Josh Melcher – Operations Manager

‘I am not sure I can get up there?’ Josh called from below.  ‘Lets try without your pack’ I had returned.  We had just spent two nights high on Mt. Kaddam in Southern Karamoja looking for a route to the summit.  We were due to lead a commercial trip to the summit for ‘Focus Humanitarian Aid’ over New Year and the only local guides who knew their way to the summit were now too advanced in the years to climb themselves.   Dozens of ‘Kaddama’ climb the mountain every day to harvest ‘mirrar’ (a leaf widely chewed fresh throughout the East Africa trucking community for it’s stimulants).  However, the challenge for us was that the mirrar forests grow only about 1/3 of the way up the mountain and all of our ‘guides’ had never been further than this.  It was very unclear to us when we employed Dominic a few days before that he did not know his way to the summit.  We had been oblivious to a simple rule that later became more obvious, to get most sense for a mirrar harvester, it is best you talk to him early in the day before he starts chewing the drug.

The ‘mzee’ (respected elder) had sketched out a route in the sand, he had explained the route in the local language and it was clear from Dominic’s gestures that he understood.  However, two days later Dominic was looking tired, scared and increasingly unsure of himself.  ‘You will get blown off…the lightening will strike you….there are things up there that are not good’ and so went on a string of verbal warnings against our reaching the summit of the mountain.  We continued on……read more about our journey on the ‘Mountain of Mirrar’ next month as we attempt to summit despite the warnings of our guides and the chorus of calls from the Colobus monkey populations.

Josh is back for his third visit to Uganda and despite the recent challenges of ascents on Mt. Elgon (4310m) and Mt. Kaddam (3068m) the river operations are running smoother than ever.  Over our 13-years of operation in Uganda, we have built the capacity of our Ugandan crew and most of our river guides and ALL of our safety kayakers are now Ugandan.  They have seen dozens of visiting international guides over the years but there are few who demand more respect that Josh.  He understands our crew well, works with them smoothly and is able to deal with the team easily on a day-to-day basis.  Welcome back Josh.

Despite his great company in the mountains, Josh is most at home on the river.  He doesn’t like wearing much more than a pair of board shorts, a lifejacket and some sunscreen and this is not the ideal clothing for the mountains.  Josh particularly enjoyed his share of the drinking chocolate (in fact probably our share as well) but was disappointed at the lack of Heinz ketchup on the trips.  He can be sure that the Riverbase and on all the two day trips he runs, there is more than enough Heinz to accompany all of his meals.  You can be sure that the safety and quality of the Adrift rafting trips on the river are as good or perhaps even better than they ever have been.

Tagged as: Josh, Josh Melcher, Rafting