About

Wildwaters Lodge – Background

In 1996, Cam McLeay (co-founder of Adrift) led a team of adventurers on the first-ever descent of the Nile in Uganda.  Cam and his team were so impressed by the Nile that they immediately made plans to introduce commercial rafting to Uganda.  Within a month, Adrift had started offering one-day rafting trips on the Victorian source of the Nile near Jinja.  Since then, the Nile rapids have become legendary amongst rafting enthusiasts the world over and whitewater rafting has become the single most popular tourist activity in the country.

Cam McLeay and the Adrift team were already running rafting operations in five other countries around the world.  They were very impressed by the Nile.  Not only were the rapids world-class, the water and air temperatures perfect, the local populations extremely welcoming but the flora and fauna was magnificent.  Extravagantly forested islands stood sentinel at the entrance to each of the major rapids and most of the journey was down a corridor of magnificent rainforest.  Tens of thousands of birds lived in this riverine paradise, river otters swam playfully between the islands and giant monitor lizards basked in the sun on the banks of the river.

Sadly, a large part of the rainforest has disappeared, and on the riverine forest along the banks has been almost entirely destroyed.  De-forestation on the mid-stream islands has also become widespread and Cam saw the construction of Wildwaters Lodge and the creation of the Wildwaters Reserve as a way for protecting these islands and for simultaneously ensuring that the adjacent communities had a long-term source of revenue from them.

Cam McLeay became even more passionate about the project following his 2005/2006 Ascend the Nile expedition.  With co-leader Neil McGrigor and long-time friend Garth MacIntyre, Cam made the first-ever ascent of the Nile from the Mediterranean Sea in Egypt to the Mac Source in Rwanda.  On this incredible journey, Cam and his team-mates could see that very little of the Nile valley remained virgin.  Thousands of years of human occupation had destroyed the habitat, forced many species into local extinction and threatened the future of the entire Nile valley.  He was committed to preserving what sections of the Nile he could in their natural state.

Wildwaters Lodge – Design and Construction

Wildwaters Lodge has been designed by brothers Cam and Brad McLeay.  From their upbringing on a farm in rural New Zealand they have developed and evolved organic tastes in construction that have ensured the lodge nestles gently into it’s riverine environment.  Locally available materials have been used wherever possible and only indigenous species of plant are tolerated on the islands.
Even the exquisite wash basins in each room are carved from the pink granite that is available locally on the island.  Trees felled illegally before they came to the island, were often to hard for the local community to use so these weathered logs prop up the counter in the bar area.  Eucalyptus poles grown nearby were ferried across by boat to the island to support raised wooden walkways which traverse the island.  These walkways not only protect the delicate under growth but also allow the local residents on the island to move freely along the ground as they always have done.

Cam seriously under-estimated the logistics involved in building on an island.  Brad McLeay is doing a phenomenal job managing the remote project and ensuring that guests (who already arrive informally) including Joanna Lumley are well looked after.