Cape Town - When the owners of Sea Villa Glen Craig guest house in Pringle Bay invited me to stay there, they mentioned river rafting.
And Gravity Adventures’ reply to my inquiry mentioned white water.
As a rule, I don’t have a problem with activities that require me to sign an indemnity form. Wearing a wetsuit is awfully unflattering, but if I have to… However, white water rafting has never appealed to me. Mainly because I knew it was going to involve being fully immersed in said water, not in a pleasant way.
I was right, but it was too late to wuss out. Cookie was even less convinced and more terrified, but bless him, he put on that wetsuit and did it with me anyway.
In retrospect, it was the worst possible day for two novices to be on the Palmiet River, in the same boat. There had been heavy rains – so heavy that our baptism had to be postponed due to extremely high and fast flowing water, while we waited for it to subside. I reckon we could have waited about two months longer.
Kitted up in our wetsuits, life jackets and helmets, we trekked to the starting point on the river, lugging our blow-up boat. It’s just a glorified lilo, really. Our guide, Ant Cohen, had briefed us.
“One of the most important things is to not go into any of the trees,” he said. “You will fall in, that is virtually guaranteed, but there is also a point on the river where it is absolutely crucial you do not fall in.” I think you can see where this is going. Cookie and I hit every tree there was, including those in the middle of the river (what were they doing there anyway?) Cohen had told us to paddle, no matter what. That didn’t make any difference; we went over most of the rapids backwards and in circles because once you’re out there, you’re pretty much at the mercy of the river, especially when you’re not working well together as a team.
Cookie went overboard twice, me once. This is very uncool because getting back in your boat is the most inelegant procedure. Plus when there are torrents of river washing over you and going up your nose and down your throat as you cling to a branch (at this moment you are grateful you went into the trees despite being instructed otherwise) it’s hard not to think of dying. Naturally this all happened at the exact place it wasn’t supposed to.
To be fair, I wasn’t actually as scared as I probably should have been at any point. Cohen and some fellow paddlers carried out efficient rescue missions, and got us safely to shore.
l Contact Gravity Adventures on 021 683 3698, or e-mail [email protected].
Weekend Argus