Ant Hoard From Cape Town Off To The Grand Canyon

We wanted to say thanks so much to all those folks out there who entered our Facebook Grand Canyon rafting trip competition. Our eventual winner was Ant Hoard from Cape Town and a river guide for Gravity Adventures in Cape Town. Ant received a phenomenal number of shares in the competition, eventually becoming a runaway winner to raft the Grand Canyon. Ant will be keeping a bit of the video diary on his trip down the Colorado and you’ll be able to see that on his return at the end of May. We have set up our tracker, so that guests and friends can follow progress of the trip down river and on the many hikes.

Ant, our winner of 2 weeks in the Grand Canyon

Ten Of The Best Hikes On A Grand Canyon Rafting Trip

The Grand Canyon. Possibly the most famous of all river trips, but for many people who have done this trip, as much as the rapids are excellent fun, many people love the access that the river gives us to stunning hikes, some short, others longer. The diversity of the Grand Canyon allows us to sample so many varied hikes every time we do the trip. Here is a sample of some of the hikes we love. Havasu Creek: Deer Creek Patio Thunder River Blacktain Canyon Hilltop ruins above Unkar Rapid Shinomo Creek Nankoweap Granaries North Canyon Elves Chasm Little Colorado As you progress further downstream and past Lava, most of the great hikes are over and it tends to get fairly warm down there. Don’t forget also to pop into Phantom Ranch on your way down to sample and ICE COLD lemonade and post some of your Water By Nature postcards back home. We also can’t really class it as a “hike” but the magnificent Redwall Cavern is well worth a stop on your trip. Do you agree with our choices? What hikes do YOU love? The best part of all this, is you could win a trip for FREE … Continue reading →

Capturing Memories Of Your Rafting Vacation

Having immersed yourself in your rafting holiday, who might be there to capture YOUR memories for you? An integral part of any river trip (numbers permitting) is to have a video kayaker along, whose sole purpose is to capture trip memories for you in the form of still photographs and a 30-45 minute DVD of your trip for you to show your family and friends on your return! Just think, when they are just starting to get bored of all of your stories, you can show them, just how much fun it is on a river trip! With the onset of many inexpensive and excellent quality waterproof cameras, many of our trips also have Go-Pro cameras offering HD quality photos and video from the front of the raft facing back at the crew, or alternatively, some other great views can be obtained putting the camera on the guides helmet at the back of the raft. In addition, we take small waterproof pelican cases so you’ll have the opportunity to capture your own special images on the trip. Just remember, if there is something that might make the DVD amazing for you, ask the cameraman to grab that shot for you. … Continue reading →

Mikey Amos, one of our talented cameramen in Morocco

Comic Relief Zambezi Hell And High Water Challenge

It was so great to see one of our favourite rivers in the world featured as part of Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day Challenge on BBC1 on 14th March. An amazing effort on the part of the celebrities to raise in excess of £1,100,000. The Zambezi Challenge saw celebrities Jack Dee, Dara O’Briain, Chelsee Healey, Radio 1 DJ Greg James, Spice Girl Melanie C and Olympian Phillips Idowu paddle more than 100km down the Mighty Zambezi River. Given the time of year chosen to run the challenge, the participants paddled mainly above Victoria Falls as at that time of year the rapids from Number 1-10 are considered too dangerous. The optimum time to raft the Zambezi River is from August until November in the “dry season” when the river is low, the weather hot and the gorge is not as green as we saw it on Comic Relief. Water By Nature have been offering charity events on the Zambezi for more than 15 years, working with Guide Dogs, Breast Cancer, Lupus to name just a few. If you’d like to fundraise for your preferred charity the longest serving Charity Event Organiser on the Zambezi, Global Adventure Challenge can assist you … Continue reading →

Comic Relief Hell And High Water On The Zambezi

As was announced on the Greg James show on Radio One, he’ll be joined by Dara O’Briain, Jack Dee, Philips Idowu, Mel C and Chelsee Healey for a trip down the Zambezi River to fund raise for Comic Relief. Due to the high water levels experienced at this time of the year, the participants will be mainly running the Upper Zambezi, above Victoria Falls from Sekoma Island to Livingstone Island and finishing off with a high water rafting run from Rapid 10-25. This is how the 100km over 5 days will be made up. Day 1: Sekoma Island to Nan Pen Island Day 2: Nan Pen Island to Siandunda Day 3: Siandunda to Thorntree Day 4: Thorntree to Livingstone Island Day 5: Rapid 10 – 25 On the upper river the main threat to the celebrities will be hippos and crocs plus fatigue. The weather at this time of the year is hot and wet, and they’ll want to mind those rash’s! On the lower river, the celebrities will tackle big water rapids such as The Mother and The Washing Machine and Oblivion. What a great cause this is for and lets get behind the team and raise as much … Continue reading →

Whitewater Rafting Terminology – What you need to say to sound COOL!

It can be hard when you first go on a rafting holiday to get to grips with what the guides are talking about! So here are a few of the essentials to ensure you’ll know exactly what they are talking about and sound like a “riverguru” by the time you come back home. Put In: The place where you launch the rafts into the river. Guide will give a safety talk before you start rafting and give you paddle instructions. Take Out: The end of the river trip, where the rafts get taken out of the river and plenty of good stories are told. From here you will get transport back to town. Current: Any reference to moving water Eddy: Water moving back upstream caused by a rock or obstacle of some sort. This is the ideal place to stop river craft. Eddy Fence: The water between the current moving downstream and the eddy. Hole: A river feature where water flows over a rock or obstacle in the river, drops down in the river, flows downstream and then back towards the falling water. Wave/Lateral: This is caused by a constriction of flow (river narrowing) or off an obstacle. Waves on … Continue reading →