This sounds mad. How did you find out about the Texas Water Safari?
JD: The background to this event goes back a couple of years. I first did it in 2007 in support of Cancer Research after a friend of mine’s father came down with a rare blood disease. He said: ‘let’s do something totally different,’ so we surfed the net, found a list of endurance races and thought this one looked good.
What charities will you be supporting?
JML: The Calvert Trust, a UK-based charity that does outdoor activities for disabled people. Our UK donations, will go there. The money we raise in the UAE will go to the Red Crescent Society, which is of course the Middle East branch of the Red Cross.
CD: We aim to raise at least Dhs50,000.
So, what’s everyone’s role?
JD: There’ll be three men in the boat: myself, Marc and another member, Simon Dowker. Charlie’s our team captain.
CD: I want to be involved, so I’m going to be driving and meeting them at all the checkpoints, delivering water and signing them in and out.
It sounds like you’ve got the best deal, Charlie!
CD: Except that I won’t get any sleep. I can’t communicate and they’re not allowed walkie talkies, so I just have to drive there and wait.
What’s the course like?
JD: It’s 260 miles and starts in a town called San Marcos, between Austin and San Antonio in Texas, then heads down to the coast and a place called Seadrift.
JML: It’s the canoeing equivalent of going from Abu Dhabi to Bahrain. Doing that non-stop, day and night in the heat is a big, big challenge.
We heard 25 per cent of competitors don’t finish…
JD: Unfortunately, in 2007, neither did I. It’s hot. Not Abu Dhabi hot, but well into the mid-30s. You’re constantly moving and there’s not a lot of shade. I got dehydrated. The team went on and finished but it took them 60 hours. This year, I’m determined to reach the end.
Is it competitive then?
JD: Yes. I was surprised by how much when I got there last time.
Even after 200 miles?
JD: You hear stories. We met a guy who’d done it 33 times and finished 31. Also, at the end you have to cross this bay. Its quite shallow, and you can walk in it up to your waist, but people have been known to literally pull their boat across the finish line.
So, what are the hazards?
JML: Damage to the canoe is a problem. One of the rules of the event is that you have to be fully self-sufficient – apart from water. If anything happens to your boat you have to fix it yourself. We’ve heard of competitors duck-taping two halves of a canoe together.
What about damage to yourself?
JD: There is something I’d never seen before called log jam. This is not a river which is tended and cleaned up. You’ll come around a corner and if there’s a tree that’s come down, logs will pile up against it. The water is still running underneath so you can get sucked down. You hear of people cracking their skulls and breaking their legs.
JML: At the moment it’s the worst drought on record in Texas, which is bad for us because it means less water in the river and it makes log jams more likely. Plus, it’s slower moving water so it’s going to take us longer, which also means we need to carry more supplies, so the boat is heavier.
JD: And more rapids. Less water means more rapids.
What do you take with you?
ML: We’re going to have to carry a lot: lights, first aid kits, food – obviously. Add to that bits and bobs to fix and strap the boat together.
J: And the required snake bite kit, of course. You do see some snakes.
Are you OK with snakes?
JD: Yeah.
JML: Yeah.
CD: (Nervous chuckle)
JD: The alligators worry me more. When you get to the bottom of the river you’re in a swamp. But when you reach the mouth of the swamp, where it hits the sea, apparently that’s where the alligators hang out.
Yeah, good luck with that.
JML: I suppose it’s a trade off whether you want to be at the front and the first ones to encounter the gators, or second or third and let the others have the glory.
To make a donation to The Abu Dhabi Camels, contact Charlotte Dauman on 050 518 2298, email charlotte.dauman@yahoo.com or visit www.justgiving.com/abudhabicamels.
