RI7ER JOURNAL POSTS

We spent all of last night packing for this 3 day river expedition. Packing light was key. We knew we were going to walk, scramble, carry and lower the boats 150 meters from the top of the gorge and down to the riverbed. And we knew we were going to work in the sun and the temperature would be in the early forties.  At 0630 we left camp. At 0720 we were on the water.  

Some small rapids before we entered the channel we had decided to take. The water level was 350 cumics lower than when Rob was here 6 months ago, so it was interesting to see how far this channel would take us. After two hours of paddling we came to a quick scout. Boulders from river left to right gave one shute open to run on river left. The next rapid disappeared under the rocks, and we did our first portage.

Luckily the channel took us all the way where we needed to go. The time was now 10h00 am, and we could feel the heat. Spent ten minutes in the shade of a tree and drank water. The next move was going to be interesting. Rob & Scott went across to look for a possible descent line down to the gorge. They came back with good news, a line was spotted ten minutes walk away.

The chosen line was down a dry riverbed. The only way to get the boats down was to lower them. To save the rope as much as possible from being cut on rock edges, we found a way down for us to scramble / climb down over and under boulders, down and round tress and on all fours. Rob stayed up top and set up anchors and Scott and i went down.

The old riverbed consisted of sand in the bottom with sections with huge boulders covering. Some trees with tree trunks and roots almost merged with the rocks around. Devil thorn bushes everywhere, small thorns and long like tooth pick thorns. Even a thorn tree with a hook thorn and  a spear thorn next to each other. There was a particular smell as well. Probably the smell of pee from dassies. After the first lowering of boats and gear of 40/50m, our body temperatures were on the way up. Had a small break in the shade to cool down. But we knew we had to move on to make it down to find and set up camp before dark at 8.30 pm.

We realized early that the sun would be in the gulley all day. We had to ration the water, keep steadily moving, but not to fast. You have to watch every step you take, make sure you don`t hurt yourself, don`t loose any equipmnet. There was one way out and that was in the direction we were going.

The next 40 meters of descent was negotiated with kayaks on ziplines, rapelling, walking the kayaks on rope and carrying them alone or together. Always had to look for the next route to get further.  At about 1600pm It was obvious that we were getting tired. Scott was stumbling now and then, something i had not seen him do earlier. Rob was silent and looked pale. I was starting to feel nauseous and felt weak. We were on the last section to lower the boats with ropes. I was only going to climb down two meters, but did not trust my feet. The move looked like an overhang to me. I knew i had to wait a little to get more energy, i knew i was tired and could not perform as normally. I was close to a corner with some shade, and stood there for a few minutes. When i felt better the move did not look overhanging at all. Now the time was close to 6 pm. Rob looked at us and suggested we go to the river and cool off. We left the gear and descended.

The sight of the river had kept me motivated the last part of the day that we had seen it. Ten minutes later we were sitting in the water. We pumped water and drank water. The body temperature was slowly coming down. Fish eagles and black eagles were over us. Lots of small birds. The stars were slowly visible. Steep high walls on both sides of the river. It had been a long and hard working day. It was amazing to get there. We were stoked and camped right there and next to rapid number 6.  

By Ine Skjørten