Adrian Tregoning

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.

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!