Row, row, row your boat...

A peaceful stretch of the Crocodile River, near Hartebeespoort Dam.

My "Let's go river rafting" suggestion was met with some trepidation by the family. Child No 2 looked shifty and muttered darkly about "commitments". Scientist No 1, usually the first to be up for an adventure, said "When, exactly, do you want to do this?" and Walter (bless) looked at me over his reading glasses and just said "Great idea, let's book"
By "Let's book" he actually means I should go ahead and book it, so I did.
The first booking didn't turn out well. We were due to go on the 30th December, but the owner of the company called me late on the 29th to inform me the guide had just broken his ankle kloofing. No, they didn't have another guide. No, he didn't know when we could do it.
I requested a refund and jumped back onto Google.
There were some sighs (plans had been changed, people put out, and so on, you'd think I'd planned it that way) and more "what time, where, who"-type questions when I tentatively booked the 7th January with their social secretaries.
Of course this required specialised equipment. I bought water shoes and a heart rate monitor.

Not like Scientist No 1's water shoes, but then she does that stuff for a living

I packed a picnic lunch for afterwards, put on a whole bottle of sunscreen and we were off. With Walter it's a good idea to, um, be economical with the truth when discussing times. I told him we had to leave by 7am which meant we got onto the road at 8 and arrived in good time.

Actually we were early and had time to sit around waiting for the others

Child no 2 was NOT amused. Could have spent another hour in bed, at least. This is his FML look.
We were kitted out and climbed into the back of a truck for transportation to the start, which is almost at Pelindaba (lots of joking about how we would all glow green afterwards, which prompted an argument about radioactivity vs. something else which I didn't quite get)

And then schlepped our inflatable rafts to the river bank for the safety briefing

Which had me hyperventilating (I've put my family in danger, GOOD LORD what was I thinking) 

I rowed with Walter, keeping a beady eye on him in case he decided to smack me with a paddle if I didn't listen.
"Keep close to the children" I warned him, "I want to see them at ALL times"

And so we set off

Be sure your boat is straight when you go over the weir, and try and do it going forwards, rather than in reverse.


And had a lovely day, child no 2 declaring it "The best family day ever" and all jumped off the big rock when we stopped a little way downriver. Although obviously I went last, waiting to see if everyone survived.

Picture from paddlepower.co.za because obviously my phone was in the waterproof bag 


I can heartily recommend it, there are no serious rapids and I floated downriver next to the boat for about 20 minutes in the flat water section, so relaxing.