The Polela River, South Africa...

Here's an amalgamation of photos from 2 days on the Polela River in South Africa. It's a super fun river with a few nice drops and trickier rapids with loads of fun continuous sections in between. Enjoy.

-Will Clark approaching the first main drop, photo Guy Anderson-

-It was this guys first time paddling waterfalls! He did land the right way up! - Photo Guy Anderson-

-Guy Anderson on the river right line-

-Tom McLay also on the river right line-

-Tom on the next, smaller drop-

-Andrew Pollock on the same drop-

-Will Clark on the entry to 'Te-Bone Re-Bone"-

-Will coming through to the last drop-

-The last drop on Te-Bone Re-Bone-

-A nice angle showing our nice new Fluid spray decks by Seals-

-Tom on the same drop-

-Oh yeah if you get pushed left it gives you a kicking!!-

-Oops, that'll be a bootie beer then...-

-Nice job Tom!-

Ok, that's the photos from that trip, I went and spent 4 days up in Zimbabwe after that, I'll put some photos from that trip up soon.

Happy Paddling.

South Africa... ...it's a mini adventure...

I've just spent a week in SA before flying up to see my parents in Vic Falls for a few days. Well this is my hire car, because of reasons known as Polly getting mad and pulling the steering wheel off his own car this was our shuttle vehicle for a week...

Only problem which I admit in this photo is hard to see is that the wheels were made of lego and even puddles were a problem.

After checking out the level of the Polela River we had to call our friends to give us a push after I slipped off the road and the front grounded out!!

I love hire cars!!

More pics from our South African adventure to come soon...

Nile Kayaking Festival 2010 - Round Up

Well like a snowboarding movie once said - 'That's it that's all'. The Nile Kayaking Festival 2010 is over. Gone, finished for another year. But not before I do a quick round up for you folks with some results and photos.

So here we go.

Freestyle results.

Women

1. Emily Wall

2. Kiely Eversole

3. Jesse Stone

Men

1. Julien the Frenchy

2. Quintin from WCKA

3. Timmy Flowers

Highest placed Ugandan overall (both race results and freestyle) - Hassan Kanoli - winner of a brand new Fluid Kayak!!

Well here's a few more photo's from the freestyle event and a couple of others from the Boda Boda X as well - in no particular order...

-Quintin from WCKA-

-Julien the French man playing up to the crowd-

-Timmy Flowers-

-Jason Craig-

-Timmy Flowers-

-Jesse Stone-

-Kiely Eversole getting some big air in the finals-

-Emily Wall-

-The pig getting cut up after the Boda Boda X-

-Me DJing during the Boda Boda X-

-Reuben Connely rocking out to the tunes!-

-More funnels-

-Reuben coming in over the line with his son watching from the side-

Well that's about it.

I hope everyone had a great new year - I know I'm only just recovering from ours now - 3 days later!! I'm off down to SA in a couple of days hoping to get a few days creeking - apparently the rivers are up!!

Happy days!!

Nile Kayaking Festival - Photo Competition...

For the last few years we've been running a photo competition at every kayak festival here on the Nile. The competition is in memory of Ben Holland - a great friend of ours who was an amazing photographer and lived here on the banks of the NIle, but sadly passed away a few years ago.

Even though the festival itself had almost no funding this year, the photo competition had a cash prize of $200 - donated very graciously by Darryl Rurka - the winner from a few years ago.

Anyone could enter 3 photo's which were then put into anonymous folders for impartial judging. In all 11 people entered, here's the top 5.

-The Winner, Emily Wall's photo of Quintin from WCKA throwing a backstab-

-2nd, Will Clark's photo, the end of the Boda Boda X-

-3rd, Maddy Leslie's shot - Hassan on the wave and Charles cheering from the bank-

-4th, Will Clark's shot, Julien the Frenchman - one handed airscrew!!-

-5th, Emery from WCKA's shot, Charles at the freestyle competition-

Sweet, I'll put some more shots from the freestyle competition up soon..

Nile Kayaking Festival 2010

I'm sat in the organisers tent - the Boda Boda X has just finished and the Nile Kayaking Festival 2010 is now well and truly underway. I have a cold Club in my hand and the tunes are pumping. It's another classic day in Uganda and we're all having the best day ever!!

The results from the Boda Boda X are as follows...

1. Hassan Kanoli

2. Yusuf Basalirwa

3. Charles Luttaya

4. Timmy Flowers

5. Doug Greaves

Here's some photo's from today, I'll be sure to put more up soon.

Sweet!!

The Pig we're gonna eat in a couple of hours!
Dougy after he recovered from the race
Broken - Doug and the guys after coming in over the line.
For some a funnel of beer was a bit too much after the race!!
Tony from NRE enjoying himself.

The Boda Boda drivers waiting for the competitors to come in at Silverback...

Mass sprint towards Bujagali
The start of the race

The guys setting up the obstacle course
The Boda's before the race.

Well all good now - the next race is who can get drunk the fastest!!!

Zambezi...

I just made it down to the Zambezi. I arrived Sunday afternoon and after a few beers ended up getting the job as safety kayaker for a Water by Nature multi-day trip heading out the next day.

So here's a few pictures from that trip. Enjoy!

-Water by Nature truck-

-Davis in the gear raft paddling over to the beach at number 26-

-The moon's reflection from our camp at number 26-

-Portaging the rafts around Chimumba falls-

-Our camp at Moemba falls on the Zimbabwe side-

-Kids out fishing below ghoast rider-

-Helicopter packed up with gear for a short flight back up to Moemba-

-Dam Site from the air-

-We had an interesting drive back with bald tyres and no 4 wheel drive!-

-Eventually we totally destroyed the tyre-

More photos soon.