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Devizes To Westminster A Paddler's Perspective |
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An account from Gary Millar, somewhere in 1963-5
A personal account of Devizes to Westminster, from when the race was a little different.
I received this account via e-mail from Gary Millar, now in New Zealand. I certainly found it very interesting, and Gary kindly gave his permission to share it with you. I'm only sorry that it took me 3 years to get round to it! I've basically concatenated Gary's e-mails below, removing some bits that weren't part of the account.
Hello David,
I was trawling through the internet and saw your web-site. All the memories came flooding back as if it was yesterday. You don't forget that experience. I have never done anything as exhausting since and in my time in the Navy I did some pretty "different" things from time to time.
I did this insane thing when I was at HMS Caledonia doing apprenticeship training around 1963-1965. I was in the New Zealand Navy. We ( Gary Millar and Jim Woods)!. Jim was R.N., paddled what were then fairly novel fibreglass K 2's "wessex". Heavy tanks. A bit different now!. We did our training on the Forth and on Canals in Scotland around Stirling. When we were learning the knack of keeping a K 2 upright we tipped up in the middle of Loch Lomond. That built character!. It was so cold I could not breathe properly.
One other experience similar was ducking in behind the vehicular ferry that crossed the Forth by the bridge, thinking we could avoid the wake and a capsize. We didn't know they were paddle wheel boats and the wash rolled along behind them. That left us side on which is not a good place to be in a K 2. I had my first swim in the Forth!.
It seems now another difference is the gear to be carried. What seemed like tons of gear, we had to carry and unload three times during the race. You certainly couldn't carry your K 2 upside down as shown in some of your photo's. All the "gear" had to be very carefully packed. I think we finished in 12th position which for teenagers we did not think was too bad. We were up against some pretty tough cookies then like SAS and Marines etc.
It was a long time ago but it was so tough I can still remember most of it vividly. I recall having to crawl through mud at the end and wondering after all that why someone didn't help us to get out of the river.Both of us hallucinated during the event from sheer tiredness.It certainly built character. Not too much was ever a problem after that race. I still paddle around the sea in Auckland on a Surf- Ski. Not such a risk if I tip up .
We got a set of results and a certificate for our troubles and that was it. I notice medals are awarded now.
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In our day, there were three random,compulsory checkpoints. All the gear we carried was designed to enable us to "camp" on the bank and survive the cold if we came to grief. It included sleeping bags , a tent. cookers , torch etc etc. Each item carried a time value. ie: the sleeping bag was worth 2 hours. You could opt to leave it out but incur a two hour penalty. Also if you took it and ditched it and could not pass the checks you also got penalised. It added a lot of weight to the boat and meant you had to portage with the kayak upright or risk spilling all the gear.
Packing and unpacking three times along the way also added to the character bumps we were getting from paddling etc.
This was standard procedure then. Everybody had to do it. If you finished , all that was on offer was certificate. It wasn't a staged race. You sidled up to an umpire at Devises and told hime when you were going to start, then it was non-stop to Westminster. We started at 6.00am and finished around 9-10am next day. It got us 12th.
We were in UK July and August [2003] and visited several points along the course just for the memories. It was interestng whilst going on the "Eye" to see the finish line again. I could almost feel the pain .
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I was standing at both Devizes and Westminster last Xmas [2005], and after driving most of the course I still don't know as a teenager how we managed to do it.
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