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.

Dwars River – It’s Days like these, that is the reason I kayak!

It was a sunny Saturday morning and we were really amped. The Dwars River came with a serious reputation and I had inspected it first hand in summer (i.e. Ultra low) to see how it really looked and where the siphons were. For this mission I had decided to keep the group small. We couldn’t get four people but three would work and we’d just have to do things conservatively; which probably wasn’t a bad idea as we didn’t know exactly how it would look and what the levels would be. Abrie Swanepoel, Rowan Walpole and I made our way up past Paarl, past Wellington and up into the Bain’s Kloof Pass. We spoke excitedly about the day ahead and noted that we had almost the whole day ahead of us.

Back of the Moon – A Satisfying Quickie

My first trip down this section of the Riviersonderend had been in a huge hurry so I was eager to idle down the short, but enjoyable section with a small group. This time I climbed on with Rowan Walpole, Braam Rademeyer and Alex Rose. Alex was the first person to have paddled this section and knows it better than anyone. It was sure to be a fun afternoon!

The Molenaars with Sunshine and a Wee Bit of Snow

The Molenaars is usually paddled in some rather ugly conditions. The good old Cape of Storms releases a little extra wrath into the Du Toits Kloof so when we decided to hit the Molenaars early the next morning and the weather predicted sunshine I was sceptical...