Umkomaas River – Impendle to Lundy’s Hill
Umkomaas River – Impendle to Lundy’s Hill · kwazulu-natal
Grade
IV
Length
38km
Duration
8 hours if the river is not high. Long 1 day, easy 2 day trip.
Type
pool drop
About
A 38km pool-drop section (middle portion more continuous), best run as a long one-day or easy two-day trip; roughly 8 hours when not high. Put-in is the road bridge between Netherby and Impendle, via dirt roads normally in good condition. Take-out is just upstream of the second (riverwise) bridge at the Lundy's Hill store turn-off from the R617. An under-used stretch high on the Umkomaas that sits below most major tributaries and carries water volumes similar to the lower runs. The isolated valley offers excellent scenery — arguably the best on the whole Umkomaas — with little sign of human presence. All rapids are runnable in a kayak or inflatable raft, though some should be scouted from the bank; the few nasty ones have easy chicken-runs. The middle section (3–4 hours) holds many rapids with short pools, becoming fairly continuous at high water. A solid grade 4 with big boulders and tight lines marks the end of the continuous section, after which pools lengthen again. Further downstream is a particularly bad rapid where the main flow runs into a pour-over and then an undercut — not a sticking hazard but an injury one; spray signals it from a distance at medium to high levels. Take the right chicken-run or portage on the left. A nasty weir just above the take-out should be portaged; at high water exit on the right bank well upstream to avoid being washed over. Competent K1 paddlers can run most but not all rapids; there are far more rapids than on the popular section below Hella-Hella, and several are harder. Low water may make the trip too long in a day for unfit paddlers. Detailed trip report: Adrian Tregoning's blog — Upper Umkomaas.
Access
Put-in
Take-out
Permits
None