2011, thus far, has been a year of exciting changes and new adventures. At the beginning of this year I moved to Cape Town to complete my studies and utilise the famous winter rainfall and big ocean swell, which provide some of the best kayaking South Africa has to offer.
After one very promising wet-week in the beginning of winter, the sky cleared and the rivers dried up. I did, however, manage to get onto the water a number of times to paddle two of the Western Cape’s premier rivers. These paddles also gave me the opportunity to paddle my new Fluid Detox on some hard lines.
My first paddle of the season was a solid-level run of the Molenaars River. As usual it was an awesome mission on a very fun river, at a pretty high level. It was the perfect start to the season and it really showed me the benefit of paddling the Detox on slightly higher volume rivers/creeks.
Very soon after the Molenaars run, Adrian Tregoning and I decided to hit the infamous Witte. As it was the beginning of the dry winter, the sun was out, but the water was still high. This made it a perfect opportunity to get some great photos on a river usually plagued by cloudy wet conditions.
Kayaking the Witte is always a stressful as there are so many rapids remembering the lines becomes a problem. Having many lines to remember becomes so much worse when there are many hidden siphons on every rapid which could very easily provoke horrendous consequences.
The paddle turned out to be another “tough day in Africa” with some awesome white-water and few surprises on the way.
During the descent, the Fluid Detox quickly became one of my favourite kayaks ever. Having pronounced rails gives you so much control when wanting to change lines down a rapid or carve effortlessly across the current into places that one generally struggles to get to.
Looking outside at the moment I can see rain clouds so hopefully this mid winter drought is coming to an end and I will be able to get my Detox wet again soon.
Craig
