Canoe the World

Gordon Naysmith, FRGS was born in Portsmouth, UK, in 1931, of Scottish and Scillonian parents. He left school in 1950 for 2 years national service in the Royal Artillery in Germany, where he played a lot of Rugby. He was a member of the first civilian team to compete in the 1953 British Modern Pentathlon Championship. He joined the British Colonial Service in 1954 and was posted to Kenya where he was the Fencing representative to the Kenya Olympic Committee. In 1959 he left Kenya for New Zealand where he was involved in a number of different commercial enterprises as well as fencing, rugby and cricket. From NZ he moved to South Africa in 1969 and went into business writing computer software. In 1970 he competed for South African Veterans in the Modern Pentathlon against Austria.

In November 1970, he set off on horseback through Africa, the Middle East and Europe, reaching the 1972 Olympic games in Munich, a journey lasting twenty one and a half months.

Back in the UK, he bought a vehicle to travel back overland to South Africa. From Lebanon, having failed to get into Saudi Arabia owing to visa restrictions, he gave the Dormobile to the local Save the Children Fund organization and flew back to South Africa.

In 1974 he departed South Africa, with his homemade Kayak, heading for the waters of the Zambezi. He entered the Zambezi below the Victoria Falls with the intention of paddling to the UK. He made his way via Lakes Kariba, Malawi and Tanganyika to the headwaters of the southernmost Nile tributary. On the first day on the Nile, he was attacked and robbed by local Hutu tribesmen who stole his entire belongings, leaving only a badly damaged kayak. However, he found he was still fit enough to run quickly!

He returned to SA and in 1984 went to Botswana for a year to set up a printing works for a friend. During this time he represented the Modern Pentathlon on the South African Olympic Committee. He returned to the UK 1989.

Daniel Bachmann, FRGS has a passion for travel and encounters with interesting people and animals around the world. Originally from the United States, after several months of well documented travel, he has ended up in London, England for a few years where his skills in information systems and photography are being put to use. He is handling the digital communications for the expedition including updating the web site and reception of the electronic messages that will be sent from the canoe via satellite.