Ash River – some near misses…

The weekend of the 14th and 15th of April was one to remember. With Wihan in his Expedition Fluid Solo for the first time, Morsie pushing the limits and originally deciding to leave the Jack Daniels at home and the rest of us, well, no comment…

 

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The Ash River – mid week fun

 

The 21st March, the day after my birthday, and also Human Right’s Day was an especially good one this year. Usually a Wednesday would mean sitting, staring with strained eyes at a computer screen but not this one. The freezing waters of the Ash would be a refreshing way to spend the day.

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The Ash River

The Ash was a tiny little stream until the Lesotho Highlands Water Project began to feed water into it. This had resulted in a river that runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Water flows from Katse dam in Lesotho to the Muela hydropower station and down to the Muela tail-pond dam. From here it goes underground through a four and half meter diameter pipe for 37 km until it reaches the Ash River Outfall. The outfall is a concrete channel structure built on a gradient so as to slow the water down. This obviously reduces the energy of the river and the destruction it wreaks on the banks of this once tiny river. Several weirs have been built to reduce the energy even more. Luckily there is enough gradient to provide us with at least some excitement at a couple of places.

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The Vaal River, Gatsien

Gatsien is one of South Africa’s few ‘park and play’ spots and very close to the town of Parys. Below follows a few pictures of the spot at a few different water levels. Anywhere from forty to fifty cumecs, the wave at the bottom on river left begins to form and this is what the pictures represent. There is little hole on the right and further upstream and some fun can be had in this narrow little cleft at lower levels but is not shown in this article.

 

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