One of the jewels of the Eastern Cape. 4 days of remote paddling though mist
shrouded valleys at near flood levels. Quite a few monster Grade Vs and
lots of runnable Grade IIIs.
Annual Dinner -November 2001
Preller House, Pelindaba - schakus dikus food and merriment everywhere. Some even
dared to follow Piers for a mountainbike ride before the dinner. They made
it back in time even if they were covered in mud! Chris handed out the
awards.
Kayak School - November 2001
With so many many new and enthusiastic kayakers we enlisted
Whitewater Training
to show us how it should be done. A great weekend on the Vaal. Thanks to Hugh's
brilliant coaching an enormous amount was learnt by all.
Tuxedos, long dresses and the finest china. Thats the standard formula for our
annual bush dinner. This year it was made even better by the superb views
from ontop a large granite dome in central Swaziland.
Lesotho Pony Trek - September 2001
Heidi led a trip into the highlands of Lesotho travelling on the tough Basutho
ponies and staying with the local villagers. It sounded superb - please
send us a trip report and some photos Heidi!.
Twane Mountain Bike Safari - September 2001
We chased the wildebeeest down the dirt roadss, raced the impala across the
veld (and lost) and Les even tried to feed the crocodiles - with himself!
The first
total eclipse of the sun for the new millenium occurred in Southern Africa.
During June 2001 Chris K organised a trip to Northern Zimbabwe / Southern
Zambia to view this unique event. 200 seconds of totality ensured that they
experienced some of the fear and wonder of the ancients.
Outdoor Expo Kyalami - May 2001
ESSA teamed up with Adventure Zone Magazine to mount a very impressive stand.
Lots of new members signed up and the club gained a great amount of
publicity. Thanks to all those who gave up their time to hand out leaflets
and to talk to the eager newcomers.
We were sorry to see Adventure Zone fold in January 2002, despite its enthusiastic
welcome by the adventuring community.
The Chinese Lunar New Year sees a huge festival of
dragon boats, smaaklik chinese food and chinese culture at Florida lake in
Johannesburg. ESSA proved surprisingly competitive and managed to oust some
much more favoured (and experienced teams).
During 2000 the Society ran a competition to find an expedition that epitomised the exploring spirit of South Africans. The first prize was a sponsorship of R10 000 to the most inspiring proposal. Undoubtedly Cornel Grobler's slide show of his first dramatic attempt to ski across Greenland powered mainly by Macadamia nuts stuck in many of the voting committee's heads when the final decision came to be made!
Cornel and his team sucessfully skied during April 2001unsupported across the Greenland ice cap in 21 days.
This journey originated as Joey's thirtieth birthday bash. Five days of paddling
thought the most vibrant and naked geological formations in South Africa. Enlivened
by the sounds of Tony's guitar across the still waters of the
orange in the evenings.
A group from the CSIR joined us for this desert rafting trip through the sun blasted
canyons of Thunder Alley.
Usutu River - March and April 2001
On successive weekends we went to run both the upper and lower Usutu
whitewater sections in Swaziland. As both trips turned into minor epics
nobody got a chance to take any photos!
