The winner of the FNB Dusi Canoe Marathon, Andy Birkett, took eight hours and nine minutes to get from Pietermaritzburg to Durban, a distance of about 120km, over the three race days last weekend.
ALSO READ : Something old, something new at 2018 Dusi Canoe Marathon
But the real heroes, from a South Coast perspective anyway, were the father-and-son combination of Bevis and Warren Fairbrother, who slogged it out on the water for 22 hours and nine minutes.
Yes, they experienced some ‘Dusi guts’ – a heroic name for diarrhoea caused by the excessive involuntary intake of river water – but they enjoyed something of a hero’s welcome at the finish.
“It’s probably because we were so slow the real winners almost overtook us coming into Durban,” laughed Bevis, explaining that the ‘fish and chips’ batches are sent off early.
On day one, their boat banana-ed and they tried to do running repairs. In the end they had to run most of the way, some of it through a township where they narrowly avoided being mugged.
Bevis suffered a blood blister on his toe – a nasty, angry looking thing – plus the expected cuts and bruises on the shins.
“You have to cross the finish line for the day in your boat, so we re-entered the water and paddled a short distance, sans rudder, eventually going across the line backwards,” laughed Bevis.
Day two was much better and so was day three – until they got to the Burma Road portage.
It was unbelievably slushy and muddy, so Warren tied the boat to some rope and pulled it up. Bevis, in contrast, crawled up on his knees.
At the top he was told by a medic “come with me, you’re coming off.”
Bevis was having nothing of it. “No sorry, have to finish, can’t let Warren down.”
It would have been interesting to have seen the medic’s face if he’d known the paddler in question has a pace-maker and probably shouldn’t be paddling across a swimming pool, let alone the Dusi.
It’s not an exaggeration to say there were some who were more than a bit concerned that he was undertaking such a tough challenge, but the father-son bond is a strong one and Bevis is one determined character.
He was incredibly chuffed to have completed the race after an absence of 24 years. He gave all the credit to Warren, but admitted he won’t be going again. “No, absolutely not and that’s final.”
All the local paddlers finished without too much trouble, with Dylan Bense fastest of the lot.That probably came as a relief to him, to get to the finish ahead of his younger brother Jordan and his father Rudi.
“It was an unexpectedly good race, and I did not expect to be the first South Coaster home,” said a delighted Dylan.”I think it came down to experience – knowing which lines to take and when to push or hold back and of course the fuller river level played nicely into my hands.”
SOUTH COAST RESULTS
107 Dylan Bense 10:50, 115 Ayrton Barron 11:03, 138 Jordan Bense 11:28, 158 Simon Heaver and Patrick McNeill 11:47, 171 Shane Millward 12:01, 233 Rudi Bense 12:50, 269 Shadrack Mkhize 13:12, 277 Joshua Hallé and Denzil Nicholas 13:15, 295 Willie Kunz 13:21, 327 Jean Geyer 13:40, 370 Jarryd Nash 14:12, 544 Bevis and Warren Fairbrother 22:09
HAVE YOUR SAY
Like our Facebook page, follow us on Twitter and Instagram
