Three days on the Orange River

It feels like an age since I had a real break; and nothing beats three days on the Orange River. Almost better than the cool water of the river, the stunning scenery and excitement of rapids, was that I has no mobile reception. This meant no email, no sms, no whatsapp, no Messenger, no calls. Bliss!

Three days on the Orange River have been superb. Goliath herons and fish eagles flying above, kudu and springbok on the river banks, and two nights spent under a nearly full moon that painted the landscape in shades of silver.

The paddling exceeded expectations with good flow, interesting sections and some rapids to spice things up.

I have paddled this section once before; in October four years ago not long after I started seeing Celliers (a test for our fledgling relationship). It was my first time getting to know his children and also my first time paddling a whitewater sit-on-top kayak. My Vagabond Marimba is a far better kayak for this trip.

Our Vagabond kayaks came into their own, carrying us and all of our gear for this trip. I had the fortune of paddling our newest kayak, the Marimba. This is the longest, narrowest and fastest of our kayaks and I've been eagerly waiting for it. I recently sold my Epic v7, which I really loved. The only downside was that the v7 didn't have any space for Rusty! This green Marimba is my personal kayak and will be making its way to my rack at our Likkewaan Canoe Club. I just need to put a foam mat in the rear tankwell for Rusty and then it will be ready for us to go paddling.

The group for our trip included me, Celliers and his children. We also had our two Vagabond Kayaks business partners and their families along (including some siblings and their families). All in all about 15 adults and 10 children (from 4 to 14). Here are some photos from our trip.

Packing my green Marimba. I like to separate my clothing, gear and daily snack bags into smaller (5l) drybags. I find that it makes it easier to keep track of things and is also easier to pack. This is what had to go into my Marimba (plus a few communal items like a small gas cylinder, water bottles and the like). I could have packed double and still had space to spare.

The packing space inside the two main hatches really is remarkable.

The Marimba has a bucket-like Day Hatch in front of the seat for easy-access items. My camera went into the front pocket of my PFD. In the hatch, I put shades, glasses, lipbalm and binoculars.

The Marimba has three hatches; two that go into the hull and one day hatch in front of the seat. Of course, hatches can leak, which is why everything should be in drybags. I was super impressed with the hatches on the Marimba. Three days of opening and closing and NOT ONE DROP OF WATER inside. I did always make sure to tighten the hatch covers properly. Celliers had the same; not one drop either. I need to use a vacuum cleaner to suck up the fine sand from the bottom of drybags and sandals that got into the hull during packing. The sand is bone dry.

At the Hopetown bridge - waiting for the drivers to get back after dropping the cars at the take-out. Sights like this make all the mega hours of the past 18 months, from beginning to create Vagabond Kayaks to launching this company and our first phenomenal designs five months ago.

The very first bubblies after we put in under the Hopetown bridge. The novices were a bit nervy but going through this was smooth. By day 3 they were charging through waves to get the most out of them.

Me and my marvelous Marimba.

The rocks of the Orange River are spectacular. The shapes and patterns of these black rocks change as you go along. Thunder Alley, which we went through on Day 2, is striking.

We had two rafts along with us for the families with small children.

Day 1 lunch stop.

This was a really nice rapid. Sounded worse than it was. Turned out to be lovely wave trains.

The oldest in our group is 55 and the youngest is 4. Ruben (in the foreground) and Kyla paddled Tarkas. Bigger than the children's Kwando, the Tarka is manageable for bigger children and it has the packing space for overnight trips like this. They took all of their own clothing, tent (split between them), daily snackpacks, sleeping bags and mattresses... Totally independent. Just perfect.

Hubbly Bubbly rapid has a hole in the middle and a good line on far river left - if you can catch it. With the water at a good level, we were able to paddle and bump most of the kayaks down a tiny channel near the right bank (not in the picture). Of course, a couple of our team did run it, making it look really easy.

Hell's Gate rapid, the entrance to Thunder Alley. Water at a good level but not for novices and children. Experienced paddlers took turns paddling all of the kayaks down.

We walked the kayaks through on the far river right and got in at the eddy just visible above the left shoulder of the guy. Then a bunch of us paddled all the kayaks downstream to the bigger eddy where everyone could then get on to their boats again. I paddled two Tarkas down. I had a clean run with the first but swam with the second when I got tipped by a big, sneaky boil. I managed to swim the kayak into the eddy. For the rafts, this was child's play.

Picnic spot on Day 2. There is no shade for a long time once you're through and out of Thunder Alley.

We started Day 3 by walking a bit upstream from our overnight camp for a leisurely float down the river.

Floating in the cool water of the Orange River is divine. From early morning it cooks. Outside, temperatures were upper 30s, even up to 40 C!

Last day on the river. 

We did about 20km on Day one and unintentionally did around 25km on Day 2. We'd planned on 15km for Day 2 but had to do more to find overnight stop with shade. Our last day was very short - only a few kilometres - but very pleasant nonetheless. Back in Hopetown we enjoyed a swim in the pool G&Ts and I has a leisurely afternoon in my hammock - reading and napping.

Kayaks like ours make a trip like this a breeze. Without the rafts we could have moved a lot faster and next time we'll do a no-raft trip, going all the way to Douglas (an extra 30-odd kilometres).

Can't wait!

Off to the Orange River

It has been over a month since my last post - a clear indication of how my year has been.

This year has beaten me black-and-blue but I'm still breathing and there has been progress but it has been tough. I've done little but work-work-work and fortunately I have had my Rusty dog to get me out and to keep me sane.

Swimming in the quarry with Rusty. 

I'm off for a few days to the Orange River for a three day trip. This is a much needed escape - sans internet, emails and phone reception. I am very excited about paddling our newest kayak, the Marimba. This. Is going to be my personal kayak for paddling for fitness and fun with Rusty. It was moulded on Monday.

The green one is mine. 

My gear is all pre-packed in drybags and I look forward to packing it into my kayak tomorrow morning.

I've got my camera so I'll take photos. I plan to paddle, rest and sleep a lot (I have a substantial deficit to recover from).

I look forward to share my adventure with you next week. Until then...

First local river trip of the season

I'm a bit behind in my posts...

Last weekend, I enjoyed a trip down our local stretch of the Vaal River. The water level has been low and on that Sunday morning it was even lower than the normal low.

In the past, I had paddled the fibreglass prototype of our Vagabond Kayaks Usutu whitewater creekboat on a river in KZN (earlier this year) and then a plastic pre-production Usutu on the whitewater park in Oklahoma.

For this trip, I had another pre-production Usutu -  a blue one. The Usutu is named after the river in Swaziland, which we paddled a number of times for the old Swazi Xtreme adventure race (and the Swazi Whitewater Festival). It was my first time taking the Usutu down our regular section of the Vaal.

That's me on the blue Usutu, Cindy on my pink Do It Now and Karen in her lime Soul sit-in. Photo by Graeme Addison. 

When the water level is low, all it really means is that the river is really rocky. There are parts where you can't squeeze a boat through, rapids are far smaller, water moves more slowly and even on flat water you can connect with a rock just below the surface.

I actually really enjoy the river when it is rocky because the scenery seems to improve with more features from the rocks along the banks and in the river itself. I also most enjoy looking for - and successfully negotiating - sneaky little gaps between rocks. As a bonus we saw two malachite kingfishers.

I paddled the Do It Now whitewater sit-on-top last summer (and my sit-in creekboat only later in the season). The Do It Now is a super kayak but the Usutu beats it in speed, better tracking, agility and responsiveness. Despite it being a sizeable craft, the Usutu doesn't feel big when you're on it. Its nose is a bit longer and pointier than that of the Do It Now, to punch through waves with ease. I found it easier to control for ferrying and catching eddies. I look forward to challenging my skills on more water later in the season ("rain, rain come again").

The first leg of AR World Champs in Reunion is disappointing in design

I really haven't followed many of the Adventure Racing World Series or AR World Championship events every closely for some time. I take a peek at online tracking here and there, read a post or two and wait for the final results. I see this post now of the distance and discipline breakdown for AR World Champs in Reunion and I'm quite disappointed.

The first leg is trekking and it is 106km in distance with a ton of elevation gain and loss. Fastest team estimated to take 38h30. I was at Raid World Champs in the Alps back in the day - I've seen how such massive climbs nailed even the most experienced participants. They weren't smiling. A leg like this is an attrition leg.

No, I'm not getting soft.

Participants travel from all over the world. Some have been doing expedition events like this for over 20 years. Others have less experience (but all of the heart to give it a try). It is a substantial financial investment to get to the start.

They come for the physical challenge of the course as much as the opportunity for exploration and discovery of the location. Add to this the dynamics of adventure racing, dozens of variables and you have all of the elements of this sport that captured my heart 20 years ago and changed the course of my life.

And then I see a course that starts like this (leg 1 and leg 2) and I'm disappointed. Course designing is as much an art as a science. When planning a course you are tasked with creating something that tantalises, stimulates and challenges by using what the terrain and environment offers.

If there is one thing that hasn't changed in the past 20 years that I've been involved in AR (participating, writing, following), it is that any distance on foot is certain to slay many a participant, either knocking them out of the race completely or making the rest of their race less pleasant. And then you throw them in water for a 45km pack rafting leg. Apparently a lot of this will be on foot, not in water. What a blister and soft sole skin fest this will be! Some participants may not even get a chance to ride their bikes!

While these two legs won't too terribly affect the teams going for the win (they have the experience to suck it up - it won't be pleasant though), I feel sad for the other teams who are there for the experience and to finish. They're going to spend at least 2 days (48hrs) on one discipline - trekking - from the start. It is my favourite discipline but this holds little appeal.

Of course, the old Raid Gauloises events had a mega trekking component but, as esteemed adventure racer and course designer Ian Adamson says, they would have up to 400km of "brutal foot travel", split into 3-4 legs over a total course distance of 1,000km. This course distance total in Reunion is around 425km.

A course is not made challenging by just having ultra-long sections of a single discipline. A well-planned course with strategy, clever distance, cunning navigation and good use of terrain over a 400-600km course will separate the best from the rest regardless. Just making something very long is, to me, lazy. I think what disappoints me the most is not as much that the leg is 106km with lots of climb, but that it is the first leg.

Personally, I like to see some punchy legs early on where there is a lot of excitement and interaction with teams and disciplines. Let them warm up and enjoy the race and excitement of being there for a bit. Then throw in some distance with great navigation elements (but not stupid single-discipline slog distance in an AR, which is a multidiscipline sport) and strategy and cunning and then wake them up again with some punchy elements.

(On the bright side, the scenery of Reunion Island should be spectacular)

Considering the duty and responsibility of a course designer reminded me of Andy de Klerk's FEAT talk in 2011 about opening climbing routes "with style". This seven-minute FEAT talk is well worth watching.


FYI

We have 5 (or 6) South African teams competing.

Keep an eye on posts from Rob Howard on SleepMonsters.com as the event unfolds.

From ARWS...

How to watch the action at the AR World Championship 2018

1. Live tracking at: http://live.arworldseries.com/arwc18/ will keep you up to date with exactly where teams are during the race.  The site also has extensive photos, videos, leaderboard and reports. Become a #dotwatcher !!!!
2. Live Streaming Tune in on https://www.facebook.com/arworldseries for the start at 6am Reunion Time (GMT+4) on 8th November and the winners around the 12th November (disclaimer! it is a remote island in the Indian ocean and internet access could be challenging!)  Other live streaming throughout the race so keep checking back.
3. Facebook coverage through https://www.facebook.com/arworldseries and https://www.facebook.com/raidinfranceofficial/ Lend your support and encourage teams on this epic journey.
4. Instagram follow us on instagram https://www.instagram.com/arworldseries/ and https://www.instagram.com/raidinfrance/ Let us know if you love the grit and determination displayed by these world class athletes.
5. News Stories AR World series news stories are released on http://www.arworldseries.com/  and http://www.raidinfrance.com/en/ A Great way to catch up on the overall progress of the race.
6. Hashtags search for interesting news and stories with the following hashtags #arwc2018 and #arworlderies