Cape Town - Richard Kohler is no stranger to the ocean, having sailed for South Africa and paddled competitively for some time. He was therefore aware that, as disarming as “paddling a smile around South Africa” sounds to the layman, our treacherous coastline would not let itself be easily tamed. The many mishaps of the Dutch East India Company’s ships clearly attest to the ferocity of our waters.
However, even Richard could not have guessed just how persistently the elements would conspire to stop his endeavour. He set off from the Mozambican border in December 2011 and had not been on the water for three days when his surfski was attacked by a shark. Despite hitting a moving target from behind, the shark smashed the surfski with such ferocity that it did more damage to the rudder than Richard could have done with a hammer.
Within the next 10 days, heavy surf snapped a ski in half, a tricky launch injured Richard’s back and a robbery at one of his overnight venues cleaned out the expedition. With every piece of technical gear stolen, it was time to regroup. The team made a list of what was stolen, and went home for Christmas. Over the next year they scrambled to reassemble all the bits and pieces, and this time he set off from the other side – the Namibian border.
Fortunately, this time around, the expedition got under way properly. However, conditions along the West Coast were windy, making for heavy swells, and at one point Richard spent the entire day blindly following his GPS through a thick fog that rolled in after he had launched. Fortunately he managed to complete the first few days without incident, although he had to push out further offshore on occasion to find calmer water, and take extra care when landing.
Richard’s MP3 player gave up the ghost almost as soon as he switched it on, which would be a minor frustration for most of us, but when you are spending five or six hours on the water by yourself day after day and have to keep yourself motivated to push through 50km every day, this was actually a serious setback.
Furthermore, by the time the expedition reached Elands Bay, one of the VHF radios had gone on the blink. This was an even more serious setback, given how important shoreline scouting for a safe landing turned out to be.
On day 15, Richard had some fellow paddlers with him for motivation. By this stage, the support vehicle had clocked up 3 400km, Richard had paddled 604km and he had already lost 4kg. Near Saldanha Bay he had the privilege of being downwind of a gust of whale-breath. Imagine 50 tons of fish that has never seen a toothbrush. Yup. Smelly.
By day 38, he had made it to the Storms River mouth, but his back was starting to complain about the stress. The heavy surf also took its toll on his equipment, and several surfskis bit the dust during group launches when other paddlers joined Richard for morale. Near Port Alfred, the complex waves in a river mouth came close to ending the trip, but by day 48 Richard had made it to East London. However, his lower back was finished and it was time to take a day off to see a physio.
Back on the water, Richard noticed what looked suspiciously like a terrestrial snake cruising over the surface, probably carried down a nearby river by heavy rains.
Paddling a bit closer to try to identify the snake, he got quite a shock when it started swimming to his boat. He could picture the headlines: “Solo paddler taken out by puff adder – at sea!” Thankfully, no headlines were made, and Richard reached the Wild Coast after a further three days of paddling. By day 60, Richard had been on the sea for so long that the clip for his handheld GPS broke – rusted through. He was also on his third GPS watch, a second waterproof VHF radio had given up the ghost, and the satellite tracker’s battery and signal unit were giving trouble.
The next slap in the face – literally – was being slapped in the face by long, thin fish jumping frantically out of the water near Winklespruit. The new fishy smell on his life jacket was an improvement on the one before, he alleges. Near uMhlanga, he encountered another aggressive shark, but this one was smaller, and backed away after mock-charging his paddle. Richard was now less than two weeks from the end, but the weather would not play nice and rough seas and wind forced him to take a few days off. Near Cape Vidal, he lost concentration and was dunked by a wave. Not the end of the world, but the corroded clips meant he had to fish his GPS out of the water, and his newly repaired radio started acting up again.
The mental strain was really starting to show. His back was still tense and the knots extended into his buttocks. With the end practically in sight, Richard had a near miss with a surprised turtle. Finally, however, he reached the Mozambican border.
Richard describes reaching the finish as a bit anti-climatic, but that may just have been caused by dehydration and mild heatstroke. After 70 days of actual paddling, covering 3 300km, he had become the first person to complete a continuous solo paddle around South Africa. - Cape Times
l Kohler was recently selected as the Nightjar Adventurer 2013 at an awards evening at the Cape Union Mart Adventure Centre. See www.nightjartravel.com/magazine/adventurer-2013