After another night of heavy rain, we woke early to a continuing guti (drizzling rain). We'd had a look at the Pungwe falls the previous day and the decision was made to abandon the Pungwe Gorge attempt as the river was very high, and probably still rising.
By a dint of supreme logic Robin managed to convince us that the Gairezi would be less likely to be too high, so we agreed to run the 9km (steep) section below the Church Rd bridge. After two hours of slow driving, removing 4 or 5 trees from the road, we arrived to a very swollen river. I asked Mike if he thought Troy would run the gairezi at high level - here's his emphatic response, and below is a photo of Dave opting out.
We repaired to Troutbeck for tea and scones and the gang briefly considered a paddle on the pond, before consulting the maps and agreeing to take a look at the Nyamingura. So we set off for another very long drive, arriving after 1pm at the EHPL gate. We managed to talk our way into the estate and headed upriver as far as we could go (to the new hydro-electric project).
Apparently Brian Igo (son of the founder of the tea estates) used to run the river, and maybe others have done so too.
The Nyamingura runs directly from the flanks of Zimbabwe's highest mountain, and appears to run all year round, albeit at lower levels than what we experienced. The level was certainly very high on this steep creek, with few pools to allow recovery of swimmers and gear.
The start was positive, but pretty soon David was struggling to roll, so I raced in to help. Unfortunately, being in an unfamiliar boat, I was instantly edged and ended up pinned up against a rock, unable to roll either right (against the strong current) or left (into the rock). Abandoning my paddle I attempted to handroll, and then to roll using the rock as support, but all to no avail, so I ended up taking a short swim. David was also swimming by then. I searched downstream for my paddle, before setting off to alert the support party who were waiting at the first bridge. (More about the paddle in the next blog entry).
After a couple of hours we recovered most of the equipment, including foam bulkheads, water bottles, sponges, boats and David's paddle. Hugh had taken a mini-swim and the boats had drifted a long way before being recovered, taking quite a beating in the process. Alas, my paddle was not found, despite a concerted effort by all.
We trudged wearily up the mountain in the rain, stopping briefly for beers and then to refuel the Landy. While we were busy with fuel tanks Robin discovered a young bovine wandering around on the main road and took it upon himself to steer Betsy to a better place (apologies for the poor quality photo - just look for the glowing eyes).
Supper was a jolly affair at Pine Tree Inn, along with several beers, around the warm fire. The night was not over though and we spent the next hour or two repairing bent boats using hot water, Ken's power and a wooden spoon. I even tried "glute-force", which involves bouncing up and down on the area requiring adjustment. Unfortunately the videos we took were underexposed.
I went to bed, sad about the loss of my favourite (and expensive) paddle, while maintaining my theory that it was sitting in the eddy where I swam, waiting for me.
Click here for the photo album.
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