Hell and high water

Adventurer Riaan Manser’s latest book documents his epic kayak journey around Madagascar

It’s drizzling, and in half an hour I’m meant to be paddling around Emmarentia Dam with Riaan Manser. Not that a few rain drops would perturb the man who kayaked around Madagascar, braving around 10 hours on the sea every day, with nine-metre high swells and sharks ramming his kayak. In fact, the bigger the challenge the better for Manser, who first satisfied his pioneering spirit in 2004 and 2005 by taking two years out of his life to cycle around Africa.

Before I have a chance to back out I’m greeted by Manser’s toothy grin and infectious enthusiasm and we’re making our way to the water and the K2 kayak awaiting us. There’s very little prep time, because, as the larger-than-life Manser quickly tells me, the best teacher is hands-on experience.

He couldn’t have known the extent of it at the time, but when Manser first set off on August 28, 2008 to circumnavigate all 5 000km of Madagascar’s coastline, he was embarking on an adventure that would prove to be much more of a challenge than his Africa trip.

There are the horror stories (and photos) of blisters, sunburn, dehydration, parasites and even the particularly painful pulling of a tooth with his own Leatherman, but in reading Manser’s latest book , one realises that the solitude he experienced along the way was something far greater than the physical pain and discomfort.

Unlike many other adventurers, Manser travels alone. Apart from having a satellite phone (with sporadic reception) and a GPS to help coordinate landing spots, he was completely cut off from anything and everything secure and familiar.

“I think you’re challenging yourself in another way when you go on your own,” Manser explains. “I like being on my own, and I like tackling the dangers on my own. What would be the real challenge of me circumnavigating Madagascar if there was someone who could pluck me out of the water if it got too dangerous? To help repair the boat, to give me a hot plate of food, to massage me, to tell me where the next landing was, or where the best place was to enter the sea?”

We push away from the bank and soon we’re gliding happily through the water.

Even though it takes us a while to find a rhythm that complements Manser’s quick powerful strokes and my eager but amateurish attempts to keep up, we don’t fall into the water and to me, at least, that makes the challenge a success.

It’s only when we’re back on dry land that Manser laughingly admits that he thought we were going to fall out in the first few minutes after launching.

His calm demeanour didn’t give anything away, but then again, this the man who wrote about having “to change a mountain into a molehill” many times on his Madagascar journey.

You’d think that once he’d achieved two world firsts, Manser’s adventurous spirit would be quelled somewhat, but he’s recently returned from a trip to Greenland where his next challenge is set to take place. Apart from revealing that he’ll be braving the cold and challenging himself in a way he has never done before, Manser is, however, keeping mum. For now.

Riaan Manser is the author of Around Africa On My Bicycle and Around Madagascar On My Kayak. Visit www.riaanmanser.com for more information.

This article first appeared in CitiVibe in The Citizen on Tuesday 7 December 2010. All photos courtesy Shayne Robinson.