The Mnweni Cultural Centre provided an awesome venue for an adventure race, with great access to the Drakensberg, but this meant that the event would have a fair amount of climbing and Bruce was there to ensure that there was a lot of climbing. Our team, made up of Wayne, Alec and myself, missing Amy (very sad to miss out), would race unofficial for this event.
Leg1: 20km Hike
After 1 hour of sleep we were up for the 3am start. We tried to stick close to the lights of Cyanosis, to assist with our nav, which helped us on the odd ocasion. 5km later the climbing started, 100m up to CP1, from the Mnweni river, Alec and I got soaked clipping the point, but we were enjoying it already, 300m up to the next waterfall for CP2, 250m up a kloof for CP3 as the sun was rising, we were thinking ‘this is what it’s about’. We took our time at the top, catching our breaths and checking out a little chameleon stuck to my pack while Cyanosis put a gap on us getting out of our sights. We assembled our trekking poles and then started descent. Wayne was assisting me well with the navigation and we were finding all points well. After about 5 hours we found ourselves back in transition, getting ready to ride.
Leg 2: 40km Bike
Wayne took over the map for the cycle, so I could keep up my pace with the faster riders, and we set off towards the Woodstock Dam. We had to take a bit of a detour to collect CP8, there were 2 options to choose from here, we decided on the second, even though we knew from the locals that Cyanosis had taken the first, our choice was based on saving our altitude once we had climbed up to the level of the CP. We were not sure if it saved us anything but it worked for us. On the way to the paddle transition we found an awesome single track short-cut savings us lots back down to the road. This helped us with our motivations levels and energy saving.
Leg 3: 20km Paddle
We arrived at transition keen to get onto the water as the temperature was high. The paddle leg started with a small rapid but that was all the moving water we saw until we arrived back at the transition. On the way to the first paddle CP we past Cyanosis on their way back. We collected all the CP’s easily, then had some trouble getting stuck on sand banks on the way back, having to portage the boat a short way. Now all we had to do was negotiate our way up the little rapid to the transition, we chose the paddled flat-out option, halfway we realized that we were going to be there a while, and made another plan. While going nowhere slowly in the rapid we missed a trick, Cyanosis had just cycled back across the bridge, having collected there first CP of the following leg, having decided to use the main roads.
Leg 4: 20km+ Bike
With 2 CP’s to clip and a short distance to the Cultural Centre we were confident we could get this cycle done quickly, but we were mistaken, as our route choice added 1.5hrs to our time for this leg. Both CP’s were north of the Mnweni river, and a road (actually a dirt track) was indicated on the master map, so we did the obvious (to us) and stayed North of the river, but this route included steep climbs, lots of tough single track, and a section of hike-a-bike to get back onto the easier route on the South side of the river, that most teams took. We took some strain in the heat and this time loss would cost us in light for the following hike. Alec needed a bit of a time out at the transition, and we were ready to go by 4:30pm.
Leg 5: 20km Hike
This was the most interesting leg for us, tired from the tough cycle and heat of the day, we set off over another river and up another hill, looking for a wedge on a ridge, which we saw soon after the leg began, about 5km away and 600m higher up than we were. Again we didn’t use the easiest of trails but slowly made our way to the CP, hoping the sun would continue to shine. We arrived at the ridge with Wayne and I thinking the point was higher up, we were obviously quite energetic, as Alec searched a point about 50m below us and found the point right away, this gave us a big boost with the sky still light, we pushed on to the next point. Our navigation was taking a bit more time than usual, and we started looking for the next point in the wrong place, eventually we located the correct stream and spur, but still could not find the point, after much frustration we bundu-bashed our way to the confluence of 3 rivers where the next point was located. Our lights were now in use, and progress was slowed. We came upon the confluence and saw the CP, only thing was: the point was 50m below us with no easy way down. Wayne looking for some more excitement found a suitable tree to climb down, and we began an interesting kloofing section, descending into the gorge. This was a highlight for us; even though we had missed the previous CP (we found out later that it had been slightly miss-placed). We found a cow track and began our way to the final CP, following the stunning night sky and listening the pounding rivers. Wayne had taken over the navigation now and was doing a good job at that, as I had taken a bolder to the toe which made my focus a little blurred. We made it to the finish with aches and pains and a little later than expected in 20hrs44min. We found the course well balanced and the scenery rugged and beautiful.
Thank-you to my Mom for seconding us and always making sure we were ok. Thanks to Clint, Bruce and the Tshwane AR club for putting on such a well organized race, located in such an amazing area.
Thank-you to my team, Alec and Wayne, for such an amazingace. One of my best yet.
Written by Rob Crichton
Lesson Learnt (Alec)
- It’s not called Drakensburg Mountains for nothing, start using trekking poles before your ITB is in pain and you may avoid it altogether.
- Learn to eat properly you can’t function efficiently on energy drink only.
- A short break does wonders to revitalize.
- It is amazing what you can do if you want to / need to not to let the team down.
- Ask for assistance when you are stuffed.
- The team moves faster with the weakest link is in front.
- If you walk on ahead of the weakest link you will not get the team moving forward any faster.
- The sooner assistance is provided the less is required.
(In case you are wondering it was my turn to be the weakest link)
Areas to improve (Alec)
- Transitions can be faster.
- Carry less weight.
- Team work: learn how to use each other’s strengths to the teams advantage.
- Refine route choices as we have two competent navigators a quick discussion and plan may save lots of time.
Recommendations to organizers (Alec)
Race bibs and numbers are uncomfortable unnecessary and contribute to overheating by placing a windproof number right across your chest. They also cover all our sponsors’ logos that get little enough exposure as it is. A number on my forehead would be preferred or thigh or arm or provide a bib that can be worn instead of a shirt not in addition.
Try to limit the treasure hunt effect a prominent tree on a rock outcrop is fine if there is only one in the vicinity but when there are 50 rock outcrops with trees on them and the CP is not quite in the right place indicated.
We look forward to working with our new sponsors this year. We would like to thank them for getting involved with Team PS. Hawkstone.
Our sponsors are:
Portable Shade, TBI, LGR, Epic Sports, Inov8, 32Gi, Ritchey, Crank Brothers, Schwalbe, BSC and Ryders.
Author: Rob Crichton | Team PS.Hawkstone @ Ystervark & AmazinGrace, Mnweni, Drakensberg 27-28 Jan 2011
Photos by Erik Vermeulen