, but is adept at finding the sweet spots in the rapids. He is also our head tandem-kayaker, and is somehow able to roll that loaded kayak in any situation. |
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 Our Zambezi Stallion is a big bluff guide and trip-leader with 21 years of experience guiding rivers. He worked for many years on the Zambezi, and has guided regularly on the rocky, cold rivers of Colorado in the USA, and also in South Africa.
He is a solid presence in the back of your raft and his rumbling laugh as he bellows out “ Incredible!”, will remain in your ears long after the water has dried. One of his favourite stories is of pulling someone back into the boat stark naked after they left their shorts in the depths of the river. He is an accomplished linguist, speaking Spanish and English and knowing several African languages. |
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 Henry has also been kayaking for us for 5 years and guiding rafts for the past two years. He started out as a volunteer for a local charity before he followed the lure of the whitewater. His engaging smile and capable guiding will help you have the best day. |
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 Nathan has been working for us for four years and guiding for the last two, and has been lucky enough to get a job guiding in Canada for the last two summers, which has been great for his skills. He is a natural in the water, and has an outgoing personality which will entertain you during your day on the river. |
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 Another veteran from the Zambezi, Zimbabwean Doug has been guiding on rivers for 15 years. He started off in Zim and Zambia and has also spent time on the cold rivers of Austria, staying long enough to become a snowboarding instructor in the winter. He is now based in Jinja, working on the Nile and in the quiet season running his adventure film company, filming expeditions, hunting trips and sports across East Africa. |
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Our safety crew is an essential part of the safe and smooth running of each trip. Chief amongst them is the oarsman on the safety boat, a slightly larger oarboat which carries safety equipment, first aid and lunch. His/her job is to oversee safety below each rapid from a stable position high in an eddy. From this lofty position he can spot an errant swimmer and direct the speedy team of safety kayakers, while being a great stable platform for picking up those swimmers. He aims to stay upright all day (never 100% guaranteed of course!) and the oar boat is a great place to ride if you want to experience the thrill of the Nile without the spills.
We have a lively, cheerful and loyal crew of extremely athletic safety kayakers, who spot swimmers before they are even aware of being in the water, and will snatch them out of the maelstrom. This is the entry-level position for our Ugandan crew. Once someone has proved to have good basic kayaking skills, we may take them onto our trainee team, where they learn about safety from the ground up. As skills and knowledge improve, they may begin to train in other skills, like rowing or tandem kayaking. Those with the best English and most sociable personalities may finally end up as guides, which is an aspiration for all.
You may meet a chatty guy while hanging on the end of his kayak one year, and come back to find him guiding your raft on the following visit. This is a highly sought after job, being fun and well-paid. The loudest noise you will hear as you travel down the river is the constant laughter from the sociable crew as they sing and joke their way through the day, while doing an extremely efficient job. We have some lovely unique characters, like Tony who sings all day and Kabos whose wackiness and huge smile will be what you remember if he has carried you to safety.
As with our guides, all safety crew have to have current First Aid certificates, and are required to attend regular Swiftwater Rescue courses. We also have regular in house training sessions, practicing our skills in on-river scenarios. |
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