The source of the Olifants River is inaccesable by boat, through we have herd some rumours of the more adventurous floating through the cliffs on old inner tubes. But we use our off road vehicles to access the mountanous interiours of the Skurweberg Mountains and its picturesc Witzenberg Valley. Deep in discussion around the impact of the resent drought on river health and the prolific growth of ailen vegitation, day turn to night and we find ourselves driving our vehicles through the river in the dark. 

Learning always leaves you hungry, for some reason and after spending a day with the the team from WWF we had all worked up quite an apatite. Though expedition life is no free ride and we all get put to work, building fires, cleaning muscles, cutting, and prepping all under the watchful eye of long time friend and expedition team member Chris. It is incredible to see what he can do with a fire, grid and some sustainably sourced sea food. 

The nets we set across the width of the river over night caught invasive species, the students flip coins to see who must pick them up to measure and weigh them. For some its the first time they see an alive fish in “real life”. With spirits soaring and laughter at how some of learned to “walk on water” when they touched the fish we start inflating the crocs to start paddling along the rivers course. 

River catchment areas face constant stress from various land users, in the case of the Olifants River some want to build roads within the rivers course, others want to remove wetlands to create more farm lands and some plant their orchards in the flood planes. With the current lack of rainfall and the pending drought, we found ourselves caught in in the exposed orchards. We found ourselves walking, pulling, carrying, pushing and wondering how on earth the mighty river we crossed in vehicles can be reduced to a trickle.

The vanishing stream is brought back to life, as the tidal influence is seen over 7km upstream from the rivers mouth. The walking gives way to paddling and we make our way to the final river side workshop, a moble cinima inside a cave covered with ancient rock art. The next morning we paddle as far as we can, but for each meter we move forward the headwind pushes us five back, after hours of getting no where we decide to pack up the boats and drive the rest of the way across the salt pans to the rivers mouth.