Words by Sarah Hearn | www.kineticgear.org is alive and adventure junkies have been hitting up since 07h30 (GMT+2).
Boarding the bus with bike helmets on, clutching half eaten muffins and boxes of pizza, frantically checking last night’s football championship on a phone snatched from spectators, the 92 competitors may not have struck the hotel staff as uber athletes setting off for a few days of non-stop adventure.
The bus driver took them on an unplanned scenic tour to the start venue, admitting he was slightly lost. A familiar experience for all the racers. But exiting the bus and looking up at the impressive granite monolith of Sibebe Rock, there was no doubt that they had arrived.
The echoing drum beat soon matched their heartbeat as they set off directly up the sheer sides of the volcanic dome which rises up almost 450m above the start line.
They greeted the first checkpoint at the summit and from there undertook a 33km trek to reach the start of the canyon.
Meanwhile, the media teams conducted their own adventure race today, dodging traffic police and navigating across the Malolotja Nature Reserve to try and catch the leading teams as they entered the canyon section an hour earlier than predicted.
Estonian Ace Adventure team lead the way off the first of several waterfalls and into the icy cold water without any paparazzi to document it. Ten teams slipped by before the photographers could finally get down to the canyon and capture the moments of absolute dread and hesitation in the features of some very brave souls.
The Royal Air Force guys however, would’ve made their Queen – should she have been dot watching – so proud, as they put all their experience of leaping out of planes into useful practise as they smoothly walked along the river and straight off the 10m high ledge without a moment’s hesitation. From there, they had a 1km stretch of potholes and bum slides and everyone emerged shaking, many quite shaken.
The camera drone would’ve followed them, only it did some acrobatics itself and crashed into the cliff side, somersaulting in spectacular slow motion down the rocks, flinging the battery into the water but managing to nestle itself safely and undamaged on the banks. Good luck all round so far.
Exiting the river, teams made their way 9km down to the Komati River, bush whacking all the way in order to pick up the kayaks and paddle the 22km length of the Maguga Dam before picking up their bicycles for a 69km stretch. Not too long, but with +2324m of elevation it will make tired legs under already very tired bodies.
Tactics and strategies are proving interesting in this race. Another long bike leg on Day 2 should bring the leaders into their fourth transition at around 22h00 and well into the dark zone where nobody may be on the river. Paddling will be only be allowed from 06h30 on Day 3 (Tues) followed by rafting.
Currently the Estonian team, Sweco, Jabberwock, Peak Performance are in the lead. Strong contenders Merrell Adventure Addicts and Cyanosis are further back.
So are the teams pushing ahead to maximise their hours of non-stop sleep available to them tomorrow night or are some being kinder on the muscles by not straining too hard just now?
It seems like they’ve got dodgy mobile and internet signal out in the bush. Sarah says that because of this the live tracking can be a bit here-and-there. Here’s an alternative link for the live tracking. www.pirbtech.com/index25
News and photos are posted regularly on the KineticGear Facebook page.
These are recent photo albums.
- Opening Ceremony
- Registration
- Day 1 (Sunday, 7 June 2015)
- Day 2 (Monday, 8 June 2015)