Bianke Fourie, Mike von der Heyde, Corlius Jooste, David Collett, Janet Moore, Clive Louw, Romy von der Heyde, Chi Chi Love, Gillian Forbes, Kenneth Willemse, Bruce Arnot, Sandy Louw, Jane Luck, Cheryl Devine (Photo by Greg Devine)
We had a beautiful calm, warm and clear day for this outing. One was reminded of a Paul Simon song from the last century, or maybe the one before.
Was a sunny day
All the birdies in the sky
Not a negative word was heard
From the people passing by
Was a sunny dayyyyy… etc.
After the usual photo at the start, we set off down the path of the Groeneweide trails. Instead of crossing the river we started splashing our way upriver. We didn’t hear any negative words from the people getting their feet wet, maybe because we had fallen back to our usual rear-guard position.
The river banks have changed a bit, with some now scoured of debris and vegetation and other loaded with fresh obstacles. It is easy and pleasant going, but with a lot of criss-crossing of the river.
After about two hours we reached the weir where the really exciting bit begins. The river runs through a really narrow gorge for about 80 to 100 metres. It is out and back and it calls for some fitness and stamina, as the water is quite cold, even on a hot day. Luckily at about midday, the sun shines on a rock near the end where one can rest and warm up for the return swim.
There is a legend of a mermaid that sometimes sits on this rock (Photo by David Collett)
After all the splashing in the river and cool down in the pool, it is a rather hot, dry and boring walk of about 2kms back to the cars, but still no negative words were heard.
Deep and dark swim to the mini-waterfall.
It’s always teatime.
Meet Leaders ~ Cheryl and Greg Devine