In 2018, more than 15,000 South Africans entered a competition on DSTV to win an opportunity of a lifetime: Crossing an ocean with pioneering explorer Riaan Manser.
The winner: Fanafikile Lephakha from Soweto, a chemical engineering graduate who was searching for more in life. After five gruelling days of the boot camp in Langebaan, he emerged as the winner of The Odyssey and the one who will row with Manser across the Atlantic Ocean. But he needed to come clean with one ‘minor’ detail he still had to reveal…
He could not swim.
The pair successfully rowed from the Canary Islands to Barbados: Two people from different backgrounds, cultures, and beliefs, enduring the most adverse conditions, physically and mentally, and being triumphant, fuelled by their desire to succeed.
