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A travel writer can’t always choose when to visit a destination. For one issue, Ian McNaught Davis travelled through Northern KZN on the wrong side of summer. Nevertheless, a waterslide had to be tested…
As a freelance journalist, I am morally obligated to put myself at the front line of experience for the sake of the reader. So when I heard that there was a 58-metre waterslide at Umziki Chalets just outside the town of Jozini, my journalistic integrity insisted that I investigate further.
The pump was off when I turned up at Umziki, so the slide was really just a pool at the bottom. However, when I explained to manager Manuel Rodrigues how important it was that I tested the slide first-hand, he started the whole thing up just for me.
Being the meticulous fact-checker that I am, I had to slip and squeal down the tube several times to determine whether the experience was actually fun. (It was!) Then I had to slide down several more times to get a perfect self-portrait in pre-splash glory. (I did!)
I left Jozini the following morning, hoping that this assignment would establish me as a sort of Derek Watts of supertubes, and that the editor at go! would keep this in mind when choosing freelancers in the future. (He will! – Ed.)
