There was no Christmas pudding on the menu for Survivor South Africa presenter Mark Bayly and contestant Sam Allerton, who spent the festive season training hard for a new and gruelling challenge.
On January 18 they will be teaming up with Doug Bird in a three-man kayak for the Hansa Powerade Dusi.
Although Bird has completed the race eight times, this will be a first for Bayly and Allerton. Despite the novice stakes and the fact that a three-man kayak has never completed the course, Bird is pushing his team to make it into the top 100.
”It’s their first Dusi, but they are not novices,” says Bird. ”Sam Allerton has his own kayak and both he and Mark surf ski every day, so I think we could be slightly ahead of previous celebrity contestants.
”They’re both very committed and have been training hard. Nevertheless, it’s going to be a huge challenge — we have to run 15km on the first day alone. If we finish, I will be pleased. If we make the top 200, it will be great, but we will push for the top 100.”
Both Bayly and Allerton have been training together in Cape Town over the past few weeks. They’ve been running up and down Constantia Nek and Lion’s Head and along the mountain trails, and will be running the Pipe Track on Table Mountain this week.
”I have been surf skiing and running up and down the mountain at least twice a week for years” said Bayly. ”I feel fit enough to complete the race, but I don’t think my fitness levels will frighten any of the serious contenders. At least the KwaZulu-Natal heat can’t be worse than Panama.”
”I don’t know what the heat in Panama is like, but I do know the heat in Devil’s Cauldron on the first day and I think that these boys are in for a little surprise,” joked Ray de Vries, Dusi spokesperson.
”We expect temperatures in the early to mid-40s there, and with 25kg of boat on your shoulder as you run through thornbush deep in the Valley of a Thousand Hills, you come face to face with what it really means ‘to do the Dusi’,” he said. — Sapa