Woronora's 'Awesome Dawsons' have arrived in the Yukon Territory ready for their next big adventure after posting a strong result in what is described as the world's toughest canoe race.
Steve, 49, and Kate, 45, and their American teammates David Carlson and Mike Dey, finished the 418km Texas Water Safari in 17th place outright, after paddling non-stop for 44 hours and 33 minutes.
After two weeks of rest and recovery the pair, both members of the Sutherland Shire Canoe Club, are preparing for the start of something different on Wednesday - the world's longest annual canoe race, the 706km Yukon River Quest.
They will race the event on their own in a double sea kayak with support from a local paddler. There are two mandatory stops for sleep but the event is so far north the sun never actually goes down.
Steve says they thoroughly enjoyed the event in Texas despite the difficulties, and are feeling more prepared for the challenge ahead.
"There were originally 186 entries for the Texas race but six had scratched by race day, and so many people didn't make it," he said.
"Our result was pretty much what we were hoping for in terms of time, although we would have liked a higher ranking. But some people did it really tough.
"There was a six-man stand-up paddle board crew that took 88 hours. I can't imagine standing up for that long. The last boat to finish came in after almost 96 hours, still inside the 100-hour cutoff. The fastest crew home did it in about 34 hours."
The Dawsons and their colleagues had drama aplenty during the event but there was plenty beforehand too.
"When we got to Texas, we got in the boat for a shakedown with our team mates on a relatively quiet stretch of river. We came around a corner and there was a tree fallen across the river. We washed up against it and the force of the water snapped our carbon fibre boat like a bundle of twigs."
Steve says they thought their race was over before it started. Then the whole crew pitched in to help the boat builder effectively rebuild the canoe in just three days.
Once on the water, they worked just as effectively together, despite the heat, the darkness, the rapids and a wide range of obstacles that they had to carry the boat across, or walk it around.
However, as the hours ticked by, there were hallucinations and a bit of niggling as the pressure of being cooped up in a small boat began to make itself felt.
Steve has ways of keeping his head straight in a long race but this was just a bit harder.
"In other races, I've always broken the race into chunks, like 20kms is a standard marathon so I have so many marathons still to go, but the distance in this just makes a mockery of that - 20km down, only 19 marathons to go," he said.
"I just focused on the end result, the people who were cheering for us to finish and the amount of work we'd put in to get there.
"Having said all of that, we will definitely do it again. We had started talking about that before the 100-hour race cut-off was up. I think we are going back."
With the Yukon race just around the corner and completely unknown, Steve says the Texas race currently holds the rank as the hardest thing he has ever done but also a lot of fun.
"The participants are all very supportive. They're competitive, but at the same time they understand what it takes to finish and everybody who finishes is treated like a winner."
Now they're getting themselves provisioned for a start in the Yukon - and an adventure that will include wilderness, freezing cold water and lots and lots of pine trees, bears and moose.
The Dawsons have put in some serious preparation and training for the two races. While they don't claim to be perfectly prepared, the Texas event has proved that they are as ready as they possibly can be - and looking forward to the finish line, fittingly at Dawson City, Yukon.
