Out of Africa – Part 2

Jay showing us how to blunt on the wave at number 2.

Our days were taken up by the river. We would wake at 6:30 and eat breakfast at the hotel, then get our gear ready and plan the shuttles. By 8am we would be at the top of the gorge where our porters would take our gear down to the river. By 8:30 we were dressed and on the water.

There was way more playspots than we had time to really play. The heat took some getting used to. We spent lots of time upside down cooling off. I started by wearing a spray skirt and paddle jacket but found that I was cooler in my shorty drydeck

Clay enters the Lions Den- entrance to number 9, “Commercial Suicide”

The hardest rapids were 7 and 9. Chris and I ran the river the first day alone before the others arrived and Chris almost got sucked into the big hole on river left in 9. He decided to leave that rapid alone for a while. Clay, Jay, and I started going down the middle of 9 with the water getting significantly higher each day.

Looking the Lion in the Eye- Bottom Hole in Number 9

On the last two days Clay broke his paddle in the middle of the last hole (about 15 feet high) and his nose on the last day (he still has to get it straightened). Rapid number 7 was getting harder and Jessie was getting a little worried about Pattella’s Gap ( a nasty gap on the bottom right of the rapid, where the water goes, of course) She did fine though.