The Transkei

The Transkei Region of South Africa is known for its remoteness and its rugged plateaus, high peaks, and deep sandstone canyons. Few groups have paddled the region and many runs have only been done once or twice, or in some cases, are still waiting to be explored.

Nowhere to go, but up. Pat on the heinous hike out of the Pot River in the Transkei

After a long drive from Lesotho, the African Revolutions Tour made their way to the Tsitsa River on the Eastern side of the Transkei. Here the crew met up with South African Adrian Badenhorst and stayed at his sweet kayaker hostal called The Falls. Tsitsa Falls is right below the house and is the put-in to a nice 3km section of class 3 and 4 technical creeking in a steep canyon of the Tsitsa. The Falls itself, a 80 ft. drop, has never been run before and at higher waters could possibly be runnable.

Deep in the Tsitsa Gorge

This spot made a perfect base for the team to run all the surrounding rivers.
After a week of paddling, the crew ran the Tsitsa river at several flows, a fourth decent of the Pot River, and a second decent of the Inxu River.

Aaron "Capo" Rettig charging a rapid on the Pot River

The Inxu had been done once in the 2003 by a team of South African paddlers and had not been run since. The river is very remote and any medical help of any sort is at least 15 hours away. With low water, the team put in and had a good run down one of the most spectacular gorges the team has come across yet. The run included three distinct gorges with technical boulder gardens, complete with a 50 ft. waterfall and a river wide 35 ft. waterfall.

The beautiful 35 ft. waterfall on the second decent of the Inxu River

After the water, began to drop in the area, the team decided it was time to leave the Transkei region and head to the Drakensberg Mountain range to chase the water.
The Transkei has many many options for whitewater including many multi-day trips. The area is very dry and catching enough water will always be the challenge for any run in the area.
For any information look for the The Falls on the web and talk to Adrian.