Bushmans river

After much organising for Olifants river Dave and I quickly organised a trip to Bushmans due to too much water on the Olifants. The plan was to do a two day stretch with an overnight stop somewhere after estcourt. However this plan went to pot when a slight hum in my engine turned into a blood curdling grind, just outside Warden. We where towed into Warden where I was informed that my gearbox had infact beaten the bullet. The car was fixed at the local garage/scrap yard/petting zoo/fanta bottle repository by a rather suspect looking character. Justin's heart was stolen by a local girl on a four wheeler.
We headed down to Estcourt and stayed a Bruce's (from Xtreme equipment) place. We had a few beers and played French poker, I lost and had to wash the pot.
On Sunday we headed down to the putin and sorted out drive round thanks to Bruce. A low level meant the river was a little boney, Dave can vouch for this after he broke and lost his paddle on a slightly submerged rock. It was a long paddle to the takeout on Weenen road with lots of interesting navigation due to the exposed boulder gardens.

Despite the mishaps it was a killer trip, thanks to everyone who came along. This trip was a classic case of if you want to do it sometimes you just have to make it happen.

Parys town hole

The Vaal was at about 320cumecs, a sweet level for the town hole. Dave and I headed down at sparrows doing the normal stop Bacon and egg and coffee at wimpy. Unfortunately the tree on river right was still in play, hence removing the right side of the hole from play, unless you fancied an express trip through a willow.
None the less the main wave was steep and fast, a little bit flushy but correct positioning meant you could spin to your hearts content. The wave also had decent blunt potential. I threw down a few kind-of-blunts.

After lunch we marvelled at the SWR course unfolding infront of us, well it was interesting. We saw Piers from ESSA giving a kayak lesson.
Good times all round and now I'm stiff.

Check out the video I made Here

National Rafting Series #1

A really fun event, even though there were only 5 teams (or maybe because there were only 5 teams...). Explorers had a men's team (the only team there with 6 men) and a ladies team participating on a fairly full Bushmans river. The rapids were nothing difficult, adding to the chilled nature of the event, but still fun. Slalom and sprint were held on the first (very cold and windy) day, with a 20 min downriver on the Sunday - all in all a good time... Gwen graciously put us up for the weekend in Ladysmith, which saved us from being cold and wet at the campsite - thanks Gwen.

Beginners rafting

The 2006 beginners rafting was held on the Orange river, doing the section between hopetown and Slypstein. 25 people, 2rafts, 3 crocs, 3kayaks, a host of gear and people's personal kit was loaded into 6 cars headed for hopetown. This year a lower putin was used to cut out much of the flat water on the first day. This was fortune as little sleep was had the night before due to a massive rain storm that hit the normal overnight spot. Everyone scramble for cars and toilets, while Daav, Justin (Um-palanga) and myself sat it out in our assortment of rain gear. I see few read my warning about checking the weather report before leaving.

The paddle was pleasent with no spills on the first noteable rapid "Hubbly-bubbly". We chose to get off the river early and get some much needed shut eye, food and OBS. Mark headed off up the mountain with a harem of girls for sundowners, various couples headed off to bush while a shelter was constructed and supper was prepared (I suppose the couples would have had each other if it rained). Nick however did a super job covering the most important aspect of a river meal, lots!
Sunday morning saw the running of "Hells-gate", which all went to plan.

The rest of the paddle section comprised of smallish wave trains and a few flats. We came across a "Lobatse Hinged Tortoise" swimming across the river, on one of the longer flat sections.
The drive home was marred by a rather interesting sections of road, which resembled a road in Mozambique after a flood, where "crabs" punctured and a tire-swap procedure was needed.
At the end a great well organised (thanks Al) trip was had by all.