Dusi delivers delight and drama
It was that time of year again when paddlers took on the world’s toughest canoe endurance marathon, The Dusi, from Thursday, February 13, to Saturday, February 15.
East Rand Kayak Club (ERK), based at Homestead Dam, sent a large contingent of paddlers to tackle the marathon and a number of their entrants successfully completed the 2014 Dusi.
The marathon comprises 120km of gruelling cross-country and wild white water rapids along the Msunduzi River, from Pietermaritzburg to Durban.
Mike Barry, a Benoni businessman, and Tommy Booth, a first timer at the Dusi, both ERK members, finished in 147th position out of some 775 boats, in a K2 year, where the majority of the boats were doubles, in an overall time of 10 hours and 52 minutes.
The club’s top finisher was, as expected, Michael Stewart, who partnered with Cape-based paddler Brandon Collyer, previously from Germiston, to finish in a top 50, silver Dusi medal position, in 39th place, in an overall time of nine hours and 20 minutes.
Benonian father and daughter team, Grant and Jade Morshead, also successfully finished the race (despite breaking their kayak on day three) in 649th position, while ERK’s Donna Tutton competed in the women’s category with a KwaZulu-Natal-based partner.
There was plenty of drama for ERK’s paddlers at this year’s Dusi, and Raymond Pratt and Alex Johnson experienced some troubles when they were going down a rapid and were hit by another double kayak.
The pair was pushed against a rock and the boat went under it.
The front paddler, Johnson, got out of the boat, and Pratt was trapped under the water, in the boat.
He was eventually rescued by his partner, but their boat had to broken at the seams in order to get it out from under the rock.
After repairing their K2 kayak, the two managed to finish the Dusi in a time of 13 hours, 17 minutes and 41 seconds.
ERK paddlers Bob Harvey and Tony Ferguson had quite the misadventure when they were stranded on a rock on an unpaddled stretch of the river, off the normal race course, for four hours.
The race’s safety helicopter finally managed to locate the pair and airlift them to safety.
According to Harvey, they were accidentally pushed into the river bank by another boat, and their boat wrapped around a rock and broke.
They tried to splint it with branches and tape, but it kept taking on water.
He said they thought that, if they could get to the Guinea Fowl portage take-out, they would be able to fix the broken craft, but they somehow missed it and ended up on a large rock island in the middle of the river.
They were completely stuck after losing their boat, until the chopper managed to help them to safety.
“We were very relieved to see the helicopter after four hours on the rock,” said Harvey.
“We had visions of sleeping on the rock overnight and, because of the extreme heat, we had resorted to drinking water from the Dusi, which is not really a good idea.”
Harvey said that, despite the experience, both he and Ferguson will definitely take on next year’s Dusi.
- ERK will be hosting an open evening, from 6pm, at their Homestead Dam clubhouse, in Ebenezer Street, on Wednesday, February 26, for anybody who is interested in canoeing.
The position and times of ERK paddlers who finished the race are:
39th Michael Stewart and Brandon Collyer, [9:20:32.06]
97th James Tutton and Gavin Steyl, [10:12:25.08]
105th Clinton Fox and Clint Munro, [10:19:22.40]
113th Gavin Payne and Douglas Jewson, [10:37:59.59]
129th Rhys Foster, [10:37:59.59]
135th Richard Thandi and Guy Carter, [10:43:59.10]
147th Mike Barry and Tommy Booth, [10:52:42.30]
171st Donna Tutton and Eloise van Gysen, [11:07:40.65]
381st Leon Maritz and Peter Maritz, [12:39:59.01]
439th Brian Bader [13:05:56.09]
470th Alex Johnson and Raymond Pratt [13:17:41.43]
588th Allan Hayward and Mark Whittington [14:19:11.85]
649th Jade Morshead and Grant Morshead [15:00:16.40]
671st Peter Dunnett and Michelle van der Walt [15:13:16.83]
721st Herman Timmerman and Deon Gerber [16:24:56.10]
735th James Thompson [17:07:45.09]
