This warning may come a tad late for paddlers taking part in the two-day Fish River Canoe Marathon, which kicks off at the Grassridge dam on Friday, but elephants have been spotted in the Fish river.
Well, that’s according to sheep farmer Tiaan Naude, who took a preparatory paddle down the river this week.
This news comes on the back of flood warnings after 48 hours of non-stop rain in the Eastern Cape.
Naude is the quintessential young sheep farmer, broad at the shoulder and narrow at the hip. His English is not the best, but the mischievousness of his smile and his animated way of explaining this phenomenon make it all too clear how scared he was when he discovered not one but three pachyderms right in his path as he tripped the river before the big race.
‘Frans [Mulder] was paddling ahead … man, the river was flowing — this was going to be a quick run. I was counting sheep at the back of the boat when Frans almost scared me out of the boat with his scream.
‘The bush around us was alive and shaking — not like it does when the cattle and the sheep come to drink, but more like a big hurricane had hit the banks.
‘If Frans was scared, I was even worse. I thought ‘How could I defend myself with a fibreglass paddle against a hurricane?’
‘Then out of the undergrowth came three elephants: a big mother and two young bulls. Where to now? Our path was blocked; death seemed imminent.
‘Just when all seemed lost and I had made my peace with my Maker, a small shout came from the bank. The elephants turned away from the water and marched away,
followed by a bemused mahout. He couldn’t understand what the fuss was about; the circus always comes to town at this time of the year.â€
Elephants and floods aside, the Cradock organisers are over the moon with the record field of 1 750 paddlers. The race has more than kept pace with its KwaZulu-Natal bigger brother, the Dusi.
This year looks like it may be the turn of the internationals to finally make an impact. In the past the visitors have promised much, arriving with impeccable credentials, but the locals have worked them over, good and solid.
Only world K1 marathon champion Manuel Busto Fernandez has managed to make it on to the podium with a third in 2001.
This year the German pairing of Stefan Stiefenhoefer and Max Hoff, local-boy-turned-Australian Shaun Rice and his partner Simon Rolls, alongside the Swiss couple of Pascal Lucker and Pieter Luethi, form a three-pronged international attack.
Stiefenhoefer has teamed up with Hoff, 10 years his junior, after Hoff blasted on to the international scene by winning the silver medal at the junior wild water world championships in 2000.
The lack of experience that restricted the visitors in previous outings is a thing of the past. Lucker and Luethi have become dab hands at the Fish, having finished sixth in 2002, while Rice previously won the race as a South African.
Beating the South Africans in their own backyard is no easy task and the pairing of Hank McGregor and two-time K1 champion Len Jenkins will be hard to beat. Cape Town-based Ant Stott and Deon Bruss, based in Greytown, won’t let them have their own way — nor will Thomas Ngidi and Loveday Zondi from Benoni.