RI7ER JOURNAL POSTS

I travelled for approx. 300 kms on the swollen river. It dropped a little each day  but has been absolutely fantastic.

I have seen giant whirlpools with dark chocolate in the centre eye; 10 feet-high creamy sand banks collapsing into the river; trees careering into caramel and tan rapids and then disappearing;  choc milkshake foam piling up in the eddies; and deep downwellings and upwellings of cocoa.

It has its negatives for sure: all my gear was covered in layers and layers of dried silt, it got everywhere.  The daily search for fresh water becomes a priority. The dropping river leaves a deep layer of fine sediment on shore and camping becomes a muddy knee-deep experience.

Garbage is highly visible and is a reminder of the world outside and its ugly side - a topic I feel strongly about, but am unable to see an early solution in the 3rd world, or the 1st world for that matter.

I travelled through an aloe-studded Glen Canyon - a section I ran about 9/10 years ago on a commercial trip over 5 days. This time I did the section in a day, speeding down the crazy river, hardly recognising anything except the surrounding countryside. There were 2 pushy rapids but the rest was totally washed out. I managed a day of 60 km.

The following day I comfortably travelled 83km with the steady push of the larger-than-life river, destination Aliwal North. After a resupply, T-bone steak and 2 ice-cold Black Labels at the Riverside Lodge, it was back to the river.

At first commercial farms were in view,  then into an area of nature reserves and conservation. Eland, bushbuck, springbok, hartebeest and wildebeest are the spectators. Although they don’t generally stand and stare like the domesticated animals. Filming and photographing them has been hard when moving quickly down the 100 to 200m wide river. They spot me from miles away - the 4m long bright yellow boat sticks out - and because they are wild they move off ... before things become problematic for them.

One animal i did not want to see was a Cape Buffalo - they are listed in Africa’s Big 5 for a reason! I am well happy no encounters.

A great game to play whilst floatin’  the Big Brown Chocolate Conveyor Belt through the flats on a flooded river is Water Golf Frisbee - there is no short supply of plastic bucket lids - I found hundreds of them. Targets are: floating trees -10 points; drinks bottles - 20 points. 100 points for plastic on plastic e.g. another bucket lid; subtract 5 points for every miss on selected targets. I never got over 20 points ... but the world record has been set ... beat it if you can.