Three Lowveld father-and-son teams navigated the Orange River in 11 days on two rubber ducks with Yamaha 15 hp outboard engines from the Lesotho border near Zastron to where the river runs into the Atlantic Ocean at Alexander Bay in the Northern Cape.
Kobus and Francois Jacobs, Guillaume Nel Sr. and Jr. and Abrie and Wynand Visser embarked on this expedition to raise awareness around mental health issues and their associated implications.
The Spoorloos teams started their journey on the river on 12 March and finished their quest on 23 March. They faced various challenges early on in their journey. On day one, they spent six hours longer than planned on the river due to sandbanks and several rapids where they needed to either drag the boats or carry them around obstacles. They finally reached their destination at 11:30 pm.
‘We weren’t prepared to navigate the river at night. Our boats didn’t have lights, and moreover, we had no communication with our ground team as, at that point, the river meandered through ravines where there was no cellphone signal. Fortunately, the moon rose, and by the light of that and the stars, we could progress on the route,’ says Kobus.
One of the radios landed in the river on day one, and one of the engine covers popped off after hitting a rock in one of the rapids – a rocky start to the 1 200km ahead!
The team alternated with four people manning the boats and two on the ground team each day. Their adventure took them through beautiful valleys, over impressive dams and past breathtaking rock formations and landscapes, with magnificent sunsets as a welcome reward for each day’s hard work on the river. The abundant bird life and stretches of quiver trees on the riverbank were spectacular. Some areas were so remote that the team doubted many people had seen them before them.
The hearty welcome they received countless times at the places where they spent the night will stay with the team. ‘At Sandgat, just below the Van der Kloof Dam, the owners decided to sponsor our accommodation and breakfast – a favour we appreciated immensely at that stage of our journey,’ says Abri, the team’s accommodation coordinator.
The trip had its quota of adrenaline too. Several weirs and rapids often slowed and sometimes accelerated their pace. At one of the rapids on day two, one of the team members was thrown overboard. On day three, in the area below the Gariep Dam, the team left their boats ashore to inspect a rapid further down. The next moment they saw one of their boats (no one was at the helm) and another coming down in the swirling stream in close succession. The Gariep Dam had opened some of their floodgates, and the subsequent substantial rise in the water level swept the boats away.
Fortunately, the two young men on the boating team were strong swimmers and could retrieve the boats. Hidden rocks below the surface of the water were generally the greatest danger. The steel protective cases that protected the boats’ propellors were indispensable. ‘Without those, we certainly would not have been able to complete the journey successfully,’ says Guillaume.
Their journey took them past the Gariep, Van der Kloof and Boegoeberg Dams, Augrabies Waterfall, Orania, Onseepkans, the Richtersveld on the Namibian side of the river until they finally reached the sea at Alexander Bay on day 11.
There were also a few challenges for the backup team. Near Blouputs, the Land Rover got stuck in mud in an attempt to get closer to the river to launch the boats, and the trailer axle broke on day eight.
‘Fortunately, the trailer had a double axel, and we could continue the journey without a long delay,’ says Francois. Over and above the challenging conditions on the river, the sun and wind also took its toll.
The journey was physically and mentally challenging. The Spoorloos team’s motto #HaalAsem (#Breathe) was not only an incentive for them – they also used it to share positive mental health messages daily on social media with those who follow them on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.
The Spoorloos teams reached the Atlantic Ocean at Alexander Bay on day 11, completing their 1 250km journey. It had been an adventure with a greater purpose and one that each team member will remember for the rest of their life.
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