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We’ve lined up an Easter holidays rafting programme to avoid the operators who take mobs of 100+ people at a time. Our limit is 16 in any group. And our guides are professionals who know the region and will tell you all about the amazing asteroid crater that the river cuts through.
 River mobs - something to avoid! It’s horrible to queue up at rapids, so we have laid plans to avoid that. The Vaal in the Vredefort Dome World Heritage Site is beautiful and natural if you go early in the morning or around noon. Join us for your small-group, personalised experience of this great river at the heart of South Africa.
The good news is that after a season of relatively low rainfall – causing a rocky river – there have been downpours and now the river is feisty and fun. The Vaal is not the Zambezi. It’s rapids are graded 2-3 at most (Zam: 3-5), but it is exciting and very scenic.
We offer both 2-seater paddle-yourself Croc rafts, and guided 4-6 seater inflatables. There is even an oared raft where you don’t have to paddle at all and can run the rapids as a passenger! Take your pick and get to know the country from the water up.
Two desert rivers attract us at midyear in South Africa. Now that summer has come and almost gone in the eastern rainfall areas, and though we’ve had a fairly good season the Vaal, we’re looking forward to midyear on the Orange River in the Kalahari and the Doring in the Western Cape. Every year from May to September we run trips there when these magnificent rivers are flowing.
 The Oranje Gorge - a moonscape with a river!
- THE ORANJE GORGE is a terrific 4-day expedition through some of the most remote and beautiful desert scenery. The great river roars over a waterfall (which we bypass, letting our boats down on ropes). We camp out under the brilliant starry skies. Daytime temperatures even in midwinter average between 18degC and 25degC. The trip is suitable for families with teenagers, and for all adventurers seeking something utterly out of this world.
 Kranz rapid on the Doring river
- THE DORING RIVER in the Cape Cederberg is sometimes called the “Tugela of the Cape”. Big brown waves thunder down a cliff-sided valley in the arid landscape near the West Coast. You can do a 2-day or 4-day trip, camping over on white sandy dunes or in caves. There is also an established camp beneath a cliff, with a catering tent! Don’t miss this wonderful river which only flows when the snows and rains fall further south, though the river itself is mostly sunshine country in Namaqualand. Again, suitable for families with teenagers.
Call me or email to find out more and perhaps book your trip on dates to suit you. You can even book a two-river package, as the venues are only a couple of hundred kilometres apart. Naturally we give group discounts. Graeme 084 245 2490.
 Cyclone Funso - a big bad one For the second time in as many weeks a cyclone – this one a monster, Funso – is crossing the Mozambique channel and may be headed for us. This one is rated by the official weather forecast as “intense”, which is just down from the maximum “Very intense”. We are hoping it doesn’t make landfall again as it has already killed 12 people and could devastate much of Mozambique.
The picture says it all (look at the perfect eye in the middle of the swirl of clouds). Read all about it here.
The last cyclone, Dando, was really just a tropical depression but it caused major flooding in Mpumalanga Province, to the east of our base on the Vaal River. It gave us no water. But what it did do further east was wash away the camp of the Blyde River rafting and kayaking company that was about to run the annual Blyde Festival. So now the owners have appealled to all paddlers to donate the deposits they had paid towards the festival in order to use the money for reconstruction. And paddlers are asked to turn up and help rebuild. Strength to their paddling arms!
 Dando - moved north A huge tropical storm made landfall in Mozambique yesterday and is now weakening but continuing to drop heavy rains over north eastern South Africa. Like all river people, we pray for rain. This season in particular we have been starved of good rains and hoping for downpours.
It’s not nice of us to celebrate like this. Thousands are fleeing their homes along the coastline around the Mozambican capital of Maputo. Rural residents of Swaziland and Mpumalanga may also face serious flooding.
On the other hand, there’s nothing we can do about it, is there? – except pray for the rain to stop. Then we can all get on with the business of living, er, paddling.
- UPDATE: As it turned out, Dando moved well to the north of the Vaal catchment and we got not a drop. But for the people of Mpumalanga and Limpopo it turned out to be a disaster, taking several lives and causing widespread flooding. Be careful what you wish for!
Nothing beats an action video to bring back the thrill of rafting! We are coming up to our 100th You Tube video and our site at www.YouTube.com/graemeaddi has logged over 14000 hits. Some great vids have had more than many hundreds of views.
 Video has changed RIVERMAN into a small production outfit: we have up to four cameras shooting movies and stills, and at trip end we quickly show a short production back at base. Capsizes bring hoots of laughter and cries of “Ag shame!” The short goes on online but it’s low res, so peeps on the trip get their own high res version with more content plus all the stills and clips to use for themselves. We mail the dvd off if you can’t wait for an hour or two: go to town for lunch.
There’s some truly spectacular footage shot from inside the boats as we plunge through whitewater. Our latest acquisition is a GoPro waterproof action Hero cam, worn on a helmet or fitted on a raft. Go see the amazing shots it’s taken on our YouTube site.
Costs vary from a file dump (just the folder) to full 18minute production with titles, action, interviews, funny moments and great scenic views all competently edited in high definition widescreen. Our production software minimises a lot of the shaking and splashing that’s inevitable when filming from the water.
No other operator can match our coverage. So next time you do a trip with us get the memory too.
It was a hot day and the river was very low. Some of our clients had never paddled before. They were battling. Going upriver instead of down, turning circles in the two-seater crocs. Cursing. I could see problems looming ahead as we had to finish by 1.30 and it was a good three hours to go.
 Exciting times on the passenger oar-raft So what did we do? We left a croc behind, and while on the river, rolled up another croc and stuffed it in our roomy oarboat. I took two passengers onboard and two others, went with a paddle raft. Problem solved! The passengers were happy clappers and the boats performed very well despite low flows. You can see the rolled up croc behind me (blue) in the picture. We use these rafts for passengers but also for 2-4 day river expeditions, carrying full camp equipment and food, on the Orange and Tugela rivers.
For years I’ve been wanting to take bigger paddle rafts (4-6 seaters) and oarboats down the Vaal. But I was always warned the river was too low and rocky.
 Guided rafts get ready for the plunge The raft would get stuck all the time and be ripped to shreds on sharp pinnacles. Well, in the last year we’ve proven convincingly that big rafts are fine at the lowest levels that even crocs get stuck, and we can take the weary, the scared and the young. So now we operate with a combination of oar-rafts (paddled by yours truly or others keen on American-style boating), paddle rafts, and crocs.
 The PaddleCat with two on board tackles "Theatre" on the Vaal What it all comes down to is that RIVERMAN offers the best selection of boating options for all and sundry. Choose your boat. We have single seaters for heroes and guided rafts for the sociable. We do kayaks, sit-on-top kayaks, stand-up paddle boards and river boards. Oh, and don’t let me forget the PaddleCat. The catamaran (two pontoons and a frame) that we developed with a boat maker this year and that is now showing all it’s worth on the water. Fast, nippy, bouncy and definitely a cut above the hippo-like croc. Oops, did I say that? I thought up the croc 30 years ago!
Greetings, river rat! Jump into a raft and hit the rapids… we operate on the Vaal, Tugela, Orange and other great South African rivers. RIVERMAN is the most experienced river operator in the country, started in 1982.
Get hold of The Riverman himself, Graeme Addison, to book your place on a boat! Trips run every weekend, half day and full day. We also book corporate teambuilds, school groups, festive outings and conferences, any day of the week. And we teach the skills of rafting, kayaking, river safety and rescue. Go with the flow!
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Come rafting with The Riverman! Graeme
Addison pioneered whitewater rafting in South Africa. Meet him and hear
all about river adventures worldwide.
Graeme literally wrote the book on rafting - in fact two books, one on the world's whitewater rivers, and a standard training textbook. In the 1980s he conceptualised the design of the famous Croc 2-seater inflatable.
Together
with his adventurous sons and others he established many of the routes
that are now plied by river tour operators in different parts of the
country. Graeme runs expeditions to explore new routes and often these
are training trips for young guides or adventure racers. Apart from
doing rafting trips, Graeme offers training in boating skills, safety, rescue and outdoor leadership. 
ORANGE RIVER
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