Section 1

Gairezi Expedition

December 2010

Day 0 and Day 1

Gairezi Expedition

27 to 30 December

2010

This account of the Gairezi expedition has been written as a memento for the benefit of the

8 persons who went but some explanation of the route and the background is given for

third parties who may be interested.

Who?

The participants were;

Robin Jarvis, Alastair

Watermeyer, Laurie

Watermeyer, Joe

Holmes

Helen Patchett, Zia

Thomas, Karin Stoll,

Anita Stoll

Seen here brimming

over with enthusiasm

and energy BEFORE the

event

Where?

On the Gairezi river, about 100 km north of Nyanga, Zimbabwe, where the river is the

border between Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The full three day route is shown on this

Google Earth Image ………… see the red line, the rivers runs from south to north.

The river enters a gorge in an impressive mountain range. The consequence is that apart

from a single route about one third into the gorge, there is no entry or exit surface access.

The Google Earth Image below shows detail of the section covered on Day One

Overleaf is a copy of the 1 : 50 000 map (MAP 1). The rapids have been numbered in

sequence as they occur.

Camp night 1 and

Start at Fig Tree Camp

Cave

Bad Place

Camp Night 2

MAP 1

Cave

“Bad Place”

Exit below Rapid 11

Margaret’s Lodge

Camp second night

Exit route walked by Al and Patch

Before relating what we did we should

first mention who went.

Trevor Volker (36), keen cyclist and former

rafting guide at Victoria Falls has lots of

experience as a qualified white-water

operator. Trevor was with the team, but

only in spirit, after he was obliged to work

through the December shutdown period

at the last minute. He was involved in all

the preparatory work and he came on

most of the reconnaissance trips.

Although he is certainly not unique in his

personal qualities, his strength, staying

power, humour, knowledge and constant

concern for his fellows would have made

him an ideal companion for this trip, so,

well……… he will just have to come along

on the next one……….

So without Trev, we had a place to fill at

short notice.

Zia Thomas, always keen for an adventure

was quick to accept the invitation. Zia

completed the 500 km Blue Cross walk in 2010,

mostly on her own (no-one can keep up with

Jack Hulley!) Zia has become a regular rock

climber at the Mountain Club of

Zimbabwe and it was clear that she would fit in

well and gladly carry more than her share.

There certainly was no disappointment.

Start at Fig Tree camp

Rapid 1

Joe Holmes (59) has been a close friend

since those first days of school back in

Umtali. He lives in Johannesburg. As

tough as they come, he has a huge appetite for excitement and enthusiastically seeks out

everything new, so a first descent of a white water stretch of the Gairezi was just what he

liked. For the rest of the party his bush skills learned as a tracker coupled with an amazing

ability to find a practical solution to nearly every physical problem made him an ideal

resource. Joe likes to keep up with what is available to enhance his activities and brought

along a brand-new waterproof camera attached to his helmet, which could fire still or video

images from a remote button on his wrist.

Whoever said that dynamite comes in small

packages surely must have met Karin Stoll.

This tough young lady (with a PhD in Bio-

Chemistry tucked away in her head) can

certainly take it. Another VERY ATYPICAL

Johannesburg resident.

Every trip has to

have someone

sensible along,

so a few were taken, just in case some got used up. Alastair Watermeyer (61), great story

teller, with a huge heart, and above all, excellent in a tight situation was essential for his

younger brother’s well being.

Robin Jarvis (58) would probably prefer to be classified as one of the sensible ones but one

does have to take his history into account, particularly when it comes to reptiles. Rob has

been a friend from the Umtali days and this whole Gairezi exploration idea came from his

interest in a curious circular geological feature in Mozambique which he had noticed on

Google Earth. After we inspected that, back in August 2010, we visited the Gairezi from the

Mozambique side and remarked on how interesting it would be to paddle down the river. Of

course what we were looking at then was not quite the same as what was upstream, but

more about that in the pages to follow.

Helen Patchett, cyclist, overland tour operator and great

organizer. Certainly would put herself, correctly so, in

the sensible box. For her there was a personal demon to

demolish, having had a very frightening experience in

the rapids below the Victoria Falls some years ago.

Patch organized the catering and as always nothing was

lacking, quite the contrary in fact given the special treats

purchased by Karin and

her sister Anita in

Johannesburg.

Patch was occasionally

given the title “Alpha

Cat” and sometimes

that was a little unfair.

Things needed to be

done and they

certainly were done.

Anita Stoll, Karin’s

sister, was a

newcomer to most of

the party but what a delight she turned out to be. Another one with a PhD tucked away in a

totally modest personality, she has been one of the top South African Adventure Sports

champions. Great strength, great enthusiasm, plenty of courage and always working hard

for everyone else. Anita is currently attached to a company in Nigeria.

And of course someone has to write this stuff, so the 8th

member of the team was Laurie

Watermeyer, about whom the writer prefers not to make any comment save that he

thoroughly enjoyed the experience and is privileged to have been in such excellent

company.

Right, so introductions are out the way, and you will be asking “so, what happened?”.

Well, to tell you that, we need a

beginning of course and as was explained

above Rob Jarvis had taken Al, Laurie and

another friend, Rob Fisher, to go and see

this apparent crater in Mozambique,

about 20 km from the Zimbabwe border

at around the latitude of Mutoko.

This Google Earth Image shows the

“crater” clearly, it is about 6,5 km in

diameter. The red line is our route on the

Gairezi river and mostly shows the

distance we covered on the last day. To

orientate yourself the river (the red line)

is also the Zimbabwe/Mozambique

border.

This photograph is of the south

eastern rim of the “crater” The

hills in the background of this

picture surround the Gairezi

gorge.

No……… you can’t read about

that trip to the crater now, we’ll

both be up all night, me writing

and you reading. Save to say

that the climb to the rim of the crater/caldera (actually a remnant of major buckling

according to our geologist friends) was achieved in much less time than anticipated and so

we drove on down this small dirt road and came out on the Gairezi river where it borders

Zimbabwe.

This is what we saw……

A gentle river with

“probably enough water

for us to bring our

canoes on, we should do

it sometime.” This was

in August 2010, at low

water levels.

Several days later Patch

was asking what we

were going to do this

Christmas…. In 2009 six

of us had spent Christmas and New Year drifting lazily down the Zambezi for 14 days.

Patch’s question stimulated the idea to see what could be done on the Gairezi, a river that

had intrigued us ever since we had explored, and even raced, some of the upper-river

stretches back in the 80’s.

A Google Earth journey down the river, starting just below Nyamaropa, soon showed some

deep gorges and many rapids. The trusty old 1:50 000 maps confirmed this. A lesson was

learned many years ago that when those old guys looked through their stereoscopes and

decided to call something a rapid or a waterfall, you better take them seriously.

So a walk-in

expedition was

planned for one

weekend in

September to

what looked like

the worst place.

Bernie Cragg from

“Far and Wide”

was visited to ask

his advice about

the river but he

had not been

down that far,

and nor had any

of our old

contacts from the

early kayaking

days. There are

separate written accounts of this exploration trip in September 2010 and the subsequent

follow-ups in October and November for those not familiar but interested, but to cut a long

story short, the river was inspected and passed as “probably navigable provided the water is

not too high, there will have to be some hard portages around the biggest rapids”. Nyanjiwa

Falls, as named by the locals, and seen here in the low water conditions of September was

clearly going to be something to avoid.

It was during these exploratory trips that the idea occurred to attempt to travel the full

length of the Gairezi from the source at the top of Nyangani mountain to the sea, to do

some research into interesting aspects like history, geology, flora and fauna and take lots of

pictures. Different sections would be covered in short trips, no doubt leading to many

adventures and good times. The objective being to build up enough material for a book one

day. This descent of the rapids in the gorge below Nyamaropa would be the first of these

trips.

Returning to our story, with

the exploration done, we

started recruiting friends and

buying inflatable two-man

rafts, called Ark Crocs. These

craft were originally developed

for running commercial white

water trips in South Africa.

Bernie Cragg was retiring his 5 boats so we bought them all and Joe and Anita each treated

themselves to a new boat from the factory. There was a lot of effort and time put into

repairing the old boats and we did a couple of trial runs on the first few rapids of our

intended trip on the Gairezi . We also took the boats out for some fun around Harare, while

Joe, Karin and Anita had a go at the Vaal river.

That sorted along with extra kit like grip-on-slippery-wet-rocks shoes, throw-rope bags and

water-proof dry bags obtained, we all met up at Nyanga on 26th

December 2010 and drove

down into the Gairezi Valley.

Then something went wrong. Despite planning for 4 months, intending to gather images for

a photographic book, Laurie had forgotten his spare camera battery at his office and the one

in the camera was nearly flat. Everyone expected the water to be a big problem so only

waterproof or small format cameras had been brought by the rest of the team. So to you

dear reader, apologies that some images could be better but the kind contribution of

everyone else’s pictures still provides a good record as you will see.

As we looked at the

steep road winding

down to Nyamaropa

we saw much rain,

and we all prepared

ourselves for a

thorough soaking

over the next few

days.

Our first view of the river meandering through

the fertile Nyamaropa valley showed us that

there had indeed been a major increase in the

river flow and the water had turned from

crystal clear into dark brown water, heavy with

sediments. But, that was expected, and bode well for some exciting rapid riding.

We needed to set up

vehicles at our exit

point so three of us

had to drive through

to a school we had

recce’d before,

about 65 km

downstream of our

intended start point.

First, we all had a

brief lunch at the

river’s edge.

Rather than have the

rest of the team

waste their time, Al and the girls pumped up three boats and set off from a pump house for

a pleasant 15 km flat water glide to our pre-selected camp site for the night.

The paddling party reached Fig Tree camp,

which we had used before, well before the

drivers were back. A truly magnificent tree.

There had been, of course, some

nervousness that they would simply paddle

past the camp (none of the 5 in the boats

had seen Fig Tree camp before). If they had

paddled past, there would have been no

cellphone communication and no way to

find each other. But with the diligent use of

two GPS’s, they had no problem finding

the place, particularly because we had

explained that it was just beyond another

landmark, a place we had called “Border,

Border” a spot where a ferryman and his

son operate 5 boats carrying people across

the river (and the border) on a regular, fee

earning, completely out in the open, manner. This is a very porous border here and makes

one a little annoyed thinking of all those many wasted hours at official border posts, in hot

conditions, waiting for some underpaid, under-performing official to grace you with his

attention. Down here you can just wade across any time you please.

Joe, Rob and Laurie left two cars and the trailer at the school near the exit point, along with

a frozen cool box of beers, cokes and fresh rations. The return journey in Joe’s car back to

the rest of the group was uneventful apart from the deep finger tip impressions left on his

dashboard by Laurie. Joe is not the world’s slowest driver. Meanwhile the others had

carried the kit up from the river and made camp under the tree.

Dinner was easy to prepare, lots

of dry wood about kindly brought

to us by the lady farmer on

whose field we were next to and

it was not long before that

familiar click/fizz sound of beer

cans and cider bottles was heard.

Spirits were high as we feasted

off adrenalin in anticipation of

the rapids to come.

The nearby termite mound was a

fine place to toast the sunset.

Even if it did take Laurie three tries to get back up the ant

heap before the shutter went off.

Next morning we sorted our kit out, met another friendly

local farmer at his house on the hill and asked him if we

could leave Joe’s car there. He willingly obliged and

proceeded to tell us about the crocodiles in the river which

so far had only taken goats and cattle. Little did he know

that when Joe was to return to fetch his car a few days later, Joe would be out of change

and the fee paid for caring for the car would be USD50! A fine, if late, Christmas present for

him!

We

woke

after a

pleasa

nt

night’s

sleep.

There

was

no

great rush that day, about 22 km were planned and Rob and Laurie had already seen some

of the stretch. We knew about a vicious set of rapids which had been named by a local we

had met on the Mozambique side, “Ah Sir, around the corner there is a Bad Place” a

remarkably accurate description as it turned out. In October there had been dozens of

people on both sides only too willing to

lend a hand with portaging so we were

rather relaxed and embarked at just

before 9:00 am.

Joe started using his helmet camera for

the first time, and as with all new things

one needs to learn the tricks. This camera

takes very wide angle shots and it is

important to have your head in a vertical

position to get the horizon right, but

nothing that a bit of photo editing can’t

fix. It may be that the constant presence

of his cap brim caused the camera some difficulty with auto focussing, we will know for next

time.

It was a glorious morning,

calm water for a few km to

allow the butterflies to settle

and just a pleasure to be on

the water at last.

The first few ripples we came to

caused yelps of delight and we

zipped along at over 9 kph

according to our GPS’s

Within

a

quarter

of an

hour

we had

reached rapid No1. (We had numbered them from those marked on the 1:50 000 map) This

rapid was smoothly negotiated by all, more excitement. Rob and Laurie had needed to

portage around No1 on the October recce trip because the channel was just too tight for a

boat.

The old red boats needed air topping up within an

hour.

After

about 5

km

from

our

start

point

we

turned

right

into the

hills of

the

gorge.

The

river cut a picturesque channel through the rock and once again everyone had a smooth

ride through.

Even Jarvis was

showing good

form at this

stage.

Al had the look of a

serious professional about

him, but then, who would

not with Miss Evinrude

(Anita) in the front.

The river passes through eroded bands of rock, this is where the rapids are and then there

are long, peaceful “pools” in between.

Sadly the wildlife has become wilddead due to the number of people and poverty about, but

the bush was magnificent.

After about an hour of this idyllic paddling we came to

the Cave that Rob and Laurie has visited in November.

Look back at Map 1, it is marked there.

This looked like a fine spot for a snack and cool drink so we pulled in.

We took some

pictures from the

same spot of a

few weeks before

and the

comparison with

the picture

below, taken

before the rains,

is interesting.

Note the position

of the dead tree

down by the

boats, the large

black rock

bottom left, the

missing rock mid

stream, as well as the vegetation and the colour of the water.

An amazing transformation in such a short time.

There is a curious pink stain on the white quartzite here,

something we will have to ask some expert about.

Joe went exploring and found an exit up at the back of

the cave.

But all good things

must end sometime so

after a half hour break

we went back down to

our boats, some more

pumping and we were

ready for…….

Some knarled tree roots …

And then the next big feature…………………BAD PLACE!

Rounding a

corner just above

Rapid 4 we saw

that familiar wall

of rock which has

formed the rapid

and we knew Bad

Place was just

below it.

It was now 10:30

am.

Rapid 4 is just a

hundred metres or so

before Bad Place, which is a series of 5 rapids.

Rapid 4 was very inviting and we took a while inspecting it.

Anita was

very keen

but Laurie

kept

recalling

what he

had seen

under

those

swirls.

The rock

had cut

channels

under the

rocks and

the

thought of

falling out

and

getting

pulled into one of those dark channels was a bit scary.

This pair of photographs taken from nearly the same spot but weeks apart and show what

was being covered up by the flood water. There was a big hole just a few metres into the

rapid which could easily have flipped us and we would have been left to swim very fast for

the bank to avoid the certain death of going down Bad Place with just a life jacket.

So, ashamedly, we chose discretion and proceeded to look for a passage to portage from

there down to the bottom of Bad Place.

When Rob and Laurie had come down in October the water had been low enough to allow a

rope portage down the Zimbabwe bank. This entails tying two long ropes to the front and

back of the boat and then manoeuvring it down the rapids from the bank. But the river level

was too high and the boulders on the bank were just too large to get around.

Joe explored the length of Bad Place, in all about 1 km, seeing nothing but huge falls and

contorted twisting water that we would have had no chance in.

The

Zimbabwe

bank has

impossibly

huge

boulders,

like blocks

of flats and

carrying the

boats over

these would

have been

extremely

difficult.

The

Mozambique bank has a near sheer cliff and the high level water is right up against this. So

the best choice was to try and cut a path up above the cliff and then along the right bank.

Being the tracker, Joe was assigned the job of cutting

the path, while the rest of us would roll up the boats

and start ferrying the kit. Now this was where we were

supposed to be flicking out the USD 5.00 notes to the

locals but there was no sign of anyone.

One needs to recall that we deliberately were carrying

as little kit as possible, knowing that we would have to

portage often. That meant that a simple but really

useful tool like a panga (machete) had not been

brought along. Joe had a tough time of it breaking

creepers and bushes with his bare hands or usinga stick

club just to get a path through.

The rest of us

moved the kit

in a series of

short hops, just

a hundred

metres or so

each time. It

was a steamy

day and we

were doing this right through the hottest time

of day. We were soon dehydrated.

The boats were real bitches to carry

through the thick undergrowth and the

steep hill side.

None of us would be ashamed to admit that this was definitely beyond our comfort zone.

But Jarvis was still alert and noticed an unusual

plant in our path. He had the energy to dig it

out of the ground and get Patch to photograph

it for later identification.

This identification was done, subsequently, Dr.

Fay Robertson commented “I am favouring

Costus macranthus var gigantifolius at the

moment” She sent the photo off to Mark Hyde

who replied ”I discussed this with my

Zimbabwe flora project colleague Bart

Wursten and he and I agree that it looks like

Costus spectabilis” and “It has the distinctive 4 leaves flattened against the ground. Of

course the yellow flowers would be necessary to clinch the determination. I've never seen it

in Zim (or indeed anywhere else), so it would seem to be an interesting find” so……… Well

Done Rob, no doubt he will have to return to Bad Place in the flowering season.

P.S. Rob did place the plant gently back in the ground

Eventually we were able to drag the last of the loads into

our supposed re-launch spot.

Anita, ever the helpful one, was quick to

lay out an intensely needed and simply

delicious meal for us.

Of course it was delicious, would you

argue with someone holding a

Leatherman knife like that?

Seriously, It was really delicious,

especially that ready made pickled bean

salad from somewhere in Johannesburg.

It was now 14:30. We had been toiling

away in that steamy jungle for 4 hours!

Now some of the more observant of you will have seen the chopping board on Anita’s lap

and struggled to reconcile that with the earlier comment that we were travelling with

minimum kit. Sure…. but taking those two chopping boards along really made a huge

difference to food and tea preparation. They saved many a spilled cup of tea and kept

handfuls of sand out of our food We did not regret the decision to take them along one little

bit.

After lunch we decided to have a break to rest and allow those so inclined to walk back up

Bad Place to get some pictures.

We have a couple of stronger and younger friends who are keen on kayaking. No doubt they

will be thirstily looking at the pictures and thinking about what they could run, and certainly

they will succeed with more manoeuvrable craft than the Crocs, but guys, this is no walk in

the park. Take it from someone who did a lot of swimming when he was your age.

Laurie

considered

that this was

a sufficiently

spectacular

place to

photograph

so he tried to

capture the

power of the

water with

the last few

electrons

with any

potential to

wander

across from

the negative

to the

positive side

of the

battery in his

Nikon via all

those tricky

little circuits.

And Al surveyed

the scene.

This is a good before picture showing his healthy reserves on this day, things were to change

dramatically!

But the team

soon got edgy

about moving on.

Joe went for a

quick check that

there was a safe

route,

fortunately…. We

could not see

round the corner,

but it had looked

like an easy run

hugging the right

bank.

Until we saw this tight little gulley which had CAPSIZE written all over it.

So there was nothing for it but to lug the boats along the bank a bit further.

We used a

combination of

carrying and

ferrying and it

worked out rather

better than we had

thought.

The portage/ferry went well until we tried to pump up one of the old red boats. There was

so much noise from the rapids that we could not hear where the air was leaking, but it

certainly was not staying in the boat for long!

We tried in vain to

get the boat hard

enough to float

safely but

eventually realised

that there was just

such a big leak that

we would have to

collapse the boat

and carry in on one

of the others, so

that’s what we did.

This combination

of two boats with

kit underneath was

a bit more difficult

to handle over the

rocks. Patch was

temporarily

trapped and

squashed under

the heavy boat

when we lost our footing but fortunately she had a frightening but fractureless experience.

Having got the last of the kit to a safe launching spot, it was now after 4:15. Now it was time

to make

morale

saving

decision

s so it

was

announ

ced,

without

debate,

that we

would

simply

cross

over to

the Zim

bank

onto a bit of a beach we could see a couple of hundred yards downstream and camp for the

night. There were no objections to this decision. Exhaustion was now very evident. We had

only covered about 500 metres with our portages but it had taken us 5 and a half hours.

Two boats took three passengers each and Laurie and Anita brought the rest of the kit and

the wounded boat over.

Don’t be misled by the

smiles on Anita and

Laurie’s faces, it was

just the thought of

sitting down to a cup of

hot tea that spurred

them on.

As luck would have it, the

campsite was ideal, with a

wide beach and clear areas

above any freak flood level

for us to pitch our tent on

secure dry land and to drag

the boats safely away from

the water.

Morale rapidly picked up

after Al brought out his

bottle of rum (a bottle, incidentally, that had a very short life after it left his pack).

Al generously offered to walk out the gorge next day if we could not mend the leaking boat

and Patch made the same offer. It was indeed fortunate that we were just above Rapid 10

because we knew about the one and only access point just below raid 11 (Rob and Laurie

had used this as an exit point on their October recce).

It was now time for Al and Laurie to reveal a secret surprise that they had planned. We have

a great friend called Heino Detering. He always loves to come on trips with us but has a

young family and is an excellent father, so this trip had never been considered possible for

him what with Christmas and so on. However, just before we left, he and Al concocted a

plan that Heino would drive out and walk down to the bottom of the Nyanjiwa falls gorge to

meet us for our last night camping n the river (29th

Dec). He would bring fresh meat and

bread rolls for a braai, cold drinks and basically be an unexpected delight for the rest of the

team who, we knew, would be a bit worn out by then. The plan was that Al would swop

places with Heino so that Heino got one days worth of paddling on the last day which,

although it would not be through the big water, would still be fun. Now, of course, if we

could not fix the leaking boat there was a new option open to us to ask Heino to come a day

early and look after the two people who would have to walk out.

After some brief discussion about these alternatives we retired early. We slept well that

night………

Section 2

Gairezi Expedition

December 2010

Day 2 (and a bit of Day 3 … read on you will

understand)

Map 2

Camp Night 2

Margaret’s Lodge

Walk in with Porters

from school

Start Day 2

Nyanjiwa Falls

Camp Night 3

Or if you prefer a Google Earth picture. The river is shown as red…...

After sleeping off the

worst of the effects

of that Bad Place

portage we roused

our stiff bodies, had

a quick muesli type

breakfast and went

to see what we could

do about the broken

boat.

We had several rolls of duct tape, tubes of contact adhesive and

other repair kit and so it seemed we had a chance.

Now that we could hear ourselves think we quickly pinpointed

the problem area to being all the front seams on the boat. It

was as though the seams had simply pulled apart. These boats

are cemented with hot melt adhesive and perhaps it was just

too old or the boat had over heated in the sun but for whatever

reason the seams had split. We tried in vain for over an hour

and used up more than a roll of duct tape but every time we

inflated the boat, the duct tape would simply blister off the

surfaces we were trying to seal. The contact adhesive too was

ineffective on the old PVC surface.

So we came to the sad realization that the boat could not be fixed and that we would have

to pursue the option of two of us walking out the gorge, reducing the river party to 6 people

on 3 boats.

We still had rapids 10 and 11 to

negotiate before the exit point

so once again we set off with 3

people in two boats and Anita

and Laurie dragged the floppy

damaged boat on a rope.

When we reached the top of rapid 10 it looked too big for overloaded boats and Al and

Patch walked around on the Zimbabwe bank. This was fortunate because it gave Patch an

opportunity to take some spectacular pictures as the three boats negotiated Number 10.

The limp red boat was released and allowed to find its own way through.

Joe and Karin set off first

in fine style, choosing a

line on river right.

But unfortunately for them they placed themselves too far over to the right and could not

turn in time to catch the stream behind the flat rock.

Laurie and Anita came

steaming in behind

them, starting on the

same line but they saw

the tricky corner that

had snared Joe and

Karin, and managed to

slip down the channel

on the left of the big

rocks.

With

Joe and

Karin

still

battling

to free

themse

lves,

Laurie

and

Anita

powered over the drops and holes thoroughly enjoying themselves.

Then along

came our not

so experienced

crew of Rob

and Zia. They

had seen that

the best line

was to miss the

big rocks and

go left, but

somehow they

did not get it

right. Their

nose hit the

first rock and

they were

turned by the

current. They

now had the

rather

unpleasant job of descending backwards.

Bu to their great credit they

proceeded through all that

churning water without losing

crew or paddle, even freeing

themselves from a temporary

marooning on top of a rock.

Having freed themselves at last,

Joe and Karin had a straight run

down the right channel and then

we were all in the pool at the

bottom of the rapid

Some hearts pounding but everyone elated by this great rapid.

We collected the loose boat and the two walkers and set off down to Rapid 11.

Above

Rapid

11, Al

and

Patch

walked

round

again

and we

let the

leaking

boat

find its

own

way. 11

is a

much

smaller rapid than 10.

This brought us into the wide bay below

rapid 11. Here there is another routine

crossing place complete with resident

ferrymen with their curious square boats,

made from nothing more than flattened

petrol drums.

Al and Patch required porters to carry the

broken boat up out the gorge so with a bit of

shouting across the river in a mixture of

English, Portugese and Shona we somehow

got ourselves understood and it was agreed

that four porters would be brought across

and assist.

We

needed

to tell

Heino

that two

of our

party

would be exiting that day (28th

Dec) and would Heino kindly come a day early to pick them

up. There is obviously no cell phone signal in this remote place but Patch had brought a Sat

phone. So with maps and GPS at the ready, Heino was called and the pick-up arranged.

Now you need to know that our good friend Lesley Melon was about to have her 60th

birthday party on 1st

January 2011 and all her family from all over the world were coming for

the event. She had block booked the Pine Tree Inn. Heino is Les’s son-in-Law. So when he

announced that he was off to fix a Watermeyer problem and the rest of the family would

have to get themselves to Pine Tree Inn

without him it was bad enough, but when

Ant (Les’s husband) said that maybe he

ought to go along too in case there was

need for his services, this was a bit too

much for poor Lesley. Our name, or at

least Laurie’s name, was now DIRT,

because many times before the

Melons/Deterings have been called upon

to get Laurie out of a jam.

But despite this terrible thing for poor

Lesley the pick up was arranged and we

prepared ourselves for the temporary

parting from Al and Patch. We gave them

some money and some food. They were

prepared to sleep out in the open

somewhere if Heino did not make it in time. We had a quick snack to eat and said our

farewells.

Now, kind reader, you will appreciate that there will have to be two stories to tell in parallel,

what happened to Patch and Al and what happened to the rest of us. There is only one way

to do this, well only one obvious way, and that is to do them one at a time. Considering that

Al and Patch had made the big sacrifice of volunteering to miss the rest of the day’s paddling

it seems correct that their story is told first.

What is related now is second-hand with no independent verification. What we do know is

that there are a few pictures of them both having a great time and both returned to us with

big smiles, so let’s just assume that their explanation of what happened is the whole

story……..

They soon fixed up with the porters, settled some small dispute with the ferryman who had

carried the porters across the river and they set off up the climb out of the gorge. This took

them just about an

hour, passing

through the cool

forest and stream

half way up. The

distance was about

1,5 km to the

summit. They knew

that it would be a

long time before

Heino arrived so

there was no point in

walking to the

arranged rendezvous

point, the store on

the main road, well

not yet. So they

looked about for a

suitable place to stay for the night. As luck would have it, they saw a smart building just off

the track. Amazingly this was a tourist lodge, right out there in the sticks.

The lodge was run by a young lady called Margaret, who normally works in Harare and

amongst other interesting facts is a keen rugby player. Al says it a very clean and pleasant

place and recommends that the Mountain Club considers going there and using it as a base

for walking out into the surrounding hills and as a launch point for a possible ascent of the

forbidding mountain nearby called Makori shown below.

Apparently they spent a couple of pleasant hours at Margarte’s Lodge doing Sudoku,

watching the chickens and a baby pig before they decided it was time to walk off to the

store below Makori. They had not been able to get cellphone signal despite being on a ridge

so had no idea if Heino was in fact on his way. So they wandered off, leaving their kit at

Margaret’s lodge. Later they realised they had not taken warm or water-proof clothing, no

torch, no GPS and only a few dollars but nevertheless they set of gaily down the track. There

was a 7 km walk to the store and along the way they enjoyed more spectacular scenery.

A common

feature in this

region of

dramatic

folding are the

quartzite

ridges, as we

had seen at

the

Mozambique

Caldera.

Looking west

they could see

Makori.

At the store Al made friends with the local

policeman. They had a good time comparing

notes about cellphones. There was some signal

here but the only messages Al received were

mundane, still nothing from Heino.

They started to get a little concerned that they

would have to start the long walk back to

Margaret’s lodge, worried about getting lost in

the dark.

But being the types they are they decided to

make the most of a bad situation and soon…..

settl

ed

in…

…………, several warm Black Label bombers and then things were ticking along nicely. This

was the sight Heino and Ant saw as they arrived. Apparently Al was exceptionally pleased to

see them, to the extent of actually kissing Heino! We have to hope this is an exaggeration.

Ant and Heino, being in

such disfavour with their

respective wives, had to

make some urgent calls

to reassure all back in

Harare that they had

arrived safely and made

the “rescue”.

There was so much

excitement that Patch’s

bag with her valuables

including her camera

were left behind at the

store. This was

discovered some time

later, followed by a

stressed drive back to

the store. “Oh yes Sir, we

know about the missing

bag. It has been taken to the police station,” Sure enough it was there, under the car of Al’s

new police friend, completely intact.

Patch’s feet were not doing well in her

trainers so she invested all of USD 2 and

bought herself a very comfortable pair

of Chinese specials.

Back at the

lodge, Ant and

Patch became

big friends with

Margaret

Patch knew the route down to the bottom of

Nyanjiwa Falls, at the end of the forge, and

they made their plans for the next day.

The lodge

is pretty

basic,

especially

in the

kitchen

departmen

t.

Meanwhile some

economy tea ingredients

had been bought. Here

we see Heino filtering the

very coarse tea leaves

through the Al’s shirt. He

objected to our disgust

when we heard about

this and claimed that all

was OK because he had

used a clean part of the

shirt.

We assume that no-one contracted any diseases from this tea party.

After a pleasant enough night they drove off in the morning to the school that had been

used as a base for the first recce trip by Patch, Laurie and Trev back in September.

Young men we had met before remembered us and were pleased to be recruited for the

portage around the Nyajiwa Falls. By now we had learned how much effort was required

and Al contracted nine guys to help. (Please look if you can see a clean part of Al’s shirt).

They set off for the river

at about 8:30, the

porters jovially carrying

the small amount of kit

that Ant and Heino had

brought, little did they

know……….

It is a

pleasant

2,5 km

stroll

down to

the river

and it took

them less

than an

hour with

a breakfast

break on

the way.

At the river Ant decided to wait

with the coolbox and the other

kit at the little beach next to the

river.

Meanwhile Al, Patch and Heino and all the porters clambered off upstream to get above

Nyanjiwa Falls, a distance of about 1,5 km, but across a very steep and difficult route.

In the beginning

things are easy

but fairly soon it

gets tricky.

There are really two waterfalls. Here is the spectacular lower fall.

This view downstream is taken from the

same spot as the previous photograph.

The river is very broken and we never

intended trying to paddle any of the

distance between the main upper

Nyanjiwa Fall and the end of this set of

rapids. The end of the gorge is down

below the right hand bend about 1,5 km

away. That is where Ant was waiting with

the kit.

Two hours after leaving

Ant at the “beach” they

reached the main

Nyanjiwa Falls

This is as far as Trev and Laurie had walked on their first recce in September.

The river has

cut a deep

channel

through the

rock with

many dramatic

deep potholes.

The entire

river passes

through a

narrow 2 to 3

metre gap.

Here are comparative

photographs from the

September trip and the

high water in December

Downstrea

m from the

main

Nyanijwa

Fall there

is a large pool before the water turns left and cascades through the lower fall. Sadly one

cannot help but notice what an excellent site this is for a hydro-electric power dam one day.

We felt that we were privileged to see it as it has been for so long, rather like those few

people who saw the Cahorra Bassa rapids before that dam was built.

Al and Patch waited here anxiously looking upstream for the rest of the party. The boat

party had been expected to be here about 11:00, it was now after 14:00. Eventually they

saw a curious sight – just one red boat going out into the main stream and waiting there.

The porters and Heino had carried on upstream and can just be made out standing on the

large rock opposite the boat.

But now it is

time in our

tale to switch

back to the

day before

(Day 2) and

the group

that had

continued on

down the

river.

Anita, Rob, Laurie, Zia, Joe and Karin set off from the crossing bay below Rapid 11 and were

treated to some of the most beautiful scenery yet.

But first, to see what we are talking about, have a look at Map 2 at the beginning of this

Section 2 (lots of pages back), you want page numbers?... forget it. You too can have some

hassles with this long document. OK. OK …. I relent here is a second copy…

Map 2

Camp Night 2

Margaret’s Lodge

Walk in with Porters

from school

Start Day 2

Nyanjiwa Falls

Camp Night 3

The two groups parted company just downstream from Rapid 11, which was shown on Map

1 way back up this document somewhere, but so that you don’t get too annoyed we have

cut off the top off that map and stuck it on at the bottom of Map 2. You will remember that

the river runs north, (that is from the bottom of the page to the top for the blonde readers).

Now even the most unfamiliar person, when it comes to maps, will be able to see what we

were talking about when we mentioned high mountain ranges and no access. When the

brown lines come together like that it means CLIFF. No passage…. not even for baboons or

klipspringers!

Back to the paddlers.

Winding down the

river beneath the

hills on either side

was just pure

pleasure.

Gentle rapids, the

flow of the water

calmly pulling us

along, it was nature

at its most beautiful.

There was a long series of twisting pools, gentle rapids at the base of steep valleys. Joe’s

boat needed a little air at one stop.

Perhaps it is best to just let the

photographs do their own

descriptions of this serene place.

Laurie now really regretted not being

able to capture these scenes more

accurately, but hey, who says this is

the only time that we will go there?

Of course it

was not all

gentle water

and we had

some

excitement as

well. Here is a

sequence

captured by

Anita. Joe

comes down

confidently

riding the

centre line,

text book

style….

Pumps his

way

expertly

through

the hole

at the

bottom.

And

then,,,,,,,,

We have Rob

and Zia, trying

to avoid the

main white

water,

sticking

nearer the

bank.

Not really the best line as the hole looms closer.

Oh Dear! This looks a bit

tricky….How are we

going to miss that

submerged rock?

Can we make it?

NOPE ………. It’s gotcha!

Bath time is early today!

Some time later we heard some loud water and decided to take a look first, one never

knows what is around that corner and having entered water like this there is no quick pull

into the bank to stop.

We decided that

this was a bit too

tricky and why risk

injury, So it was

out with the ropes

for another ferry

round the rocks.

For the first time

we now had a

short downpour,

just in time to

make those rocks

really slippery to

climb across. Joe

fell badly once but

luckily avoided

anything more

than some

bruises.

While this ferrying was going on we were visited by Steven. He was a local guy who had

helped Rob and Laurie with portaging out of Rapid 11 on their previous recce. He had met Al

and Patch on the path out of the gorge and heard about us. He ran down the small path

along the river and caught up with us. We arranged with him that we would employ him and

a fisherman friend of his the next day at Nyajiwa Falls and off he went down the gorge.

It took a while but we got two

boats through safely, but

then, just after this picture

was taken, the last boat was

trapped in buffeting water

below a large rock and it

flipped.

When we had recovered the

boat we found that the one

chopping board and our little

fold-up braai had been torn

out the boat and were lost.

Now you need to understand

about his braai. We have a

canoe club, Ant, Al and Laurie

and a couple of others and do

lots of Zambezi trips. We

share a set of equipment for

this. One really useful piece

of this equipment was a great

little fold-up braai that

Tregers used to make. Well

one canoe trip Laurie judged things wrong, got a boat bitten by a hippo and amongst other

things, lost the braai. He felt terrible about this but fortunately for him a couple of months

later a departing friend gave him the only other equivalent braai that any of us had ever

seen. But now, here on the Gairezi, Laurie had lost the braai again…………… Bad news, it

could not just be ignored………

So he asked Joe to help and they took a rope and went back

up to the offending rapid and with Joe securing himself

between some rocks and firmly holding the rope for Laurie

to wade into the rapid and feel about under the water for

the braai which hopefully was lodged somewhere. Well, as

luck would have it, just as they were at the limit of the rope

and about to give up, Laurie touched a submerged log and

running his hand along this he felt that familiar strap around

the braai. It was recovered, still tied to the chopping board

and all was happiness again. The proud fisherman returns.

Anita meanwhile had prepared

another great meal, which we

enthusiastically tucked into.

The girls saw an interesting rock

across

on the

Moza

mbiqu

e side,

now

called

OWL

ROCK

for all

future

trips.

It was mid afternoon by now, The GPS showed us that we had made good progress and we

started to look out for a decent camp site. We were not to be disappointed because we

soon came across a perfect little beach on the Zim side. Adjacent to the beach there was a

flat topped grassy bank where we were able to safely erect the tent and to secure the boats

against flash floods.

There to meet us on the sand was a pretty tree frog.

Rob’s kit had been

soaked when the boat

capsized so he was a

bit down, but cheered

up when Laurie

produced a spare dry

sleeping bag. We

gathered a large pile of

dry wood, made a

decent clothes line

and soon had a roaring

bonfire going to dry

out Rob’s clothes.

Have bonfire, have

beach, have Scotch

and Orange Liquor,

have Ipod with dance

music and sure

enough, have great

beach party……...

Laughing and Jiving in the Gairezi moonlight, what a pleasure.

That night Rob tried sleeping on an upturned boat and found it very comfortable and vastly

preferable to trying to sleep on his wet mattress.

The sad part was that later that night we had our first attack of Gairezi Guts. Poor Anita

hardly slept, needing to constantly clear both ends and Joe and Karin also had the runs. We

assumed (incorrectly) that the tuna salad they had eaten had been the problem.

Section 3

Gairezi Expedition

December 2010

Day 3

At 5:00 in the morning Steven the porter and his friend walked past us (we were after all

camped on the only path). He bid us Good Morning and promised to see us above Nyanjiwa

in a few hours.

So

although

some

had had

a bad

night,

there

were no

wimps

on this

trip and

we were

up and

on the

water

early.

We only

had

about 6 km to go to Nyanjiwa

Falls and we had seen just one

potential large rapid between

us and the falls on the Google

Earth images. So we were

confident that we would make

the 11:00 rendezvous with the

land party and we enjoyed

more stunning vistas.

When we reached the rapid halfway to Nyanjiwa, we climbed out to inspect. It was a bit big

and we decided that some would walk, some would paddle, that meant Laurie got to ride

the rapid three times, and Anita, Joe and Zia each had a turn. Great fun and no mishaps.

Some good video’s were recorded of this but sorry, not many stills.

Our timing was till fine

despite playing in this rapid

and at 10:00 we saw that we

were just a single km or so

away from Nyanjiwa and we

were very confident of

getting there on time.

But this was not to be. Very close to Nyanjiwa the river entered a long, narrow chute. The

water speed was high and we could not see what happened around the bend. There was an

ominous air about the place. Laurie really had a bad feeling about it. So we scrambled up

the steep rock on the right bank to have a look.

There were three rapids

in the chute, each with a

drop of a few metres.

The big question was, if

you fell out and swam

the rapids, what chance

did you have of climbing

out before entering the

Nyanjiwa Falls around

the corner?

After a long time studying the rapids

and some sugar replenishment,

Laurie reluctantly decided that we

would have a go. We started off but

had only gone a few metres into the

chute when we saw our friendly

porter, Steven, on top of a rock

gesticulating to us wildly that we

should stop. This we did and he said

“You cannot go on, it is too

dangerous, the water is boiling down

there”. Well this made up Laurie’s

mind and we pulled in for another

rope ferry down the Zim bank.

This was difficult because of the large

rocks we had to negotiate and the

distance we had to cover. It took us

more than an hour to get just one

boat down the three rapids.

But with time to kill Karin was able to photograph the interesting wear patterns on the

rocks.

Eventually we got the red boat through and then Joe suggested that now that we had one

boat in the pool above Nyanjiwa, we could consider using it as a safety boat and then

paddle the other two through the three rapids in the chute. Now this was a great idea so we

despatched Steven and his mate to carry the kit that we took out of the two yellow boats.

Joe and Zia placed themselves in the red boat behind a small rock midstream to catch any

swimmers. This was the red boat Al and patch had seen. Then after allowing some time (not

enough it turned out) for the rest of the party to get down to a decent vantage point, Laurie

and Anita climbed into the first boat. Each was mentally rehearsing the Left, then Right then

through the Centre route that we had chosen for the three rapids. These three rapids were

just pure concentrated thrill. Anita is such a strong paddler that there was no way one of

those holes was going to stop us. It will take a long time before the exciting memory is

forgotten.

Regrettably there are not many clear photographs of this but hopefully some of the

excitement can be seen in these frames….

By now Al’s recruitment of porters and Heino had reached the pool above Nyanjiwa and the

cheering crowd could not believe that any boat could get through! Their yells of delight

carried down the river to Al and Patch who now understood why there had been a lonely

boat sitting in the middle of the pool.

When Al and Patch looked upstream this is what they saw.

The excitement over, we

ferried the kit and Heino

across the pool above

Nyanjiwa and happily met up

with the land party.

It was now

14:30. Al,

Patch and

Heino

knew how

long it

would take

to get back

to Ant at

his “beach”

so they

were keen

to push us

along. We

quickly

deflated

the boats

and divided

the kit up

into parcels for the porters, we now had 11 of them, thank goodness.

Then we had some bad luck, the sky literally fell on our heads, soaking everyone and

everything, but that was not the problem, it was that the rain made the rocks extremely

slippery.

The porters set off at an incredible pace. They were amazingly sure footed. Patch sensibly

grabbed our long ropes as a porter came past her carrying them.

With all the rain and

difficult climbs,

camera’s were not

being taken out of

their waterproof

containers, even

though there were

some dramatic scenes to record. We will just have to look through the water droplets on

Joe’s helmet camera. Here we see the Nyanjiwa Falls below the first of many steep and

slippery climbs that we had to take at this high water level.

The ropes that Patch had grabbed

were needed almost immediately

to assist in the descent of this

steep section of rock just above

the Falls.

Joe had climbed high up the cliff

and looped the ropes over a

protrusion in the rock, the plan

being that we would retrieve the

rope after descending by pulling

one end of the rope from the

bottom. This plan hit a snag,

literally, and Joe had to

precariously climb to the top of

the cliff and free the rope, then descend without its aid.

Next step down it was Laurie’s turn to be last man down. After much bantering and

moaning Laurie persuaded Heino to place himself as a human ladder for Laurie to climb

down.

This opportunity of course

could not be missed and Laurie

deliberately allowed himself to

slip and fall onto Heino who

was then crushed into the sand,

reminiscent of the North Africa

campaign back in 1944.

But I guess there was

more humour about

this time around

Most of the party had

not seen Nyanjiwa

before, and so were

very keen to walk

across to them and

take a look.

The whole river is channelled into a jagged gap just a few metres wide. The water thrashes

about wildly in this narrow chasm, gulping vast mouthfuls of air. The water is entirely filled

with billions of air bubbles each shattering any light that falls on it and one is left with

brilliantly “white” water. This air and water mix would offer very little buoyancy to any

hapless kayaker foolish enough to enter this churning chaos.

Without being next to this huge discharge of energy it will be difficult to imagine the power.

The deafening rush of the water crushing entrapped air up against the jagged rocks almost

shuts out all other sound, Conversations were only possible as shouting matches at no more

than a metre. The water was immensely turbulent in this place, literally awesome.

Unfortunately there was not enough time to stand and admire this spectacle for long and

we had to continue our scramble along the bank. There were many more difficult cliffs to

ascend and descend.

It is regrettable that what followed that afternoon was probably the most intense period of

the whole trip but the rain kept our camera’s wrapped up and we just became too

exhausted to hassle with pictures. The steep cliffs that had been difficult enough to traverse

when the rocks were dry and the sun was warming our backs, now became treacherous and

downright terrifying in places. Several of us had tried hard to procure shoes that would grip

on smooth wet rock but even these proved inadequate and several times we preferred to go

barefoot, so that you could at least feel it as the slip started. Two of the porters came back

to assist us at the worst of the cliff traverses, after delivering their loads. The porters were

amazing at getting the cumbersome loads across the wet rocks. Apart from a few scratches

on the heavier packs there was no damage or loss. The two guys who came back to assist

were particularly helpful, and eased they way for several of us from being ”stuck”. But even

with their help it was nearly a 5 hour trip to reach the kit and Ant, who had remained to

guard it. (Fortunately Ant is one of these people very comfortable in his own company and

quite satisfied with a book of Sudoku puzzles).

We could not camp on the little beach next to the water because of the threat of a flash

flood so, as it was getting dark, we had to hurriedly move all the kit to a flatter area up the

path back towards the school. As we moved away from the water our next morale tester

emerged. There was just an impossible intensity of horse flies. These aggressive insects

swarmed onto any exposed skin and immediately pierced deep into your flesh, injecting a

sharply irritating anti-coagulant that stung like hell. It was impossible to ignore the bites and

just let them feast. At the same time the rain started again and Patch and Zia scrambled to

get the tent erected whilst it was light and bearable. Meanwhile, the porters were restless,

they had not realized (nor had we) how hard the work would be. The agreed daily wage had

been USD 5 each but they demanded USD 15. Laurie settled at USD 10 (being the limit of

cash available and the limit of his patience as the horse flies were rapidly turning him

anaemic). The porters eventually grumbled off, but we ensured that there was a very much

clearer defined agreement on who would come back for the portage out of Ant and Heino’s

kit the next day and how much would be paid.

After the porters left we tried to sort out the camp. There was only wet wood around, the

ground was hard, rocky and sloping. But we made a fire in our rescued braai with some help

from the gel fuel we had brought along. Now this stuff is very useful, it is made from the

alcohol from sugar cane apparently. It does not smell bad, produces no smoke and seems

pretty safe to handle. Usually we take along diesel for this purpose but diesel leaks, stinks

and influences the taste of sugar amd milk powder when spilled thereon. Of course Laurie

had to proudly show this newly found product off to Ant. He said, ” Look at this stuff Ant, it

is great, you can poor it straight onto an open flame”. Well, you can, sometimes, but not if

you are using a 2 litre bottle which has already had 1,5 litres used up. What remains is

obviously a 1,5 litre cavity filled with fuel fumes and air, a very inflammable mixture. So now

what happens when you pour from such a container onto an open flame, is the flame

rapidly climbs up the column of poured gel, enters the 2 litre bottle and there is a

spontaneous explosion of the fumes, which in turn results in a considerable jet of exhaust

fumes shooting out the neck of the bottle. This, to the unexpectant holder of the bottle,

results in the rapid propulsion of the bottle away from the fire. But as the mechanically

minded amongst you will realise, the remaining gel in the bottle prefers to remain where it

is rather than suddenly move with the bottle, so as the bottle shoots away, the contents exit

via the neck of the bottle, the gel now finds itself suspended in the air over the fire, and

gravity immediately gets involved and pulls this great dollop of fuel into the fire, resulting in

a secondary fire ball.

Well, fortunately there was no injury to equipment or person but Laurie’s pride and self

esteem were severely damaged, probably permanently, by the peals of hyena-like laughter

that consumed the camp for the next hour or so.

The fresh steaks, bread rolls and cold beers that had been brought by Heino and Ant were

very welcome, but it did not take long before everyone was rolling out sleeping bags in the

tent after this very strenuous day and seeking refuge from the horse flies. The fine bottle of

red wine that had been brought was hardly touched, a sure sign that things were not

normal. There was still plenty of rain about and by now all 8 of us had developed a good

dose of Gairezi Guts. The horse flies had obviously not been to horse fly school where all self

respecting horse flies would normally go. These guys had no idea that horse flies are

supposed to go to sleep at night. They kept on at us and were particularly attracted to

anyone wearing a switched on head light. The night was not the most comfortable with

constant wakings as one or other of us would have to go out to the loo and step all over the

bodies that had rolled down the slope. Al was particularly unlucky, he went out without his

lenses and barefoot. Being a polite type he went some distance to ablute and what with the

problem of only switching on the head light for brief intervals, and thengetting bitten to hell

or switching his head light off and then stubbing his toes on the jagged rocks plus not being

able to see properly anyway he stumbled along the wrong path back to camp. He was gone

about 20 minutes and became totally disoriented. When he finally had to call out to us to try

and get back he was surprised to find that he was just about 10 metres away from the tent,

lucky for him otherwise he would have had a very miserable night waiting for the sun or the

extremely unlikely event of the rest of us bothering to look for him.

But even this night came to an end eventually.

Section 4

Gairezi Expedition

December 2010

Day 4 (the last day on the water)

Take Out at DC’s Chalets

Start Day 3

We woke, (that is the few who actually got to

sleep), next morning to a grey sky. Bleary eyed

and not at all well rested we made a sorry

sight. Rob had tried to sleep under the

entrance fly sheet, right where everyone

needed to walk on the way to the toilet. He

was not in top humour.

Zia had suffered from being stood upon,

Watermeyers x2 snoring and the general

discomfort of all the horse fly bites.

Laurie was not much better, trying hard to imagine that his cold wheat-

free muesli and water

was just what he wanted

to eat. Note his scarred

legs from slipping and

bashing over submerged

rocks during the boat

ferrying, a fate we all

suffered.

Joe was not too bright

either, he had a veritable

Noah’s Ark of tummy

bugs incubating in him by now.

Patch put on a brave face

And of course Anita was not going to let a few horse flies ,

hardly any sleep and some tough exercise get her down.

Joe and Karin kindly volunteered to miss out the paddling on this day so Patch and Al happily rejoined the

water party. Heino felt it would be too offending to his family if he spent the day enjoying himself on the river

and he said he would go back up to Pine Tree Inn at Nyanga, as the others were arriving this day.

The river looked much less adventurous for the final 22 km to be covered on the last day. We had at one stage

planned to exit at this point at the mouth of the gorge but fortunately that plan had been abandoned after

one of our recce trips had found another friendly school headmaster whose school was near direct vehicle

access to the water. The choice between a 2,5 km carry-out up a steep hill or a fun paddle of 22 km on

relatively flat water and getting out at a point where the cars could drive right up to the river was a simple

decision.

The 5 porters for the day joined us at about 07:00 and they enjoyed eating all the meat and rolls we had not

been able to consume the night before. The bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon also went down well and rapidly

with them.

We had the three boats carried down to the river and we parted company. Joe, Karin, Ant and Heino walked

up to the school with the porters where Heino’s car had been left. They would drive back, collect Joe’s car

from the start and then see the rest of us back at Nyanga, enjoying a hot shower and clean clothes in the

meantime.

The rest of us, Al, Patch, Anita, Zia, Rob and Laurie took some basic kit (in case we had the misfortune of

staying another night on the river) and went down to the boats. A brief check showed us that we probably

should have placed the boats a little further downstream to launch because we were still amongst the very

broken part of the river, but we nevertheless set off. About 50 metres later Patch was our first swimmer,

rapidly followed by Al and Rob and then Laurie. The water was not big, just a bit awkward but the swim woke

us up and humour returned.

A few km later there was a tricky part which knocked some more of us out the boats. Patch had the interesting

experience of noticing that the boat was a bit more sluggish than usual, then looking over her shoulder after a

bouncy wave train and seeing no Laurie behind her. The remaining old red boat was now losing air rapidly and

once these inflatables get floppy it is very easy for the person at the back to be flipped out as the boat

caterpillars its way over standing waves at the bottom of a rapid. Most of us had a few swims but it was all

pretty safe , no kit was lost and we all had a good laugh about it. Occasionally we ferried around some places

that looked a bit dicy but this bottom stretch is a great place for a day’s fun paddling. We will no doubt be

back to enjoy it again.

Not many photos were taken unfortunately, Patch’s camera had by now been thoroughly soaked and was

suitable only as something to screw onto a plank and use as a spirit level.

The water was running fast and we covered the distance in a remarkably short time, such was the positive

effect of no hard portages.

After a while we came across the town on the Mozambique side that we had visited on the August Caldera

trip. This town is stuck right in the middle of the bush with no apparent economic reason to be there, no crops

around it, hardly

any cattle and all we

can think is that it is

a major trading post

for things coming

out of Zimbabwe

that should not go

through official

border posts. It can

be seen on the right

bank in this picture.

When we visited it

in August we found

just mud and thatch

buildings but there

was a pharmacy

selling prescription

drugs (without a

pharmacist of

course), cold beer

(modern

photovoltaic

technology) and

plenty clothing and

utensils for sale.

We stopped for lunch shortly

after passing the town.

Although there were some

attractive shady trees to stop

under, we were still in the

dreaded horse fly belt and

found that the flies were

scarcer next to the water.

Rob, as usual, wandered

about looking for interesting

things and found a very

attractive clear rock which he

was convinced was a gem

quality diamond. We shall

have to see how that turns

out……….

After lunch we just had a few km

to go. There was an interesting

little gorge that we passed

through. By now the leaks in the

red boat were so bad that Patch

was placed full-time on pumping

whilst Laurie paddled. She looked

after the pneumatics, Laurie

looked after the hydraulics.

And then, suddenly, we were at

the end. The rain started and so

cameras were kept sealed away

again, so no pictures of us

finishing, sorry.

Rob and Laurie walked the 2 km or so up to the school to fetch the two cars and the trailer (all intact and in

perfect order) we thanked and rewarded the headmaster and the school guard as well as the local headman.

We drove back down to the river, loaded the kit and had a drink. Our cool box had warmed up considerably

after staying in the car for a few days but we enjoyed some coke and cider. Then it was just a fairly long drive

through lots of mud back up to Nyanga. Sadly we all took plenty of abdominal parasites back with us, which

took many weeks to cure for most. It seems that the early flood waters washed lots of detritus with it, just as

we came along to drink it.

That was it, another adventure over, but if those really full 4 days on just 65 km of Gairezi are anything to

judge by, we are really going to have a pile of fun by the time we have done the whole river, source to sea.