Words: Dale McKenzie | Photos: Chantelle Melzer www.melzerc.smugmug.com
Three months ago my friend Gareth walked into my office with a plan. His idea was to paddle from the Bivane Dam wall to Jozini Dam wall in north eastern KwaZulu-Natal; a six-day trip covering 200km. “I’m in,” I answered immediately.
Photo credit: Chantelle Melzer
The next three months of preparation saw us rounding up another two expeditioners, Donovan and Steve, and a support crew. Sponsors where found and we even managed to raise some money for charity.
With the leg-work over, we are finally ready to hit the water. Starting early on day one, it doesn’t take long for the action to find us. As the Bivane Dam wall cascades torrents of water 175 metres down to the river bed, we shoot the weir in our Fluid play boats with no problems. Our friends and family, who joined us at the start, disappear around a corner as we make our way down a local stretch of river.
Ordinarily we would cover this section in a two-day social trip, taking time to surf waves and spend the night around a bush campfire. Today, however, we have a long way to go.
Donovan and Steve shoot the pour-over just after Kinky and our choice of Detox creek boats is proving to be a wise one. These boats are fast and punch holes with ease.
Rapid 3 is my favourite; an incredibly long technical run where we all find our own lines and stick to them. I make the eddy half way down and take a second to admire the valley that I love. The first time I ran this section was in 2009, as part of the safety crew. From my vantage point I count nine waterfalls slowly filtering over the adjacent cliffs, adding to our excitement.
Rapid 4 has a nasty surprise on the left. Rapid 5 has holes on the right and left, with a shoot in the middle that is fun to find at high levels. I have to roll to the correct side of horizontal after the much anticipated big drop shoot at Number 6. Next up is Mountain Blast, and its name does it justice.
The Ithala game fence predicts the upcoming confluence of the Bivane and Pongola Rivers. Paddling past antelope, we make it to camp already nursing blisters and bumps. It’s not long before we are greeted by a tent flattening thunder storm. I hold my tent down with one hand while taking advantage of the rain to shampoo my hair with the other.
Day two and I make my way to the ablution block where Gareth and Steve have taken refuge. Rudely is the only way to awaken teammates on this sort of expedition.
As we have never run this part of the river before, we scout often. ‘Never careless’ is our motto. This approach soon pays off when Steve is held in a hole and takes a beating as Mother Nature gives him a full cavity search. Luckily Gareth is close at hand to assist and Steve pops up looking quite refreshed.
Two rapids later we spot our first crocodile. Two more pools and four hatchlings appear. We stop to admire them just long enough for someone to comment, “Where’s the mother?”
Photo credit: Chantelle Melzer
In a long pool, a big four-metre beast crashes through the reeds and into the water on our right. Instead of submerging it powers straight towards us. I feel strangely out of place as I notice the menacing look in its eyes. I shout and the croc dives. We dig hard towards the next rapid, more than 600 metres away. I am so shook up that I don’t speak to any of the guys for more than an hour.
While most of this Pongola section proves to be flat, we stumble upon a fun rapid. We decide to run it without scouting as we have no indication of the distance we still need to cover today. Gareth takes the lead and aims right, and after the first drop he indicates to run river left in a panic. We all spend the remainder of the rapid picking our own lines, laughing and punching through various holes. I choose my line intending to slide sideways across an outstretched rock, approximately three-metres long. It is the stunt of the trip! Unfortunately I lean towards the right and right I go, landing just before a hole. I expect to take a beating but somehow my creek boat punches through.
A small croc slides into the water as we spot our support crew making their way along the road at the water’s edge. Our photographer Mash is hanging precariously out of the window in an attempt to get an action shot of one of us being eaten alive. We elude the croc and arrive at our overnight accommodation, Rondekop Farm. The Manager, Sweis, is a brilliant host and we are treated to some good old Pongola hospitality, a braai, soft double beds and hot showers.
The warm grip of my bed is holding me down on the morning of day three. However, the thought of the cold-blooded critters that call the warm waters of the Pongola home has me up and rousing the rest of the crew, with my best imitation of the peacocks that roost next to the lodge. Steve gets such a fright that he falls out of bed and doesn’t look at all prepared for the day ahead.
After talking croc tactics we put-in at a cannel system below the completely un-runnable concrete weir. Donovan asks an old Zulu man if he has spotted any crocs and he responds that he’s seen one a few weeks before. He enquires where we are heading and we tell him that we intend to make it to Jozini Dam in two days. He throws his hands over his head, falls to the floor and shouts his disbelief, causing us to chuckle as we paddle on.
After a lot of flat water we finally stop under a bridge. I feel finished, but someone has written ‘vasbyt’ on the bridge with an arrow pointing downstream. We hack only 30km of flat water before calling it a day. While waiting for the backup crew, we nap in our boats under the shade of a tree. A surprised looking farmer driving past stops to say, “Weet julle onnosels nie dat daar krokodille daar binne is nie?”
Our overnight accommodation is Mvubu Lodge’s picnic site, a picturesque river side spot that will be our base camp for the next two nights.
We change to glass fibre K2 canoes for day four. I’ve never paddled a K2 on a river before and the second rapid sees Donovan and I taking a swim. The K2’s added speed is a godsend through the long flat water bends between the sugarcane plantations, which are fed by the river.
The final stretch and beginning of the dam is the most anticipated section of the trip. Two prominent pieces of information given by local croc researchers are, “Ninety percent of the crocs in the whole area are in the first five kilometres of the delta,” and “I hope you have a fast boat.”
Leaving the shade of the N2 Bridge we tackle the last rapid of the trip. Halfway down I look across at Steve as a fair sized croc slips into the water right behind him. I comment, “Hey Steve, did you see that!” “No what?” asks Steve. “Never mind,” I reply. Just a few hundred metres away a massive croc crashes into the water on our right. Gareth, in a panic, throws his decoy (a plastic bottle half filled with water) way too early and not nearly far enough to have any effect on the approaching monster, which submerges and is never seen again. A few hundred metres further on, a congregation of crocs feed on the unlucky carcass of some poor creature.
Death-rolling crocs tearing off flesh does nothing good for our nerves. Our pace at this point is fast enough to outrun anything. A splash erupts under Donovan’s left paddle as a croc turns and takes flight, almost knocking us over in the process. We are paddling so fast now that we have to slow down to allow the fleeing croc time to move to deeper water on our right. A few crocs ahead on our left are now spooked and head for deeper water, which is very entertaining as it results in multiple wakes of water heading straight for us, as they duck under our boats close enough to feel the movement as they pass below.
Around the corner and with our camp in sight we witness a hippo popping its head out of the water. We size up the pod (calf included) for a long while before taking what seems like a chance and floating by. We hastily climb out of the water and make our way to where our support crew have set out camping chairs. I smack the first beer back, trying to force my heart back into place.
We expect to pass the same pod of hippos further downstream on day five, but thankfully they have moved on. Our support motor boats are here to accompany us across the dam and the open flat water makes our progress seem nonexistent. Stopping for lunch, I cast off the support boat and catch my first Tiger fish ever. We decide to push on and are rewarded with the sight of the dam wall. Rain slowly drifts across the water as we make our way forward. The final push and Wall to Wall is in sight. We all break into song and power forward to the finish.
I climb out my boat, taking an offered ice cold beer in hand and look towards my three friends and support crew as warm soft rays of sun break through the clouds. We all turn to look at the dam wall and I’m reminded of why we choose to set out on such adventures. Take the time with good friends and just DO IT NOW.
Special thanks to Fluid Kayaks, Umfolozi Canoe Club and an awesome support crew.
