Adrian Tregoning

On the 9th of June a bunch of us were able to score the Witte in glorious sunshine. Because this river has its source only about 9 or 10 kilometres upstream of where we put in, the level drops fast once the rain stops and hence one usually has an overcast run. But not on that day!

I’ve been paddling the Palmiet since I moved to Cape Town in 2008 and always only paddled the short section. But on 27 June 2009 I finally managed to paddle the full length section. The normal (short) section is only 3.5km long but it has some fun rapids and they are spaced quite close together with interesting palmiet (a type of plant) channels in between to keep things fun. The full section is 21km and consists of more flat water and a few fun rapids. The put in requires a long drive around and also permission from the land owners to get on the property. It’s a huge commercial farm at the put in and there are gates (with a guard) that control it so don’t think you can just head up and hook it.