M.A.C in Africa: Orange River

Hi everyone,
Happy New Year! Hope you all had a great break over Xmas and new year, all the best in 2013. Don't forget to start saving to come and visit me!
Just back from the Orange River where I did a 4 day canoe trip with some friends. Loved every minute, here's my update...

Orange River canoe trail

Attendees:
Me, Simon Lace, Greg Shroeder, Sarah and Katherine Renshaw, Chris Renshaw missing in action but there in sprit.

Casualties:
3x sunglasses (including my beloved ray bans!), bottom of Greg's car
Injuries:
Simon: 1x splinter in pointing finger
Sarah: 1x Cut in foot from pulling in boat to shore, 1x thorn stood on, 1x blister from hike.
Katherine: 1x massive bruise on shin from hike, 1x blister from paddling
Miche: 1x cut on foot from rock in river, 1x hole on foot from giant thorn
Greg: 2x nails lost on right foot from stubbing toes, 1x scrape on bottom of foot from standing on rock, 1x severe sunburn on back from taking t-shirt off without putting on suncream on first day, 1x bruised knee from banging it on the rapids during nappy run, 10+ nicks and cuts everywhere.

26th Dec - Travel day, drive from Johannesburg to Upington, 7hrs
It was an early start in the Renshaw household this morning, with all of us running around making sandwiches, coffee and packing last bits. The question was, would it all fit into the car? Greg arrived and with some tactical packing and repacking, we managed to fit 5 of us and all of our luggage, including camping equipment, booze and snacks into his Audi A3. Somewhat of a faster mode of transport than the Otter Trail and Chris's old albiet reliable toyota that struggled under our weight! No such worry this time with Greg driving chop chop and playing beat the satnav time...we reached Upington in no time at all. In Upington , we overnighted in a little holiday park on the river called Sakkie se Archie, and stayed in one of their family chalets. The room was nice but had a very dodgy lock on the door and Simon accidentally locked us all inside! When we managed to get out and explore, we felt rather out of place being the only non-Afrikaners for miles around, but very much enjoyed the setting on the river. We went on a sunset cruise which was fun, had some great cocktails on the boat, and watched the stunning sunset over the water, such a perfect way to start the trip.

Drinks aboard the Sakkie se Archie

The very long straight road!

27th Dec - Travel day: Upington to Orange River base camp in Umkulu, 5hrs
The drive to base camp in Umkulu was rather boring, although we did drive along a particularly crazy long straight road between a town called "Pofadder" (yes, really) and Springbok, which we learnt later is the longest straight uphill road in South Africa. Along with this to admire and "Who wants to be a millionaire" on Greg's Ipad, time went fast enough. The border crossing in Namibia was a bit painful - the Orange River marks the border between South Africa and Namibia, and although you embark onto the river on the SA side, you exit on the Namibian side as the road back is better, so you need to stamp into Namibia and clear customs before you start - all rather confusing and a bit bizarre if you ask me, but so it had to be done!

The last stretch to camp was a bumpy ride along a rough dirt road, passing lots of grape and banana farms which was interesting, though during which (and I'll say this quickly as it is a painful memory for some) we hit a rather harsh bump and being so heavy in the car we scrapped it quite hard. Having being patted on the back and told to breathe, Greg took it well and on we went.

We eventually reached base camp in Umkulu late afternoon and were pleasantly surprised by it. We settled into Fish Eagle camp, set aside for our group, then popped up to the very nice bar for a well deserved drink, after some 12 hours driving over 2 days! At the bar, absolutely unbelievably, we bumped into Lyle, my old next door neighbour from when I lived in SA, who is also the Renshaw parents godson! Such a small world, none of us knew each other would be there, and it was great to catch up on news and reminis on the old times.

As sunset began to fall, we set up camp (the first and only time we slept in our tents), got given our dry bags to pack all our belongings in to keep dry on the river, and had a lovely potjie (stew) for dinner. We met Hennie, our guide for the trip, and his two helpers T-bone and Yannie, as well as the rest of the people who would make up our group of 20 odd on the river.

Getting boats ready on the bank at base camp

Paddling on day 1 - beautiful views

28th Dec: Day 1 on the Orange River

It was an early start on Day 1, and began with packing the all important cool boxes full of beers (and not enough water) and ice (that would melt after the first day and leave us with luke warm drinks for rest of the trip). Into each canoe (a rubber inflatable one, much like a mini rib) we packed a cooler box, a food tub (food for the trip was split per meal and put into dry tubs and distributed amoung the group), our dry bags and bottles of water. We learnt how to tie everything on so that we don't lose things if we capsize in a rapid, and after quite a lot of faffing around, we were off! Day 1 was by far the longest day of paddling, though luckily the

water was still and the day windless, and the setting was beautiful as we paddled through the gorges and past mountains. We completed our first rapid called Entance Exam without anyone capsizing, and passed some geological wonders including hole in the wall and a mountain shaped like King Kong. We stopped at midday for some hotdogs and a rest, taking in our surroundings and doing some brilliant birding - on day 1 some birding highlights included Fish eagles, Malachite, Woodlands and Pied kingfishers, a Goliath heron, White fronted comorants, and a few Kites.

After some 7 hours paddling, we pulled into our first night camp on a big sand bank on the rivers edge. Hennie arranged and explained the Doug and Douglass toilet system with the ores - 2 ores marking Ladies and Gents, you lie them on the floor if the bush is "occupied" and stand them upright in the sand if it is free. Katherine, Sarah and I attempted a very primitive "wash" in the river with no privacy whatsoever - we all felt very native indeed! That night for dinner, Hennie (who had by then earned the nickname "Shredder" for his hilarious sunglasses tan) and the boys rustled up an excellent cottage pie over the fire for dinner, followed by an extremely impressive chocolate cake (we all thought he was joking when it was announced!), cooked in a metal pot with coals loaded on top of the lid and below like and oven - very clever! Cards around the fire that night was great fun as we all beat Simon who was most put out as he always wins, and we marvelled at the full moon as it rose over the mountain - absolutely stunning. On such a beautiful night the only place to sleep was under the stars, so we made a windbreak with the boats and fell asleep listening to the river flow and gazing at the moon and stars.

Relaxing at camp after the first day's paddling

29th Dec: Day 2 paddling -
Sjambok and the end of my glasses

Waking up on day 2

We woke up to sunrise and another beautiful day on the Orange River. The day started with an excellent egg and bacon brekkie, and we were off paddling once again. Today we would go through our first "proper rapids" - much bigger than the Entrance Exam ones; Klein Sjambok and Sjambok. Approaching the latter of the two, I saw that this one looked quite serious, so decided to be safe rather than sorry and take off my sunglasses and store then safely in their case in the dry bag. Well I'm not sure what happened, because after the rapid I tried to find them again and they were no where to be seen! I must I have missed the bag when I tried to put them away, and there is a drainage hole in the canoes to let water out and they must have slipped out there in the rapid! Most upsetting losing my beloved raybans, especially when I'd made such an effort to keep them safe. However my pain was eased sometime later when just down river on tiny little rapid which we didn't even have to put our life jackets on for, Greg hit a rock and fell out his canoe, also losing his sunglasses in the process. It was hilarious, and cheered me up no end. Rather unbelievably, half an hour after that, on even flatter water, Simon went for a swim and then lost his sunglasses as he was climbing into his boat, bouncing them off his seat and into the water as he climbed in, then watched them sink and disappear rather like the titanic. So now I feel much better about losing mine!

Katherine and Simon tackling the Sjambok rapid

Lunch on Day 2 was on a grassy bank, we had a lovely tuna pasta salad, followed by a snooze, though we were all woken up when a heard of goats wondered through our snoring group! Setting off paddling again later, we passed the three witches rock face and the lost city - an old abandoned diamond mine. T-bone did some sand collecting from the bottom of the river to see if we'd get lucky and find some diamonds - sadly not this time. Simon continued to entertain us during the day by canoeing in circles and bumping into every rock in the river!

Making shelters from the sun at camp on night 2

We camped that night on a big sand bank, keeping an eye on the rising water, which Hennie had noticed was rising during the day. We spent most of the rest of the afternoon sitting in the water having some drinks - it was plus 40 degrees celsius and far too hot to be doing anything else! There was no shade on our little island, so we made a big shelter using the canoes, tying them to the ores and propping them up. Some of the boys went fishing and caught 3 catfish (which we didn't eat)! Drinks and games around the fire continued late into the night, and ended in Hennie falling asleep under the dinner table for some bizarre reason!

30th Dec: Day 3 on the river - Terraces rapid vs Greg

Our little sail

Day 3 kicked off with a delicious Amarula coffee and yet another lovely breakfast of bacon and eggs. It was a nice relaxing day on the river today, and being quite windy, Sarah and I decided to make a little sail on our boat so that we didn't have to paddle (Grandad you would have been proud)! We hit the Terraces rapid about midday, and after going down in our canoe's, we all donned our lifejackets to swim down them too. Everyone made it down safe except Greg who had a fight with a big rock on the way down (it remains unknown how he failed to not hit the rock) and painfully smacked his knee during the run. We all tried to be very sympathetic, but it was a further injury on a list of many he had so far accumulated which made it very hard not to laugh!

Beautiful moon falling on the water

Camping spots down here were few and far between, and we ended up staying on a very fine sandy bank, the kind of sand that gets everywhere an into absolutely everything. Our little group of four chose the winning spot under a tree- the only real bit of shade. We spent the afternoon swimming and napping, it was so hot. Due to the layout of the river here, we finally managed to find a private spot for a proper river shower - it was most exciting to have a wash and even wash our hair! Feeling much cleaner and fresher, we enjoyed another absolutely stunning sunset and then when the moon came up it shined down the river, it was so beautiful. We watched it sipping on pimms and warm lemonade, which later earned us the name "poppies" from Hennie. Dinner was a scrumptious spaghetti carbonara (which Simon dropped in the sand haha), followed by a most delicious apple and pear crumble with custard. It's quite amazing what you can make on a fire if you know how!

31st Dec: The killer mountain, paddle/swim to the finish line and an epic NYE party

Easy part of the hike where I could still breath and take pics!

We started this day with an early morning hike up a mountain, as you do. Hennie asked the night before if we were keen and we all jumped at the idea, the lure of stunning views of the river from the top sounded great. However the hike was far more challenging than any of us anticipated, and ended up being a tough 3 hour scramble up sharp jutting out cliffs and slippery lose rocks! We made it to the top eventually though, and were rewarded with breathtaking views from the top. We also got to see some nice red aloe's and the very rare "half man" cactuses, which only grow 1cm a year.

The last day of paddling was very chilled, which was a relief after our strenuous climb. Simon, still unable to steer, continued his record of hitting every single rock and going onto every reed bed on the way down. We went down the last rapid "Snotklap" without too much drama, although Katherine and I tried to film it, and with the effort of me holding my camera in my mouth whilst trying to canoe, my concentration on steering wasn't at its best and we ended up spiralling down rather out of control! It was brilliant fun though, and the squawking baboons on the riverbank certainly seems to find it funny.

Jubilant at top of the mountain taking in the stunning views

The last part of the trip was a 2 hour drive from the riverbank in Namibia, back through border control then up to camp. We were all very stinky and hot by this point, and very much looking forward to getting back to base camp for our big new years party, and join the other 150 people there to celebrate together. Having been delayed with a flat tyre, we made it eventually and enjoyed every minute of our nice cold showers!

Me just before the last rapid of the trip

The New years eve party was absolutely epic, with a huge sound system, and one of the guides Sas did a cool fire throwing display. Everyone was in great spirits, and the setting along the river couldn't be more perfect. We started off the evening with fines from the trip; Simon got fined for his hilarious one line chirps (including one that his favourite animal was a tiger because stripes are flattering); Sarah for asking so many questions; Greg for all of his injuries and using my whole first aid kit, and us three girls for being "poppies". I don't think there will be many times in my life where I can say that on new years eve I climbed a mountain, paddled 7km on the Orange River, swam about a km of it, travelled from Namibia to South Africa and had an absolutely fantastic new years eve party. What a day!

Gorge at Augrabie's Falls

1st Jan 2013: Augrabies Falls
It's fair to say we all woke with no personalities today after our marathon of a day and night before! I have very little memory of getting to bed and I spent a disproportionate amount of time this morning trying to figure out if I was still wearing contact lenses of not! We showered, and packed up the car at snails pace, before setting off on a 5 hour drive to Augrabies waterfalls. Greg was an absolute trooper for doing all the driving and I have no idea how he managed it, nor how the rest of us managed to sit in the car for so long all feeling so delicate! The wimpy stop certainly helped though. We were rewarded when we got the Augrabies with nothing less than a luxurious chalet, with proper beds, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, lounge and braai area outside. Whooopie! After a nap in our very comfy beds, we headed out the see the falls. A waterfall in the middle of a desert is not at all what you'd expect to see, which made it all the more spectacular. The surrounding landscape was breathtaking, with the quiver trees and rock dassies in particular standing out.

We had a lovely braai for dinner and reminisced on what has been an absolutely fantastic trip and started planning the next "to do" on our bucket lists - a hike in the Kruger national park. So watch this space everyone for our next adventure!