Swaziland

Luke Longridge – Swazi Gold – Part 2

Thursday, 04 March 2010 08:04 |

CONTINUED FROM PART 1

On Monday we were greeted by beautiful sunny weather, and the prospect of running the Lusushwana River from below Luphohlo Dam to Mantenga Falls. The take out for this section is Darron Raw’s garden, and Darron drove us to the put-in. This was only the 3rd time the section had been run, and it rates as one of my favorite sections of whitewater anywhere, with a combination of beautiful clean slides and technical boulder sections. Towards the end of the stretch I mangled my elbow on a rock, which serves me right for paddling without elbow pads, and landed me in hospital later that week for surgery. This run included a few previously un-run drops to sweeten the deal. Shane left his camera next to one of these slides (which was then termed “Camera Slide”) which resulted in a bit of jungle bushwacking that afternoon to find it. The next morning my elbow was seriously hurting, and it was time to head back to Johannesburg, where I was convinced by my sensible housemate Kate that I should go to the hospital. A general anaesthetic and some stitches followed.

Luke Longridge – Swazi Gold – Part 1

Thursday, 04 March 2010 07:24 |

It sucks to be a river guide in Swaziland when there’s no water around. Every morning, you wake up and go run the same section of whitewater on the Usutu River. Not a bad section of whitewater, but it gets boring after a few weeks. Especially frustrating is the fact that on off days, whilst lazing around in the sweltering heat, you KNOW that you are surrounded by dozens of world-class sections of whitewater. If only it would rain. This was my experience when working in Swaziland in 2002. And every year since then I promised myself that I would make the 4 hour drive across the border to experience some of the magic whitewater this mountain kingdom has to offer, but either there was no water or I had some previous commitment. So in November 2009, after over 7 years of waiting, the time was finally right.

Swaziland - Usutu River

Tuesday, 30 January 2007 12:07 |

Swaziland – Usutu River Jan 2007

The Kingdom of Swaziland, one of only two Kingdom’s in Southern Africa and also the smallest country in Africa. Swaziland is mostly mountainous and hilly in the west but has more moderately sloping plains towards the east. The best whitewater being in the western half of the country. The highest point is Emlembe at 1862 metres above sea level and the lowest point on the Great Usutu river at a very low of only 21 metres! It is on this river that we had much fun during this trip. The Swazi name for the Usutu being the Lusutfu.

Adrian Tregoning

Swaziland

Luke Longridge – Swazi Gold – Part 2

CONTINUED FROM PART 1

Luke Longridge – Swazi Gold – Part 1

Swaziland - Usutu River