Murphy's Law and the Orange River

Fall Break 2008- Rafting down the Orange River

The name sounds innocent enough, right?!?! Well my simple, relaxing trip down the Orange River turned into an adventure to remember. I believe everything that could go wrong this week did but we still had an incredible time. The problems started before we even go to the river! The rafting company called to tell me my payment was not going through and that I had 24 hours to correct the problem or I was not allowed to go. Unfortunately, I was in the middle of Etosha National Park and the credit card was in Windhoek. Thankfully, one of the staff was able to find the credit card and call me with the information. With 3 hours left before my deadline I called UMKULU and corrected the problem; apparently my 5 looked like a 6. Whew! I could still go!

The night before we left our driver called to tell us he did not have a passport to get into South Africa. With no other option we continued with the plan for him to drive and decided to deal with immigration when we got to the border 8 hours away. On the trip down the starter in the combi gave out and we had to push start the van in true Little Miss Sunshine Style. About an hour from our final destination we had a flat tire. Once we reached the border we started to have real problems. The Namibian officials did not like the way our visa's were stamped in our passports but let us leave Namibia after we explained our study visas.

When we reached South Africa a policeman thought it would be entertaining to harrass the American tourists. He told the men (all 3 of them) to leave the van and produce the permit. He claimed that we needed a permit to drive into South Africa and since we did not have the proper papers that we could not enter South Africa legally. Except, we were technically already in South Africa. People started getting fruturated, askind questions, and trying to reason with the man. He responded to this by telling us that we would have to spend the night in the holding cell until we had the proper authorization to enter South Africa. He continued this game for about 15 minutes directing it at us girls and continuously asking if we were crying yet. Finally, he relented and said he was joking and to go on through to immigration. Afterwards we realized that he was looking for a bribe and was going to continue to threaten us with jail until we offered him money.

Remember how I said that our driver did not have a passport? Well, the only one of us who remembered to bring our drivers liscence was Jason. Unfortunately, he had never driven a standard in his life. So in front of the lovely police officer Jason drove a stick shift for the first time ever. Miracously, he did not stall!!

Once we reached the base camp we met the 4 other people on our trip. One couple, Pascal and Annya, were from Switzerland and were spending 3 weeks in Cape Town cycling. Pascal spent 3 years of his life cycling around the world! He had incredible stories about his travels and was very much free spirit. The other couple was from Cape Town and were 21 and 23. It was very neat to meet people our age and to spend a week getting to know them.

The next morning we started our 5 days on the river. The scenery was pretty spectacular! The river is in the middle the Namib desert. Directly by the river it is green and there is a ton of plant life but 200 yards in either direction and its desert again. Every day we would see something different. We would paddle our 2 person rafts until the 'right time' and then set up camp. We slept outside everynight on only pads. It was an experience! The food our guides made for us was great! I am sure it only tasted so wonderful because of how tired we all were at the end of the day. Did I mention that the Orange River is more like a lake? The water level was very low and there were only a few rapids each day so we paddled hard!

We would end the day around 4 and then spend the rest of the evening hiking and sitting by the campfire. It truly was a blast! On the Monday Jason got really sick with what we believed was heat stroke. After several re-hydration tablets and some rest he felt better the next day. On Wednesday he woke up with a headache but seemed fine. Suddenly, he was shaking, cramping, and running a really high fever. He was unable to walk to a raft by himself. We were 40k, or 2 days, away from the take out point. Phil and Reon, our guides, cleared out 1 raft and put him in it. Then Phil and Brett took off with Jason to the take out point. It was terrifying. Phil was truly scared because he believed Jason's illness was Malaria and that it was "life-threatening".

The rest of us followed at a slower pace but completed the 40K in 6 hours. It was an exhausting day. I had Jessica, Jason's girlfriend of over a year, in my raft the entire day. She felt helpless and spent 6 hour playing the 'what-if' game. We found out that they had transported Jason to the closest hospital which was 3 hours away in South Africa. The Namibian officials at immigration would not let Jason leave the country because of his visa. Instead, they forced him to get ahold of our program director and have a copy of the group visa faxed to him. Apparently our guide, a Namibian, through a fit about this and made matters worse.

Thankfully, the initial blood work has come back negative for Malaria and they are concluding that it was tonsilitis that was worsened by heat stroke. The emergency took us off the river a day earlier than expected so we had 2 days to hang around at base camp before our bus ride home. This time at the border they fixed our visa's so we would not have the same problem again!

It was quite the trip! People fell out of rafts, fell down mountains, we saw baboons, goats, and lizards, we jumped off cliffs, put our life jackets on like diapers and rode down rapids, made new friends, and saw more of a gorgeous country!! The list of 'problems' truly is never ending but it made the trip worthwhile!

I have posted tons and tons of pictures on my picassa site as usual. I post almost every picture online so that if my computer crashes I will still have access to all my memories from this trip! I only have 6 weeks left! I can not believe how quickly this semester has gone by! I hope you are all doing well and staying healthy. Have a great Halloween and I will post again soon. I still owe you a post about Walvis Bay and Swakopmound!