12 September 2014 - Low Water
A stunning day on the river, in mid-September!
Photo Courtesy of Stuart Wood
In the last entry I wrote about DC and "The Illustrious Watermeyer", and their contact with the Gairezi, just upstream from Nyamaropa. The stage was set for an epic adventure - various lads took leave from work and spouses, and Squash notified his employer that his expertise was required most urgently in the Eastern Highlands, to perform a most delicate rescue. The Msasa's were a riot of colour and it was a clear spring day - one of those "Champagne Skies" days in Africa.
The chair of the Mountain Club was most concerned about this adventure turning into a misadventure (for which David C is famous - see previous entry). We were touched by her concern until we learned she was only worried about me not turning up to MC at the Mountain Club's annual dinner the next day! Thanks Val!
Andy "Long-gone" Lane-Mitchell, Andrew "Squash" Shoesmith, David "Let's-go" Chidzero, and I set off in the company of Stuart Woods (ground support) and Gary Pattenden (logistics).
Photo Courtesy of Stuart Wood
We put in just above the gorge, and planned to paddle either 10km and walk out 5km (we all know walking was never really an option) or paddle about 23km, of which the last 15km is flat water. The boat was pinned close to the put-in, so the plan was that Stuart would lead two porters in and they would carry DC's boat out, once we'd effected the recovery. I was concerned about the time a rescue would take away from a long day of paddling, and was most relieved to learn that some local kids had performed a very difficult extraction and saved us a lot of trouble, not to mention the carrying of ropes and rescue equipment.
DC runs the first major drop.
I'll let "Long-gone" take the story from here, in the form of an email to some ex-Zim paddling buddies:
Date: Sunday, September 14, 2014 5:47 PM
Subject: Mudalas on the river again
"Hi Vern and Paul,
Below is the detail to last Friday’s endurance adventure-which I spoke about on the phone Vern.
Paul you’ll remember the security bridge (not sure why it’s called that) which was the take out and put in point at the clinic when we walked up with Bernie and Royle to do those waterfalls and rocks slides on the Gairezi (I lasted 10 brave minutes). That’s where DC started [Security Bridge] but we took a short-cut, cutting out 15ks of flat paddling to come in 2-3 ks above the falls where DC lost his boat. At the put in we discovered local school kids had rescued the boat and so with relief we left it to our drivers Gary and Stuart to negotiate the release of the boat and other effects. This they failed to do as the kids were at school!
Setting off on the river at 10:45 (we drove up at 5 am),I was expecting a flattish run (1s &2s) to the drop and then the same after it. Not to be as it was drops and rapids (1 to 4) plus a hard portage round a series of rapids in a narrow canyon and then the waterfall which was serious.
Squash almost, too, let his boat slip away and into the abyss!
[HANG ON! Did he just say Squash also almost lost his boat to the falls. That's the third fool - who's next? So we decided to rename the falls yet again: From "Watermeyer's Folly" to "UR Next Folly". OK, back to Andy's email.]
The river still didn't flatten out after the falls, as expected, and further down I ended up being pinned in a rapid up against a log, so ending the long life of my “indestructible” paddle. My boat, the log and the river somehow broke it in half. I was lucky it wasn't worse with the others looking on aghast at my poor paddling into the pinning (the log was on the left of the river and easy to miss for anyone with any skill) and then at the pinning itself. Squash supplied a split and the epic continued.
DC then had a swim and there was the normal dramatics and expenditure of precious energy to rescue, first DC and then his boat, before it disappeared into a grade 5. Another hard portage followed round the grade 5, for DC and I. Squash and Jan running it in style, amping their adrenalin to the max. Panic followed at the lunch stop when trying to empty my boat, I let it slip into a small pool and lost my bung. Luckily DC found it 10 minutes later when the sediment had settled, he declined my offer of a thank you kiss.
After lunch we came to another canyon, though not in the league of the first, it was very beautiful but at a higher level it’d be dangerous (as would the first gorge), as it is very narrow and easy to get pinned in gnarly stuff or siphoned to oblivion, as at one point the rocks blocked the channel forcing it to go under, and us over the rocks. This again expended precious energy.
The river then did finally flatten out. Fortunately, there was still a gradient with intermittent grade 1 & 2 class rapids to speed us on our way. Though even these weren’t enough as the shadows lengthened and the take out evaded us at every river turn. Just when we thought there only flattish water to contend with, a wall of rock damned the river ,with a gnarly rapid run on the right, portage on the left and a 2-3 m drop in the middle. A tired Jan came up to DC and I as we dejectedly considered all 3 unpalatable options, and shouted ‘What’s the line and will it kill me?” in response to our dithering on the best/worst option. We did do the drop and it was cool, but the decision to do it was taken more in the spirit f###K let’s just get on with than after any real consideration. After 6 hours on the river and with the sun dipping behind the hills that’s what you sometimes have to do.
Obstacles continued to be thrust in our way as the locals are damning the river at the shallow rapids to funnel the river through those woven reed fish traps. I've never seen them in action (only as ornaments at houses) and was impressed at their effectiveness and beauty ,though they were a schlep to get through the channeling. In one I was caught like a big fat yellow fish on some of the sticks making up the funneling and nearly ripped a stomach muscle getting over it. We passed at least 10 of these traps and they added to the concern as the light faded, as the dark replaced their beauty with menace. By this time the GPS had become a hated and distrusted tool as still there was no take out and it was a given that it was lying. Rounding a bend as the light faded into black ,suddenly, welcome gleaming headlights dominated the river, to such an extent that we couldn't see where we were going! This became worse when Gary saw us and put them on bright! So the last grade 1 was done using our paddles as white canes.
It was a relief to finish, 25 ks and 7 ½ hours later at 6.30 pm, when we thought we’d being doing 17ks and be off around 4 (and the river would be largely flat in my mind). Oh yet again how unprepared (we all were) and how overly ambitious Jan was.
We got into Hidden Rocks around at 8 to find it full of the Mountain Club members. Jan (a member) then commandeered their "sitting around" fire for our braai, allowing us to soak up the beer drunk on the trip from the river. It proved so successful we moved on a few tiff tots of Snow Goose (whiskey), as we discussed the day’s events and kept the Mountain Club members awake. Needless to say we took the easy way out and slept under the stars, though even the numbing effects of whiskey didn't drown out the buzzing of the early morning mozzies, but a towel did.
Squash ,Gary and I then left for Peterhouse at 9 after a good bacon and egg roll and a look around Hidden Rocks. Jan and DC staying for the Mountain Club annual dinner (and to go back for DC’s boat). The good thing about the mountain club is most of their members are well into their 60s so you feel like an lightie despite being a mudala too. We arrived back at Peterhouse to see Gary’s nephew smash 58 off 26 balls (for Hellenic under 13s against Peterhouse), together with smashing a car windscreen!
What a trip, paddling an unexpectedly clear Gairezi with enough water despite it being September, on a largely unexplored stretch of beautiful river, which for most of it is the border with Mozambique. Not bad for some mudalas.
Cheers
Andy"
DC and I spent Saturday morning hunting down locals, each of whom had claimed a piece of his gear. I'm happy to report that most of the gear was recovered and the total reward paid out was only $32.
Paddling this stretch of the Gairezi at low water was certainly an ambitious project to attempt in one day, but I had full faith that my mates could pull it off. I had also mapped out an emergency egress or two to be used if we were too far behind schedule, and I'd stashed a head torch in my dry-bag. For once DC joined the ranks of the well-prepared and also carried a head torch (was it because he'd recently walked off this stretch of river in the dark).
We named (or renamed) 5 rapids:
- Long Rapid (portage river left as the series of drops finishes in a siphon);
- UR Next Folly;
- Long-gone's Log;
- Crazy Rapid (click here to watch Squash run it);
- Will-it-kill-me? Falls.
Aaah, what an awesome trip - and we now know we can extend our paddling season by several months on the lower Gairezi!
