The Revolution Has Begun

The African Revolutions tour started out with a blessing from the Nile River’s rapids and a shot of Waragi raised high above the heads of a crowded NRE bar, both to please the gods of great expeditions, and to breathe fresh life into a journey that will cover the entire southern cone of Africa. No turning back boys, it has begun.

Expedition leader Tyler Bradt along with Aaron “Capo” Rettig met up with paddling legend and trip sponsor Davy O’ Hare in Kampala where a four-wheel drive Toyota Super Diesel was purchased as the expedition’s vehicle. After getting a Ugandan makeover, the rig was transformed into a super-mattatu with racks, new tires, a grill bar with mounted spotlights, and a gas box to help with the long distances between stations. The final destination for the boys: Durban, South Africa where the expedition will officially begin after meeting up with Pat Camblin, Lane Jacobs, and Ian Garcia.

After leaving Kampala December 15th, the vehicle was driven three days and three nights over some of Africa’s most treacherous roads, dogging pot-holes, elephants, Kenyan bandits (also called police), drunk locals, and one unfortunate owl that cleared the windshield, but not the roof rack. Our first stop and our first rest was Livingstone, Zambia home of the mighty Zambezi River.

Here the crew based out of the house of Tony Barnett, a Zambezi pioneer and cinematographer, who showed great hospitality. Dale Jardine and Doug Mullet met up with the team in Livingstone to spend some time on the river and discuss future plans of running various rivers in the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe later on in the trip. The Zambezi had a healthy flow and Tyler Bradt fired up the middle line of rapid #9, and after a pounding, finished the drop with only one paddle blade and a fist pump aimed at the blue sky of Zambia, a sign of victory.

From Livingston the crew drove the final leg of the journey to Durban and spent New Years with Nile guru Kirk Hollis, Extreme Equipment owner Bruce Campbell, Timmy Flowers, and Patrick Camblin fresh off the plane from Canada. With plenty of Durban waves to surf, the boys rested after the long journey from Uganda before heading to Maputo, Mozambique to begin the process of arranging a ship to Madagascar in February.

On January 9th Lane Jacobs and Ian Garcia will fly into Durban and the team plans to head to the Transky region of South Africa to meet up with Graem Anderson who has an intimate knowledge of the area. After this area is exhausted, the team will then head to the Drakensberg region to continue our quest to run the best whitewater in the area.

The team has finally made it to the launching point for the expedition and with rain in the mountains the boys are gearing up to start the huck mission.

Rush Sturges and Charlie Center will round off the team of athletes in the beginning of February.