Adrian Tregoning

Alright, so this article is way overdue, but better late than never! On 15 August 2009 we had the annual Gravity Festival. Like I said, I’m pretty late with this, but there have been many other articles which have taken preference and a lot of other things which happened in the meantime. Even now, I have a large backlog of articles from my West Sumatra trip, as well as more action from last years’ river season, more surf kayaking photos and video footage, and also articles from Luke Longridge. But, I’m getting there now.

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)