We headed out of Cape Town early as we had a long drive ahead. The plan was to drive all the way to Namibia and camp at Amanzi Campsite where we would be starting a 4-day canoeing trip down the Orange River. The Orange River is the border between South Africa and Namibia, our camp overlooked the river and South Africa just on the other side. The kids were intrigued how two countries could be divided by a river.
Our guide for the next four days was Mario. He came from the local village and had been guiding trips down the river for 5 years. He called by our camp the night before our trip to drop off the canoes and buckets for us to keep our possessions in for the next four days. There was no one else booked onto the trip, he said, so we’d have the river all to ourselves.
The next morning we slid our canoes down the bank and set off along the river. I paddled with our son, Luca. My wife, Edwina, paddled with our daughter Arabella. And our other daughter, Maddalena, got to paddle with Mario and Tuku, our other guide for the trip. Tuku who takes in his canoe everything but the kitchen sink, he would go ahead in the rapids and provide directions for us.
It wasn’t long before we came upon our first rapid, a manmade weir, that had to be navigated on the left hand side. Edwina and Arabella started to drift to the right, and when Tuku shouted “LEFT, LEFT”, Edwina started paddling on the left which, of course, moved the canoe to the right. Tuku leapt into the water, swam to Edwina’s canoe and pushed it to the left, preventing it from capsizing.
Mario and Maddalena made it through the weir unscathed too, but as Luca and I entered the rapid the canoe span to the right. I could not correct it and the canoe capsized. My initial reaction was to find Luca. He is nearby and I grab onto him as we float down the river.
“I didn’t want to capsize,” said Luca, as he bobbed up from under the water.
“Not much we can do about it now,” I replied.
We drifted down river until we found a spot where we could get back into the canoe. It takes a few attempts but finally Luca and I scramble back into our canoe.
The Orange River wound its way through the dramatic and rugged Richtersveld Mountains. We would be canoeing 62 kilometres of it, averaging 15 kilometres a day, with the aim of setting up camp by around 3pm each day. The scenery we paddled through was surreal and at times it felt like we were on a different planet. Luca said it was like we were canoeing on Mars.
