50 Years of Umko 1966 - 2016 1966 - 2016 | Page 15

- plus they fed some meths
from their camping stoves to
Graham Hall, causing him to
“spew the most spectacular
cat” Gouldie had ever seen
all over a little stray brak, and
thus give a new name to a
rapid! The poor brak had been
begging scraps from them and
ended up wearing “a saddle of
congealed puke” still clinging Captain Honk
to it the next morning!
Rather than leave Dereck to
walk out of the valley alone, they
abandoned the trip the next day,
left their boats and kit with the
store owner and walked up the
road with their hangovers and
a fistful of half ten Rand notes
(the store owner clutching the
other halves “to ensure his undying loyalty and co-operation.
His eyes nearly popped out of
Fishy Fish Trading Store
his head as we did this, and told
him we would be back for our canoes in two weekends time and would then
give him the other halves of the notes”). This they duly did.
They returned the next Easter - 1961 - for a longer trip: “Having had a taste
of the Umkomaas and realizing its potential as a future canoe race venue,
we decided to undertake another exploratory trip on the river over the 1961
Easter weekend. To enable us to carry more provisions (which included
the luxury of some beers) and to cope with the much bigger rapids on the
Umkomaas, we built “Bird-Dog” double canoe hulls but fitted them with
single cockpits. These canoes proved to be ideal for the conditions we would
encounter as they had loads of freeboard and were extremely buoyant.”
Once again: “The river and rapids were fantastic. The scenery was too
beautiful. We shot the rapids single file and then waited at the bottom for

Round the Campfire

15

the last canoeist to come through and then floated abreast to the start of
the next rapid and so on. We must have covered a good forty miles and
we began keeping a lookout for a suitable campsite for the night. We chose
an ideal spot opposite a gently flowing rapid and a flat sandy bank to pull
our canoes on to. Behind this was a nice grassed area to camp on. The river
must have overflowed its bank in the past as in receding it had left behind a
plentiful supply of driftwood, bleached pearly white by the sun. Perfect for
our camp fire.”
“Day two was a repetition of the previous day’s canoeing. Rapid after
rapid with unbelievable scenery as we paddled past krantz after krantz.
We were totally stoked. Again we chose a suitable spot on the riverbank
with plenty of driftwood for our campfire. We soon had a roaring blaze
going. For supper we ate like kings, feasting on vacuum packed braai chops,
baked beans and potatoes wrapped in tin foil and cooked over hot coals. We
washed the meal down with Castles cooled down in a cairn of river-stones
we had built in the riverbed.”

Breakfast - Hot coffee and rusks

“On day three we had been fore-warned that somewhere along today’s route
we would come across a huge waterfall where the river narrowed down and
funnelled through a five metre gap, dropping some fifty meters into a deep
pool that had been hollowed out beneath. We kept a wary eye out for signs
of the waterfall fearing that we may suddenly come upon it without warning
and be unable to pull out in time. Our fears were unfounded because as
we rounded a bend, there in the distance about three kilometres ahead we
could see a column of white spray rising up into the sky. Playing on the
sandy left bank of the river,
were a group of Umfaans. We
asked them if they would help
carry our canoes around the
waterfall and we were met
with stony stares and a shake
of heads. lt’s truly amazing
what the jingle jangle of coins
in the pocket can do. In a
flash we were inundated with
more willing bearers than Dr.
Livingstone and Stanley must
Waterfall on 3rd Day
have had. Watching them

UMKO 50 Years