ExpAfrica: Black Diamonds in the rough

A week has passed since the finish of what was an epic adventure! Kit has been washed, sleep regained, swelling has come down and the body has finally settled into a semblance of normal functioning, following some rather sustained abuse! Leon is still racing in his sleep. I heard that he keeps waking up and asking his girlfriend how she passed him and whether she clipped the CP. “No Leon,” she replies, “I’m your girlfriend. I don’t adventure race…”.

My mind wanders back to the mountains. I can still feel the cold, meter high waves of Sterkfontein breaking into my face. I can still see the Massive views from the top of my favourite range of mountains. I can hear the ice breaking off above us and smashing into the rocks as we descend Ifidi Pass. I can feel the cold seeping into my legs as my sleeping bag gets progressively wetter while we lie in our tent as the dragon’s wrath descends in torrents! Expedition Africa has infected us all. I want to go back.

This was only the second big race that we, as a team, have embarked on. I had never done a 500km race before and neither had Leon, our resident whitewater specialist and fixer of anything. Nici (backup Nav and tough as nails) and James (powerhouse and Navigator par excellence) have both done 500km’s before, but some time ago! We raced as Cross Contour in Quantum Leap 2012 and it’s just as well we had that introduction to expedition racing! Quantum Leap was tough but it brought our team closer together. We needed that in order to survive EA 2013. This time, we raced as Team Black Diamond. A fitting race to be sponsored by a brand which draws its heritage from climbing and other mountain pursuits.

The Orion Mont Aux Sources Hotel provided a fantastic venue for the event, with spectacular views of the Amphitheatre giving us a fitting backdrop to what was coming. Race briefing was interesting. Particularly the Google course flyover and the revelation that our first leg would be a 75km odyssey up the backbone of Royal Natal, via Witsieshoek hotel to Sentinel Car park, then Chain ladders, Tugela Falls, Ifidi Pass and down to the Mnweni Cultural Village. EISH.  And this just for starters! I was a little incredulous…and then we saw that a 75km paddle and 163 km bike awaited us too!

I’d never done 75km in a single paddle before. Or  163km on the bike. And a 400m Swim?? I hate swimming. I drew strength from the similarly flabbergasted looks on my team mates, and other teams, faces. Particularly heartening was the foreign voice who called out “Swim??”, “we have to SWIM?”  Leon immediately turned to us and said, “can’t we walk round…?” All very amusing but given the snow on the mountains, a night time swim was not looking very funny right then. At the end of the race briefing, a slow contemplative walk brought us back to our room to carry on with box prep and kit organisation.

Monday morning dawned none too soon. We just wanted to get on with the race and end the nerves! Fortunately for us, the weather was fantastic. Clear skies. Warm and sunny, despite a slightly chilly start and what a great vibe as we all lined up at the start. 31 Teams ready to do battle with a testing course. Stephan’s Vuvuzela blasted through the cold air and we were off. Running. Fast.

I guess that’s what you get when starting on a downhill with some of the world’s best leading from the front! Soon we were into the uphills and the pace slowed down somewhat. We were determined to keep a reasonable pace going so as to ensure we never got left totally behind. Also, Navigating on top of the Berg at night is no picnic. Our goal was to get up and over in daylight so that we would not have to negotiate the upper reaches of Ifidi pass in complete darkness.  Fortunately for us, this plan worked. We reached the Tugela Falls check point in good time. Altitude was proving to be quite a factor as expected, but the team was coping well. Jame’s nav to the top of Ifidi was spot on.

We managed to get the first 800m of Ifidi done in the light with only one nearly disastrous incident: about a third of the way down a foot long icicle broke off above us. I looked up to see the thing traveling down towards James’ head, just had time to shout “Look Out” and it smashed into the rocks beside him. We all got a bit of a wake up from that and many a nervous glance was shot upwards thereafter. Thankfully it did not happen again!

As the pass opened out, Team Fox on Fire caught up to us. We spent the rest of the descent passing them and them passing us. We also met up with Team Powerbar as we neared the rural settlements in the Mnweni valley. A final slog on dirt road to the checkpoint and back to the Cultural Village and we were ready for the short 30km cycle to our awaiting Nemesis, the swim across Woodstock Dam…

Leon was adamant he wasn’t swimming but after looking at the map, we realised that the walk round would be ridiculously long. And so, at 04:30 in the morning, we took the plunge. Funnily enough the actual swim wasn’t too bad for me, Nici and James. Leon reckons he started shivering with 100m to go! The really cold part was getting out of the water. All of us were shaking uncontrollably as we huddled round the fire trying to gather our wits for the 75 km paddle that awaited…

The paddle was a back breaking affair which we tackled as quickly as we could to try and make the rapids before the dark zone. In hindsight, we probably shouldn’t have tried so hard. We made the rapids with an hour to spare but then things went rather pear shaped, both for us and most of the other teams. About two rapids after the CP, first Leon and I went over, then as were gathering our kit together in an eddy, James and Nici went over. Nici had a narrow escape from a rather nasty little strainer lurking beneath a big rock in the middle of a rapid. Her knee got stuck but she managed to extricate herself and get up onto the rock, from where James and I could get her off. Luckily James has hefty legs which make good anchors in raging torrents! The rest of the rapids were mostly portaged. It was getting dark and we didn’t want to risk another accident. We were not alone. There must have been 4 or 5 other teams in the same predicament at the same time!

The paddle eventually ended and we transitioned into the Mountain Bike leg. This was great fun. A fantastic tour through the rural areas, coke and salt & vinegar chips never tasted so good, nice people and we even got some very good single track in! What a bargain! The downhill into Champagne Valley Sports Resort was memorable and the single track descent into the half way point was also fantastic. Nice way to end a varied and beautiful MTB leg.

Half way was greeted with some enthusiasm! Hot Food! A bed. Time. At this point James came to me and asked if it would be cool to team up with Castle Lite for the big hike we were about to do. Having no problems with that, I agreed. Two navigators would also ease some strain on James who was, by this stage, perhaps feeling the mental strain a little. He had navigated superbly up to this point, but this next leg was going to be a tester. We didn’t get enough sleep at half way, only managing 2.5 hours. Such is it. We started the hike as a team of 8 at 21:30 in the evening. 21 hours later we arrived at our next CP. James really suffered on this hike. Navigation was again spot on but his lungs were not well and we feared a lung infection had set in as his breathing got steadily worse as we progressed.  Stoffel, from team Castle Lite, was also hanging on as he had been suffering from gyppo guts for almost 3 days at that point. Awesome guys these. They both stuck to their guns and grafted through the suffering. A great effort and what a testament to Team Work. Both guys knuckled down for us, gritted their teeth and kept going. By this stage, sleep monsters were starting to creeeeep their way in. Saffman was also struggling with chaffing in his nether regions but his race report spells that out. I won’t go into the details!

We pulled away from Castle Lite a bit, as we descended the 5 stage abseil, but they joined us again on the long jeep track slog to transition. Here we had some tough questions. James was really struggling, but like any good Adventure Racer, he said he’d sleep on his decision whether or not to continue. Our primary concern was whether or not he was doing lasting damage to his lungs. We kipped for an hour and when we woke up, Stephan had arrived. We asked his opinion and he said that if we carried on we stood a good chance of placing in the top 10. This seemed to give James the jump he needed and he decided to give it a go.

And so began the 160km MTB leg. Leg highlights for me were AR style Fish and Chips (tinned pilchards with salt and vinegar chips on bread) with Coke at Geluksberg and the 8km pass we ascended. Great fun trying to ride up this. Lowlight for this leg was riding up the nasty hill before the pass, only to come back down along with Olympus and Castle Lite and then realise that we had been on the correct road after all, and ride back up the nasty little uphill! Such is it. This leg was also memorable as Leon was beset by Sleep induced Phaffery! My nickname is Phaff, but Leon takes the cake for Uber Phaffer on this leg! Eventually, Craig produced an Espresso Love Gu and within 5 minutes of eating this, Leon powered to front! Remarkable. Will have to remember that one for the future.

Sterkfontein arrived with a sprint from Nici on the tar road approaching the dam. She had been really struggling with Sleep monsters for the whole bike leg. On the tar road into the dam though, she got a flat. Saffman and Craig helped a great deal here as we simply bombed her back wheel and told her to sprint. This woke her up for sure as she put in a huge effort and managed, with two bombs, to get to the finish. No time to patch tubes etc. Again, some fantastic teamwork and we finished the leg keen to get onto the water.

The final paddle proved to be a tester. Sterkfontein Dam is more like a mini sea! Once you get out into the main expanse of water, the waves get quite big and the wind howls. I got totally drenched from meter high swell that would loom suddenly out of the darkness and smash into us. We paddled like maniacs and eventually, after what seemed an eternity of watching the shore lights inching closer to us, we made the transition. Here we had an interesting time. Freezing cold and wet, we tried to find shelter only to discover that the only space available was a 2m by 2m prefab toilet thingy already Occupied by 8 other similarly cold and shivering racers. Indabushe and Olympus! Leon, who by this stage was shaking uncontrollably again, vanished beneath the basin and made himself a little house inside his sleeping bag. No-one else had thought of doing this! Indabushe and Olympus left and Castle Lite and Black Diamond moved in. We slept for about 30 minutes I think and then set off for the final leg.

This last hike took us 17 hours to complete. For a mere 30km’s! We set out in the rain at I guess about 22:00. Things started off ok but as we moved upwards into the mountains, the rain and mist descended. Finally, we ended up on a high ridge with me walking on bearings given by James and calling altitudes as I went. After about 30 minutes of this, we decided that things were not looking quite as they should. The thunder and lightning had increased in frequency, rain was pouring and visibility was down to about 30 or 40m.

Headlamps were ineffectual in the mist as they just reflect back at you! We pitched our tents and decided to have a kip. Yours truly had managed to lose the tent poles at transition so we pitched our Black Diamond Mesa with Trekking poles. We managed to produce a pretty good shelter like this and all squeezed in underneath, on top of ground sheet and space blankets. Unfortunately for me, I was sleeping on the side and managed to get my lower half rather wet as the depression I was lying in filled with water and proved too much for my rudimentary sleep deprived construction efforts at a watertight groundsheet! Luckily I only had about an hour to endure in this state. Come daybreak, we packed up and along with Castle Lite, we set off again. We got to the Dam checkpoint without hassles and then began the trek up to Cold Ridge. Olympus caught up to us and then stopped for a bit and we pulled away again. Over Cold Ridge we went, watching the snow falling on the peaks of the escarpment. The descent proved interesting. We tried several lines down but could not find a way off the ridge we had planned to descend. In the end, we walked back up to a small rudimentary path we had seen earlier and this proved a good move. Craig Powell of Castle Lite powered along breaking trail and we found some cairns showing a way down the ridge we were now on. This proved to be the way down. With Olympus hot on our heels we descended in good time and began the approach to the Camel. As we neared the final path down, Team Warriors appeared close above us. We started running and managed to hold them for about 2 km’s but they proved too strong and came past us with a mere 3km’s to go. With injuries starting to take their toll, we didn’t feel too bad. We’d put in a good effort. And so it was that we made our way back to the Hotel. Team Black Diamond and our now great friends, Team Castle Lite. As Adrian Saffy said, a brotherhood indeed.

What a feeling to get to the Finish. I was so chuffed with our Team. This course had everything. It was tough, it was long, it was beautiful, it was brutal at times, it was mind blowing. Fittingly, there is a rock climbing route up the ever watchful Sentinel called Paradigms Shift. It was put up by Douard Le Roux and Alard Hufner (who was actually at the finish as a supporter of Team Warriors). This race was a Paradigm Shift for me and I think for all our Team members. We overcame. New possibilities have been unveiled.

A big thank you to Stephan, Heidi, the Marshalls, the greater organising team  and Orion Mont Aux Sources Hotel who made this event possible and to the Media Team who did such a great job of capturing it all in word, picture and video. You guys rock. Huge thanks also to Black Diamond Equipment for their sponsorship, without which, we would never have made the start line!

Author: Ryan van Niekerk | Team Black Diamond | Expedition Africa, May 2013

Images by Andreas Strand, Bruce Viaene and Lisa de Speville