Richard Kohler was told he would never paddle again. His response? The first continuous solo navigation of SA’s coastline by kayak.
|||Cape Town - Richard Kohler was told he would never paddle again – such was the fragility of his lower back post surgery.
His response? Defiance.
And last week, the Capetonian was named “SA Adventurer of the Year” in Nightjar Travel’s annual awards, in partnership with Cape Union Mart.
Kohler’s achievement: the first continuous solo navigation of SA’s entire 3 300km coastline by kayak.
The paddler and sailor from Milnerton took on the challenge with a simple purpose: to change his life, replacing the relentless stress of business with his great passion: the ocean.
Equally important for Kohler was raising funds and awareness for the Miles for Smiles foundation, formed to assist Operation Smile in creating awareness of the plight of children born with cleft lips and palates, and to raise funds to perform corrective surgery on them. By the time Kohler had completed his “Paddling for Smiles” adventure, his own smile had been lost in a beard after 70 days at sea.
According to the judges, “Risk of death by misadventure” was “high”.
“From run-ins with sharks to getting pounded by the surf, when things go wrong on the sea, they go wrong in the blink of an eye, and as a solo paddler, your chance of being rescued in time is slim,” Kohler’s citation read.
Kohler began on the Namibian border, at the Orange River Mouth, and completed his journey when he crossed into Mozambican waters at Kosi Bay.
The highlight of his mission was right here in Cape Town – paddling with killer whales on the False Bay crossing.
The runner-up in the Nightjar awards was a fellow Capetonian, Kai Fitchen, 19, who travelled from Cape Town to Kenya on foot and by public transport, to climb Mount Kenya and create environmental awareness with pupils along the way.
The modesty of the awards ceremony at the Cape Union Mart Adventure Centre in Canal Walk on Wednesday May 8 belied the extraordinary adventures of the finalists, who included three of SA’s best-known explorers:
Kingsley Holgate was recognised for his world-first 12-month humanitarian odyssey from the northernmost to southernmost points of the Great African Rift Valley, from Djibouti on the Horn of Africa to Gorongosa in Mozambique, distributing malaria nets, water-purifying LifeStraws, and Right to Sight glasses along the way.
Peter van Kets and Braam Malherbe were honoured for their 768km race to the South Pole to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Robert Falcon Scott and Roald Amundsen’s race in 1911/12. Only three teams finished, with the pair coming third and, in a show of tremendous camaraderie, helping the British team to the Pole.
The judges included Riaan Manser, who boasts three world firsts – the first person to cycle around the entire perimeter of Africa; the first to circumnavigate Madagascar by kayak; and the first to finish a 5000km circumnavigation of the Icelandic coastline.
Fellow judges included Matthew Holt, a Cape Town-based Briton who has climbed Mount Everest, and Jeremy Samson, one of the most prolific rock climbers in the Cape.
Cape Argus