KING of the Klip river race, hosted by the Johannesburg Canoe Club, on Heritage Day, September 24, introduced many paddlers to a newly opened-up section of the Klip River.
In years past, only a 15km section of river was open and clear for paddlers to use, but with help from supporting companies such as Esor Franki, and Green Green, the hard working paddling crews of Gavin Steyl and Franz Fischer from the local club with help from other paddling clubs, have worked consistently to remove fallen trees, debris, control pollution, and open up the river to a free flow.
With new waterfalls and exciting gorges as exhilarating challenges, the Gauteng paddlers used the race as preparation for the white water upcoming A-grade Hansa Fish River Marathon event, which takes place in Cradock in the Eastern Cape in October.
The race took paddlers through a dead tree forest section, where they manoeuvred around stumps of dead trees, ducking under and ramping over other logs, as well as dropping down waterfalls and weir slides into white water stopper waves. The river now has a clear section of some 60kms to paddle, from the Buksies Holiday Resort, under the R59 through Daleside, Meyerton, Henley on Klip and Three Rivers – to the Vaal River confluence.
Morgan Ziervogel and father Warren from Alberton, have been members of the Johannesburg Canoe Club for many years. Having concentrated on her matric year at Marais Viljoen in 2013, the father and daughter team are looking forward to the Hansa Fish marathon next month. The pair finished the long, hard 40 km slog with highly technical and difficult challenges as well as wild white water rapids, successfully and enjoyably in 3:38 as the second mixed double (male/female combination) and only father-daughter pair.
