Running through the beautiful Cederburg Mountains, the Doring offers spectacular mountain scenery and some exciting rapids. It is runnable for only a short season after the winter rains, usually August and a week or two into September – when it’s being co-operative. Unfortunately, it has not been particularly reliable over the last few years, and has not flowed at all for some seasons – possibly another casualty of global climate change. But when it runs it’s great. It is also a very popular river with local kayakers.
Grade three, and sometimes grade four, rapids follow in quick succession, with only short flat sections in between. When the level is high, the rapids are big and fast and, when it is lower, they are smaller, but more technical. At the lowest runnable level, the trip consists more of dodging rocks than paddling, but that can be fun, too.
Most trips are run over a weekend. You meet on Friday night and return on Sunday afternoon but there are also trips during the week if there is sufficient demand. While you may have some form of accommodation for the first night, you camp on the river, which is great fun. But is mid-winter, and it can get pretty chilly. The water is cold, too, as much of it is snow-melt.