In the bag

Dusi 2010 – done and dusted! We had a good day today, shot everything except Top’s Needle and Island 1and 2. Water was great, weather was cool enough for most of the race and the mood in the boat was as upbeat as ever. Although we shot all the big rapids fine, we had two swims in the most arbitrary places – one in the Kindergarten rapids where we temporarily lost a paddle and took a while to locate it trapped under the rapid in rocks, and the second under a large tree stump in fast flowing water, but not a rapid! The second swim just above Dog’s Leg could have been very nasty. I tried to cross the main current to get to a small sneak channel, but didn’t have enough boat speed to get across and ended up being pushed against and under the roots of a fallen tree. Fortunately we didn’t get snagged up and after a fairly long swim in the deep water managed to drag our way through the weeds on the side and get into the boat and on our way.

We finished the day in 3h33 for a total time of 13h37 which I was fairly chuffed with. Greg had a great race and was very strong on the water, only fading slightly on the very long haul over the dam at the end of day two. He was stable in the rapids and good company. I was fine for the most part in the bigger water, have a few bad habits to work on, but I need to work especially hard on my concentration and decision making when on the easier parts of the river.

So, it’s on to the Non-stop which is on the 12th February, and the good news is that Non-stop partner Charles had a great Dusi with Drew Wilson and is looking fit and strong for the race. They managed a 3h07 final day for a 12h08 Dusi!

Thanks so much to all those who sponsored us per mile or made donations! The Sunflower Fund really does do great work with this money.

The Recession is over

The recession is over! As measured by the bids for the Charity batch on this year’s auction, the downturn in the economy is over - it is obviously time to buy, buy, buy!

Last year the lowest bid that successfully got into the charity batch was around R1,500 so I thought my bid was pretty safe at R3,300 and I planned to log on and make sure sometime before the bidding closed at 16h00 on Saturday. Due to having some of our hard core friends around for a long, boozy lunch on Saturday all thoughts of checking on bids were long forgotten, until I got an urgent call from Charlie who was on his game. "Terry, do you know that you are the second lowest bid and the lowest is only R50 behind you?" Sobering fast, I gave Charles my login details and asked him to up my bid. A nervous minute or so went by as I we waited to see if my new bid had been accepted, but it hadn't! "Bidding closed" was the message and a small sweat broke as I waited to see if I'd hung in at the bottom of the bidding. I could just imagine the phone call to Dusi partner Greg to tell him we were starting in the later batches! Eventually the bid page refreshed and there we were - Boat 6909 still in 59th spot!

So, crises averted. We are in the 7h00 Charity batch, the weather is looking good (cool and rainy for Thurs) and the RECESSION IS OVER!

I had my last serious training run before the big day this morning and the body seems to be holding up. I am been forced to still get up at 4h30 and meet the boys for my Wednesday run as Wilko has promised some funding for The Sunflower Fund, got to do what you have to do for charity! Still holding thumbs that my partner is mending - on Thursday he wasn't up for the last CMH Dice as his wrist has joined both knees in objecting strongly to physical exercise. I think a few pain killers and the tales of the legendary Hansa Babes at the finish should get him through though, in fact here we go Greg...

Last race before Dusi

Yesterday I did the CMH Inanda to Durban race, not with Greg (who was still away on Holiday - hopefully not eating too many mince pies)but with my cousin Charles. In February Charles and I are taking on the Stihl Non-stop Dusi, so this was our dress rehearsal. Level was a bit low, those Umgeni water guys are being ultra conservative with water although all the big dams on the Umgeni system (Midmar, Albert Falls and Inanda) are over 100% full. They only released around 13 cumecs, so it was a lot of bump and scrape over rocks in some sections, although other rapids were surprisingly good. Yours Truly took an unbelievable line at Five Fingers which cost me one broken paddle, but otherwise there wasn't too much drama. Hopefully this holding back as much water as they can will result in some big Dusi water, and hopefully even bigger water for Non-stop!

In other news; Greg did call me just now. He's back in town, reports that he had 4 good paddles in the last week on the Kei river, and that his knee is on the mend! Things are looking good! Can't wait - only 9 days to go...