Down in Durban, it was the King of the Bay race last weekend. It’s a race with a difference in that this is one of the few opportunities where one can paddle out of the Durban harbour mouth. Well done to Tex and Gary for flying the Navy’s flag and for coming second in their age group, just behind locals Tony Scot and Copper Simpkins. Looking at all the smiles, lots of fun was had. Nice!
Thursday nights TT was a long one compared to the 5km of the previous week. It was also a lot colder than the Winter Solstice Special (WSS) and some were sad there was no Glühwein to warm them up awards. (Copious quantities were consumed after the WSS.) Well done to Clint who looked really good in the results with a new K1 record time of just 43:17; something most of us would be beyond ecstatic to do in a K2 or a K3. Even Clint thought it looked good and congratulated himself on our social media pages. As Gabbi said, as the sarcastic chats showed, and as Clint agreed, it wasn’t a record, but it was fun to see the banter.
In other news this week, Colin Wilson is busy being punished for his good deed of sponsoring the Pyga EuroSteel cycling team. As a result he got roped into doing the Race to Paarl, a 608km ride from Willowmore, that he started on Thursday. His first day was 162km and it took over 15hours. Yes, fifteen! When interviewed, all he could manage to say was: “Brutal day. Lots of mud and puff”. Now he is on his way to Gamkaskloof aka Die Hel; incredibly scenic, but also incredibly tough, not to mention the extreme cold out there. Good luck Woody – Enjoy if you can! We wonder if your smile right now is quite the same as when you were last down at the Dusi? If you are interested in dot watching, you can follow his progress on the Freedom Challenge live tracking site.
Next week, some other mad people who are not scared of tough, long, cold events are off to the Berg; the good news being that with all the rain of late the river is promising to be full, fast and far more fun than previous years. With just 70 entrants so far, we wait to see who the last-minute names will include. Talking K1 records, now that Hank isn’t going to the World Marathon Champs, we wonder if he won’t be looking to claim the fastest time ever, or maybe Clint will go do that.