20 girls saved in river drama
Pretoria - Twenty schoolgirls had to be saved by emergency workers on Wednesday morning after an endurance-camp river trip went wrong and they went missing for nearly a night.
The Grade 10 pupils of Hatfield Christian School were found shortly after 03:30 in thick bush along the Wilge River in Ezemvelo nature reserve in Bronkhorstspruit, east of Pretoria.
The girls accompanied by three teachers and an instructor, took to the river in kayaks on Tuesday about 04:30.
Imbila Edu-Adventures director Philip Reinecke, who arranged the camp, said the group should have reported at a low-water bridge in the reserve by 16:00.
"But, they never arrived and at 19:00 we got an SMS from the instructor, Pastor Jimmy Venter," said Reinecke.
Venter had had to climb high up on a hill to get cellphone reception to call for help.
"We decided to search for the group and called Bronkhorstspruit police station about 20:30," said Reinecke.
Members of the town's emergency services, the Johannesburg Off-road Rescue Unit and the Johannesburg police's water wing were also involved in searching for the teenagers.
Saw the light
After scores of rescue workers had combed the 6 000ha reserve for hours, Venter's calls for help and weak torchlight were seen about 03:00 behind thick reeds near the low-water bridge.
Rescue workers lifted him out of his kayak and treated him at the river, and then about half an hour later - and 4km further downriver - the rest of the group was found.
School spokesperson Pierre le Roux said the girls had become too exhausted to paddle further on Tuesday afternoon.
"After that, the light was bad and they couldn't go further," he said.
Inspector Katlego Mogale of the police said one of the girls had hurt her back when she slipped on stones and fell.
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Well done rescue team. Tell Philip Reinecke to hire a 4x4 next time!
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