Inanda Dam to Durban-My First Unofficial Triathlon

Sunday was the last qualifying race for Dusi. Paddlers completed day 3 of the Dusi Canoe Marathon by paddling from Inanda Dam to Blue Lagoon in Durban. When signing up for this race I had no idea that I was inadvertently signing up for a triathlon consisting of paddling, portaging and swimming.

The “triathlon” as I’ve come to call it, is a total of 36km starting with 4km on flat water followed by a short portage of 800 meters. The Top's Needle put in marks the remaining 32km on the river. Top's Needle put in was the first of 3 swims, our first swim was due to a faulty rudder; somewhere between portaging, the put in and all the races that the boat had survived in the past the rudder decided that this was the opportune time to get stuck in an upright position (rudders are usually vertically downwards, this time it was vertically upwards. A stuck up rudder is much like a cell phone without a battery…a piece of nothing). Swimming at Top's Needle rapids during the race had 2 consequences; firstly it caused the boat to fill with water quickly, secondly it meant that you have to act swiftly to grab hold of your boat and to empty it due to the great number of paddlers navigating through the rapid. Somewhere between hanging on the boat whilst diverting it from oncoming traffic and summoning my hulk like strength to help empty the boat I managed to tweak a muscle in my left shoulder – this twinge plagued me with each stroke for the rest of the race.

Our second swim which was particularly long, happened at  on a random section of river. My very first swim at Crash and Dash the previous weekend served as a good practice session to implement my paddling survival skills, the swim at Top's Needle was an opportunity to get comfortable with my newly acquired skills, which means that the art of swimming was starting to feel like a reflex by the time we had the second swim (you can read the swimming protocol in my previous post if you have no idea what I’m taking about). As I promptly popped out of the cockpit, rolled onto my back with my knees bent and clutched onto my paddle I braced my buttocks to take a beating. As I floated down the rapid at the speed of light with my behind acting as my personal speed bump I became aware of just how rocky the river bed is. If you had asked me to describe a river bed before I started paddling I would have painted a picture of smooth pretty pebbles, some fish, water and reeds. The only potential threats that I would have thought to include would be the odd menacing crab and maybe one or two sharp rocks. My last few swimming encounters since I started paddling has somewhat changed my perception of river beds to say the least.

Fig 1: Expectation-My perception of the river bed. Some fish and a sprinkling of menacing crabs and jagged rocks
Fig 2: Reality: A river bed-the real deal. Standard with man eating rocks

Me swimming down the river, feet up, buttocks braced and clinging onto my paddle

Our final swim came with the longest boat rescue mission. My partner and I swam just before Pumphouse Weir. I swam further downstream and found myself quite literally between a rock and a hard place. My inability to swim upstream over a small contributory meant that my partner had to put on his MacGyver pants to manoeuvre the boat out of harm’s way, empty it alone, get back into it from an awkward place and stabilise the boat as I climbed back in from my rock/reed perch. Once we shot Pumphouse Weir and completed the Pumphouse portage (approximately 1km) we took on the last leg of our journey which proved to be the most tedious 10km to Blue Lagoon.

In the space of 3hours 58min my partner and I successfully completed the race with 3 swims, a tweaked shoulder, a number of bruises and a mild case of Dusi guts.