We met up with Karl and followed him to the put - in below the Witbank dam.  Unfortunately only one sluice gate was open. 

You have to scramble down to the river by sneaking under the fence.  “Beware of breeding ostriches”, the trampled sign read.  Luckily nobody in the group was fluffed up enough to attract attention.

It’s a short paddle down to the drops; don’t race down as it is a reserve.  Take it easy and you might spot some of the local otters checking you out with their beady little eyes.  

Stay in the middle of the river and hop onto rocks (very pointy so have shoes)

 There are multiple drops with multiple lines (grade three). Have a look and paddle. 

We ran three different lines on the river left drop. Karl running the centre line.

I ran a boof from river left to river right.  Robin boofed far river left and all lines where good. 

With a bit more water the drop can turn into a munchie feature but the pool is nice and deep with lots of space to get out.  Next we moved river right to another good looking drop.  Also easy entry but try and boof this one as the hole in the bottom was rather fluffy and ruffled Ernie’s tail feathers.  Ernest running the centre line.  I once again boofed running from left to right.  

Me at the bottom looking back at the drop. 

There was another nice drop far river right but you need a bit more water.  What makes this a great location is the fact that you can run the drops and scramble back up in the middle of river on the shelf.

  We finished with the drops and decided to paddle further down underneath the highway over the little dam (3.5 km FLAT) hoping to find a play spot or something fun. 

On high water (4 gates) there are play spots galore according to Karl and Robin.  After the dam:  we found a nice rapid to run.  But avoid the munchie river right.

 We had a really good day all thanks and credit going to Karl Martin for getting us there and even organizing the local paper to come take some snaps and write an article.

Photos:  Deon & Robin