We started off in A batch with all the top guys, we had quite a good seeding from midmar mini which allowed us to start on the front row. The adrenaline was pumping when the lines were dropped... As soon as they were lifted the cannon was fired and we were off, my paddle got stuck in the rope which caused us, with many other boats, to have a bad start. We went flat out to the first weir and we were about 14th.
Once we reached the first long portage of the day we were still in that position. We climbed out at the first take out with other Team Best 4 Kayak Centre team mates, Brandon van de walt and clint Cook. We were feeling pretty good and ran most of the steep uphill. As we crested the last climb of cambells portage we had a glimps of other junior Maritzburg College crew, Murray Haw and James Speed. Those two looked as if they had just stole their boat and were sprinting away from the cops- they were super blitz!... Because we were stronger paddlers we never ran hole in the wall... The next tough portage was the infamous Ginny fowl and devils cauldron, these two were death to put it simply. Donovan and my self ran as hard as we could up and out the steep valley. After that it was the short paddle to finger neck portage which is only about 300m . We decided to run cabbage tree as the river was a tad on the low side of things... Well I don't remember much of cabbage tree. It was... Well... Horrible. But well worth the effort in the end... After that portage it was a short paddle to the end of day 1 at Dusi Bridge.
Day 2
We were lying in a reasonable 26th overall and 2nd junior behind our mates, Haw and Speed.
We started off at a blistering pass towards the 1st portage called saddles. We had a quick get out and a pretty solid run. We crossed the river to start 2nd saddles. Once after that we progressed to the start of the confluence section. And this is were the disaster occurred... We were flying through the top of confluence getting all the sneaky channels dialed in, but as soon as we arrived at washing machine the sad news arrived from the front of the boat with a simple "shit, the nose is broken" followed by a few other words...
Luckily Kayak Centre's main man, Ric Whitton, was on standby just below the confluence section ready for any mishaps that might have occurred... He was a huge help, with out Ric there I doubt we would have even made it to the finish. We managed to fix the boat but had to stop another 3 times after that just for some more adjustments on the nose. The last place we stopped was at umfula store where Team Best 4 Kayak Centre seconders were with a few more metal plates to hold our nose on. After that it was a crazy slog to the finish. With the duct tape acting as a parachute it felt as if we were towing a bucket across the dam. Let me just say I slept well... Very well that night...
After all that bad luck on day 2 we were lying around 67th and 4th junior 12min 30sec behind 2nd and 3rd junior boats.
Day 3
Our boat was all patched and Donovan and myself were excited to get to Durban. Don and I had a little chat and decided that we had nothing to loose and we were just going to go and have fun out on the fast flowing clean water... We started off in A batch after elapse time. We had a super fast wave on the dam courtesy of the Czech Republic crew. They pulled us across the whole dam but when we got to the dam wall portage we never saw them again, we actually never saw anyone from A batch again,,, we paddled the rest of the way to Durban by our selves... Half way during Day 3 is the infamous rapid known as island. Probably the biggest rapid along the 120km route... We shot it perfectly which we were both pretty stoked about! After that there is another big rapid, Pumphouse. It wasn't so bad at this level but its the last bit of fun before you hit the flats of blue lagoon. We managed to catch up to the 2nd Place womans crew of Abie and Alex Adie. We then had a rather cool paddle into Durban. In the end we had caught up 13min on the 2nd and 3rd place Junior boats putting us in 2nd junior and 41st overall.
It was my second dusi and it was tons of fun but rather hard. I have learnt a lot and am already looking forward to the next one.
A big shout out to every one who helped us out for dusi especially Team Best 4 Kayak Center for the XTerminator boat, it is the best boat I've ever paddled. Really fast and incredibly stable!! And to every one else you guys are legends(seconds- Jenna, Blaine, mom, frances, james) you guys made it a little easier.
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