29 Jan 12 - Shavas Gorge low level 0.93 at the Old Rd Bridge
Wayne and Jan tossed themselves to the mercy of the river, playing in the last hole of "Quadratic Conundrum" and in the hole below "Terminal Slide". Wayne got off lightly, but Jan renewed his lapsed membership at the local swimming club.
Andy and Nick H were in for a treat. Aside from the usual great day on the river, they were much entertained by Wayne and Jan. Wayne started off with a little religious ceremony, in which he called to the great grey spider resident in the back of his boat to treat him kindly - and it seems to have worked too!
The water level was about the same as the previous trip. After much speculation it was decided to walk around Quadratic again - but Jan took the liberty of running the last hole. And then went back in to play. The second play session went out of control pretty quickly, ending in a swim (click here for the video). And Wayne only made a very half-hearted effort to get into the hole before choosing discretion as the better part of valour.
Andy entertained us with a swim halfway down Andy's drop (centre zig-zag line) and we managed to get him to slow down occasionally for a play in the odd wave. Jan and Wayne (click on their names for video) ran Terminal slide again, but Andy and Nick opted to take videos and manage the rescue equipment.
[Update: This section of river has apparently been run in rafts before.]
A series of waterfalls dropping a total of 50m in 300m creates a most spectacular sight, especially set amongst the pristine riparian forest. This leads directly into another series of rapids, climaxing with the "Big One", a 400m long mass of boiling rapids, holes and pressure waves. The section we explored (running a few of the rapids) is about 6km long.
Troy, Andy, Ken and I set off to explore the Mupfure, a well-known large river in central Zimbabwe, having heard about a particularly steep section of an otherwise flat and heavily dammed water-course. Armed with scant information and Google Earth, we set off for this new river. Troy made a few calls to track down a farmer on the river, who confirmed the large drops, and that the river was in full spate. Andy hung on for dear life as I navigated and Troy drove like a man possessed.
After a few hours of driving to check out various egress points we finally arrived at the gauging weir, downstream of the section we intended to run. Suitably impressed we set off for the put-in, and met up with a local fellow who wasn't sure if his name was Innocent or Joseph (something to do with a recently adopted religion from the East.) Innoseph showed us the way to the waterfall section, and the three of us needed little convincing that this section was runnable, but only by real men with real cajones, and skills that we were still in the process of acquiring.
Troy took a long hard look and decided to get rid of a few butterflies:
We put in just below the big stuff (in fact, we skipped another fairly large rapid below the big stuff) and, thinking that the worst was behind us, we told Ken to make sure he was at the egress point in 2 hours time. We ran several interesting rapids, some after scouting, and there were many lovely play waves to enjoy (pity that Andy is always in a bit of a hurry). We kept thinking there couldn't possibly be another large drop, but every few hundred meters there was one.
I stopped to scout a moderate rapid and Andy followed my instructions to the letter for an easy run. Having set up for the video I gave Troy the same lines, and finished with "If you go over, just tuck in and wait - there are no rocks for you to hit. You can roll on the flat water!" Here's the result:
And then we came upon the "Big One".
What a rapid! 400 meters long, dropping at least 20 or 30 meters, the river is tortured into a granite/basalt channel which results in several large drops, with ensuing stoppers and holes. Below is the top section seen from about halfway down, looking back upstream:
The middle section looked particularly imposing, yet runnable by the "experts":
Being the brave heroes and budding rock rabbits that we are, we decided to portage most of the rapid, with Troy and I running the last two drops. The portage was long and hot, and was exacerbated by the loss of most of our drinking water (mine simply de-bussed and Andy left the cap on his bottle open). Andy also managed to break the strap on his helmet, so, being unable to stand on the hot rocks, we sat in a lovely rock pool adjacent to the main river to affect repairs. The pool reminded me of one of those fancy infinity pools, with a fresh supply of warm rain-water running down the basalt and into it:
For reasons of public decency we asked Troy to remain in his boat and not join us in the pool.
Having repaired the helmet, Andy and I resorted to drinking the fresh water running down the rock to resupply our parched bodies in preparation for the anticipated long hike to the Landy.
A little further on I handed the camera to Troy as he was going to take the chicken run of a fairly substantial rapid, to video Andy and I. Andy being Andy didn't wait around and before we were even back in our boats he was running the main rapid. He managed to fluff the line, but held on to complete it in style. Troy set off and completely screwed up the line after rolling in the eddy, ending the last gnarly section with a swim. Wise to Andy's errors, I followed and managed to run a pretty good line, except for the sideways drop into the last large hole, which was fortunately quite forgiving and flushy.
A little way further on we met Ken and, after cooling ourselves thoroughly in the river, we set off to drag our boats the 1.5km to the Landy - Ken having failed to secure porters. Andy set his usual blistering pace, taking Ken with him, while Troy and I toiled with bruised hip and injured knee, taking turns to drag his heavy boat. Fortunately Andy's boat left a good trail of yellow plastic where it was dragged over the rocks, so we avoided getting thoroughly lost in the bush. Of course, Andy managed to outstrip Ken and overshot the Landy, so we still beat him there.
Great gulps of water were consumed by all before the trip back to Andy's for a superb sunset braai and beers. A flat tyre on the way home did little to dampen our spirits after a truly enjoyable day on a spectacular piece of river.
Five excited and somewhat nervous novices, under the supervision of Troy, Ken and I, attended the course on the Shavas river. The first day was mostly flat water and covered the basics. We ended with a short trip including a few grade 1 rapids.
The second day commenced at the main road bridge and ended at the old road. We recapped the basics, practised on moving water, and then took on the grade 2 rapids, repeating Island Rapid. The novices chose some interesting lines and entertained us with a few "jumps" at the end of the Island Rapid.
The day ended with the local kids having a go, and entertaining us an their friends with their antics.
Special thanks to Troy for his help and camera work, and to Ken for his excellent management of the camp and equipment.
8 January 2012 - Low water (0.89 at old road bridge)
We thought the trip would be a lot of bump and scrape, but it turned out to be another superb day on the river. Andy LM, Tom D and I set off from the dip tank just above the old road bridge and eased ourselves into the season with a very pleasant trip.
We ran "Oh Fark Falls" down the two main currents, Tom and I on the right and Andy on the left - uneventful. The first drop into the gorge proved pretty scary as Tom and I committed ourselves to a line past a very significant syphon, with a large stopper next to it - this right to left line is one to be avoided at lower levels - just keep well left (as we do at high water).
The rest of the gorge was fast moving and interesting, but nothing untoward. We exited the gorge and headed off to the big rapid (the only one not run to date). Andy, being convinced that the next drop was actually "Andy's Drop", almost ran "Quadratic Conundrum". We stopped to scout the rapid, and once again decided to engage in the art of portage, due mainly to the two nasty holes, seen at the level of Andy's shoulder in the photo below.
This photo only shows the last third of the rapid, but the preceding section looked pretty runnable at this level. Here's a video clip of the rapid (sadly with no-one running it).
The water was too low for the left line at "Andy's Drop", so we bombed down the centre, which proved to be tricky. We started with an intimidating drop into the unknown, and then had to use a wave halfway down to get us back onto the line, which wound its way around the back of a large boulder before the final drop into the pool below.
"Wayne's four-FIVE-six" was a walk in the park, and the rock which causes the usual kick at higher water was well exposed. "Blind Faith" proved a little more tricky at this level and Andy opted for a difficult line left of centre, while Tom and I took the straighter line right of centre.
Ken had trouble remembering the access road to the takeout at "Blind Faith" so we'd agreed to meet at "Terminal Slide". This was a blessing in disguise as Andy and I decided to run the slide. I led the way, starting centre, almost getting flipped by the corkscrew wave, before following the main flow to the right. A sharp left turn down the bank, being sure to avoid the rooster tail on the far right, and I ended slightly right of the main flushing current in the stopper wave, which meant I was held for a moment, but managed to escape. The (faint) red line in the photo below indicates the line we followed.
Andy was less fortunate. The first wave flipped him, and he had to execute a shallow-water roll, which knocked him offline. He recovered pretty well and ended up in the centre of the stopper, flushing straight through. Here's a video clip showing the action.
In an effort to avoid the syphon under the large boulder in the centre, which had given me a good scare earlier, Andy managed to take a swim in shallow water. See the album for a photo.
We wanted to paddle on to the confluence of the Nyagui, but decided Ken wouldn't find us, so we opted to drive around and agree a take-out point for the next trip.
4 January 2011 - Laurie's House. No water in the taps (this is Harare)!
Laurie arranged a dinner to share stories with the paddlers.
Due to the late start they only completed half of the allocated 11km's on the first day (as per previous blog entry). This was made up on day 2 as, after they joined the Ruenya, the water levels increased substantially. Day 2 camp was in the riverbed, which might have spelt disaster if the levels rose like they did on day 3.
Things got a lot more interesting on day 3, with higher water levels and several large rapids and narrow channels through the rock. Squash ran one particularly interesting section, with everyone else portaging. Tom had a swim, which led to a dented boat, which was later sorted with hot water (thanks Ken).
On day 4 the water was higher still and, as there was a logging road right down to the river, the decision was made to abandon the last leg and walk out to fetch the cars. Rob, Joe and Mark duly set off and within 3km's of the 30km walk Rob's shoe broke. This resulted in the use of ample duct tape, and some very swollen feet.
The trip was an all-round success with many fine stories to be told, and no major dramas.
Andy and Nick H were in for a treat. Aside from the usual great day on the river, they were much entertained by Wayne and Jan. Wayne started off with a little religious ceremony, in which he called to the great grey spider resident in the back of his boat to treat him kindly - and it seems to have worked too!
The water level was about the same as the previous trip. After much speculation it was decided to walk around Quadratic again - but Jan took the liberty of running the last hole. And then went back in to play. The second play session went out of control pretty quickly, ending in a swim (click here for the video). And Wayne only made a very half-hearted effort to get into the hole before choosing discretion as the better part of valour. 
