It was our 5th year of safari experience. In 2001, we came to Texas as observers and I paddled about 1/3 of the safari course in my home made Patuxent kayak. In 2002 and 2003 I run the race solo in Spencer X-treme canoe with Connie as my team captain and finished in 78:19 and 66:05 hours respectively. We came again to San Marcos in 2004 but the race was postponned twice due to flooding and we couldn't make the later date.

In 2005 I paddled solo again and finished in 69:29 hours. After three finished safaris I can repeat after Jack Spencer: "It's not getting any easier".

My 2005 safari was slower than my 2003 race. I believe that the weather was hotter and there were more obstacles in the river after last year flooding (at least I was hitting them more often than in 2003 ...). Good news: no injuiries, minimal damage to the body and no stomach problems which were really annoing during my two previous safaris. I used the same sport drinks but had more clear water than before. I was taking endurolytes pills every two hours or so. It seems that for each safari I am packing less food than for the previous one.

This year I took a digital camera with me: a tiny waterproof Pentax Optio WP, not much larger or heavier than a power bar. The camera survived the safari without any problems. Connie was also shooting with a help from companion TCs with my older Canon PowerShot S40.

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