Wet Season part 1: A siphon experience!!!

2008 has been a fantastic season for paddlers in South Africa; we had such an abundance of rain that for the first time in many years it was actually difficult deciding where to go and paddle.

For me two places stand out, the lowveld in Mpumalanga and the Maclear region in the former Transkei.

Enjoying the grandeur of the Transkei

The rain began pelting down back in December and levels in the lowveld were ideal. With a car stacked full of boats myself, Luke Longridge and close friend/shuttle bunny/cameraman, Dave Schneider made our way north. First on the agenda was the newly discovered Dante's Inferno, a massive cataract dropping 85ft in just over 30m. The double drop known as "Double Delight" still needed to be run and was up for the taking. For a full account of our day at Dante's click here.

Leaving Dante's Inferno

Next stop was Induna adventures where we aimed to brave all the upper Sabie sections and the seldom run Mac Mac river, fate or the river gods would intervene here, but more on that later. Upon arrival the first thing we did was check the water levels and it was immediately clear that we needed to run the Mac Mac.

Completely rain dependent with a small catchment means the Mac Mac river only runs for a few weeks of the year. The river is choc full of awesome rapids, big slides and nasty little surprises such as undercuts and siphons. The first section after the put-in is a nice easy warm up with class II to III+ rapids, there are one or two bigger ones which require scouting. We reached the first bridge where a nice straight forward rapid greeted us, however; this leads into a massive slide/waterfall, called Venus falls, that is unrunnable. After taking a scenic portage around we were back on the river. Below this the river is similar in character to the above rapids except for a nasty slide which holds a hidden rock at the bottom, Luke found out about this one first hand but no real damage was done to his ankles. Below this is another bridge with a nifty little drop starting from right under it. There is a nasty under cut on the right and a precise right hand boof is required to avoid it. From this point the gradient really picks up and there are a series of massive slides which follow very closely to one another. The problem here is not all of them are runnable and it goes something like this: slide #1- runnable, Slide#2- unrunnable, slide#3 runnable, drop/slide#4 - runnable, slide#5 unrunnable. So be very careful when you reach this section and make sure you scout properly. We had our own bit of drama here when Luke ran the third slide and decided to hop out his boat (right above the fourth drop) to set up safety for me. As it turned out the water was slightly deeper in the eddy than he thought and he soon found himself swimming right at the lip of the next drop. I managed to get a throw bag to him in time but there was little we could do to save his poor Fluid solo from disappearing over the drop and then continue down the 5th unrunnable slide. Fearing this could be the end of our trip we embarked on what seemed to be a feeble search for the lost/damaged kayak. After half an hour we stumbled across it in a side channel half submerged in a strainer. The boat had suffered a major dent in the stern but nothing more; so credit must go to Fluid kayaks for making such a sturdy boat that can withstand the punishment of an unrunnable and very breakable rapid.

Luke on slide #3

Little did we know but this was only a small bit of drama compared to what lay ahead of us. We reached the fourth bridge and we were faced with a rather mean looking rapid with a "so called" clean 3m drop into a pool. Luke was sceptical and I was confident (I should have taken cue from him). The technical rapid was similar to the slot machine rapid on the Thrombi section of the Umzimkulu river with a longer lead in. I eddied out above the drop and lined up. The line was good until I hit a rock at the last possible second and fell onto the cushion wave side ways. I knew instantly I was in trouble, I spun to face up stream and the bow of my boat was facing the sky. Then I disappeared into the siphon.

Gone in a matter of seconds

Image used with permission from the SABC