Florida Canoe Club trains for Dusi

Members of the Florida Lake Canoe Club took part in the year end Fast Drak.

The race takes place before New Year’s Eve in the Drakensberg Mountain foothills near Underberg, covering 65 kilometers of the river section in one.

This race provided training for the upcoming Drak canoe race later this month and the Dusi Marathon next month.

For those training for the Dusi, an option of two portages which cuts out some meandering river, with racers running while carrying their boats up and over the hill run, to line up the final stretch of the river race which finishes at the Umzimkulu River Lodge.

With low rainfall, the river water levels were low so while the single canoes managed to maneuver through the rocky mazes, the doubles got stuck from time to time.

Florida resident Michael Benci finished in the top 50 with a time of four hours and is looking forward to the various races leading up to the Dusi in February.