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.

Lesotho First Descent

It was foggy on the January morning the Africa Revolution Tour circled the Drakensberg mountain range to the North and entered the independent kingdom of Lesotho, on a mission to become the first team ever to run the 15 km gorge below Semonko Falls on the Malets-Unyane River. On the drive to the put-in

The Malets-Unyane River is located in central Lesotho and plunges off the 700 ft Semonko falls before entering a steep remote sandstone canyon. The first decent was organized by Guy Anderson and Mike and Brett Pennyfather, who arranged the logistics the week before. The team was rounded off with Andrew Pollock and Dave Fisher.

The team prepares to hike into the canyon

After a 30 minute hike into the put-in, the team was met with a spectacular view of the waterfall dropping into a nice gorge with a slide and a 25 ft waterfall.

Guy Anderson running the first drop below the 700 ft. Semonko Falls

Below the put-in drops the river steepened for 5 km before the team camped for the first night under a clear, cold Lesotho sky. The next morning we let our two Lesotho guides who were accompanying us by foot try out our kayaks over a 3 ft ledge. They were all smiles for their first kayak experience.

Local Guide Valentine and Efrom jump in the kayaks

The next day the team paddled the remaining section of boulder gardens before taking out at a small village at the mouth of the canyon.

After resting the night at the house of the village chief the team began the long hike out of the gorge which took two hours over two different passes and through numerous villages, clinging to the sides of the mountains.Night falling as the crew returns from a successful first descent

In all the run took two leisure days through a windy and steep canyon that dropped around 1500 feet in total. Low water made the rapids scrappy and higher flows would make the run more ideal.

After the successful completion of the river, the team made the long journey out of beautiful Lesotho, bound for the Transkei region of South Africa.A tired team still deep in the Lesotho Mountains

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.

Huckin' in the Drakensberg

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.