While most of us are still recovering from the Christmas holidays, a few local rafters are still recovering from a wild trip through Africa.

Bob Daffe, who runs the Yukon rafting adventure company Tatshenshini Expediting, joined his son, Kevin Daffe, and friend Scotty Burrell for a two-month kayaking and sight-seeing trip last October. The trio returned home last month all of their bones intact.

'When I was young, I wanted to run away to Africa,' the elder Daffe said in an interview Monday.

'I decided I wasn't getting any younger so I needed to do it soon. Kevin told me he was taking time off school to come along.'

The first stop for the group was Zambia, where they set their kayaks down in the Zambezi River.

'It was a little bit easier than we first thought,' said Daffe. 'But hot. It was about 50 C. I burned the soles of my feet walking on the rocks.

'It was big water, warm water. It was pretty violent sometimes, but people just line up and go. It's a big balls river.'

Daffe and company scouted a route in kayaks known as Rafting Suicide Rapid, and ran it.

Daffe ended up rafting the Zambezi one day. They offered to take a film crew down and rafted Suicide Rapid, which he said got the trio some fame and the reputation of being a little crazy.

But overall, the trio was somewhat disappointed paddling the Zambezi.

'It is not overly technical,' said Daffe. 'Line up on top, roll at the bottom. We did the lower part of the canyon solo, which was fun. On the flat water, you stay in the middle of the river and paddle, and watch out for crocs. '

From the Zambezi, it was on to the White Nile in Uganda, a 4,000-kilometre trip.

'The White Nile was a real surprise,' said Daffe. 'It was harder than the Zambezi. Beautiful, lots of birds and cooler during the night.

'There's lots of life on the river fish jumping, people alongside the river fishing and washing clothes.'

On the first run of the Nile, Burrell popped his shoulder. He returned to camp for some 'man-made' painkillers, and was back out on the river that afternoon.

The next day, once Burrell was feeling better, the group tried to duplicate their Zambezi feat and joined a crew to raft Atunda.

'The hardest rapid I ever saw and one that has never been rafted,' said Daffe in a journal entry.

'In front of a crowd, we portaged through corn fields full of bugs to reach the put-in point. The line is tight and you certainly do not want to miss the entrance.

'Going left would hurt big time. We did make the entrance, but then lost our angle right above a big hole, hit the hole and got thrashed. You will have to see the video to appreciate the size of this rapid. A lot harder than Throne Room. We did come out of there with the same reputation of crazy canucks.'

Of course, Daffe didn't spend every day on the water. The group went on a few safaris, which Daffe described as 'mind-blowing.'

'It's so different from the wilderness in Yukon,' he said. 'Here, we are free, but there, it's very confined. You cannot swim in the rivers because of crocs. You can't go for walks at night. You don't see wildlife outside of the parks.'

Daffe said they got so close to elephants and hippos that they were scared, and they were only five metres from the lions when they were roaring.

The group also had the chance to see gorillas, as they were escorted by gorilla trackers.

'It's a really thick jungle, so it's hard to see where you are going,' he said. 'But it's amazing to see such a gentle giant.'

Daffe said the most memorable part of the trip for him was just Africa itself the continent and the culture.

'You're actually there,' he remarked. 'It's not like seeing it on a TV screen.'

But now, back in the Yukon, Daffe doesn't know if he will return to Africa.

'From a boating perspective, probably not,' he stated. 'Its not the best place for boating.

'For the culture, maybe. There's lots of places I'd like to see. And Africa is a lot safer than we thought.'

Daffe will be leaving the country again in March when he heads to Colorado for a rafting trip. Sixteen people will be taking part in the trip, both on rafts and in kayaks.

When he returns to the Yukon, Daffe will begin preparations for the June season opening of Tatshenshini Expediting.