I slept the entire night on top of my Therm-A-Rest. Only early in the morning did I feel a little cold but I never even touched my sleeping bag. That was the first time I’d camped on a river trip in such warm conditions. There were now some clouds around and it almost looked as if it would rain. We packed up all of our gear and loaded the boats again. Luke was in his medium Fluid Solo and I was still in my usual large. It’s amazing how much stuff you can actually fit into those boats. We had packed in, correction, Luke especially had packed in a serious amount of luxuries (even two plastic glasses for our wine) and we weren’t even noticing it. As we were getting ready to leave, two fishermen came from the other side of the river. They greeted us cheerfully from the other side and went about their business as if we were nothing unusual. We headed off and began our days’ paddle.

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Mutale River – Crocodiles, Hot Weather & Huge Baobabs in the Remote Northern Region

 

 

Wednesday morning 12 March 2008 and Luke Longridge and I were back in his car and on our way up north again. Our journey through South Africa’s northern most regions wouldn’t take us to the Zambezi this time, but to a little known and rarely paddled gem in the furthest corner of the Limpopo province. The Mutale River has only been paddled a handful of times and the majority of kayakers have never even heard of it. That is probably because it exists in a low rainfall region that is very remote and is also home to some monstrous crocodiles!

 

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Plettenberg Bay Region – Playing in the Surf

The December holidays; a time to relax, throw yourself into neutral and enjoy a little life to the maximum. This is the period when people flock to the refreshingly warm waters found along the eastern South African coastline. Of course some kayaking is thrown into all of this and if you’re reading this then you’re obviously a kayaker and know how hard it is to paddle almost everyday. Yip, I’m sure you can relate to me on this tough job but hey, someone’s got to do it!

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Kaaimans River – In Flood…

It had been raining incessantly for almost two days. With my motivation beginning to increase with regards to paddling a river it was time to summon the troops. Joe Kotze was the only person I could convince so we made it simple and decided we’d quickly have a little one hour paddle on the Kaaimans River and then a lekker braai with fat, juicy, Northern Cape steaks afterwards. How wrong we were to be. Read on for an awesome account of this river!

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Gariep Dam – Multi Day Touring

(Not exactly whitewater, but the waves were so big on the dam that I’m sure it qualifies!)

The Gariep dam lies on the Orange River, smack-bang in the middle of South Africa. Nikki and I decided to go check it out and camp on one of the many un-spoilt uninhabited islands to be found and explored. Little did we know that our chosen long weekend was to be synchronised with the 1st serious cold front of the winter to hit the country.

 

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