Wenches Trip (26-29/30 April)

Finally, after 6 years of threatening to organize one, I did... 12 years after the last wenches paddling trip. So off we went to the Orange River, looking for good times, not so much the hectic river and massifff rapids.

Pre-river
We left jhb around 17h30 in good spirits after fighting off all the boys who wanted to come along on the trip. The dinner stop in Potch saw much shinanigans as we relieved our youth on jumping castles and jungle gyms. This is also where serious injury #1 occurred... Chevonne grazed her elbow. A few hours, and much loudly-sung Bryan Adams, we found the campsite near the Groot Gat in Kimberley, at around 1am.

Day 1
We got on the river pretty late because we faffed about a bit and had to treat serious injury #2 belonging to Nikki who stabbed herself while pumping the boat. Drive round was assisted by the owner of the Caltex Garage by the put in (where we normally sleep on Beginners).

Turns out I should have checked the weather report, because a cold front arrived just in time for our paddle. We paddled into the worst headwind you could possibly imagine and I'm not joking when I say that the waves were in fact breaking in the faces of the front paddlers. When we stopped to rest we had to get out the boat and hold it else we would float upstream and undo in seconds what had taken plenty of minutes to accomplish. At one stage it was better to have someone pulling the boat from the front was more productive than having a lazy captain... so we did that for a while, until I thought it would be fun to get my foot stuck in rocks and bruise and swell up... serious injury #3.

We stopped for lunch and Lis became proud owner of serious injury #4 when she tried to slice off her finger to put on her sandwich. We pushed on down to the old wagon bridge, and there was some fairly festive rapids just above there. Ok, mostly rapiiiiids, but one just before the bridge which was good times. At 4.30 we'd decided we'd had enough of the wind and made camp on the left bank. Crabs and Nikki made a much welcome fire and we all huddled round and then the most delicious food evooor was made (think by crabs again) with potatoes, creamed corn, and sausages. Then we spooned and tried to sleep...


Day 2
Woke up with frost everywhere... I was so cold I couldn't even sleep, so got up and made fire and thawed a little. Thanks to the cold we took our time in getting going while we waited for the sun. The wind had died down a little and we made good time getting to Hell's Gate, which we decided to run, but probably wasn't the best idea in the world.



Lunch was tuna mayo, which I discovered (as a non-tuna-eater) can be made to taste awesome with plenty of black pepper. We paddled the rest of thunder alley without too much excitement, save a girly scream upon being splashed by one of our seeming hardcore team members... no names mentioned.

We set up camp at Slypsteen (where we normally take out for beginners) and someone made comment about the strange water mark about 1m from the water level, so we pulled it above there just in case. Then we made fire, food and warm obs and the evening went a little pearshaped for some of our members... Crabs had a tc, Nikki got a burning log thrown on her lap and there was much singing and shinanigans.

Day 3
This is where it all went pearshaped... We found the quickest cure for a hangover is to lose a boat! We woke up, started the fire, then someone went to the boat for a crogan paddle... there was no boat!!! The water had risen 2,5m and carried it, and all the safety equipment off into the night. We found out later that this rise is caused by plenty of irrigation during the day being switched off at night and plus lots of upstream rain.

After long silent minutes, we split off into 2 groups... Lisa, Chevonne & I went looking for the boat and Sarah & Nikki walked out to fetch the car. I made no good plan for if we found the boat. We took food, maps, medical kit, the cellphone and warm gear to look for the boat. We found it about 5km downstream still with all its gear inside... God bless the flatness that is the Orange. To say we were happy would be an understatement! I went in search of signal to contact the others, but found none. We unwittingly abandoned our plan and paddled downstream to the take out, which we thought was about 8km downstream.

We had lunch just before where we thought the take out was and had another look see at the maps. When we got to the place the maps suggested the car should be we didn't stop because it did not in the slightest resemble where Lis had left the car. So we kept going, starting to doubt my map-reading skills. Eventually the decision was made that we had no idea where we were and possibly had missed the take out and needed to ask for directions... but there was no one to ask.

We got signal at 3.30 and spoke to Soekie and she said they had figured out what we were doing and were already waiting for us at the take out... but neither group knew we'd missed the take out already. We then lost signal again.

At 5.30 we found the first signs of life and went with our maps to ask for directions... the conversation between 2 second language afrikaans speakers is not an intelligent one. We eventually ascertained that there was a bridge "om die draai", and according to our maps could only be one bridge (the one with a weir in front of it incidentally). So we relayed this info to Soekie and Nikki when we got signal again and paddled off "om die draai". An hour later, that seemed further than expected. We were determined to paddle as long as daylight allowed and then walk to somewhere with light, even if we weren't that close to the bridge. In the last few rays of sunlight we saw the lights of an operational pump house and decided to paddle there and get help. Then Soekie phoned from the bridge to say they'd spotted us through binoculars and to keep coming and take out on the left bank. Before we had a chance to ask them to catch us before the weir (which we would definitely miss in the dark) we lost the phone to the Orange... not a high point for us.

When we thought we were as close to the weir as we could be, we took out in the thorn trees and walked towards the bridge. We found Soekie and Nikki and they said they would shine headlights well above the weir to indicate the take out. We paddled off, and the fishing lines just in front of the take out did not improve the mood much as we had to disentangle ourselves and get past them.

So after 35km and 10 hours of paddling, we were on dry land again and happy, though frikkin tired.

We got back to jhb around 5am and all in one piece.

Despite it being a bugger up, we were all very lucky and it can be called epic only because we got out of jail free.

Thanks to everyone involved
Here's to the next one...

Ash Kayaking Again - this time with Jack Daniels (and a few other dodgy characters...).

So we went to the Ash again, this time joining some other kayakers down in Clarens in a last-minute trip sort of fashion... Neil and I met Grant Morstead at his place at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning, had a quick coffee, picked up Jared and were on our way. We had a lightning-quick, massive breakfast at Wimpy Bethlehem and joined up with Adrian, Wihan, Marius, Carl and Theuns at the road to bridge rapid (which some people call Fish Pond Rapid, and which Morsie calls Butthole-Surfer Rapid).

So, we got on the water sometime after 10 I think, with breakfast straining at the cag seals. We took it really slow, taking lots of photos and scouting the bigger stuff for the benefit of those who hadn't seen it before. I hadn't seen anything below the waterfall before, and it was pretty cool to finally paddle the whole stretch.

The top section went well, with a few quick rolls at Alles. Bridge as always was a little intimidating, and I decided to walk it after swimming in the eddy above (the branch I was hanging on to broke - I decided it was a bad omen). Neil and Adrian ran it without too much trouble, with Wihan and Grant getting a bit surfed in the bottom hole and swimming out.


The middle section is pretty flat, with a few small wavetrains and a straightforward drop after the weir (which we portaged). After the second bridge there is a nice drop called "big suprise" (int he photos below), and then some smallish rapids before "The Grade 5".

The Grade 5 is a particularly shit rapid, and requires a portage. It's fairly continuous above it, so knowing where it is is pretty useful... Carl ended up going for a swim here, luckily bewteen a few of us we managed to get his boat and paddle to the bank before the rapid. Directly after this is the slalom rapid where Nationals #2 was, which then leads into the 2-metre waterfall. Wihan and Adrian both ran it on the left, Grant also ran it but managed to get pushed far left into the trees below - luckily close to the bank so Neil and I managed to stabilise his boat so he could get out. Directly after the falls is a rapid with two big holes, apparently one is quite a muncher.

After the waterfall most of the difficult rapids are over, with a few drops and an awesome, slide-like weir. This weir is pretty easy to run (all that ran it went down the right to avoid the big wave on the left, but I don't think it would keep a boat long, might thump you a bit though). There's a pretty interesting rapid below this as well, with some big holes at higher levels. Seemed to be easier to skirt the holes on the right, as there was a tree on the left which Wihan managed to catch his deck on... You don't want to go too far right though either. Two drops follow the weir, one is a bit of a shelf, boofed on the left, and the other has a nice glassy wave at the top and a meaty-ass hole on the right at the bottom.

All in all a really fun stretch, there's a lot of boily flat which gets a bit old, especially in the middle section. And it rained a bit on Saturday as well, which wasn't all that pleasant (good opportunity to play the "I have a dry-cag haha" game though...). Overall I found the cold water easier to deal with after an hour or so though, I defintitely didn't think about it as much as I normally do when we've only paddled short sections.

In the evening many beers were drunk, and Jared had to participate in an initiation ceremony (it was his first time kayaking on a river) which involved much Jack Daniels (straight, with coke, and even with ice-cream). He also had to wear a helmet all night. Good Fun. We retired to the backpackers, had a bit of a fire, and a well-earned sleep.

We woke up to a miserable day, and there was a significant lack of enthusiasm about getting ona freezing cold river, in the freezing cold... Luckily it warmed up, and a slightly dimished group of 5 kayakers went for another run down the whole section. Everything went a lot faster, we stopped less to scout and take photos. As a result we finished the whole section in just over 3 hours (it had taken us over 6 the previous day). Everybody ran bridge, Jared rolled impressively a few times but got beaten in the bottom hole and swam (the only swim of the trip). Neil did an awesome last minute roll to miss getting beaten on the shelf, and I managed to go over before the middle drop (I was going for a kickflip of course...) by looking too far ahead.

Adrian and Wihan were the only takers for the waterfall, and the water seemed to be pushing a lot more forcefully towards the trees. Wihan got pushed quite far left and just managed to miss the main branches, Adrian saved a flip with high brace and got washed into a branch. Neil and I helped him maneuver his boat round to below the trees so he could ferry out inot the rapid again... I think a saw might be in order here...

The rest of the trip seemed to fly by - amazing the difference good weather can make - and before we knew it we were eating Nando's on our way home. Good times. Doing this longer stretch of the Ash defintitely makes it a more worthwhile trip, especially for kayaking.

Thanks to Adrian Tregoning for some of the pics.

The Chute v2.0

So we went to the chute again on the Easter Weekend... I had to fetch my seat from a dodgy place in Germiston in the morning, so we only left at about lunchtime. However, we still managed to get to the hole in time for Neil to do a few cartwheels, me to paddle like a girl, and also to see some great boobs... We walked back up in the dusk, chatting about pornography at the top of our voices, until we saw a wedding party on the lawn at Stonehenge waiting for the bride... oops.

We squatted (no, "camped for free", not actually squatted) at the 24hr MTB race, which was a little like trying to get some sleep at Oppikoppi, but not too bad. We watched a bit of Cricket at Finnegans, which sucked. At least the burgers were good.

The next day the hole was a little deserted, with only Ernie and Blake joining us for half an hour or so.... and definitely no fantastic boobs. The level was also a bit lower making it slightly more shitty to get in, and making the wave a little smaller but slightly more retentive. Neil did some good cartwheels and I did a few amazing Atomic-Turtles (like a phonics tortis but bigger and better). We took lots of footage to help the learning curve, and managed to almost amazingly cock up transferring a peli-case from the rock to the bank...

Oh, and there was also a commercial trip with a retarded kid - a little annoying but pretty funny (as always) to watch the clients swim the rapid...

We eventually (quite quickly actually) got too tired to paddle, and left for Jo'burg. The end.

Gatsien Chute

Daav and I haven't play in the Chute for some time now, but with the water as low as it is at the moment we where left with little option. The water had come up a bit to 15cumec which made it possible to play in the Chute, when the water is lower (below 10 cumecs) it really isn't worth while. The last time the played in the Chute we both found it almost impossible to get in and when in impossible to do anything. There is also a nicely placed rock on surfers right which has claimed faces and paddles.
This time round I was pleasantly surprised, it wasn't too difficult to get in (once you know how) and when in it was possible to spin and go for ends. I spent some time working on a cartwheel in the Chute with the help of Hugh while Dave and Laura worked on squirts and eddy line moves in the current below.

Laura going for a squirt

Dave later hoped in Hugh's prototype large Nemesis and gave it a spin in the Chute. This new Fluid playboat looks awesome, it seems much faster than the Fluid and with harder edges give more control. Dave also said it is more stable on ends, I tried but being way too light for the boat never came close to getting it vertical. It 's a sweet boat though, can't wait to try out the medium.

Hugh and the large Fluid Nemesis

I spent some more time in the Chute working on ends, I nailed one cartwheel but the rest generally ended up in me being upside down. Dave swam onto the rock about the chute and got some awesome photos and video. Marius, many will remember from Bivane, was there. This kid is really looking good, I'm sure in a few years he will be an awesome paddler.
Our paddle was short lived because Laura and I had to head back to JHB early. I'm sure we will be spending a lot more time at the chute this year as it is often at this level throughout winter.

Neil initiating a cartwheel and landing up in a "I hate myself" bow stall

Marius styling

Ash kayaking

The one great thing about the Ash is that no matter how much is doesn't rain everywhere else the Ash will always have water. This year has been particularly bad on rain, with all the river low and dusty we decided to head off to the Ash.
the trip list was as follows: Dave, James, Chris, Laura, Dale, Willem and myself all in kayaks. Dale and Willem are new to kayaking, having only kayaked the Vaal at low water before, although Dale has done many canoe marathons.
We headed down on Saturday morning bright and early, well not bright but damn early, stopping in Parys to get a boat for Dale at Whitewater Training. All kitted up for what was to be a cold paddle, Dale and Willem having never been on the Ash before were unsure of what to expect and looked unjustifiably nervous.
The paddle from the dam down to the first drop is short and gives you little time prepare yourself for what is to come. Dave and I ran the drop first eddying out below and waited for everyone else. Chris, Laura and Dale all made it ok, they all made me laugh as the punched though the hole they all that the same "Damn this is cold, gaping for air" expression on their faces. Willem ran the drop well but got caught up in an eddy line and went over, he missed three rolls and I was almost positive he was going for a swim but on the third roll he made it, super impressive stuff especially in such cold water. The rest of the run was fairly uneventful, we ran all the rapids carefully and everyone came to terms with the numerous boils and eddy lines.
We scouted Allesgevinden and Allesverloren just to make sure everyone was okay with the lines before we ran it. Chris and Laura ran it well, Willem, Dale and James came down next. James hit a great line for Dale to follow and the both made it, Willem got a little sideways and went over. I was impressed how determined he was to roll, unfortunately he go pushed up against a rock with a hole just before it which made it almost impossible for him to roll and he swam. Not the worst swim in the world but a cold one none the less.

Dale and James down Alles

Dale hitting the line down Alles


Willem lining up the drop

I was keen on doing Bridge (or Fish pond) rapid, so I convinced the others to come help run safety. I supposed there was no backing out once I had got everyone down there. I checked my line and nervously got into my boat, although this rapid isn't that big it can hurt you if you cock it up. It hit the wave before the second drop a little to far right and landed up further right than I would have liked for the drop. As I hit the boils below my paddle was pulled out of my left hand and I went over, lucky I rolled up quickly and was able to do the rest upright. I didn't quite get the ferry right before the rock shelf and hit the hole at the bottom in the centre. I thought I was going to the pounded but managed to get through, good times!

Neil wishing he was half a metre left

Neil upside down

About to hit the rock shelf

We headed back to the car ate lunch, napped and headed up for another run. Being a little later the water seemed to be just that little bit colder and there was a slight edge in the air. Willem went over once or twice and had a few swims. This time we headed straight down Alles, Laura and Willem walked not too confident or warm after some swimming.

We headed back to town, made the most food ever and looked for a pub. After half and hour we where still looking for the pub, eventually we had walked right across town and found nice little pub where we had a few beers and watched some of the cricket.

The Sunday plan was to run a bit of the longer section, however with new paddlers and time pressure the full section was off the cards. The plan was to paddle to the second bridge, so Chris, Dale and Dave set off to do drive round. They took quite a while, so James and I entertained ourselves by watching a log get trashed in the weir at the put in. Apparently Chris hit a rock quite hard and bent his rim so they had to change a tire on the way.

The paddle went according to plan until Alles, which at the lower level made a quite sticky hole at the first drop. I went down and sat in the top eddy after which James, Chris and Laura came down. I could see that the hole was sticky by the way it almost stopped Chris in a Y. Laura came down and hit it right in the center, the stickiest bit. It surfed her back and flipped her over, she swam and made it to the bank before the second drop. Unfortunately her boat went over the second drop and got pinned. It came out by its self but damaged the hull. The Ash river often causes a bit of carnage. So Laura and James stayed at bridge and the rest paddle off to the cars. The second section has far fewer rapids that the first, with only a few wave trains, a nice drop, a weir and a nasty broken down dam wall.

I was keen on running the first drop of the last section so I paddled down while Dave, Chris, Dale and Willem walked there to run safety. I saw and eddy just above the drop which I new I could easily make, as I got closer I noticed it had a fence blocking it. Not good times! I managed to duck under it and scout the rapid, but was relieved that I didn't get washed down it without anyone watching. I ran the left line, went a little further left that I would have liked but was okay. We headed back to the cars and did drive round.

Note: The construction of a hydro electric channel is being started on this section. We left a car there with the guard. Please contact the farmer before doing so, he is reasonable but doesn't like random people walking over his land without being told about it.

We picked up Laura and James, had some lunch and headed off home. It was a great trip, thanks to everyone who came and Chevonne for helping out with the organisation even though she didn't come.

Beginners hike: Marble baths, Injisuthi

The plan was to go to Marble baths cave in the Injisuthi area, Drakensberg. We (Kemba, Will, Hoosain, Willem and I) would leave early, sail through the traffic (no traffic on a friday afternoon, never!), get there, set up camp for the night and turn in early... Lets just say that didn't exactly happen...

What I thought would be a relatively simple drive, but possibly a bit of a challenging hike turned out to be exactly the opposite: the 30 - odd Km road to the Injisuthi campsite turned out to be one big car-swallowing pothole for the rather low Camry we were in, and therefore it took us a long time to get through. We got to the entrance to the reserve at about 11pm, and, (not surprisingly) the gate was locked. So I ran all the way up some tiny hill in the hope of getting some signal, found signal and proceeded to wake up the Injisuthi reception person so they could radio the guard to come and let us in. However, when I came back from my mission, the guard had already opened for us... Good way of making new friends at the camp...

So we got there in the end. However, the rest of the weekend went by so effortlessly, that getting there almost seemed to be the most challenging part of the weekend. The route was easy to follow, and not very difficult. The weather turned out to be sunny and a little hot, but no rain. There was one part where I thought we were lost, though. There was this thick mass of vegetation on the path, and millions of baboon paths going off in all directions. Well, I took one of those paths, thinking it was the right path... Turned out it wasn't, but we found our way back to the main path eventually. We found the cave easily, and then all headed down to the baths after lunch, where the boys had lots of fun swimming in the pools. I was looking for lizards, and therefore didn't swim... I consumed a fair amount of OBS during supper, (no-one else was, so I had to make up for them...), and consequently was very happy when I got to bed.

On the walk back, a rather large puffadder decided Kemba was a threat, and so struck at her. She wasnt bitten luckily, and the snake, which must have been quite scared moved off quickly. The incident left a few shaken people, me included, as a snake bite, especially from a puffadder would not have been good times.

Anyway, we got back safely. The 'Berg was absolutely beautiful, the water tasted lovely, and all in all, it was a really good weekend.

Cheese

Blyde Fest

So it turns out that getting from Wits to the other side of Benoni, whilst not requiring a passport, does take the better part of 2 hours on Friday evenings. Inevitably we got to the Blyde Canyon Adventure Centre around midnight with only a few drunk kayakers from Benoni (strangely) around to greet us. The plan had initially been for Dexter, Crabs and I to waste away Saturday while Neil competed in the kayak race on the Upper Blyde. A haphazard last minute rearrangement saw Dexter and I tagging along in a croc with the kayak race and Crabs getting the short straw - which I still feel bad about - and staying in camp.

The 4am start was over-rated and the 2 hour drive was pretty hectic, but the view and the crystal clear water was well worth the lack of sleep - anyone who's been to that part of the country knows what I'm talking about. One of the highlights for me was drinking straight from the river with no gippo-strings attached, very refreashing after the sludge in the Vaal and most Natal rivers.

The kayak race was a timed sprint (on two occasions a head-to-head race) down three of the larger rapids on the stretch and the rest of the river was just tripped. Neil represented Explorers well, even though he brought a medium red knife (read: flirt) to a gun fight. Although it could've been worse... he could've been Luke in the large flirt. Mark and I thought we'd embarrass ourselves rather and took a few swims, Mark felt it neccessary to increase his number of swims. I particularly enjoyed the swim above the waterfall... thanks Mark. But the kayakers seemed to enjoy the relatively informal format of racing and good times seem to be had by all... although, the guy who worked in the hole below curtain falls seems to have a strange sense of good times because he went back for more.

That night descended into a boozed haze and much abuse was hurled in Explorers direction as the video of the day was watched and the full extent of the carnage revealed. Next morning we nursed our heads and bumbled down the lower blyde, which couldn't really compare with the spectacular canyon of the day before... at least this time we had Crabs with us.

Amazing weekend, hopefully have a bigger contingent at next year's event...

Snoo

Went to the X-fest and came back with “balls” on my shirt

I suppose a general lack of kayakers in explorers meant that only Dave, Justin and myself headed down to Underberg for the Thrombi X-fest. We left a little later than planned mostly due to the powers of the room, which upset me mostly because I had been at work and not in the room. We arrived at the X-Fest late into the night thanks to some interesting navigating in the mist and rain, with the most featured road in the world providing some extra entertainment. We put up the tent had a beer and went to bed.

Our breakfast plan of pronutro went to pot thanks to some awesome bacon and eggs rolls for sale, I’m sure everyone at the festival has egg on the pants. After a fair amount of fannying about Dave and I decided to enter the kayak sprint race, a little worried that we had never seen the river before. Luckily we paddled the section over which the sprint race was being held Philip Classens and Adrian Vroom. This included two of the bigger rapids on the section: “Slot machine” and “Super tube”. With no major chaos we our minds were put at ease.

Previously this race had a Le Mans start format, this year an interesting start ramp had been built barely wide enough to fit three boats never mind four. Dave was put up against a three other paddlers in creek boats and never really had a chance. He managed to cock-up the run somewhat needing to roll at least half a dozen times. My race was more competitive as there were only two other paddlers both in play boats. I cocked it up right from the start getting off the ramp late and hence playing catch up. I cocked it up more by getting flipped at the bottom of slot machine. At the end I was getting creamed. There was one more twist in the tail however for Dave and I, the race was longer than the section we paddled in the morning and included one more drop. Both of us took horrible lines and needed to roll at the bottom but all was good.

Justin and I entered the croc race expecting to kick as….well we never. There were some pro canoeists in our group, this wasn’t all bad as we go to drink beer sooner. I went to bed early and Justin kept on drinking beer so I’ll have to let him account for what happened.

Then next day Dave and I ran the river down to the falls with Adrian T, Luke and Vroom. What an awesome section of river lots of big drops and long rapids with short pools. We got to the falls without incident, Adrian T and Luke ran the falls while the rest started the long walk out the gorge.

Thrombi X-Fest

ok - so Neil beat me to the post... oh well, was such an awesome event it deserves two posts. Wrote this a few days ago, was going to add pictures but won't bother now seeing as Neil has put some in. By the way - if you're wondering about the "balls on chests" thing - just have a look at the t-shirt sometime...

We went to Thrombi, and came back with "balls" on our chests...

So Justin, Neil and I headed down the dreaded N3 on Friday afternoon, towards the Umzimkulu River and the Thrombi X-Fest ("Thrombi" is a section of the Umzimkulu known as Thrombosis Gorge, near Underberg). Luckily Neil's car held up on the long drive (thanks Neil's Car) and we arrived at the campsite after getting lost (well, we weren't really lost but we didn't really know where we were going...) via Underberg. It was drizzling and miserable, so after a quick erection (of the tent) and a beer we retired to the dryness for some kip. Justin didn't have faith in my old school Vango tent, and claimed that he got a little wet in the night - I told him to stop peeing in his sleeping bag.

We woke up to a fantastic breakfast of bacon, egg, bread, all mushed together and dehydrated to make the wonder food we all know and love as Pronutro. After staring at the box for a while we went down to the tent and got real bacon and egg rolls - no brainer really, especially when you have no bowls or spoons, and the long life milk looks like Crogan punched it in the face.

We entered the kayak race, after fannying about a bit, and tried to join up with a trip to the waterfall. We ended up missing this trip, but ran the race section with Phillip and Vroom. Only three rapids really: Tonsils, Slot Machine and Supertube. Tonsils was just a drop into a hole really, slot machine was a little more tricky with a lead in and then a nice twisty hole to sort you out at the bottom. Supertube is probably the biggest rapid on the stretch, with a tricky lead in rapid (stay right or middle right), ending in a blind drop into a "supertube" to the left. At this level we went just left of the indicator wave at the top of the drop - great rapid. From here it's a relatively easy walk back to the field at the start.

We then did the race, after being informed that there was no more "lemans start", instead all 3/4 kayakers in each heat would have to slide down a dodgy looking contraption on river left, into a pool about a foot deep... hmmmm. Anyway, no-one broke an arm or anything (not on the slide anyway). I was a spectacular last in my heat (although I was the only playboat in a field of much faster creekers - but I would have been last anyway). There was a bit of a suprise at he end, when it wasn't - the end that is. After finishing supertubes we were beckoned from downriver towards the "new" finish, which included a small drop and a massive one. Running the last rapid (and finding out it was a 3 metre drop) before the finish completely tired and completely blind was pretty interesting.

Pictures, and more article to follow later...

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.

Upper Blyde

Daav and I headed up to the Blyde river in Limpopo last weekend. The original plan was to paddle with Hugh, which didn't happen. Instead we crashed at Chris Huddle's place and bumed along on a Blyde river adventures commercial trip.

The drive into the canyon is a long one but well worth it. The scenery and river is awesome, a cool clear river flow though the third largest canyon in the world. But the rapids make it even better. The run starts of fairly easy with a few smallish drops and bony rapids. I made a meal of Island rapid by getting broached half way down, but I sorted it out with a little shoulder contact on the many rocks below.
After the lunch stop about 6km down the river starts to get really good, with lots of low volume drops and steep rapids.
Just as it starts to get late you meet up with the dam and catch a ferry across what would be a long hall into a head wind.

Good times, awesome river and looking forward to the Blyde fest.

Umkomaas - Impendle section

So there was water about and we weren’t paddling in it, this had gone on too long.

I thought Umko would be a nice place to spend the long weekend, which was not a long weekend due to the public holiday falling on Saturday. None the less with all the time constraints I managed to convince various working folk to get a half day off or just leave early. This was a big help as an early departure on Friday meant earliness all round.

Dave, Sarah, James, Chevonne, Justin, Nasi, Bryden and I headed down in two cars to Trinity farm where we spent the night thanks to Gavin. We made to boiled potatoes and Russians, which didn’t take long at all, setup a rain shelter and went to bed.

Thanks to a good night sleep we were able to get to the river early and get on the water before 10. Most where paddling crocs and I was kayaking, a little unsure as to how I would cope on this unseen section. This meant we would have a long days paddle ahead of us and time to spare scouting the numerous rapids that lay in our path. There river was at a great level, any higher and things could have go interesting and any lower we would be scrapping over rocks.

The first few kilometres of river is mostly flat with a few small rapids and wavetrains. This was good to get everyone eye in before the river went into the first gorge and the rapids would get bigger and more numerous. The first rapid we encountered was a nice 3/3+ rapid with a fairly easy entry with two big hole you need to miss at the bottom. Dave and Sarah went first and nailed the line. I went second, feeling a little nervous about the potential beating at the bottom however after a nailed the line my confidence was up for the rest of the paddle. Byden somehow managed to cockup the line but still miss the massive pour over and sneak down a side shoot. Chevone took a swim but other than that everyone made it fine.

After this rapid things got a little more interesting with lots low grade 3 rapids to run. At the end of this section there was a big grade 4 (probably grade3+ at this level) with massive boulder, we scouted from the right hand band and decided to run the left hand line. As the river was very wide at this point we didn’t realise how big the hole was nor see the sneaky rock below it. Everyone made it down fine, although a little surprised by the hole, until James can down went for the left line (which most had missed) and wrapped his croc. It was nicely stuck and took a bit of rope work to get if off.

After this the rapids eased up a bit until a rather nasty one with a big drop leading into a narrow slot with an undercut rock. We gave this one a miss as the water was too long to easily make the chicken run down the right. A storm was coming in fast so we decided to get off the river and set up camp. We feasted on spaghetti and soya mice and went to bed feeling stiff and expecting to get a little wet.

The second day had less in the way of rapids, except for one big one which we portaged as it would be difficult to get crocs down it at this level. From there on the river flattened out other than the odd play wave there wasn’t much in the way of rapids.

At the take out we were greeted by a few locals boys interested in seeing what we where up to. Justin and I walked up to the store and bought some cokes and beer. We all packed up and headed home, well some headed to the coast.

Thanks to everyone who came and a special that’s to Gavin who help us out with drive round.

Nationals #3 - Done and dusted

Well, I feel like writing something but I keep falling asleep in my chair and my shoulder hurts like shit... lekker tye. Sarcasm has been italicised for ease-of-read.

After a fairly disasterous start to the weekend (car-wise at least) we eventually all got to Inanda Dam campsite at 2am. Good, wait... Baaad. We slept for about 3 minutes and then went to Tops Needle for the Sprint and Slalom. Some knob had interfered with the dam release so what was supposed to be a really easy set up turned into a bit of a mission - Neil and I helped move the gates around in the middle of the flow in our kayaks, damn we're hotshit. We had a terrible first run, matched it with an aggresive 2nd run where half the team exploded out of the boat when we hit a hidden rock at "very fast". Good swim, not rocky at all... Our third "safety" run got us third place (tied), but we drew last for the sprint because we had a DNF for the swimming run. We gave it horns in the sprint, even though Justin managed to swim somewhere in between getting off the bank and getting into the boat... good. After laughing our heads off till half-way down the rapid (when we saw we were heading for the massive "wrapping rock") we ended up taking a pretty good line around it and almost took second. But, we hit a rock, losing second and then hit another one, almost losing third.

The girls came second in sprint and slalom (to the other girls) and also managed to lose a team member - although they picked her up and managed to finish the run...

So that was that - it started raining and we retired to the campsite for some beer and OBS. It carried on raining, and we had some awesome dinner. It rained a bit more. Kevin showed up in ridiculousy spiky slops (and very bright headlights) on his way to the MTB party...

The next day was about 50 degrees in the shade, at 9am. Downriver started at 11 (was supposed to start earlier but the same knob had fiddled the water release for this day too). We won the trash-talking competition, and the race into the first rapid. This time we were a bit too close to the rock, but it all ended well. The steering was a little difficult, partly because there were a million stealth rocks all over the place, and partly because my steering strokes were like those of a big girls blouse because I'd done some extreme-upside-down-kayaking down the sprint rapid a little earlier.

Anyway, the upshot of it all: We (mens and ladies teams) were the second most consistent sides in the series, and both got silver. Good.

Good luck to the SA teams going to Worlds.

November play

So the Vaal marathon gave us the choice between doing a two day canoe race and playing at Gatsien. It is obivous from the title which was chosen. The second day for the canoe race was supposed to have a dam release of 105cumecs from the barrage.
Daav and I headed down on Saturday in the hope than the water would be up from the rain... it wasn't not even a little bit. I fact it was the lowest I have seen it all year, so we headed to rocky ridge and paddled up to the wave at Paradise. The wave was as good as ever, if by any means it is ever good.

Sunday morning saw significantly more water flowing past the camp, we packed up and headed down to Gatsien. When we got there the level was around 60, around where the wave starts to get nice. It steadily increased in level with the every increasing number of people, at mid day it was about 80cumecs. Chris met us there after taking the long way round to get there.

I have put chris' photos up here

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...

Second national rafting event

The second nationals rafting event was held on the Ash river in the free state. Explorers had two teams, a ladies and mens.
I headed down with the second load of people to meet up with the already-had-some-ob's early bunch.

The first event was slalom, the event we are generally worst at however this time we came good. The slalom course was on the rapid below the grade 5, where Cameron McIntosh has setup gates. The course was really well setup and a really challenging but doable slalom. We got there early to put in a practice run, just as well because the run went to pot. Our first run was fairly solid but we still misted a few gates. On the second run we hit all but one gate and ended up third overall in the event. Team FTRM cleaned up in the event hitting overly gate flawlessly. The girls put in a solid performance to come second.

In sprint a head to head paddle down a rapid we fared a little better and come in second overall. Once again Bruce's FTRM team took us, but not without a bit of a fight. The girls came in second to the strong Mary's angels.

Downriver was held on Sunday, as the name suggests it is a race down the river. At this event it was done by time trial, each team leaving in 15 minute intervals. Once again we came second overall and the ladies second in there class. This event is a test of endurance and ability to run rapids down the fastest line while fatigued.
After the event Gareth and Justin in a croc and Dave and myself in kayaks ran the same downriver stretch, all went more or less to plan. A bridge the croc ran the rapid, they made it.... to the second drop then swam. They just managed to get into the boat before the muncher hole at the bottom, which sucked them back. Gareth fell out the boat and managed to pull it out the feature. Both paddles where in the water, luckily on landed in an eddy and washed up to me, but the other floated down the river with Dave in hot pursuit.

The event was awesome, thanks to Bruce, Hillary and Kate for organising it.

Wow... great place, got a pool?

So this is it, decent place. lets get 20000 chicks onto this blog...been learning the HTML on that website. pretty neat shit. gonna make a link on the website that links to like some save the penguins site chat room...keep well

Klip Kayak

Daav and I headed down to the "crogan" river on Saturday, which by all accounts could have been time better spent. The klip water was cold and smelly, although the cold gave it the illussion of being clean. It was awesome to see what the floods early this year has done to the river; new channels, massive tree blocks and debris deposited impossibly high.
Our intended purpose was to play at the infamous (maybe innotfamous) klip wave. It's wasn't all that bad except it was a tad cold, and shallow. However after this years awesome water, a little hole on a cold river is somewhat overrated.
None the less the klip is still cool for beginners kayakers, paddling for a laugh and racing. The playwave is awesome for learning to spin, I'm sure as winter progresses this wave will seem more and more appealing.

Long weekend roadtrip

There wasn't really a solid plan to start with, however the just of it was to head down to the coast then head up to a the odd river.
This is more or less what happened.

Justin and I headed off to the south coast on Thursday morning. It took us a little longer to get there since two trucks crashed on the N3 causing the highway to be closed. We took the alternate route however it still took us 10hrs to get to the coast. It wasn't entirely in vain, as we saw some cool stuff along the way. Firstly a possibly the stupidest person on the planet on the back of a bukkie, then some random old guys members (just hanging it out toward the oncoming traffic) and lastly the worst area in Howick.
Since the drive took so long we stopped in Howick to check out a the old waterfall.

We finally got to the coast after nightfall, we met up with some of my mates who where more than a little intoxicated. There wasn't much to do other than join them. Many Sick Sick F#^ks where thrown out and every moment was captured on the "ham'sh cam'sh".

The next morning headed down to the sea where Justin horribly misjudged the distance of a tree and challenged me to a race.
The surf was big and once I had decided a good spanking was in order I kitted up in paddled into the rock infested waters. It was good times, I threw down many spins, a kind-of donkey flip and was nicely beaten by a wave. I did however do many unintedo cartwheels before being surfed upside down.

Early Saturday morning we headed up to Highover on Umkomaas the water had dropped and we where in for a bit a bumpy ride. James went over in the first part of #1 and broke the left blade of his paddle. He rolled up and did a nice C1 move into the eddy. We got out the Good olde Dufli paddle and headed down the rest of the river. At lower level it becomes a bit bumpy and technical and many of the bigger rapid look nasty. We got to the take out late and loaded our broken bodies onto the bukkie. It was impossible to make sandwiches on the drive so we broke apart the cheese and cucumber then feasted upon chunks of food.

The next day it was decided that we would sit around and generally do nothing. After doing a bunch of random stuff, like playing cricket with a polystyrene ball and James broken paddle we decided to leave and head up to Bushmans. The rain came down as we started packing, right at the point of no return. We made a stop Spur in Matrizburg for an eat feast.


There was even less water in Bushmans, so we decided to head home early the next day to miss the traffic.

Easter Play

Rain during the week meant the dam outflow was set to 150 cumecs over the Easter weekend, this with the general flow flow made the Vaal flow just over 200 cumecs. Dave and I headed down on Friday morning and went to Gatsien for a play. The wave at Gatsien was large and bouncy, although were not good enough to make the most of it. It was good times however if you missed the eddy you had to walk back up for the next spanking.

We camped at Rocky-ridge after three failed attempt to find free place to squat. We saw the night in with a soup, braai meat and a bit of whiskey.

The next morning we met a bunch of Explorers in town for a river run. The level had dropped but it was still at a good level to run the river, with none of the rapids being too boney or for that matter big. Dave tried out a wavesport Y and showed everyone how not to do a wavewheel on Big-daddy. The trip was run smoothly, we had lunch at paradise before heading down to Gatsien to play.
Gatsien was a little more kind however still very big and bouncy. James, Dave and I played till we were too tired to walk back up to the eddy.
Awesome trip, killer weather, great water level check out some of the photos Dave took here in the gallery.