Adrian Tregoning

Witte River – South Africa’s Finest River?

South Africa has a land area of about 1.2 million square kilometres, making it one-eighth the size of the US, twice the size of France and over three times the size of Germany. Within this space are many rivers, many rivers which unfortunately run almost dry most of the year – the Witte is no exception. Unfortunately we are amongst the 35 driest countries in the world. This, of course, is bad news for a kayaker. But without painting a picture of doom and gloom we still have some amazing whitewater which is slowly but surely being shown to the world via this website which already has over 100 proud articles. So with a bit of knowledge, perseverance and luck, one can still get to paddle some fine rivers in first class surroundings. The Witte is one of those rivers – steep, continuous, every rapid runnable and set in an incredibly beautiful set of ruggedly handsome mountains. Simply put, it’s awesome. (There are 3 videos at the end of this article)

Palmiet River – Cape WhiteWater Club Paddle 2009

Every year the Cape WhiteWater Club gets together at least once to run a ‘learn the Palmiet’ day, as well as a ‘learn the Wit day.’ On these days beginner paddlers are encouraged to get to know the Palmiet. So on the 18^th of July 2009 a day was organised to paddle down the Palmiet River. More of a social thing than actually teaching people about the river as everyone there had done the river already but it was a glorious day out with good people in perfect weather. There really isn’t much to say about the trip and more so the river, so I’ll let the photos do the talking.