A weekend trip to Mwanza in Tanzania where I kayaked in Lake Victoria (pictured above) and nearly died. The winds picked up and the kayak flipped, less than a second later the kayak was sinking to the bottom of the lake and I was trying to swim to shore. Crocodiles are common in that part of the lake, but there was no time to think about that as I was choking and trying to stay afloat. I looked to the shore which was about 300 meters away. Fight or flight kicked in and I went into survival mode. I kept telling myself, “you’re a good, swimmer, you’re not going to die here, you’re choking-which means your moving oxygen, which means you’re not drowning, just make it to shore”. I mantra’d myself to shore where there was no friendly sands to welcome me. The coast was lined with large boulders, but luckily I found one that had a crack in it. The crack was the width of my foot. I waited for a wave to push me up the slippery rock and climbed to safety. About 20 min later a boat came around the corner looking for us. We had been gone longer than the hour allotted for the kayak rental. Thankfully someone was keeping time, not a common occurrence in Africa
