Garmin Lost in da Bush

Team Senseless: This weekend Steve and I went up to the Mankele Mountain Bike Park near Nelspruit in Mpumalanga for the Garmin – Lost in da Bush adventure race presented by Passionate Adventures.

Race briefing was on the Friday evening at the Mankele resort where the race start/finish as well as central transition zone was going to be. Like most of the competitors, this too was where Steve and I were staying. At the race briefing we were giving a topography map (not to scale) of the Mankele and surrounding areas, 18 GPS check points (CP) and a couple of tips and instructions for the race beginning at 5am the following morning.

After the briefing Steve and I plotted our points on the map and discussed race strategy while we had supper. At this time we also noticed at least one team going out to scout the 1^st CP which was only about 500m from the start area so decided that for the 1^st CP we would just chase the team that looked like the knew exactly where they were going. We headed to be at about 11pm knowing we needed to be up at 4am on Saturday. I had been battling to sleep the whole week and at about 2am had still not fallen asleep so decided to go to the car to see if I’d have better luck sleeping there.  It took a while but I think I finally feel asleep round about 2:30 giving me an ample 1.5 hours of sleep.

At 4am we woke up and had a bite to eat while getting ready for the long days racing ahead. At about we 4:20 we headed to the start for the final briefing at 4:30. There was a bit of a thud as we pulled of it didn’t seem much to worry about. When we arrived at the start I got out the car to see we had no bikes! We jumped back in the car and rushed back down the road to our camp site only to find the bikes that were still attached to the bike rack in the middle of the road half way back. We gave them a quick inspection and a short ride and decided there had been no damage done.

The race started at 5am with a short running stage. All the teams raced out towards CP1 with some teams going straight at the CP which required crossing a river while other took to the bridge and went around. We went straight at the point which was the quicker route and got to it 2^nd. From there it was a run along the R359 for about 1km before turning up the Sabie road. The 2^nd CP was at a waterfall just past the Sabie turn off. Steve and I had moved into 1^st place and had a good 200m on the following teams so decided to take a risky strategy as follow a path way past a small house towards the waterfall.

This turn out to be a bad decision as the bushes were very thick and we had to get into the river a get taken by the currents down river for about 100m. Although this was fast and economical we knew we were above the waterfall and it was still dark. We got out in time but now we had to get down the waterfall in dark and thick bush. At the top of the waterfall to had to get over or around a tributary inlet which over millions of years had cut a 2meter gap into the rocks and was about 5-6meters deep. We decide the “best” plan would be to jump over this gap. I was in front so jumped 1^st. I must point out at this stage I thought: This is a sure way to end up on a Discovery Channel show like “Seconds from Disaster”. I jumped and as the thorn bushed grabbed hold of me that 2meters didn’t seem to be getting much shorter. I didn’t make it and only managed to slam into the side of the rock face. Here it was, my very own seconds from disaster only I didn’t have seconds I had less. Somehow I managed to grab hold of the corner of the rock. Since Steve believed I had cleared all the thorns he decided to try jump over the gap and me. Luckily he made it and was able to pull me up.

We made our way to CP2 and where pleasantly surprised to find a lot of teams still in the area so we hadn’t lost too much time. After CP2 we made our way back to the transition for the 1^st bike stage.

We headed towards CP3 and picked up CP11 on the way pretty much by mistake. CP3 was at the top of a really good single track, unfortunately there should have been a way-point (WP) on route as most teams were riding up the single track.

Going for CP5 turned out to be the most frustrating part of the race. The maps we were given were not only too old to show 90% of the roads and trails but also didn’t span far enough for us to see the area around CP5. CP5 was a spot height at 1220m. We made our way up to the top of the hill we believed the CP to be on only to find nothing but another 2 frustrated teams. We noticed a few teams going up the hill adjacent to us and made our way across to that hill. On getting there we found another 4 teams that were frustrated looking for CP5 on that hill. After much inter-team discussion we decided that the 1^st hill we were on was correct. We had our way back, now 1.5 hours after we were there for the 1^st time. By this time there were another 3 teams looking for CP5. Somebody spotted the race organiser about half a kilometre away at a point. We all scurried off to the point some tried to ride around on a trail; we picked up our bikes and hiked down. CP5 was not only about 500m away from where it was also nearly 100m below the height it was meant to be.

The next couple points went by without too much distress but CP8 again was a nightmare. We got to where the point was meant to be only to be at another “Easter Egg hunt” as somebody commented, with another 5 teams, 1 which had been there looking for it for over 30 minutes. As the other teams decided to leave the point and move on to CP9 Steve noticed the point again about 500m away from where it should have been.

CP9 was at the parking lot at Sudwala Caves. The ride down was apparently amazing only we took a different route, also an amazing long downhill, only it was too long and Steve and I were left to ride back up to the caves. The ride back up was a 165m climb in just 1.4km. If climbing 165m in 1.4km was hell then the decent could only be heaven. The 17 minute climb was descended in well under 2 minutes with the scariest point being coming round a corner at 60kph to find a troop of baboons in the road. My heart stopped as they scattered in all directions. CP10 was a flying fox (zip line with your bike) and there was not only a slight back up but some very welcomed bottled water as Steve had run out of liquid over an hour earlier and had also just run out. We also spent the time waiting for our turn on the flying fox wading in the river to cool down. From CP10 we headed back to the transition for the next running leg.

At transition we were informed that the 2^nd bike leg had been cancelled due to how long the race had taken all the team thus far. We took off and got the final CP 1^st (CP14). We already had CP11 which just left us CP’s 12 & 13. After taking a long loop from CP14 we had ended back at the transition area decided to hike about 1km straight up the mountain behind us instead of running about 5km around to the same position. From here most of the route to CP12 would be on sand roads and after about 2km we came across a team that had come from CP12 & 13 but hadn’t been able to find either of them and had decided to give them a skip. We headed on towards the CP’s and at about 3pm met up with the organiser that told us we had about 20km still to race. Know this would take us about 3-4 hours and even though the race had been extended until 6pm we decided to skip the last 2 CP’s (more me than Steve) and head back to the finish and take a shower.

Only 3 teams out of about 28 managed to finish the race by the original 4pm cut-off even with the final mountain bike stage being dropped. Two of these teams were from Mankele bike park so had good knowledge of the terrain and route in the area.

Despite many frustrations with CP’s and the total under estimation of how long the race would take we had a really great time at the Garmin – Lost in Da Bush, so did all the other teams it seems. The area is amazing to ride and run in with big climbs, technical downhills and some of the best scenery anybody could hope for.

This is definitely a race I’ll be back for, only next year I hope that the race organises listen to the comment from this year’s race teams to ensure a better flowing event.

Author: Andrew Wiggett, Team Senseless. Garmin Lost in da Bush, 10-11 April 2010