Week after week we waited for rain. A month before the race it rained for three days. The river rose briefly to half a metre but then went steadily down ever after. Speculation abounded about what the organisers would do. Well, they ran the race
Saturday
Today was a hard slog in a very poor river. THe walyunga level is 0.28. The previous low race in 2006 was 0.38, and we thought that was bad.
It was a fine day, warm and sunny. I started on the fourth grid, behind the hotshots and a swathe of selected plastic skis but in front of some of my competitors and the bulk of the race entrants. i took off wel, dropping my grid behind and passing half of the plastics in front of me. I was able to get smoothly down the concrete chute at nothham weir and negotiate the tight, twisty channels under the rail bridge. Then it was settling down to a good solid rhythm. Almost immediately we started to get an idea of what was to come; shallows, narrow channels that evaporated, hard clay outcrops under the surface.
Reading the water at this very low level became crucial. tiny flickering ripples on the surface might indicate a shallow. watching the small flows at clay islands or channels to see which route may have the most water flowing down it. this first section to katrine bridge was the worst and we soon got into a rhythm of getting out when the water ran dry, dragging 10-30 metres and getting back in as soon as the water was more than ankle deep. in the kayak i could sometimes sprint over shallows, carried on my own wake but when I kame to a grinding halt and had to get out, it was a bit more complicated. in comparison, I was generally travelling in company with skis. they ran to a stop sooner but could jump up , drag and jump back on much faster. So, if i could keep paddling I would pass them but if I had to get out i lost time again. i must have got out 20 times. Some times I would lift the kayak onto my shoulder and empty the water as I went.
The first 90 minutes I kept my hr over 160. two paddlers from behind me, grant and steve, caught and passed me but few others. i passed a few skis. The rest of the day after walking around Extracts Weir I was trying to keep over 150 and in the last hour or so I was seeing 145's mostly. My speed was better than in 2006 despite the low levers, but well down of years with actual flow.
We played the piece-of-elastic game in my little group of 4 or 5 travelling along together, swapping places and stretching out gaps, only to concertina again at the next shallow. Disaster struck in the second section when one end of the horizontal foot-bar, carrying the peddles to operate the rudder, came adrift. This was potentially a game-ender. THe aluminuium had twisted and pulled the locating bolt head through the hole. I beached on a mud island and within 5 or 10 minutes I was able to mostly reattach it. I had lost about half of my left rudder movement but was able to get going again.
I was glad to cross off landmarks: Katrine, Extracts, the Toodyay bridges, Eventually West Toodyay bridge for my one pitstop- Jane leaning out to fill the water pack on my back with a mixture of Endura carb&electrolyte powder and monster caffeine shots. Then I knew i was about half an hour from the ti-trees and another hour to the finish.
The trees were relatively straightforward. Not enough flow to create misleading channels or to make turning difficult. My only mistake was to go looking for a channel at one spot that I thought should have been there, to miss a portage, but only exists at higher water. I hit a total dead-end, requiring to climb an embankment and through some bush to get back to the river. (I was followed by the second placed k2 and a ski)
I had been passed by the leading k2, dave and mark, who i often see on the canning river, and the leading double ski and the second k2. The third K2 of Pete and Cam passed me before the ti-trees but I caught thhem back in the trees for a while. We both passed the other K2 but Pete/Cam were now safely in second.
In the trees, I knew exactly how much closer I was getting to the finish. Eventually I reached Long Pool and then only another 5 minutes of trees to negotiate to the Finish!
5 hours 40. 16th single kayak. About 15 single skis ahead, two K2's a S2 and who knows but maybe less than ten teams??? The first K1s were a full hour quicker, Darryl 45 mins ahead, Grant 20 mins, Josh Kippin barely 10. Behind me..Andy Hewlett (always beats me, same boat) and no sign of Joel or Craig Woodhead.
After seeing to the boat, stuffing quantities of burgers and bacon/egg sandwiches down, and soaking up half an hour of a 8.5/10 acutely painful massage (paid for by the Ascot Kayak Club) we check the results tent. The crowds are suspiciously thin, the stream of paddlers ariving is a sporadic trickle. Probably a fifth of the contestants have finished. a fifth have either not started or retired or eliminated at earlier checkpoints. The other 3/5 are still out here somewhere.
Driving away at 4pm, there is half an Avon Descent of weary paddlers grinding away the hours and the kilometres toward the finish still. Some of those won't have the heart to start tomorrow morning for the long day Sunday
early alarm at 4;30. put on paddling clothes and layers of day clothes over. drive back to the river. cold, a couple of degrees and frost on the grasses, slight mist only this year- not enough moisture in the ground.
fit new foot-post, rudder cables etc. i realize i have put it in back to front but there is no time take it out and start again. The rudder mostly works. i am wearing my lightweight spraydeck, but have considered going without (normally unthinkable in whitewater). yesterday it was only a hindrance, the plastic toggle bits going down the back of my seat as i got in & out each time. My fabulous electric pump didn't function and I thought there would be enough long bits of sitting where I could benefit from keeping the splashing out of the boat. I was wrong.'
Grid 11, 7;05. My new plan was to go straight on from the start and jump out 150 metres on, portage across a pebbly bank and miss the first couple of hundred metres of narrow flowing water with some significant fallen logs that everyone else would be taking. it was harder portaging than i expected and i came out about even, i think. The last couple of kilometres of trees went quickly, only got out once at an impossible bit and then into open river and the beginning of The Valley at Posselt's Ford. This gave the first indication of what was to come. Normally negotiable with barely a touch of rock. In 2008 it was completely underwater but today it was a slide-stop-ooch-push-ah, free.
And so it started. I was in a group of two or three familiar skis and young hotshot Josh in K1. Josh was only 10 minutes up on me from day 1. At every obstruction each competitor had a varying version of slowing/stopping/hitting/pushing. like the day before, the skis had an advantage of being able to jump off and push down rapids where i would try to get down still sitting in the boat but often having to concede and jump out, then climb back in at the first bit of deeper water. The positions and distances reflected this. A couple of skis got away from me but we also passed a couple of competitors moving slower already.
I was feeling pretty good but with a 7-8 hour marathon ahead I was only good for 140 beats (at this point I should mention that my only friend for now is the GPS wristwatch mounted on the deck in front of me. I have it set to display time and Heart rate. i can make myself try harder when the hR drops and i can watch the hours go by for amusement)
Super Chute was next and the ski in front almost puts me into the left hand corner rock. I manage to pull it around but hit a submerged rock straight on and do an exaggerated "BOOOIIINNGG" with my novelty head, to the crowd's amusement. We work our way to Emu Falls. The second and third parts of Emu are "obligatory" portage at this level and it is a walk through the bush to cut the corner. Some have gone down the dry rapids, though- a guy in a ski tells me he got "hammered" trying. Jane has negotiated the transport system to emu and calls out to me as I trip and slide down the Ford downstream of the rapid.
On and on we go, soon finding a spot with a tree trunk blocking the only passage. Josh goes left, up the bank but I push trough some rocks on the right and that's the last I see of him all day.
There are 40 rapids in the valley, over a 40km distance. Half a dozen are paddlable. probably just over half can be scraped down, still sitting in the boat. The rest need getting out to continue. I lose a couple of skis during the morning due to the portaging. I see a couple of competitors struggling with broken gear. The pace otherwise is okay because today we are paddling in the deep pools between the rapids unlike yesterday paddling in shallows.
There was very little mist this year, so the sun was out early although nobody tells my hands and feet this. My hands get through the early phase of burning cold (like plunging them into ice-water) and are soon numb on the ends. My feet soon follow. Neither recovers feeling for the duration. My upper body (the motor) is going well, I don't feel any sensation, good or bad, between the waist and the neck. It just works well. Air goes cleanly in and out of the lungs- it feels nice as it does. My head turns out to have picked up the tune from Chariots of Fire, which was playing over the PA at the start line. After an hour and a half I notice this and change tracks. I find "the devil in the business class" from TNSO fits this space nicely and I get probably three hours from this tune before trying some Dog Trumpet songs.
Progress is steady and after 2 hours I have reached the bottom of the first column of my two column list of rapids stuck to the foredeck. On course to reach the bottom of the valley in four. My GPS auto pauses when the speed goes below 4.8km/hr (ie stationary) so it is a bit misleading. The walking/climbing time ends up totaling an hour and a half over the duration of the weekend. Second half of the valley, some longer pools then Deadly Mistake, Heartstopper and a succession of smaller rapids before the familiar Walyunga Park section.
Heartstopper is just horrible. One of the greatest accelerations, finishing in a soft train of standing waves, today it is just boulders to climb down. There is a K1 semi submerged at the bottom, must have fallen over getting back in? At Championships I almost get sent right by a submerged rock but work to get the bow faced back in the direction of the left side.
Syds is next. Will there be any water in one of the two biggest hazards on the river? Well first there is a fallen tree 500m before, at the start of the technical approach to the main chute. At any other water level we could slide over this trunk but not today. A guy on a ski actually jumps off and goes under the log. I try to go around it to the right but just have to climb a higher part of it. The water here is too deep and flowing to stand. Syds actually doesn't disappoint. There is water flowing down it and it reminds me of what we have been missing out on.
Through the Walyunga slalom course and on towards Bells. With everything else being so unlike rapids I have fears that Bells, with its big drop, might embarrass me. I checked it out on Friday from the bridge and decided there is only one line over, and it has to be done exactly right or there will be a very nasty crunch. Through the bushes. Take a deep breath. Right around the left hand corner around the rock island. The commentator on the PA introduces me to the stationed crowds (1000??) and describes that I have opted for the "long way around". This, however, sets me up perfectly. I get 10 sprint strokes in to the crest of the chute under the bridge, cutting diagonally left to right. I fly over and straight down my planned line, the long fine bow of my kayak (an "Arrow") carving through the 30cm crack in the slab of rock below the water that I have studied from the bridge. Straight as a die I emerge into the pool at teh bottom and pump the air with my paddle-clenched fists and yell out YES!!!
Winding down the remains of Bells: the Devil's slide, the V-chute, miss the S- bend with a hidden duck through some bushes down the left bank, Dog's breakfast, Boland's Elbow and so to the flat water. Barely 3 hours to go. Shallow for 30 minutes to Upper Swan Bridge, my support stop. Another fallen tree to portage around first, though, and I fall into a deepish bit and flounder around in the water. Empty, carry, back in and paddle 40 seconds to see Jane on the bank. Refill my 2 litre backpack. Spare paddle out of the boat. Sunnies. Head off. 1 minute and I am portaging again, over a grassy bank. The slow moving river meanders through a sandy, grassy bed a short distance from the highest extent of the tidal estuary. Some twisting and turning through the trees before the river opens out to a wider body of water, medium shallow at first but within 10km it becomes properly deep.
I pass a couple of plastic skis that are now moving slower as I settle down to a relentless steady "zone". Just got to keep it up. The distance won't go away if you let it get to you and slow down. An hour and a half from Bells I go under the Barratt St footbridge. There are people clapping. By the time I am going around the next bend I haven't heard them clap anyone else. You can't easily look behind you in a kayak. Another half hour and I approach Middle Swan Bridge. I pull in to empty water from the boat and ask Jane for a shot of caffeine drink. The pit stops are quick- you really resent losing a minute of distance on your competitors, even now, after over 7 hours of continuous paddling. only an hour and a quarter to go!
Barker bridge, a further 30 minutes. I try not to look at my clock sooner than 10-minute intervals.
Guildford Road bridge, count down the bends to Ascot Kayak Club. 15 minutes to go. Nearly at Tonkin Hwy bridge and my left footpedal gets longer. The boat starts to turn right and I almost take out a fisherman on the bridge pylon. The left pedal is now totally down and the boat veering right but it is the last bend and the finish is in sight. I work some right strokes to keep from veering into the bank. I get it pointed away from the bank and the rudder seems to become happy to be left alone, so I straighten and paddle hard to the finish. The camera boat follows me for a long sequence to the finish line and then I'm there.
It seems odd that there are so few finishers ahead of me and so few visible on the water in front or behind. The field has really been spread out by the conditions. It makes no difference to me because I've done it.
13 hours 43
12th single kayak
39th overall
Half the field doesn't finish
4 of 57 powerboats finish
South africans take the top 4 spots, Darryl comes in 5th
The paddlers in front of me are all very good. Quite a few behind me are very good paddlers too.
Josh slot 22 minutes on me, to be behind in cumulative. Andy Hewlett, same boat, almost 20 minutes behind.
My goals:
To finish in at least a semi-human state- achieved
to finish top 40, after previously getting in top 50- achieved
to beat some of the guys that I've never beaten before -achieved
I climb into one of the spas and begin my champagne-and-fatty sausage replacement diet. The stories trickle in of who finished, who broke what, who was eliminated at time cut-offs. There would still be finishers for the next three hours. My heart goes out to those poor souls, still out there grinding slowly and painfully along. They will be rewarded, though.
My thanks to Ken, friday reconnaissance, Greg, photos on Sat, Barry, support Sun, Jane, going all the way and to Lintilla, Murray, Ashby, Val and Ross for being there at the finish.
