It's been eleven long years

[River Rat]

Water quality is a major part of the Duzi and believe me there are very few of us for whom this is not an issue. I am one of very few that have not fallen foul of the dreaded Duziguts but I am very worried about what we might encounter.

 

This Saturday we finished another piece of the puzzle when we finished the 50 miler. The 50 miler is traditionally the paddlers version of a shortened Duzi, most sections that would be portaged on the Duzi are compulsory paddling, although on the same sretches of river 50 miler versus Duzi is like comparing Three Towers to Sani . The race starts just above Mission rapid and finishes at Mfula's store it encompasses the Big Three of day 2 of Duzi namely Gumtree, Thombi and Hippo Rapids. These are not rapids for novice paddlers and any mistake ever so slight will lead to a broken boat and a risk of life and limb.

 

Our A grade river proficiency meant that we could enter but because we had been absent from the paddling scene we were placed in the last batch. We had an ignominious start and swam at the approaches to Mission and found ourselves in last position. The sweeps were trying to convince us that we should rather pull out now, after all if you can't even make one of the easiest of rapids this was going to be a long day. We were hard pressed convincing them that we were up for the challenge ahead. Nonetheless, we shot Finger Nek rapid leaving 6 boats swimming in the eddy below in our wake leaving the sweeps to worry about paddlers more worthy of their attention.

 

The organisers had arranged a small release of water from the Henley dam which meant that we had just enough to get through most rapids on the Umsinduzi but our collective quarter ton of boat, kit and humans meant the shallower sections were bumb and grinds that would make my pilates instructor proud. But it was not doing our boat any good and the twelve year old fibre and kevlar soon failed the ultimate test and we were taking on water big time. We duct taped what we could but we had to manage the boat by emptying just before all the big rapids.

 

Things got considerably worse after the Umsinduzi confluenced with the Umgeni river and the little water release we had was spread over a far wider river and the bumb and grind became almost obscene as two grown men well over 55 and an average weight of close to 100kg were trying to synchronise their pelvic thrusts. This was not a pretty sight and the grunts and groans sounded like a dubbed soundtrack from a German porn movie. We managed to successfully shoot two of the big three but unfortunately Hippo was a no go at that low level. We finished way back in the field with a boat that ended it's life almost on the finish line but the confidence is up and now for the 2 day Klip race to fine tune our training in our new boat. Ah yes still no Duziguts, holding thumbs!