Drought leads to a wait-and-see approach from Berg River paddlers

THE Berg River Canoe Marathon organisers may make significant changes to the the race this year due to low water conditions.

Many paddlers have adopted a waitand-see attitude before entering, and the traditional increase in the flow of entries after the Pink Lady race, a warmup event, has not materialised.

The 56th running of the event is set for July 12-15.

With the region in the grips of the drought, the low level of water in the Berg River system has left much of the 240km course scarcely paddleable, with the first two stages of the race from Paarl to Misverstand Dam the worst affected.

To aggravate matters, the section of river from Grensplaas to Gouda on the first two legs of the race is clogged by the ever-spreading water hyacinth, and is also jammed by numerous large trees that have fallen into the river, either due to the dry conditions or landowners felling trees and neglecting to remove them.

While the Pink Lady Drakenstein race was able to go ahead, thanks to water levels bumped up by timeous rainfall, the Berg organisers recognise that they cannot gamble on a repeat of that fortunate weather, and have tabled a number of alternatives for the race.

These include starting the first stage at the Franschhoek Bridge and ending at Grensplaas, or if the river is too low, holding the first stage from Gouda to Bridgetown after a loop on Misverstand Dam.

Options for the second stage include running the same stage from Gouda to Bridgetown, but with a shorter leg on Misverstand Dam, in an effort to try and retain the same race distances on each stage of the race.