| Kayak Descent of the Fish River Canyon |
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We have just completed a kayak descent of the Fish River Canyon from Seeheim just outside Keetmanshoop to Ai-Ais. With the recent heavy rains in Windhoek, the floodwaters took us on a journey through the second biggest canyon in the world, for an unforgettable experience. Check out the pics at ; http://picasaweb.google.com/ak4foot7/FishRiverCanyon Rather long , but very interesting write up by Peter Ridgeway below: Andrew Kellett The Fish River Canyon, situated along the lower reaches of the Fish River in southern Namibia, is one of the most impressive natural wonders in Southern Africa. It developed predominantly during the pluvial times, many millions of years ago. With a depth of up to 550 metres, the Fish River Canyon is the second largest canyon in the world, after the Grand Canyon in the USA. This enormous gorge meanders along 160 kilometers through the fissured Koubis massif all the way down to Ai-Ais. As far as activities go, this renowned area is best known for its breathtaking scenery and the 5 day hiking trail along the bottom of the canyon that is open from June to September. This hike is a challenge in itself as one has to hike to the bottom of the canyon to begin with, and it is deep! However, it all started with yet another telephone call, but this time it was my wife Binny: “Carlos has just called and said that they are closing the bridge over the Fish River at the confluence with the Orange River”. Carlos Peres, her boss, is Felix Unite River Adventures Orange River at Noordoewer and has a burning desire to paddle the Fish River. He is the heart and soul of the Orange River operation and a man who gets more pleasure from making others happy than he does by enjoying himself. Carlos was the logistical key in 2 of my previous 4 trips on the Fish River. My first was 9 years earlier, when Andrew Kellett, Hendrik Schlumann and I paddled the 160km from Hobas (the official Fish River Canyon Hike starting point) to the Orange River confluence at water flows ranging from 300 to 3000 cubic metres per second. The second was 3 weeks later when the Unite brothers (Felix, Davy and Peter) invited me onto their trip using sea kayaks from Seeheim to the Orange River– about 330km. We managed 70km, broke 2 kayaks and had an epic 30km walk out into the desert, which could have been less than 10km in the opposite direction! Carlos, evergreen Paul Brouwer and the Jessica the barking blonde Barker came to our rescue after we broke into a farm house, telephoned the owner and found out that the farm was owned by the father of one of the Felix guides! My third trip on the Fish was a year later in April 2001, when Mr James Currie (school teacher with an exploratory streak a.k.a. Granpa), Carl Schultz (a now world champion wine maker at Hartenberg Estate Stellenbosch), Binny and I paddled the 90km stretch from Fish River Canyon Lodge to Hobas. This was a painfully low level of probably less than 50 cubic metres per second water flow, but was great because Binny and I were able to share the experience together. Granpa James’s wonderful logistical planning resulted in us having to carry our full kayaks out at Hobas. I still today remember Binny carrying her loaded kayak almost the entire way up the 550m vertical climb over about 3 km – they make girls tough in Cumbria. The trip finished with all of us being fined R100 each for entering a national park without a permit and a stern warning not to do it again! My fourth trip was with Alain (sorry I can’t make the trip, I have a family lunch) Coetzee, Neville (a.k.a. Buffalo Bill) Henderson and Phil (Is there enough water?) Solomon in March 2004 which we successfully paddled the 170km stretch from Fish River Canyon Lodge to Ai-Ais at a level similar to the 3rd trip. So in essence I had paddled the entire stretch from Seeheim to the Orange River confluence save a 15km stretch between the Louwen River and the Fish River Canyon Lodge. Even more impressive was that at the end of our latest expedition, Andrew Kellett would be the first person to paddle the Fish from Seeheim to the confluence and then along the Orange River to the sea at Alexander Bay, thanks to his involvement with the Great Orange River Swim a few years earlier.February is usually my busiest month in my practice as a chartered accountant. The South African Revenue Service has successfully reduced the months of December, January and February to a period of hysterical inaction for all tax compliance specialists. The tax deadlines are all late January and February. Most clients are in the holiday mood from 16 December until 15 January, so the work snowballs with 2 months work being done in 3 weeks. The net result is that you get a very stressed and grumpy Peter Ridgway come the end of February. I ignored Binny’s message from Carlos other than advising Andrew Kellett that the Fish was going to be running at an optimum level soon. Andrew was recovering from a painful hernia operation, but his 6 weeks sick leave was reduced to 2 weeks of being a couch potato and then leading a guide course 1 week later at Onseepkans on the Orange River. Little did his doctor know that he spent his fourth week of recuperation paddling 250km of world class white water through the second biggest canyon in the world. Finally on Thursday 26 February 2009 Andrew and I agreed that he, Anthony Hoard and I should tackle the Fish River Canyon at levels not yet paddled by anybody. Carlos was waiting patiently for my call and as soon as I spoke to him, his excitement spurred me into action to help get the show on the road.After what appeared to be an eternity (it was 1 day), eventually Andrew, Ant and I met at the Springbok Spar where we co-ordinated our feeding plan. “I’ve got the stove and matches, you need to get an extra lighter, I think we should eat a good steak on night 1, what about Provita’s, some Smash Mash and Pasta & Sauce and don’t for get the Game sachets!”. This was a trip where the only life necessities available en route were fresh air and muddy river water. I brought up essential camera and (the wrong) video equipment from Cape Town, together with Ant’s Fluid Solo kayak (now housing spider webs following his year of shoulder reconstruction and recovery – 2008 was a bad year for Ant and his six pack was now mimicking a Zonnebloem Special Late Harvest Wine bag) and a fresh pair of undies for Andrew from his wife Marie. Carlos received us with his usual unrivalled hospitality. Stevie produced 3 massive T bone steaks and chips for us and we were well fed and ready for action the next morning. It is 330km from Noordoewer to Seeheim by road, so we only reached the Fish River bridge at 13h30 Saturday 28 Feb 2009. There was the possibility that we could put in on the Louwen River, but alas it was no longer flowing as the Naute Dam was no longer releasing water, despite it being full. We followed the detour road over the dam wall as the road across the Louwen River was still closed. At the Naute Dam, a sign showing the presence of a shop attracted us in its direction towards a view point. However, a chain across the road prevented us from going to the view point and the shop unless we paid a fee. A grumpy white headed woman shouted at the gatekeeper to tell us it was private land when we got out and took photos from the side. Anybody with half a brain would open the view point to attract customers to their shop as opposed to prevent access to the view point and shop without paying a fee. I somehow don’t think she will be there for very long.There was a lot of water in the Fish River. The Hardup Dam 300km upstream had been releasing 300 cubic meters per second of water for more than a week now in an attempt to keep the dam at 70% capacity. The extensive rains in Central Namibia resulted in the Dam already reaching 75% capacity and the prospect of more rain added weight to the fears that the floods of 9 years and a few years ago would recur. If more than 500 cubic meters of water is released by the dam, then flooding would occur in the low lying town of Mariental. Now the river was flowing bank to bank and the water level at a white marker painted on the most easterly side of the bridge read 0.5 – whatever that means. Our departure at 14h30 was preceded by a few quick photos, lunch of salami rolls (including the salami skin) and the dreaded packing of kayaks in searing heat. I was immediately faced with the problem that my insulin pump infusion set was becoming detached from my skin due to excessive perspiration in the heat. In what appeared to be an eternity for Andrew and Ant, I eventually was packed (I’m an accountant not a professional river god like they are). We slowly pointed the noses of our kayaks downstream, then I realised that I forgot to pack my Island Tribe sun block. Luckily we spotted Carlos on the railway bridge about 500m downstream and he kindly retrieved the sun block from the vehicle and threw it down to me. Carlos was now faced with the embarrassing prospect of driving a Gravity River Adventure Group vehicle back to Noordoewer (Andrew is the controlling member and Anthony is the operations manager of the Gravity Adventure Group while I am the accounting officer of the corporation) – I suggested that he tell whoever he met that he was buying out the competition. I suppose it is a bit convoluted as my wife Binny is also the operations manager of Felix Unite River Adventures. So who says there is no co-operation between operators in the river industry. Our first obstacle was the weir (man made wall like structure) that ran across the river at Seeheim. The last time I was here with the Unite brothers we climbed out in the middle of the river and walked across it – now we scratched across to river right (i.e. the right side of the river when facing downstream) and then carefully crossed over (not with Mike Edwards!). Water was flowing strongly across the entire weir. Now we left the last major man made structure on river for 249 km, the next being the 5m high weir at Ai-Ais.We were immediately thrown into play waves of at least 3 to 4 feet in size. My original comment to Andrew and Ant was that there were no real rapids from here to the Louwen River 70km downstream. However, add 10x the volume and you get a kayakers 36 hole golf course all the way down. It is hard to remember any river feature that stood out in the first afternoon session except for the continuous appearance of excellent surf waves which kept me busy until my arms ached. Our flotilla of kayaks included 2 small Fluid Solo’s, Andrew in white and Ant in a little red number. I was paddling my trusty artwork blue Pyranha Microbat 250 for fat boys. Andrew and I both had the pleasure of using the lightweight Werner paddles. Andrew using the Powerhouse blade and I used the Desperado blade. Ant was unfortunately stuck with a locally made sucker stick – he is between 15 and 20 years younger than Andrew and I, so he has to use his youthful vigour to support his paddle deficiency. We paddled until about 19h30 before the setting sun drove us ashore to a comfortable sandbank for the night. With Andrew and Ant being river guides, it always made my life so easy – at the blink of an eye a fire was going and the Fish River Canyon Spur hot rock steak was on the cards. While this was on the go, we started with herb and black pepper potato Smash Mash. In the interim, my insulin pump infusion set worked its way off my stomach, so I decided to remain off the pump for the rest of the trip and fall back onto the long and short acting insulin injections. It was the right decision as my control for the entire trip was very stable without any major hypoglycaemic or hyperglycaemic episodes occurring. The insulin pump is great for maintaining glycaemic stability so that the transition back to the traditional control method was seamless. Ant prepared the hot rock steak to perfection and we all went to bed very happy bunnies – only the cold beer was missing. I managed to salvage some rotgut whiskey from Binny’s Wit Els hike leftovers, so whiskey and lots of muddy water was the drink of choice at camp 1. We estimated that we managed to cover about 40km on the first day (Google Earth 38.01km).Day 2 saw the sun rise a few minutes after 06h00. We were up and ready to attack the water by 07h15. Andrew suggested that we leave early and stop for a late breakfast at 09h30. The morning brought us a repetition of the river features of day 1, grade 3 rapids and play waves with beautiful land and cliffs alternating either side of the river. Kudu, zebra, fish eagle and baboon made their welcoming appearance and we stopped for breakfast below a tall plated cliff just beyond the second “finger of God” for the day, now being named erectarock for ease of reference. While peacefully munching muesli and milk, pieces of rock decided to fall down close to us. On went the helmets and breakfast was prematurely aborted. We reached the confluence of the Louwen River at about 12h00 on day 2 (Google Earth 68.66 km). This was the spot where we walked out on my second trip. A beautiful sandy slope ran down the river left hand side of the Louwen River gorge. The confluence was at least a few hundred metres wide. We paddled over the sandbank on which the Unite Bros and I slept the day before our epic 30km hike out. I still remember eating the finest sirloin steaks cut by Supermeats Main Road Kenilworth that night. Felix had given Supermeats a soft six pack cooler bag which they filled with vacuum packed prime steaks and froze the packed cooler bag in their minus 40 freezer. We had transported the frozen six pack from Cape Town 3 days earlier and the second day’s steaks were still cool and in perfect condition – a little planning caused me to put on weight during that trip. The next 15km section was the last part of the Fish River below Seeheim that I had not yet paddled in all my previous trips. At this point in time we were all starting to hate my very basic Garmin Etrex GPS as I had not previously recorded any points before the Fish River Canyon Lodge put in. In fact we were very badly equipped from a mapping perspective for this trip. I had safely packed away my Fish River Canyon maps 2 years earlier and they were now nowhere to be found. I found and studied all my write ups and photographs of all the previous trips prior to departure, and my GPS had all the perceived dangerous river areas recorded on it, but the remoteness of the area would render a map pointless other than confirming how far away we were from anything and how hopeless it would have been trying to walk out once we had passed the Fish River Canyon Lodge put in 95km into the trip from Seeheim. We passed the Fish River Canyon Lodge put in after passing a small rock cairn with a stick pointing out the top of it which marked the exit point for hikers to reach the “road” out of the gorge. The Lodge is a bone jarring 10km inland from the river, so don’t think that these names mentioned mean anything other than a reference point – it is desolate and inaccessible without being in contact with the right people living in this moonscape. Opposite this cairn was quite a nice little clingy rock shelf rapid that I steered well clear of while Andrew and Ant took a more challenging line. While I waited in an eddy (a still water parking place) below the rapid, a small fish jumped out of the water in front of me and I still don’t know who got the bigger fright.I was now starting to feel very nervous because the first tricky Ledges rapid was looming 13km ahead (Google Earth 94.56km). Anthony had already emptied his load of bile for the day, but I suspect my uneasiness was not helping the situation. Andrew of course was in his element. At low water the Ledges rapid yawns at you like a shark at the dentist with a bumpy few drops in the middle of the river and it extends for about 200. Square edged ledges cause rather nasty looking V shaped pour overs a third of the way through the rapid. After a still bit in the middle, a shoot on river left provides a fun filled exit. Add 500 cubic meters of water flow to this and you get a few nasty little pour overs at the top and a seething monster at the end of the rapid. Looking from the top of the rapid scouting on river left, your eyes are immediately drawn to the mayhem popping and beckoning you towards it – the final drop being hidden from view. I immediately questioned why I was there, Andrew smiled broadly and Ant snuck off quietly to evacuate his bile reservoir. In fact I have a photo of them both smiling with arms raised high in anticipation. We (Andrew and Ant actually – I just stared blankly) carefully broke the rapid down to 3 stages – shoot the tongue on river right at the first pour over, then hit the eddy, shoot the next a bit more tricky pour over carefully in the middle and eddy out on river right, then line up to a shallow rock shelf on river right catch the tongue that flows between two holes at the bottom and paddle like hell. So what does Andrew do, he takes the top 2 pour overs as planned, but spots a line through the mayhem at the bottom to the left of middle and guns through despite being flipped and forced to roll – the doctor and Marie would not have been impressed given that he has been on the mend for only 4 weeks. Ant videoed and I took multiple action shots with Andrew’s camera.It was Ant my turn now. Ant paddled the rapid with fluid accuracy. While my nerves were starting to jitter a bit more than usual, I focused on the task at hand and pulled on my new Nookie Vshock splashdeck. As my deck closed I felt a burning sensation on my right hip and without registering what it was I stroked out of the eddy towards the first drop. I hit the tongue accurately enough but when I bounced through the meat of the rapid I realized my right hip was on fire – the sun had baked down onto my seat while we were scouting the rapid from the bank and was now very hot to the touch. It had warmed up my wet shorts and was now cooking my hip. Instead of eddying out and getting out, all I wanted to do was get some water into my kayak to cool my hip off so I headed straight for the next pour over which was a little nastier than the first. I missed the planned line and the secondary line and ended up smack bang in the middle of where I didn’t want to be. All I saw was the nose of my kayak passing over my right shoulder and I landed sideways into the meat of the pour over. By this time my hip had sufficiently cooled off and that there was the pressing matter of immediate survival. Luckily calmness and a bit of experience took over and I managed to see where I was and plan the exit a little more gracefully. It didn’t help that 40m downstream was a seething monster with very long tentacles ready to swallow me and my kayak up. I reached down deep into the water and some unconfused water grabbed my paddle and dragged me and my kayak out of trouble. It was good to see the AA film crew taking the shots and looking slightly worried, but I bet you they wished for a dramatic swim – sorry chaps, my name isn’t Kate! I rolled up, straightened my make up and shot the monster through the planned line. More impressively, I didn’t lose my new multifocal glasses I had acquired 2 months before. My optometrist Robert Hall told me that if I need glasses to kayak he will slap together something cheaper for me. It was not my intention to wear these glasses on this trip, but the combination of very irritating bugs in the middle of rapids and being totally blind in the twilight and not being able to see the required 200m ahead of me on a flooding river resulted in me having to wear them. Ant provided me with a utility rope which did the trick. I could feel Robin’s assistant Maria glaring at me if I dared clean the glasses with anything other than the approved Carl Zeiss cloth. I only used the approved cleaning materials and will be purchasing a replacement as it now looks very Fishy. With the first bit or real excitement over, looming 1km ahead was the second installment. In an empty river, the main current finds its way through a billiard ball factory dropping off to the right. In a full river a very exciting shallow line opens across shelves on the right hand side of the river. We were of course averse to being a pin ball and scouted river right. So much was going on in the right that even Andrew took a very long time to work out the lines. A shallow entrance worked is way to a very nasty looking shallow hole across the river in the late afternoon sun. This was followed by more holes and shallow rocks burping at you in critical places. Ant was planning an entrance to the left of the right shoot – I half heartedly joined him and then decided to portage 50m to just above the main hole and skirt it on river right. There was more than enough excitement to avoid after this so we both ended up taking this line as it was starting to get late and we took about 2 hours to get through these first 2 major ledge rapids. The entire lower rapid stretched about 500m diagonally across the river. Going river left was most probably the chicken run, but was very shallow and would have had lots of hidden unseen dangers because of the multiple levels of small drops.We proceeded gingerly passed a rock on the river right cliff top that looked like Shulz’s cartoon character Snoopy and shot a rapid on a left turn shortly thereafter, which Neville Buffalo Bill Henderson managed to pin himself and take a swim on 5 years ago. We in fact paddled over Camp 1 we slept at on that trip at the right shoot of the previous rapid. We paddled through a fast flowing open section of river in which a perfect surfing barrel was formed on river right. We saw a hiking camp shower and tables on river left on 2 separate occasions – it wouldn’t have taken much effort to hide the gear out of sight, but then who is going to see it other than us! A fish eagle was sitting quietly in a tree and we eventually selected a cozy sandbank on river left. We had now covered a total of 74km for the first full day and had covered a total of 112 km (Google earth 111.55km). Andrew and Ant shot off to photograph Zebra, many of which were ambling around the beach on a Sunday evening for a sundowner. I was missing my wife and felt quite depressed because after that days paddling experiences I knew that the next day was going to be Big Monday – Ant snuck off for a puke while Andrew just smiled happily. Supper was prepared by the bile master Hoard – 3 packets of mixed herb, bacon and cheese Pasta & Sauce and I produced the secret ingredient – a full packet of Ina Paarman’s sun-dried tomato quarters in olive oil vinaigrette. We used a gaz stove with removable butane/propane canisters together with the two large pots and lid from an old paraffin fired camping storm stove. The beauty of this combination is that once can enclose the entire gaz stove, pot handles, pocket knife, spoons matches, lighters, and a small 100ml bottle of Johnny Walker whiskey within the smaller of the two pots and lid. It closes into a compact unit and the larger pot can boil 1 liter of water at a time. The net result was we could all eat at the same time having two pots and a plate to share between us. It also helps that Andrew and Ant eat like canaries, so that fat boy Ridgway was never short of a nibble. In fact at the end of the trip I still had enough food for 3 more days! I had a rather uncomfortable night in anticipation of dropping into the main canyon the next day. Water was moving about in my right ear following the excitement of the first real rapid of the trip, and it didn’t help sleeping with my head below my feet for the night.Day 3 dawned and I was up first and packed and ready to go last as usual. I follow a process of generally packing and repacking my kit until I am happy, but then an essential piece of equipment is at the bottom of a dry bag at the end of my kayak. The nose and foot rest of my kayak held 3 cans of naturalite guavas and half a dozen 250ml bottles of milk. To either side of my feet, a split paddle found its permanent home. Between my feet lay a 2 litre cooldrink bottle in which I mixed isotonic game, and 2 cycling water bottles for water capture and water purification with iodine. In the back of my kayak I held 2 dry bags on each side – one holding the stove and night food and the other holding day food and all my medical supplies – insulin, insulin pump infusions sets and reservoirs, blood glucose monitor, sweets, dried fruit emergency energy boosters. The other side held additional tinned foods, baked beans, pasta & sauce, smash, tinned mussels, tuna marine olives and dried sausage. The last bag held my clothing and night gear – Cap Storm Wasp Sleeping bag, pillow, rain gear, base layers and tops. A ground sheet was forced into the back together with an IR paddle top in case I needed it. I actually paddled wearing my 13 year old Cape Storm long sleeve collared shirt and shorts – I have now regrettably put them into retirement following material breakdown – Andrew and Ant were tired of seeing my bottom after I tore my pants on the 3rd night. A 30m thowbag supported my back behind my back rest.On day 3 we needed to first paddle 26km before we reached the first major waterfall (Google earth 137.92km) which marked the entrance to the canyon proper. En route we passed the first campsite James, Carl, Binny and I slept at in April 2001 – the river was about 2m higher here. We passed the last possible escape route at the confluence with the Gaap River (Google Earth 127.25km). Two zebra decided to put up a rock scrambling show for us and kept running in front of us for at least 5km. On reaching a rather precipitous ledge, instead of stopping and waiting for us to float past, the male scrambled up a steep cliff and after a few wheel spins on loose scree cleared the way for his mate to climb safely up to a higher level. We were now in the final loop before the major waterfall and stopped at a cliff face covered in a large sand dune about 50m high and 300m long for a mid morning breakfast top up. Tension was mounting when we passed the last few kilometers and heard the deafening roar ahead. I don’t think Andrew or Ant knew what to expect. The entire 500 cubic metres per second water flow passed over a 30m wide 6m high waterfall that was now reduced to a small bump in the river. The river then was compressed over the next 100m into a gap of rock no more than 5m wide. When the river was low, it became very quiet in the pool downstream of the gap, now the water pulsed, seethed, spluttered and popped into an angry pool. The water was about 5m higher in the gap than previously seen. The pool below was merely a holding point for the most ghastly bit of angry water I have ever seen. Without water the rapid below the pool held blocks of rock and shelves the size of a small house. Now the entire area was covered with a seething mass of water – I could see Andrew’s desire to conquer this one day, but not today. We portaged the entire 300m rapid on river left. I dropped down a gully clearly marked by a small bush growing on the edge of the cliff in front of it. I roped down my kayak into a cool sheltered place where I waited for the AA brigade. They were filming the portage with the angry water in the back ground, then seal launched into the river. I have learnt the hard way that you carry your loaded kayak on your shoulder and do not drag it on the ground. You also place your loaded kayak into the water and don’t seal launch it into the water. On one such occasion in the Visgat gorge (Upper Olifants River Agter Witzenberg) I seal launched from 5m and promptly sank! End of my kayak trip and the beginning of my kloofing trip in the icy Cape winter river. Back on the river in the 2 km flat stretch after the first fall Andrew was complaining that he was filling up with water. Closer inspection revealed a hand sized hole below the seat of his kayak. We were now 138km into the trip, just over half way, and equipment failure reared its ugly head at us. The first task was to find a place shaded from the rather vicious midday sun and deal with the problem. After fighting to remove the seat and drying the kayak, it didn’t help that the kayak was held together with bolts that needed Alan Keys to remove them. Andrew proceeded to cut slivers of plastic from around the inside rim of the kayak while the kayak dried in the sun. Once dried, he placed the kayak in a cave which gave easy access to the affected area. With Leatherman knife in one hand and cigarette lighter in the other he managed to seal the crack after an hour of intense concentration. The only injury was a burnt forefinger. As the river was very high the chances of not hitting a rock were good. Otherwise a 30km hike to Hobas and a 550m vertical portage out of the gorge for Andrew. After a quick lunch we proceeded towards the next 2 waterfalls. The first was reduced to a shoot and the second was a horrible mess. The fall was shaped like a W across the river and was bordered by high ledges on both sides. There was a nasty looking shoot on river left. Alain Coetzee had previously stood in the pool below the fall and poked a paddle into the base on the fall – all dry rock. Now you couldn’t get within 30m of the fall, so strong was the back wash and flow of confused water. We portaged river right against the cliffs far away from the river as dropping into the river sooner would require climbing up and down high ledge’s. The repair and the physical impediments of all concerned yielded few complaints. My right hip and shoulder is still painful to the touch following this portage. Both Andrew and Ant were starting to show little signs of physical discomfort.What followed next was a rapid we call ficus camp rapid (Google earth 143.15km). A ficus tree was growing out the rock face on river left. James, Carl, Binny and I camped here in April 2001. Ficus camp rapid provided yet another challenging set of obstacles to overcome. A nasty pour over on river right could provide ample entertainment for the camera’s as 30m further down stream provided some big holes and a nasty pour over on river left. Andrew identified a line on river left to avoid the nasty pour over at the top on the right hand side, but needed a cool head to navigate across the face of the nasty shelf pour over on river left and in the middle of the river, before punching the nasty keeper hole at the bottom of all of this. As usual Kellett made it look easy, but he did do a bit of scratching at one point. Ant and I decided to portage around the first pour over and then put in and shoot the rapid from river right and then into the middle to avoid the hole at the bottom. Of course we just made it look easy too – check the video and pics.The next few km’ are now merely a blur of shooting some big long rapids with relatively easy lines requiring minimal scouting from the bank save one or two nasties. A high volume of water in an enclosed space generated water hydraulics of quite exciting proportions. A section we called 2km rapid at a low level yielded long wave trains which were like riding a wild horse. A large rock slab which towered 4 m out of a low river had only about half a meter of rock protruding. Soon we approached the horse shoe/island rapid (Google earth 150.02km) – here the river splits in two – we scouted and shot the left fork with relative ease, avoiding a nasty hold at the bottom on river left. Andrew had to be especially careful here as it was shallow and there were rocks a plenty. Rapid after rapid after rapid followed this dispersed by portions of flat fast moving water. By the time we reached the real Fish River Canyon Spur (Google earth 155.50km) we were all buzzing with adrenalin. The spur is named as such because a protrusion of rock on river left on a sharp bend to the right looks like a spur on a cowboy’s boot – in fact the whole canyon is real cowboy styled landscape. What followed was probably one of the most exciting sections of the river. It was around 17h30 when we reached the Ledges (Google earth 156.43km) above the Blue Gorge (157.93km). We were all now a bit tired, on the go from 07h15, very exciting adrenalin pumping rapids where I had already decided to follow Andrew like a sheep for the rest of the day. There is something very calming in the way Andrew paddles – no fuss, a keen eye and when he scratches you scratch hard because you know something nasty needs to be avoided. It is actually quite peaceful – Ant on the other hand has not been exposed to the way in which he paddles for as long as I have. We approached the ledges in the middle of the river and calmly avoided hole after hole after pour over after hole after nasty place after terminal keeper. Kellett was in his element, I was a happy sheep following him closely and only partially second guessing what he was going to do until suddenly he went into overdrive scratching madly for the left bank of the river. And then I landed slap bang into the teeth of a nasty hole. Because we were going so fast, I was flipped in the air, my tail shot forward and I landed in the eddy on river left facing upstream. Ant was about 10m behind me; his eyes were wide and managed to miss the hole. He was obviously taking strain – “Guys”, he shouted. ”I’ve had to loosen my life jacket because my heart is pumping so hard. I’m broken. Please stop before anything big again!” We now entered the blue gorge which provided a 200m rapid of standing waves and very funny water. We stopped scouted and ran it. The blue gorge is named as such because at lower levels it is very obvious that the river cuts through a band of blue rock. At end of this rapid the canyon cut its final right hand turn running away from the Hobas put in (Google earth 166.03km) before it does a 180 degree turn back towards Hobas. We were now contemplating the merits of not paddling past the Hobas view point 550m up and about 1km across as we may be seen by sundowner tourists and reported to the park officials – not as if anybody would chase after us. A rainbow was formed cutting the horizon at the Hobas viewpoint. Some stunning photos were taken. We finally paddled 2.5km past Hobas and camped on a sand bank out of sight in the main canyon (Google earth 168.51km). After 57km of world class whitewater paddling in the second largest canyon in the world Andrew, Ant and Peter were broken but happy. I learnt more about big water paddling that day than any other day in my 18 years of kayaking. Supper 3 consisted of 2 cans of meatballs, 1 can of baked beans and 3 packets of Smash Mash, whiskey and water, rooibos tea and 10 tons of adrenalin. I think the smiles on our faces that night kept the threatening thunderstorm clouds away that night. The repaired kayak had lasted 32 km, only 83km to go to Ai-Ais.Carlos was expecting us to contact him from Ai-Ais (Google earth 251.23km) the next day, Tuesday 3 March 2009 to ask him to either come and collect us, or for him to collect us at the confluence with the Orange River (Google earth 327.70km) the next day. We decided to delay our decision until we got closer to Ai-Ais, but we were all showing signs of having had enough. My accountants hands were becoming rather blistered, Ant was grumbling and Andrew wouldn’t show that he was uncomfortable. His op scar was healing well, but 12 hours on the water every day doesn’t help the healing process. We were up at 05h45 in the morning and proceeded on our final leg of the journey. After a few interesting rapids and a high degree of hydraulic activity Andrew stopped off at the Vespa scooter for photo’s. Some idiots tried to drive a Vespa scooter down the Fish River canyon – after all the effort of getting it down from Hobas, they didn’t manage to cover mare than 3 km before they gave up. It wasn’t long before we passed the beach where Neville Buffalo Bill Henderson dreamt that he was being chased by an amorous zebra 5 years earlier. The suphur springs (Google earth 181.92 km) came into view and we stopped for a look see. The spring water was too hot to stand in and the camp site was a mess, caused by thoughtless hikers. We saw some rather large bones lying in the spring so decided to get away. Around the corner from the Sulphur Springs an 18 hole kayakers paradise golf course materialised. We all bounced happily through the wave trains and holes at quite a speed. We would easily attain 12km per hour with a few committed strokes and would easily float along at 6km per hour. The beauty of the rock formations, profiles, colour contrasts and the like are indescribable. At one point a white silhouette of a horse was formed in a rocky grey background.We stopped for lunch at a beautiful beach under a tree which cast a comfortable shadow. Lunch consisted of dried sausage, biltong, tuna marine olives, smoked mussels and provitas. We prepared ourselves for the last assault around the Viervingerrots, over Kochasdrift and the never ending flats and large twists and turns towards Ai-Ais. It was frustrating enough paddling this stretch at high water, you can just imagine the swear words that were flying when we paddled along this stretch at low water. We met the now wild horses in the canyon again in the usual places – the Germans released them into the canyon on their departure from the then German South West Africa more than 50 years ago and they are still surviving in this inhospitable terrain – talking about cowboy country! By 14h00 in the afternoon we reached the camp where we slept in March 2004 and made our first sighting of Spielberg. This mountain was used as a signaling station with mirrors in the good old days. After a while you get quite irritated because you are constantly paddling towards it, away from it along side it and then turn away from it. It took us 3hrs 15mins to cover the last 35 km to Ai-Ais. We paddled through some big standing waves and shelves en route to the weir at Ai-Ais. The weir was completely flowing over from bank to bank. The marker at the weir read 1.6m. We estimated that the river had dropped 1.5m since we put on at Seeheim 3 days and 3 hours earlier. We had paddled 251km.The last obstacle had now to be crossed – contact Carlos without anyone asking uncomfortable questions about permits etc…We pulled up on a sandbank beyond the Ai-Ais camp entrance gate, switched on my cellphone and got 5 bar reception. I telephoned Carlos to come fetch us. His response: “You made it, you alive, you enjoy it, I come fetch you now, 1 and half hours, I’ve ordered 3 baby chickens for your supper?” I must admit I expected to wait for 3 hours, but an hour and 15 minutes later Carlos drove Andrew’s bakkie into the loose sand outside Ai-Ais while we carefully dragged our kayaks out of sight of the park staff. An hour earlier Ant snuck into the park and asked a man in a blue overall to go buy us some beers and ice – sure he said and trotted off to the bar with security written on his back! The beer was cold and the memories warm. Roll on flooding Namibia!Should you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact me by email or on 021 - 6836078 or 0827803964. Kind regardsPeter Ridgway |
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