Finishing bike boxes, community children, paddling on the sea, kit packing, food prepping, lost luggage arriving, first maps, equipment checking, crate packing… that about covers today.
The morning kicked off with a community project where a child from the community was assigned to each team and they had about a hour or so to teach the children to paddle.
The water close to shore was alive with eager paddlers, bright red sit-on-top kayaks and supportive racers. And then it was littered with flipped boats and swimmers. If the kayaks didn’t flip going out, they most certainly did coming back in.
But what an experience! The children thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to paddle in the surf and on the nearby flat-calm lagoon.
Looking at the kayaks capsizing in the waves Craig Metherall from Team Drie Latte en Een Platte (#21) remarked, with a laugh, “Is this a community service activity or team practice time?”
Once the children were done, many of the teams could indeed be seen playing in the surf, presumably practicing their surf entries for the race start.
Photographers Bruce Viaene and Andreas Strand were in the water too. Their photos can be seen in the ‘Community Project’ album on the KineticGear Facebook page.
After a short gap the teams were back in the Big Hall, at the Port Edward Holiday Resort, for registration. Here they had to pass through various checks to receive their GPS trackers, confirm medical and team information, have their cell phones seal, rope skills checked and to have a team photo taken.
I had the fortune of seeing each team for a quick chit-chat. It was a busy session – I haven’t attributed comments specifically to people unless I was on the ball and wasn’t typing like a monkey.
Here’s a bit of what the teams had to say (in team number order).
#1 – Havacrack
Thinking that ‘Havacrack’ was possibly a product or brand, I ask the team what it was.
“No, not a product,” they reply. “It means to give it a go.”
Ahhh… like ‘have a crack at it’ – the penny dropped.
They’re aiming to be team #1 until about 7am tomorrow morning, which I think they’ll manage. But once the teams are set of… No more ‘Number One’ for them.
They’re hoping that the navigation will be difficult – that’s the aspect that they really enjoy.
“Let’s not get lost now,” they say, laughing as they walk off.
#2 – Anger Management
This rookie team says that they’re firmly aiming for last place.
Over the past three years this team of friends has built up to entering this race.
“We started with 25km Adventure Sprint races, then Full Moon (150km) and Double Moon (250km) races.”
“The hike is what scares us. Also navigation at night and keeping our feet ok.”
#3 – AR Switzerland
I ask this team what made then decide to return to South Africa for the second year in a row.
“Quality of the race,” they reply without hesitation. “It was an amazing adventure last year. Amazingly organised race.”
“It is interesting to race outside of Europe. The rules are more open (less restricted). In Europe there is less adventure; here it is more wild. ”
I also ask whether the three short and fast legs early on suited them.
“Early is better. The brain is working better and there is little bit more stress at the beginning. ”
#4 – Olympus
Team Olympus this year is made up of two local teams that have merged; Alex Wagner and Tim Deane from Olympus and Chris and Julia Fisher from WCAD.
“We’ve always raced against each other and now we’re racing with each other,” says Alex.
Chris feels that their big move will comes on the MTB legs. “Both of them. We must just try not to leave the surge too late.”
A consistent and strong team, I ask about their competitive ambitions.
“We want to go fast,” says Alex, speaking for himself and Tim. “They (Chris and Julia) want to go not quite so fast. So we’ll go a little bit in between.”
#5 – Team Seagate
A man with more expedition racing experience than, perhaps, all but a few other racers in the World, Nathan Fa’ave speaks about the course breakdown.
“No real surprises there. We trust in the organisers. They’ve designed the course in the way that they have with good reason. There are a couple of quite long stages; we’re looking forward to it.”
#6 – Bloed en OMO
A team with more ‘mature’ team members, this is captain Abel van der Merwe’s second expedition race. At 62 years of age he’s our oldest competitor. His one teammate, Jan Bezuidenhout, is 61 – this is his first expedition race. The other two, Nic Labuschagne (52) and youthful Sue Peterkin (47) are also expedition novices.
I ask whether Abel had given them any words of wisdom and encouragement going into this race.
“He told us to ‘Keep up’,” they reply. Bunch of jokers.
Sue did add that Abel always says, “If you want to walk, you must just walk quickly“. Now that’s good advice.
#7 – Outnorth Adventure
As a team this is their second ARWC event. They have done many shorter races together.
I ask whether they have any specific placing ambitions. They reply: “We will try to perform our best and minimise things that go wrong. We figure to get through the course in the best way. The next step after this will be to get a good placing.”
I also ask whether they have a specific plan in mind.
“Drink and eat a lot from the beginning. Race smart.” Words of wisdom indeed.
#8 – Jabberwock
With Cobus van Zyl taking care of navigation and the racing experience of Deon and Ina du Preez, youngster Rob Crichton (28) is in good hands.
“Our name should be Jabberwock and the kid,” jokes Cobus.
#9 – Baba Orienteering Belgium
This team has been doing smaller races together.
“The longer the legs, the stronger we are,” they say.
“We plan to sleep three hours each night – maybe not the first night or the last but all the others. We will try to avoid the river during the night.”
#10 – Lunar Chicks
I ask Nikki Smit about their plans.
“It’s difficult to know until we have the maps. Don’t know yet know what roads there are or short cut options. But we do know that in the Transkei, the shortest route on paper isn’t the shortest route in reality.”
Just to fill you in… pre-1994 there were two homeland areas in this region – Transkei and Ciskei. They were absorbed into the Eastern Cape Province when everything was re-organised and re-named. Many of us locals (especially those born before 1990) still refer to this Wild Coast region as the Transkei. (Check it out on Wikipedia)
#11 – Team Spirit
I ask them if they have any specific strategy or feeling about the race.
“It’s going to come down to how much we can help each other on the bikes,” they reply.
#12 – Merrell Adventure Addicts
Eager to be off to their next station, Graham ‘Tweet’ Bird gave an efficient assessment of the course and route as we knew it at the time.
“Gonna be three big, long legs; we don’t even know where we’re going,” he says.
And as of right now they only know the first three short and choppy legs. they’ll get more as the race progresses – so they still don’t really know where they’re going.
#13 – SandgropAR
This team has two racers new to expedition racing. They came out to race here because “one of our mates raced here last year.”
As for their race ambitions…
“15th would be nice; 20th we’d be happy; to finish would be good.”
“Our other motivation is to beat team #1 (Havacrack),” they add. “Or to finish with them would be great. We all train together in Perth.”
#14 – Rustproof
This year Rustproof has two novices and two with experience.
“We’re pretty organised this year,” says Steven Burnett. “We arrived early, on Thursday evening, so that everything isn’t a mad rush.”
They estimate that they’ll be finished by Friday afternoon. I ask whether they think that they have enough food.
“Too much food,” they reply. “In fact, we may have to stay out there for longer in order to finish it all.”
The team has put in some long training sessions.
“We’re looking forward to the long legs,” Steve says. “This time we’re planning to take shorter rests more regularly and not to sleep for six hours in one place like we did before.”
#15 – Cinnober Adventure
Also commenting on the lengths of the stages the team says, “We like the long ones. That’s adventure racing for us.”
#16 – Cyanosis Adventure Racing
Speaking about the leg distances navigator Nicholas Mulder says, “We get to the distance halfway point in the race… and then we have one leg back.”
The team enjoys getting maps and next legs during the race instead of the night before.
“Then we can get more sleep tonight.”
I ask whether they’ll be keeping tabs on the other competitive teams, aiming to keep contact.
“We’re going to race our race. Keeping in touch doesn’t mean hanging on to coattails – especially not the tail feathers of teams who are going the speed of sound,” says Nicholas.
“Expedition racing in Transkei means finding your own way through.”
#17 – Tecnu
According to course leg predicted times, Tecnu estimate that they’ll be doing much/most of the last kayak stage in dark (there is no longer a darkzone because the water level has dropped substantially) – and they’re not looking forward to that because it will just be slower and more challenging. But they are keeping their eyes on the final 230-kilometre cycle leg to the finish.
“We learned from Costa Rica that the teams that were the most rested did the best on the long bike leg,” says Kyle Peter. “We’ll need to make sure that we’re in good shape going into that leg so that we can make up time there.”
Kyle’s one bag disappeared on the way to South Africa. As I type this, his bag has arrived. Phew! Talk about the 11th hour.
#18 – Black Diamond
I ask about looking at the course breakdown, seeing a couple of long, long legs and how this makes them feel.
“I look at a 230km cycle and I think, ‘It finishes at the end’,” says Nici van Niekerk.
“Better than the 80km hike!” the others chirp.
#19 – Averne France
I ask them what made then decide to come to South Africa for this race.
“Organisation is top,” they say. “Everything for us is ok.”
#20 – Life
This South African team plans to race their own race.
“We’ve got no ambition to compete against any teams. We want to complete the full course and don’t want to be short coursed. If we achieve that then we will have done well,” they say.
#21 – Drie Latte en Een Platte
This is the first expedition race for this team.
“It’s better than spending the week at work,” Craig Metherall jokes.
They’ve entered this race because of the outdoor adventure aspect of it. They come from a triathlon background which is very individual. They enjoy the team environment of adventure racing.
The 80km trek really stands out for them.
“It’s Comrades marathon next weekend,” says Erika Vercuiel, speaking about the 89km ultramarathon held annually in South Africa. “This one leg is almost as long as Comrades and it is just one part of this race.”
#22 – PennyPinchers AR
This team is hoping for some beach showers at the end of the paddle to rinse off the salt water (good thinking!). A consistent team, they’ll be in for some racing against a bunch of teams of similar strength and experience. I ask where the team saw themselves in the field of teams.
“Saturday, in the pub,” they laugh.
Out of full South African teams (“no imports”), they’re aiming for Top 5.
#23 – Costa Rica
Team Costa Rica came to South Africa because they heard that the Wild Coast region was going to be unique. “We also want to qualify for AR World Champs in Ecuador,” they say.
Paddling and hiking are their strongest disciplines.
#24 – Senseless
This friendly and good humoured team have put in some good work over the past months.
“We’ve come together nicely,” says Steven Yates. They were third at the recent Double Moon 250km event, also organised by Heidi and Stephan.
“The line up of the course will suit us with the long cycle at the end. Our plan is to take the first three legs nicely and then have a good rest and feed before long hike (Leg 4, 80km); that’s where the race really begins.”
#25 – Gone Racing
This is their very first expedition race.
“We’re super excited and nervous,” they say.
I ask what about the race had them feeling nervous.
“Quite long legs, kloofing (canyoning) at night on the Wild Coast, getting tired, getting lost… And it is new,” they reply.
They’re hoping to finish full course.
#26 – Namaqua
This slower teams looks at the estimated course times and doubles the duration for their estimates.
“We’re going to be out sync so we’ll be in transition during the day according to the estimates,” they say. “It will be challenging to navigate on foot at night and we may pick up trouble there,” Alwyn Maass explains.
The team is expecting to sleep in the bush at night, instead of in transitions. I do hope they’ll do better than they expect to.
#27 -nonamesport.ru
This is a two-girl-two-guy team. I ask what made them decide to come here.
“We are happy already because we saw ocean. We come to another country and fly half the planet to get here,” they announce.
“In Russia, now winter end. Snow. Training on ski. Mountain bike on claw tyres. Because this race. Not ordinary for us.”
Indeed, sun and a warm ocean are definitely not ordinary for them!
I always have a soft-spot for Russian teams – probably because of a really awesome experience that I had writing for a Russian adventure race over there many years ago; and the many friendly Russian racers that I have met over the years. I’m hoping for a steady and consistent performance from them.
#28 – Lesotho Sky Flirtatious Flamingos
How’s this for teammate recruitment…
Guy McKechnie has a bike shop. Emily Clarke came in to get some stuff for her bike.
“I asked her if she is a strong bike rider,” explains Guy. “She is.”
“I asked her if she runs. She does.”
“Then I asked if she was interested in adventure racing… She said that she’d always wanted to do one. So I told her ‘there’s this little race coming up…‘”. Sneaky, sneaky.
This team has been put together based on their cycling ability. They’re aiming to “crack the bike leg on the splits“.
#29 -Bring it on
This Kiwi-Brazil team combo has a great vibe. They raced XPD Australia in different teams, got chatting after the race and these four decided to come to South Africa together. The one Kiwi is Sakkie Meyer and in our mind he is one of ours, not a Kiwi. Sakkie is from South Africa; he’s been living in New Zealand for a good number of years now. He started racing here back when the sport started here so he is well known by the local racers that have been around for a long time. It is wonderful to have him ‘home’ again.
I ask Sakkie whether he felt like a tour guide for his team.
“I think they’re expecting a lot from me,” he laughs.
“It’s good to be back and to race local again race with people that I have raced with and against many years ago.”
I’ve picked up a bit of a Kiwi accent developing…
#30 – Park Rangers
This is a team of three South African guys and one Canadian lady, Hailey van Dyk.
“We’re trying to figure out how much food to pack. We have tons. We just don’t know where to put it all,” they say.
Hailey’s carbon-fibre bike was damaged on the trip over (cracked frame). They have managed to borrow a replacement bike. She’s looking a lot less stressed today.
#31 – Beast of Ballyhoura / V Graph
I really shouldn’t tease the Irish so much about their weather. I was over there two years ago (their summer) for a 24hr rogaine. Let’s just say that our winter is warmer and more sunny than their summer. Hahahaha
It’s wonderful to have Ivan Park, Nigel McKernen and Robbie Heffernan back again. Taryn McCoy is out here for the first time. I ask her how they managed to convince her to join them.
“I’ve heard so many good stories from last year’s race,” she replies.
Their aim is to finish the race; the full course.
“After seeing what Stephan created last year, we’re suitably cautious.”
#32 – RaceMiere
I asked the team what RaceMiere was/meant. It is adapted from an Afrikaans word (Afrikaans is one of South Africa’s 11 official languages) “rysmiere”, which is the word for ‘flying ant’. And so ‘rys-‘ was adjusted to ‘race’ (the words are pronounced identically so this is a half-half word. Okie dokie.
Jackie Cronk has made a deal with her team. “These guys need to get us to the finish by Saturday so that I can run Comrades on Sunday.” Her husband (a former adventure racer) is running his 10th and she wants to run the 89-kilometre race with him. “Our aim is to get back with no blisters or broken bones.”
New to the team Jackie adds, “I’ve never met a team that collaborates as much. They don’t have specific roles either. Pieter does the navigation on the bike; Chris and Cobus on the hikes. It works. Everyone talks and communicates. They have enhanced communication skills“.
#33 – Antimatter
Ahhh… a team with another ‘bullet’ of South African racing in the form of Ugene Nel. He’s also an adventure race organiser in the Western Cape. Ugene has done about eight expedition races in South Africa (plus a trip to Southern Traverse in NZ years ago).
“We want to get through the race without injuries and finish the whole route within cut-off,” says Mark Loftus.
To keep Ugene in check they jokingly referred to their “limited supply of anti-grumpy pills. We’ve got enough to get him through three days so if we keep it together for the first three days when we should have enough to see us through to the end,” says Mark.
#34 – Haglofs Silva
I have an interesting chat with Bjorn Rydvall. I ask him whether they felt any pressure because they won this race last year.
“Almost everyone here considers Seagate the team to win and Merrell has home-ground advantage,” he says. “There are a couple of strong teams here.”
Speaking about navigation he comments: “From what Stephan has said, there will be challenging navigation where it will be very hard to make a best route choice. We made stupid ones last time in the beginning. Route choice will be the most critical. Normally all teams make mistakes. We need to make fewer mistakes.”
#35 – Castle Lite
Castle Lite is always up there; they’re steady and consistent. I ask Adrian Saffy whether this was their plan.
“Same plan,” he replies. “We’re here to race our own race. But you also don’t want to lose touch or spare yourself and let the elastic break. You have to keep up with the race too and also let it dictate the pace“.
#36 – Bad Medicine
Full of jokes, Mark Human claims that they “deliberately haven’t trained together so we won’t be tired of each other by the time we race.”
Patting his diminished belly he adds, “We’re at a lighter weight than usual and Alex brings down our average age“. Mike de Haast and Gavin Gower are over 50. Mark is 46. Alex Jensen (the woman in the team) is a youthful 29.
Before leaving Mike mentioned that if I hang around at transitions long enough – waiting for them evidently – then I’ll be in for a treat. Do they think they’re the ‘treat’? Or what have they got planned? I’ll be sure to let you know if I see them out there.
#37 – HTFU
This team has never done an expedition-length race; their longest race was 350 kilometres in distance.
“We looked at the predicted times and estimates our times to be a bit longer,” says Carel van Heerden. “We should be able to finish by Thurs night or Friday morning if nothing goes wrong. Apart from that, there are some daunting legs but they should be doable.”
#38 – Warriors
Young Ruan Lopez stands out for his gutsy racing at Expedition Africa last year.
“What he appears to have a lot of is a lot of too is positive energy,” says teammate Wojtek Orzenchowski. “I just can’t get irritated with that.”
Their ranking ambitions are a bit different.
“Top 10,” says Ruan. “Top 30,” says Piers Pirow. “Top 5,” says Susan Carter-Brown (she raced with Merrell Adventure Addicts at ARWC in Costa Rica last year).
I guess we’ll see at the finish how this turns out.
#39 – Painted Wolf
I ask Mark Collins how he was felling. “Like a rookie again,” he replies.
It has been a good 10 years since he did an expedition race here in South Africa (and almost as many since he raced abroad).
I ask how they felt about having three short, fast legs first. “Not ideal,” he replies. “We like long to spread the teams out so there isn’t a bottleneck.” Here he’s referring to Leg 4 where there is an abseil.
I ask what their competitive plans would be.
“It’s been so long since we’ve raced… We don’t really have a plan. Sure, we want to keep in touch with the teams but not so hard that we blow ourselves out of the water.”
#40 – Sportotal
This poor Argentine team flew from Buenos Aires to Sao Paulo to Johannesburg. On the way to Jo’burg two bags disappeared. They then got on a plane to Durban, arriving on Thursday. On this leg of the journey two bikes and another bag disappeared. Fortunately, the bikes were located first and were transported to us here in Port Edward first thing this morning (Saturday). By 11h00 all of the bags had been located. They arrived a few hours later. It has been a challenging time for the team.
“We can’t sleep well last night. It was very stressful for all of us,” says Lucas Vallejo.
They’re way more upbeat now; even some smiles this evening.
ENDS
Words by Lisa de Speville | Photograph by Bruce Viaene