The Molenaars River – The Cold and Fast One

I had heard many things about the Molenaars River. Many stories of exceedingly long swims, lost boats and people scared out of their wits. These were all attributed to the fairly continuous nature of the river and the fact that the sides are covered with thick bush which people claimed was impossible to climb through. The river drops 100m in a distance of 8.3km. This gives an average gradient of 12m/km. This is not really very steep at all but bear in mind that the first third of the trip is reasonably flat so the next third would effectively have a slightly steeper gradient. Combine this with almost guaranteed cold, rainy, snowy type weather and you’ve got a recipe for fun!

Gravity Adventure Festival 2008

This was the final festival of the four in South Africa this year. Water levels were looking a bit suspect but from all accounts it sounded like it would be an event to remember. Either way I would not be able to kayak anyway because injury but would at least be able to get a few photos and have a blast. That is exactly what I did.