30 Days Down South

On a blue-sky Durban day Ian Garcia and Lane Jacobs dropped out of the sky and into the Toyota van to form the core of the expedition’s paddling team. Once again Kirk Hollis showed the team great hospitality, offering the team his sweet Durban home while we waited an extra day for Lane’s boat to come in on a later flight. We took advantage of this downtime to go to a rock quarry where Kirk ran some big drops on his mountainboard.

Kirk Hollis running a first decent in the Durban dirt

After Lane’s boat arrived we met up with Andrew Pollack and Dave Fisher who will be joining the crew for the next couple of weeks to help with filming and provide some very precious local knowledge.

With a loaded van and a solid crew, the Africa Revolutions Tour headed to the Southern Drakensberg Mountain range to meet up with Ross O’ Donoghue and Graeme Anderson who both live in the region and work on farms. Both Ross and Graeme paddle for Fluid Kayaks and have logged first descents on many South African Rivers as well as many international paddling expeditions. In 2004 the two met up with Tim Biggs to complete the Maranon River in Peru, the third and final un-run tributary to the Amazon.

Ross O' Donoghue, Tim Biggs, Graeme Anderson, and Sean Biggs at the source of the Rio Maranon, the last un-run tributary to the Amazon

After a birthday celebration for Dave Fischer in the local pub, the crew woke up early to run the Thrombi Gorge. The 2 km section of whitewater had several sweet boofs and a number of fun slot-style rapids. The gorge ended at Thrombi Falls, a nice 25-footer and home to the Thrombi X Festival, which will take place this year on the 16th and 17th of February.

Tyler looking deep into Thrombi Falls

On the way back from the river the team experienced its first mechanical problem with some lug nuts popping off the tire and causing the rim to be ruined. The day ended on the back of a tow truck, and again, thank you Graeme, his brother Guy, and Ross for bailing us out. Luckily for us Graeme’s father is a mechanic and will be sorting the rig out and getting us back on the road.

Lane and Capo looking on asa tow truck takes the van for its first ride

The next day the group piled into Ross’s and Graeme’s trucks and headed to Deepdale Falls, a river wide waterfall with two different lines. Due to low water, only the taller of the two lines were open, and the team knocked off the biggest drop on the trip so far.

Ian Garcia doing what he does best on Deepdale Falls

The team plans on finishing the week here in the Drakensberg before heading into Lesotho for some multi-day river trips.