Buffalo: Fugitives Drift - Buffelshoek

After the planned trip to the Malibamatso River (in Lesotho) didn't happen due to lack of water, a few of us decided to go paddle anyway. After frantically arranging a lift at the last minute with Adrian and Vroom, we all set off towards a pub in Vryheid (where Robin and Ronnie had been since luchtime...). I was in the back of Vroom's bakkie - and with no window to the cab, was kept company by a six-pack of BL and Adrians photo album. There were murmurings of paddling Buffalo, I thought we were paddling Bivane (which would have been similar to Mali - read: easier than Buffalo). Turns out that all the paddlers that had not pulled out were pretty keen on Buffalo, and where all much better kayakers than me... hmmm. So, a little apprehensive about the paddling a big river the next day, I was keen for an early night. Of course, this meant that we stayed at the pub till midnight (with many rubber arms being twisted) and eventually ended up sleeping in the garden of the waitress that had been serving us...

The next morning we were woken with a tray of coffee (look out for "Natalie's Backpackers", opening soon in Vryheid) and promises of breakfast. We gracefully declined (didn't want to take advantage after all)
and headed off towards the river, with a stop in Dundee for breakfast and pink Gorillas.

The river was steepish, and high volume (100-150 cumecs) - very pushy water. I started to regret overpacking my boat, and was enviously eyeing out Robin's Expedition Solo. The first few rapids provided a nice warm up - were very long but the lines were pretty obvious and there weren't really any retentive holes around. Soon though, we came upon this rapid:

Philip had ended up on the right, and opted to walk around the massive pourover ("because there was no-one there to throwbag him"). Vroom and Adrian ran a less intimidating (but still tricky) line down the left. Another steep, fast drop finished off this rapid (see more photos on my gallery - unfortunately this was the only place I got my camera out). Robin decided early on to walk around this rapid, and rather than fanny about deciding whether to run it or not, I joined him. I put in in a side stream and bumbled down to the bottom of the rapid.



Somwhere along the line (near the beginning) we all dropped into a massive hole while running a seemingly "innoccent" looking (but still massive) wavetrain-type rapid. The wave-hole was about 2-3 metres high and spanned the river, so there was no way around it. It backlooped all of us I think, but luckily wasn't very retentive. Good times.

It's been a while since I paddled with a nose-plug, but the amount of rolling I was doing in this very dirty river made it a neccessity for my dodgy sinuses. As the day wore on I started bonking a little, and the rolls started getting a little sluggish. I hadn't done any real paddling in about 3 months due to a rotator cuff injury, and was feeling the effects of my not-fitness. The river was also testing my read-and-run abilities, with some quick ferries around massive holes and dodgy creases a requirement every now and then.

A serious learning experience, made better by being in the company of some good paddlers.

The next day a few of us pulled soft and paddled the commercial section, declining the offer to paddle the slightly more difficult Rorke's Drift - Fugitive's Drift section. I'm sorry to have missed it - but it's not going anywhere...

Lots more info and photos on Adrian Tregoning's Site.