50 Years of Umko 1966 - 2016 1966 - 2016 | Page 51

C HA P T E R

F I V E

The Summer of 72
“The Umkomaas is a great leveller”

T

- Charles Mason

he ‘72 race was the most challenging to date:
- The water was the highest;
- It was one of the Long Four - 145km;
- It started from Hella Hella;
Water levels may be debated, other races had high water, but
‘72 was likely the highest - and then it rose. Also, no other highlevel race fulfilled the other two criteria, putting the Summer of ‘72 in a
category and class of its own. Very high, very long and it started with the
most challenging part of the course. Case closed.

The Summer of ‘72

River stories, like fisherman tales, usually manage to get bigger with the
passing of the years. But for those canoeists who took part in the 1972
Umkomaas Canoe Marathon no exaggeration is needed. The Umko that
year hosted the SAK2 Champs and will be remembered with more than a
trace of nostalgia. This river has many moods and in the late summer of 1972
it showed just what it is capable of.
The race was a three day event starting at Hella Hella and going 145km all
the way to the sea. The first overnight stop was Josephine’s Bridge and the
second near Mpompomani Rapid. A week before the start the Drakensberg
experienced heav y soaking rains. By the start on Thursday morning the
river was up at a very high level - its highest since the disastrous 1959 South
Coast floods when the Hella Hella and Umkomaas Mouth road bridges
were washed away. The metal remains of the old bridge can still be seen at
Hella Hella downstream of the new concrete bridge on which the nervous
paddlers now stood on that morning. It was a sight and sound never to be
forgotten, whether one was an experienced canoeist of the ilk of Springbok
veteran Paul Chalupsky or one of the band of nervous novices. Looking
downstream the river was spread completely across the valley.
Ali Maynard remembers Colin Wilson “walking up and down on Hella
Hella bridge trying to get people to pull out of the race.” Duncan Porky Paul
remembers him too: “Colin put his boat in the water and back on the car
twice before declaring he had received a ‘Direct message from God not to
paddle’ and left his boat securely strapped on his car. I was very impressed
and I wondered why he alone got the message and not the rest of us!”
The Approaches to No.1 were a roaring torrent and one could hear a dull
roar as river stones rumbled along the bed. That was to be the pattern for
the whole route to the Indian Ocean. Previously recognisable rapids were
submerged beneath huge volumes of water. The water at No.8 covered the

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entire river and left bank and new waves appeared where none had existed.
The river was flowing over farmland and through fences while riverside
vegetation was submerged beneath the flooded Umkomaas and trees were
uprooted.
Those who made the first overnight stop at Josephine’s Bridge were elated,
then apprehensive and fearful all over again when the river rose yet higher
overnight with the continuing rains. There was considerable discussion on
the prospects for the rest of the race. One canoe which had been left too close
to the river bank was swept away overnight and there was some suspicion
that the owner had actually thus avoided having to paddle on the next day!
For most competitors still in the race the prospects for the next two days
were frightening indeed as the loss of a canoe between Josephine’s Bridge
and the finish would mean a long trek out of the valley. Lifejackets were the
order of the day. One schoolboy competitor was seen quietly vomiting over
the side of his boat into the brown swirling waters as he sat clinging to the
bank waiting for his time to start. He finished the race and some years later,
whilst serving in the Rhodesian army, rescued a wounded comrade under
heavy fire in the Zambesi Valley. He still maintains he has never been as
afraid as during that 1972 Umkomaas Marathon. Porky Paul would go onto
great things in paddling and in life.
Canoeists, depending on their skill and nerve, had two choices, they
either bank crept, keeping to the inside of bends with a wary eye out for
fences, or took their chances in the midstream torrent, reaching high speeds
as they were swept along by the current. In fact the average speed of the
leading doubles teams was just over 21km per hour for the second day.
Impassable roads forced race organisers to change the second overnight
stop venue at the last minute to Mpompomani Rapid. Paddlers had been
advised of this possibility at the start of the second day and when they
arrived at the originally intended site and found no camp they had to
continue downstream to below Mpompomani Rapid until they got to where
the support vehicles and officials had been able to reach.
Paddlers’ memories of the river during those three days include the
constant sound of rapids; the dull overcast conditions; the flotsam and
jetsam floating downstream; a flooded Mpompomani and Waterfall and
- especially - the camaraderie that bound the small band of canoeist/
adventurers at the two overnight stops. Seconds and officials will also
remember the treacherous conditions of the roads; bogged down vehicles
and muddy tents.

UMKO 50 Years