Jan, Dave, Tom, Andy and the Fluid Fleet
Robin and Hugh put a curse on us! I arrived at the start of the trip without board-shorts and rashie. David loaned me a T-shirt and Ken parted with his board-shorts (he had trousers on) before we set off on what should have been a gentle meander down a very different Mazowe at low level. We ran the first big rapid effortlessly, taking note of all the boulders which cause so much drama at higher levels.
The first surf-wave wasn't great, but even more disappointingly, the Castle Rock Twins were sitting high and dry - not even their toes were in the water. So we pressed on and I almost ran the second big rapid, having failed to recognise the approach at this low level. The first part of the rapid has a few kicks and twists, with a smiling, retentive hole just below, so we all opted for a short portage, with Tom opting to walk the second drop as well. The approach to the second drop was pretty boney which deflected Andy, Dave and I off the planned line, but we all managed to recover, David in his usual inimitable style.
At the island the river split and became pretty shallow. We were forced to portage and opted to put back in on the previously un-run right channel. I scouted a 2m drop and Andy once again led the way, over a small pourover. Dave followed and I ran it badly, ending up with a bruise on my ribs. Tom portaged.
From there the river was pretty slow moving, so we had to work hard for the last 4 or 5 km's, which meant the group was pretty tired by the finish. The last 2km's after the dried up Mufurudzi were particularly unpleasant, with a steady head-wind to add to the challenge of looking for the grumpy hippo.
We'd spotted 2 hippos in the pool after the first wave (near the start of the trip), and saw another 3 in the pool at the main camp, giving them a wide berth. The weir was too low to run and we trudged wearily back to the Landy, where Ken loaded up (after buying fresh fish from the locals) and we set of for the 2-hour drive home. Conversation was muted as some snuck in a quick forty winks.
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