Kayaking involves surprisingly a lot of "admin work". The admin work for kayaking are small things that one has to do before you get your boat on the water and it is a little time consuming. The Saturday day we had to find roof rails for the car and the kayaks had to be fitted onto the rails. We also had to pack a "lunch box and snack box", beers also went into the fridge.
Sunday morning at 6o'clock we got up and it was just smiles. We met Gert and Deléne on the R21 highway. At the Klip river there was a K1 race, so we sat and watch some other people rowing. By 10o'clock we launched our boats. It was a scenic route - birds were singing and green Willow trees were hanging into the water. I think the photos are better than words.
We were paddling with the wind but the current of the river were strong and would push us downstream. The suck back of the river is also something to keep in mind, this is quite strange after a bend and you find yourself paddling in the the going direction. We stopped three times to gain our power.
As we were paddling we worked out that the route is 18km and that we will be finishing between 2 and 3o'clock the afternoon.
The route became difficult towards the end because objects like trees blocked the river and made paddling impossible. A few times we had to take our kayaks out of the river and carry it - carrying a kayak is hard work.
All the obstacles didn't make the clock stop ticking, by sunset we were still paddling. I was wet, cold, hungry, tired and I didn't feel like paddling anymore. I wanted to stop and get out, but people built their house near the river and it was dangerous. Helgard and myself had an argument and I realized that to much of a good thing is not nice anymore.
When I saw the car, I was relived that the paddling part was done.
The morning we left one car at the starting point and the other at the finishing point.
Gert and Deléne took the car at the finishing point to get the other car. Helgard and myself were left guarding with the kayaks, I was scared because it was dark and homeless persons was walking around making small fires and trying to catch the last finish of the day.
We got home at 20h30 and we started cleaning the kayaks and everything that we took with us. By 10 o'clock we finish cleaning everything and we both had a shower. As we were having a quick dinner we nearly fell asleep at the table.
Monday morning Gert phoned and told Helgard that we paddled 30km. I was very proud of myself. My sore body reminded me of the turning point where the unpleasant became really unpleasant. I used hard words by saying that I'm not going to paddle again, but I think that I will just make sure that things are better organize, so that we don't paddle that far.
More photos here
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