A late start, adrenalin rush before even getting to the river, and high water all combined for a fine day on the river, capped off with a superb braai at the finish.
After a hard night I overslept, waking up 10 minutes after the rendezvous time. Needless to say, the cussing was hard and continuous. A hasty departure and collection of Ken saw us depart town only 30 minutes late, Troy having calmed to a level of mild annoyance after Squash fed him some tea. Of course, a host of miscellaneous items such as wallets, water bottles and changes of clothing, plus the all-important maps for the put-in and improved take-out had been left behind - but let's not digress too far.
The Shavas and Nyagui looked pretty low, despite all the rain in Marondera over the past week, so the decision was made to do the Nyagui Gorge as planned. The trip to the river proved pretty uneventful, and I was pondering whether we could find the put-in without maps. We drifted out at about 110km/h to overtake a very slow-moving vehicle and as we came up on its flank, the driver turned right! Squash and I howled simultaneously and time stood still for the next few seconds. I swerved hard right to avoid collision, narrowly missing the front of the turning vehicle, and then swerved back to try and stay on the hard shoulder, but the Landy was starting to skid, so I changed direction and ramped the Landy into the roof-high ditch, executing a very clean landing in what fortunately turned out to be a soft and wide bottom, with no obstructions. Giving the Landy a few milli-seconds to settle and straighten up, I hit the brakes hard and we all debussed to relieve ourselves.
With only one easily corrected missed turn, we arrived at the weir - just where we wanted to be. Alas, when we saw the weir we had our second scare for the day - the water was massive! Troy offered to stay with Ken, but we convinced him to persevere. Later on he regretted his decision.
We ran a fairly simple drop, and at the bottom Troy went over and failed to roll.
We eventually got him out, but struggled to get his boat into an eddy for a long way - it almost went over the waterfall, but Squash and I worked together to jam it on a rock, from where I rescued it. The waterfall is pretty impressive, and not runnable.
We opted for a sneak down the centre, which rejoined the right channel, the right channel looking like it may be runnable. Just below this the river forks, with the right option proving difficult to scout (it has some big holes and a massive wave), so we opted for the easier left option.
We ran a few minor drops (videos coming soon), with another swim from Troy, before getting to Rapid K (there is a large "K" painted on the rocks and we wondered if Laurie had been there), which Squash ran left and I ran centre - narrowly avoiding a thrashing in a deep hole.
Rapid M was the next big one - a very long rapid with multiple challenges which Squash and I talked about and then ran without any major mishap. The third hole was dynamic - Squash caught it when it was open, while I almost got flipped as it closed on me. I screwed up the line towards the end and narrowly avoided yet another very big hole - thanks to directions from Squash.
The "Horeshoe-and-nail", which Wayne styled on the previous outing, looked too gnarly, so we portaged.
The next portage was quite tough, so Squash opted to run the last drop of the rapid - another dynamic hole, which if caught correctly was OK-ish, but if you missed the line or caught it at the wrong time you'd have yourself a real challenge. Needless to say, Squash was having a red-letter day and made it look easy - not enough to convince the rest of us though....
"Hey Squash, are your Cajones really this big?"
The Slide was possibly runnable, but with deep holes on either side if you strayed, so Squash ran a left line and Troy and I slid down the rocks centre. Just beyond was a deep hole which I ended up in. Knowing I did not want to swim Hyena's Bottom which was just below, I rolled upside down, stuck my paddles in the green water and waited what felt like ages to be hauled out. Only when I knew I was well clear did I roll back up.
Hyenas Bottom was three times as ugly as before, and there was a bonus hole halfway down at this level. We opted for a very hard portage involving ropes and much cussing.
Slide 2 looked scary with a must-make left turn, but this turned out to be easy and the run was even better than before. (Videos to follow).
"Steiger's Untoward" was just after the end of the Slide 2 chicken run, but was fortunately flushed out. At this point it started to rain, and we kept a sharp eye out for Ken, who we found tending the fire and cooking the meat, to ensure a fine finish to the day (except for the long walk out afterwards).
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