Shavas Recovery Run

Medium Water - 1.0m at old road bridge

A mellow day, with 6 paddlers on the water, manageable rapids and an unexpected swim.

Ian, Andy (Long-Gone), Squash, Troy, Dave and I decided that the Shavas Gorge was probably the best bet on a medium level day - and it would give us a chance to regain some confidence after last weekend's fiasco.

Ian had the lads practising their eddies and ferries before we got to any serious water.  The gorge itself went off without a hitch, except that Squash broke his trusty paddle while surfing and had to resort to a split (we left his in a tree for later collection).  

We all had a look at Quadratic Kermit, and all decided to walk around.  Squash commented that if the good lord had wanted us to run that rapid he wouldn't have put such an easy portage around it.

Next up was Andy's and, after carefully explaining the line, I set off. Unfortunately the headcam battery was flat, so I was unable to capture the scene that followed.  I eddied out about halfway down and watched in fascination.  Andy missed the line, going right, and proceeded to run a section on his head.  Dave also missed the line, going left, and dropped over a ledge, got pinned for a while, but finished back on line for the last part.  Squash ran the first drop backwards, but recovered for a clean run.  Troy completely screwed it up, and took a swim in the pool halfway down the rapid, with the resultant swim over the waterfall and into the gaping jaws of a hole below.  I raced off to see about a rescue for Troy, negotiated several diagonals, waves and holes, fluffed my line and dropped over the last waterfall, into the hole where Troy, his boat and his paddle were all being recycled.  Luckily I managed to punch through, leaving Troy to fight it out with his equipment, flushing after another few cycles.  Ian took it all in his stride and cruised the rapid from side to side to see what it was all about.

Troy's swim was short and injury free, so we soon set off again.  Four-FIVE-six was pretty easy, and Blind Faith was a smooth ride, with all the lads running it successfully - as shown in this video clip.

The final rapid of the day was Termies, and as things had proven pretty uneventful I decided to run it without scouting.  Halfway down, at about the time I saw the stopper wave, I realised that we'd never run this rapid at this water level, or even close to it.  I negotiated two diagonals, managed to avoid being pushed over the ledge on the right and and then put the hammer down to make sure I punched through the stopper.  Squash and Andy took the same line, and both made it look easy, although for a moment Squash looked like he was going to drift back into the hole.  Troy and Dave both ramped over the ledge on the right, which turned out to be a very good line.

Ian had climbed out to watch all this, and decided that he would drop into the hole for a play. The video below speaks volumes, and you can see how well that worked for him.

Apologies for the shaky video: I really didn't expect him to swim and was making sure the other chaps were setting up safety.

Our day ended with the customary riverside braai, in a spectacular spot!

Shavanhove St Pauls "Not Very Saintly Run"

20 Jan 13 High Level

Swimming Season Continues

The river was still fairly high but Ian and I managed to talk the gang into doing the steep part of the St Pauls Run.  Andy wrote it up in an email to Paul (an ex Zimbo paddler of some repute, now living in the UK), which sums it all up very well.

"On Sunday, I went out with Jan and Ian to the Shavas. We met at Tree Tops, which is on Peech’s place and there was the first inkling that things could go wrong.  Troy thought we were meeting at 8 when we were meeting at 7 and as he lives in Norton he had a lot of catching up to do. Wayne was not going to make it as he took a stonking on the Umfuli (as had Jan- I missed the trip) the day before and had a bruised thigh.  So the instruction to Troy was to catch us up. 

The Shavas had gone down from the week before by about a meter, so we decided to look at the St Paul’s run. Using Jan’s Google Earth we followed a track down to a new exit point 7km's from the top bridge, leaving out the last 5 km's. The decision was the last 5 or the top 7.  The river said the last 5, as I didn’t recognise it; it was brown and pumping, but our egos said the top 7.  Unfortunately the egos won. We then set off and immediately the Landy sank to its axles. The winch didn’t work and I had sudden hopes of the 5km's run, but then in good time we pushed the Landy back onto a slab of rock and got it out. 

The river at the St Paul’s bridge was right across and was the highest I’d ever seen it. The week before it must have been well over the bridge as it was now just under. Ian’s first paddling move in a couple of years was to seal launch sideways off the bridge to catch a wave which he managed to do upside down instead of sideways which was very funny to watch.  By now Troy had caught up and we all set off. 

About a km down the first rapid began, and that’s when I really thought "this is not a good idea", as it was just continuous white water, not hectic but not stopping.  Then a tester loomed and I pulled in on the left and the others on the right and they had a look from a big rock. I was about to get out to look and possibly pull out as this is normally a nothing rapid and now it was a monster, so I figured what then were the bigger ones downstream going to be like? Then Ian said fine just keep to the right. Well I stuffed up the line going in and by the time that was sorted I was river centre and went straight into a monster hole. I went down and then up and then it just pulled me back in. The long and the short of it was I went over to get out then tried rolling 4 times and failed, so swam. 

Delighted  when I came up  I was still not in the hole.  Looked behind and there was another swimmer (Jan).  But you’re now in the white stuff and though not hectic it’s not stopping.  Anyway went over a small drop and this allowed me to sneak across and grab a rock shelf near the bank. I then went running down the bank after boat and paddle, as Jan tried to exit on the far bank dodging the flooded trees. Assuming Ian and Troy hadn’t followed Jan and I, and would probably now walk out as would Jan, I headed downstream in the hope of finding at least some of my equipment. The only issue now was I was bare foot with 6-7 km's to go.  Fortunately due to the rains the ground was soft so it was OK and there were paths all over the place. 

Back up behind me (I found out later) Ian was also doing the rapid when I was (just perfectly) and he saved Jan’s boat and then rescued Jan from the island. They then ran a bit more of the river and then portaged as it was insane. They got in below the insane stuff into the lessor insane stuff, Jan got stonked for the 2nd time in a retentive hole, swam and lost his boat.  

If you remember the river splits going into the insane stretch and there was a death waterfall/ rapid on the right and we [previously] did that chute on the left [at much lower levels].  I walked around and followed a path down to the river and came to the “pool” below them both. The chute side of the river was now a massive rapid as bad as the death waterfall and both coming round the island looked like a Thomas Baines painting.  I got gingerly into the eddy on the left looking up, amongst the debris and foam and swam about 20-30m up through the trees to see if there was any of either mine or Jan’s stuff bobbing around.  Spooky as you  expect to bump up against a body or at least run into a gaboon viper stranded in a tree. Nothing, so I carried on the trek down.

The paths took you away from the river and then I found one running along it, and the glimpses I got of the river it was a death trap. Even as it flattened out it was constant rapids with nasty looking holes. Finally I made it to the take out point. However I was on the wrong bank and so needed to swim across. The river had flattened out, but it was still moving and there was the tail of the white water from the rapids above to cross to get to the flat, and it was wide. So by the time I got to the other bank after a full on crawl sprint in the life jacket and helmet I was exhausted. 

The Landy was there, but no one else. The locals don’t speak English which shows how education has regressed in the rurals, so communicating to find Ken was an issue and I remained clueless till he turned up after Ian. Over the next hour or so Jan’s boat came drifting past, followed by Ian who then went chasing off after Jan’s boat followed by Ken on the bank and finally Jan and Troy showed up. Jan, Troy and I then went up to the St Paul’s bridge to get Troy’s car and there was my paddle, plucked from the river way down and sent back by the others to the bridge. Cell numbers were then swopped with Sugar, so the locals can track us down if/when they find the boats. The others had collected a seat and floatation from one/both boats on the way down so don’t reckon they will be in good nick if found. When we  caught up at the  main road bridge the humour  started to flow with the knowledge that we had had good hiding (except Ian) with no trauma, though Jan was not so happy as he’s collected a number of good biffs to the face and thigh over the last few days and some nice gear was in his boat, plus he was blaming himself for taking us down the run (which he shouldn’t). Yet again, lesson learnt  small rivers and big rain don’t mix, though on the plus side Barb’s  chuffed I can’t paddle anymore.
 
On the subject the Rusape river has recently been 70-80m wide and down South the Bubi is running high.  Severe weather everywhere, snow in the UK, floods here and a heat wave in Oz. Maybe the Gods have sent these challenges for the naughty white Zimbabweans?"

We received calls on Tuesday to tell us our boats had been found, and I recovered both, including all the gear that was inside them.  My boat had been relieved of all it's contents, each local taking his own souvenir.  After 4 hours of negotiations I managed to convince them to return everything, then the negotiations for an appropriate reward started - we managed to convince them that $1,000 was a bit steep!  Steve and his son's apparently swam into the river to recover Andy's boat, which was lodged part way down the chute - not a simple feat - with minimal damage and his shoes and water-bottle still inside.

Sadly, Andy's banana was either floating down the river, or had been sconed by Steve and his recovery team.

The email banter ran high, with the following comment and quote from Squash:

"Some dented egos out there hey boys!  

'We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face... we must do that which we think we cannot.' - Eleanor Roosevelt.  

Obviously she never went kayaking with the 'get your nuts in the boat first boys of the HAKA'".

Thanks for the support lads!

Mupfure Ijapo Section

19 Jan 13 Medium Level about 20cm over the Ijapo Weir

Swimming Season Opens

Blog to be completed shortly

 

Shavas Family Day

1 Jan 13 Shavanhove Gorge

Another Low Run, with a large crowd and a visit to the cave paintings.

We invited a crowd of non-paddlers to spend the first day of the new year out at the Terminal Slide on the Shavas.  

Fungisai, Dave, Wayne and I paddled the gorge, finishing at the slide, where we enjoyed a fine lunch in pleasant company.

We followed lunch with a quick visit to a cave in the Dambatsoko range, which is filled with a good range of rock art.