Bivane River Trip

"Embrace Chaos!".



Getting 100 people down a steepish 10 cumec river sounds like a bad idea, doesn't it? Well, despite it being a little chaotic, and Hugh failing to give the Bivane @ 10cumecs "real river" status, the trip was good times (best times even). The river itself was really cool, with awesome scenery and some nice drops that were high on fun and low on risk (read: perfect for our sometimes limited kayaking/croccing abilities). Speaking for myself I certainly learnt a lot more about kayaking than I have on any other trip, made easier by the fact that there were so many good paddlers with us. I think Neil and James (the other kayakers), would say the same. Megan and Chevonne had a "good" introduction to croccing on a bony river - nothing like being thrown in the deep end... While Bryden, Laura and Justin learnt just what "paddling the lunch down" really means. Have a look at the photo's to see just how much stuff you can fit in a croc.



This annual trip is basically organised by the vryheid canoe club and the local water affairs people. There's a dam release, and everyone goes off in "slots" on Saturday morning. Most of the chaos is caused when groups catch up to each other, with millions of boats all over the place. In just our group, there were 16 kayakers (about half of whom were relatively inexperienced) 4.5 crocs with friends and family of water affairs people (read: inexperienced), 4 crocs paddling "the lunch" down, with Crabs-and-Cheese teaming up in the grey croc. "Beginners Rafting on Steroids" is what Neil called it.



The river was still fairly bony at 10 cumecs, so the crocs got stuck a lot, but we all ran all the drops (although Hugh didn't always like our line) which was pretty cool. The only really unpleasant part of the whole trip was a particularly bony rapid, where it was almost impossible to get a croc down, nevermind a very heavy croc.

Anyway, pictures tell a thousand words - so look at the pictures, and for more information on the river and the trip in general check out the article in the next newsletter and the river information on the wiki.

Thanks to Chevonne for organising the trip, Hugh and Craig from Whitewater Training for letting us paddle the lunch down, Bruce and Kevin from Xtreme Equipment for making everybody laugh... and oh Water Affairs I guess...