On this mild Gauteng winter day, more than 100 Gauteng paddlers tackled the rapids of the river from the Heidelberg road bridge near the R59 in Daleside, through Henley on Klip to the Danie Mclean park in Meyerton. This is a distance of about 30 kilometres with almost 20 obstacles, rapids, broken bridges and rocky sections.
Madden and Davidson, members of the Dabulamanzi Canoe Club at Emmarentia Dam, finished the race enthusiastically despite numerous learner mistakes which caused a good few chilly swims. Finishing the race took them three hours and 39 minutes.
While they are completely new to river canoeing, the mid-winter race gave them their first river race point towards qualifying for an A-grade status, to compete in the Fish River marathon. They need to complete six races to compete. One down, five to go.
The race was sponsored by Belloord, a West Rand-based labour consultancy. It sponsors the series with giveaways to all entrants and lucky draw prizes to all finishers, with prizegiving after each race and a major prizegiving for those who qualify in the series
at the end of the year, including boats, paddles and other river canoeing equipment.
