Day two of the Berg River Canoe Marathon

The cold mist rising up from the river creates a haze that looks mysterious and foreboding.  The atmosphere on the bank is very geselig "social", and the still sleepy paddlers and seconds mull around, drinking coffee and chatting while watching the top paddlers going off in the time splits that they came in the day before (elapsed time paddlers). The remaining paddlers collect their ice encrusted boats from the boat pounds and get ready to get on the water and brave the icy cold river down to Bridgetown where pancakes and boerewors rolls await.

Seconds head off to the Gouda Bridge viewpoint apprehensively, as the dirt roads are very slippery.  The drive is along some of the most stunning green farm land, and farm animals graze along the roadside, while blue cranes (south africa's national bird) and the spurwing goose fly above you.

Here I have a secret spot that allows me to see the paddlers about 15 minutes before they get to the bridge and the farmer and his wife are always very happy to see me and we have a little chat while I wait to see the paddlers coming out of the trees and into the long flat water paddle to the bridge and the dreaded Black Rock Rapid - where many a boat has been splintered and split.

The spectators and seconds stand on the bridge, all waiting to see who made it through the trees first. The prize for reaching the bridge first also adds to the excitement as there is often a sprint race to see who gets it (this year's leading pair Hank and his training partner Grant van der Walt did the dice).

Tom King, using his wizarding skills, has made an ingenious contraption of bottles and duct tape to get his son Lance his rations for the day. He drops this over the bridge just at the front of Lance, who scoops it up and continues paddling without having to stop.Then its back on the dirt road past the sheep and the horses, to the second viewpoint of the day: Railway Bridge (locally known as Train Bridge). This is the point that most of the other top paddlers have chosen to receive their days’ rations, as it roughly two thirds of the way to the end.  On the road down, I was fortunate to see a steenbokkie or steenbuck along the road before he darted into the veld and was gone.  There is also a young pair of fish eagles at this viewpoint and if you are really, really lucky you will hear their haunting cry and catch a glimpse of them soaring and doing acrobatic tricks on the thermals above you.

The finish is at Bridgetown, which, as the story goes, (this is however an unconfirmed tail) was supposed to be the main town in the area, the town planners, planned a majestic bridge across the river which would bring prosperity to the town, and they measured the river to accommodate the bridge crossing, however, it was at a time when South Africa had just crossed over to using the metric system and the architect measured the bridge in centimeters and meters. When the long anticipated bridge arrived from Mother England, it did not fit as the construction crew had measured the bridge according to the imperial system! So here, in the town without a bridge, we sit on the raised river banks looking out over the long flat stretch of water as each paddler crosses the finish line - now 2 days into the 4 day race, with their longest paddling day ahead of them.