Lotheni Without The Fish

I guess some people may have called this particular trip a disaster with several things going wrong almost daily. But in truth it was really just an adventure, which is exactly what every camping trip should be. Hotels confuse me with their air con and TVs. I don’t travel to sit in rooms and watch TV. I can do that at home. I travel to experience nature and the outdoors. And that is exactly what this trip was all about.

With 6 days lined up ahead of us we decided not to rush the journey and instead rose leisurely at 6am. We then slowly packed the car and, despite all of this, were still on the road by 8am. But before we could hit the open road to Lotheni we first had to drop off some flies and check my mom’s fridge. We then grabbed the usual cup of coffee (and filled up the car) at a packed and highly frustrating garage before finally heading for the mountains.

As I said earlier, this drive was all about the journey and not about the destination. As such we stopped off at Piggly Wiggly where we had a fantastic breakfast…well…almost. The food was spectacular but the service was poor and my coffee, which I had ordered prior to my meal, still hadn’t arrived when the bill was slid in front of us. And yes, this was despite having asked about it several times. Oh well, at least we weren’t charged for it.

We then continued onward to Nottingham Road where we stopped at a few of the craft shops to pick up some paper, pastels, and other drawing items for Sharon. She did after all need something to occupy her during my sessions on the river, flicking a fly at any interested fish.

With all of that sorted we headed for the reserve and finally pulled up to the office at around 1pm. This of course meant that the office was closed. Thankfully our name had been scribbled on the board outside  and we ventured forth to our allotted campsite. On route I got a good view of the Lotheni River which was looking high, but fishable (or so I thought).

Our camp went up quickly and easily, and soon we were relaxing under the gazebo wondering what we should do to entertain ourselves for the remainder of the afternoon. After all, we weren’t there to just sit around.

My itch quickly got the better of me and I decided to walk down to the river to see exactly what level it was at (and to pick up the odd wild brown as well of course). I kitted up my rod and made my way back along the road to a small feeder stream which used to offer easy access to the river.

I quickly discovered that what used to be a path existed no more. Not only was the path gone, but the grass was also exceptionally high and the 500 odd meter walk to the Lotheni proved tricky. Eventually I opted to stop searching for the old path and instead walked in the stream, which thankfully speed up my progress.

As I stepped onto the banks of the Lotheni I immediately knew I was in trouble. Despite having fished the river often it was unrecognisable  And I quickly realised the reason that the river looked so good from high up was that it had gotten so deep that most rocks were submerged and there was therefore no visible white water. Areas that used to be ankle deep were knee to waist deep and the river was uncrossable in places.

None the less I began walking upstream (mostly on the bank) trying to find fishable sections. Sadly they were few and far between (if any) and eventually I had to admit defeat and head back to camp. I’d thrown maybe 5 casts and was left wondering how quickly the level would drop.

Fail 1 – The river was unfishable.

Back at camp I sunk into a chair, cracked open a cold beer, and began reading one of many books I’d brought with (thanks to the Kindle Sharon got me for Christmas).

As darkness fell we lit the fire and braaied our traditional first night meal of burgers. It was good to be in the mountains.

After dinner I headed down for a quick shower only to discover there was no cold water in the bathrooms. A cold shower may be unpleasant, but a scalding hot shower is near impossible. I splashed myself clean and then headed back to camp and got straight into bed.

Fail 2 – No cold water.

As is the norm with camping we woke up at first light. Thankfully it wasn’t too hot so we relaxed in bed and continued the previous night’s reading. We then dragged ourselves out of bed with the aid of hot coffee and rusks before planning the day’s activities.

I took a quick drive down to lower sections of the river to see if it was perhaps fishable. It was not. I also took the opportunity to check in which was when I heard the next piece of bad news, they were out of ice. And not only were they out of ice, they also weren’t expecting any more as Underberg’s ice-machine was broken. This meant we had 6 days worth of food and only the ice we’d brought with. It also meant my beers were to be drunk at room temperature.

Fail 3 – No ice!

While in the office a funny thing happened. The man on duty noticed I was wearing a Baha Fly Fishing shirt and asked about the fishing. Apparently nobody had been catching in the river for several months. This was confirmed when I checked the catch register. Ignoring entries from the Simme’s Cottage private dam, I was the last person to catch fish in the river, 8 months prior.

Back at camp Sharon and I made up a picnic lunch of hotdogs and then headed out on a hike to Jacob’s Ladder. Despite being 6 months pregant Sharon did amazingly well and before we knew it we were at the waterfall. Sadly however we were not alone and had to share the pool with another family. That said we had a great time swimming in the frigid pool below the waterfall with the kids.

Eventually they packed up and Sharon and I spent some alone time eating lunch and showering under the waterfall. However with a storm fast approaching we were forced to pack up and began the hike back to camp. Thankfully we made it back in the nick of time and spent the afternoon in the tent, listening to the rain and distant thunder, while once again reading.

As with all ‘berg storms it passed relatively quickly which meant we could one again light up the fire and have another fantastic braai. This time it consisted of a potato bake, wors and avo. No complaints there. Well, one complaint, without ice my beers were now warm.

Fail 4 – Warm beers.

The next morning started at a rather early 4:30am when we woke up on the floor with a flat mattress. I was rather hoping that we just hadn’t put one of the plugs in properly, but 4am was not the time to find out. I gave the mattress a few puffs and we slept until 5:30am. We then dragged ourselves out of bed and had a cup of coffee.

Fail 5 – A flat mattress.

The plan was to head into Underberg for the day. We were hoping to achieve a few things there. Firstly, with the river being unfishable, I was hoping to pick up a few trout on an UHTFC water. Secondly, we thought a fresh supply of ice was in order. And thirdly, I wanted to introduce Sharon to Alan.

We covered the 40kms of dirt quickly and then stopped off at Alan’s place for a cup of coffee and to book a water. I opted for North End due to it having a thatch gazebo for Sharon to sit under. Alan kindly gave her a chair and off we headed.

When we arrived there were two other people on the water. That I knew already. They however were not in the know and looked less than pleased when I climbed into a noisy rowing boat and rowed out. Thankfully a quick chat cleared the air and soon we were all fishing happily.

Fishing was tough and temperatures soon rose to well over 30 degrees. This was a little too hot for the other two and they quickly headed home. I continued my mission and eventually hooked into a fish, right in front of Sharon, as I was about to climb out for a snack. Sadly it broke me off which meant I was still fishless at around 10:30am.

Not giving up easily I headed back out and thankfully picked up a nice 1.5kg rainbow higher up in the dam. Happy I was on the board I fished for a short while longer before calling it a day and heading to the bank.

On route back to Alan’s house we stopped at every single bottle store in Underberg (and believe me, there are a lot) as well as at the Spar (and any other shop we could find) in the hope of finding some ice. Clearly the Lotheni office was correct and there was no ice in Underberg. In fact on one occasion I was opening a deep freeze to look for ice and a panicked lady shoved me out of the way. Well done lady! You must be proud.

Eventually we admitted defeat and headed back to Alan’s who kindly headed out and got us a bag of ice from a friend at the hotel. Amazingly when we opened our cooler box to top it up most of the ice from the start of the trip was still there. Respect Coleman!

From Alan’s place we all headed out to lunch at The Old Hatchery. We relaxed on the deck, soaking in the splendid weather, and enjoyed a few rock shandies accompanied by burgers. Then it was time to say our goodbyes and Sharon and I climbed back into the car for the hour long drive back to Lotheni.

With the weather being so hot we stopped off at Cool Pools for a quick swim in the river. Initially it was just Sharon and I enjoying the pools and we spent our time floating down the rapids. The water was amazingly warm and we were still in it an hour later when the afternoon crowds arrived.

One of the first groups to arrive was a family of 4 with two small kids. Their son immediately jumped into the pool, not realising just how strong the current was. He screamed with delight as he rushed down the pool, enjoynig every minute of it. However the delight quickly turned to terror when he was washed over a small waterfall, out of the pool, and began being thrashed between rocks as he was washed downstream. His parents stood there stunned, unsure of what to do, as their kid headed quickly for the sea.

Thankfully I saw this occur, jumped up, and chased him downstream. After several falls on the rocks I managed to catch up to him and drag him from the raging river. His mom rushed over to thank me while his dad jumped into the river and started swimming. It’s great to be appreciated.

As evening approached we headed back to camp stopping on route at the chalets. Amazingly we found a communal fridge so we filled up a few containers with water, hoping they would freeze into ice bricks for our cooler boxes, and then headed back to camp.

Dinner that night consisted of steak, potato bake and mielies. It was absolutely fantastic and, after scoffing it down, we realised just how tired we were and headed to bed. It was while we were lying there reading that Sharon noticed a faint sound. We dug around for a while, listening carefully, and eventually found the source. It was a tiny hole in the mattress and most likely the cause of our previous night’s bad sleep.

So at 9pm I dug through my fishing bag and found a repair kit for my float tube. We then spent the next half an hour repairing the mattress, before re-inflating it, and then going to bed in hope of a better night’s sleep.

At 1am we were awoken by the sounds of clanging bottles and growling. So much for a good night’s sleep. I picked up my torch and headed out only to be greeted by several jackals going through our rubbish. Normally we tie it off he ground but on this occasion we had some how forgotten, much to our detriment. I spent the next few minutes cleaning up the campsite, under the watchful eye of the jackals, before heading back to a soft mattress.

We gave the mattress a few more puffs of air and then tried in vain to fall asleep.

Fail 6 – Midnight jackal run.

The next morning we were up and at it at 6am thanks to the early morning heat. We relaxed under the gazebo and spent some time sharing our rusks with the birds who had decided we were friend, not foe.

And then we got down to the serious work, repairing our mattress…

This started with a full visual inspection which, as expected, revealed nothing. So we moved onto test number 2 and filled up the entire mattress with water (hoping it would dry). After sloshing the water around, on both sides, for half an hour we found one more small hole which we repaired in a similar manner to the first. This consisted of a puncture repair patch which was then covered with a matching blue vinyl strip to make sure it remained securely attached to the velvetty finish of the mattress. It looked good, but would it hold?

Our next task was to head to the communal freezer hoping our tubs of water had frozen. They hadn’t. That said they were exceptionally cold and so we poured them into our drinks coolerbox and, for the first time on the trip, we had cold drinks.

The rest of the day was spent down at the river, enjoying the rapids and relaxing on the rocks. I guess there’s nothing to complain about there. A perfect way to spend a lazy afternoon. And the dinner of ribs that followed was equally as good. But I suppose the best news of the day was that our mattress did not go down at all that night. Well, maybe that was the second best news. As I said, I finally had an ice cold beer.

The next morning we decided that it was time to head home. We’d been at Lotheni for 5 days (without fishing on the cards) and decided that getting home a day early may be worthwhile in terms of admin around the house before heading back to work. We also knew that after 5 days of sunshine, heavy weather was rolling in and we didn’t want to pack up wet tents, only to have to dry them out at home.

So after a cup of coffee and a quick breakfast we began a rushed pack-up to beat the fast approaching rain. We sighed a breath of relief when we threw the last of our dry gear into the car as the first drops of rain began to fall.

With the rain falling we decided a swim was not necessary and began a slow drive and meander home.

Our first stop was at the Waffle House where, for the first time in a week, I turned on my cell phone.  Sigh – back to reality.

Almost immediately the phone beeped. It was a message from Nick saying he was coming up for the day. Fail! It was now 10am and chances are that he would already be at Lotheni if he had chosen to go. I immediately phoned him but his phone was off. Not a good sign, I thought, since Lotheni has no reception. Thankfully a phone call to Tarryn confirmed he’d not headed up and was in fact at home. Phew!

Anyway, after a fantastic waffle we continued our meander, stopping off at various places including Born In Africa (I think that’s what it’s called) where we stocked up on true African style baby clothes. Can’t be having any of this pink stuff. And from there we headed home for a relaxing new year’s eve.

Despite all the fails it was a fantastic trip…an adventure! I truly love Lotheni!