The Doring River, Alone – Day 2: What More Can One Ask For?

My eyes opened slightly to a dimly lit tent and my ears to the peaceful stillness that only morning can offer. It was still early and the sun had not risen yet. My muscles felt a little tired but at least my shoulder was not in pain. Overall, I felt great! There was little doubt that it was going to be a fantastic day.

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The Doring River, Alone – Day 1: Out into the Wilderness

The Doring River has its source within the Swartruggens Mountains, about 25km north east of Ceres in the Western Cape, South Africa. In a little valley to the south of a mountain called Kwarrieberg at an altitude of 1437m and west of Saalberg at 1362m. From here the river flows north east through the Ceres Karoo, then more north and slightly west as it wraps the base of Northern end of the Swartruggens Mountains and then north again. More than 100km later it heads west through the Cederberg to join up with the Olifants River and then finally into the Atlantic Ocean. Note that this is a different Olifants River to the one shown on my site in the past.

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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!

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The Palmiet River Unveiled

The Palmiet River starts its life high up in the hills just south of Franschhoek.  From what I can see on a 1:250 000 map, there are two small rivers which flow into the Nuweberg Dam from the west and I guess the Palmiet could be one of them. That would then be where the source is. North-East-North of Grabouw. Just downstream of this is the next dam, the Eikenhof Dam, then it flows into the north eastern corner of the Kogelberg Dam. From here onwards, the Palmiet begins its journey down south to the sea where it spills into the Atlantic Ocean only a few stone’s throw west of Kleinmond – a distance of about 73km from source to sea.

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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.

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