Well, after a bit of break from AR to complete another year of studying I am very excited about getting some good races under the belt in 2011! We have entered a mixed team for Expedition Africa in May and have a number of other events planned in the build up to this race. We have a bit of a reunion going on for Expedition Africa as I managed to twist the arms of Kevin Rodwell and Mark Goulding, who I used to race with in Team Bryson Inc and Team Kreature.co.za to join Kelly and myself for what promises to be an awesome race in the Overberg region of the Western Cape. Kelly and I tackled The Bull of Africa 2008 and a number of other races together and we look forward to racing together again in May.
Two weeks ago we got the year off to a good start with the 120km Ystervark and Amazing AR in the Mweni area of the Drakensberg organised by the Tshwane AR club. Greg Goulding stood in for Kelly for this race (as she is based in Perth and will only be out later in the year) and performed extremely well in his first 100km+ AR.
The 3am start on the Saturday saw us heading off on foot down the road running next to the Mweni River before heading into the hills for a series of CP’s on the 23km hike. The recent rains have produced so many beautiful waterfalls and the earth is saturated and covered in beautifully green grass! The views when the sun came up were just amazing! It was interesting to get back into the swing of things on the navigation side and although we did have difficulty finding CP2 (sometimes the altimeters are wrong) we made sure we went back to clip the point a bit later on in the hike, which added extra time to our hike but kept us official.
After 9 hours on foot we headed off on a mtb leg of around 35km. Pam was our trusty second and made sure we were packed up with good sarmies and enough fluids to beat the heat of the day. The navigation on this section was pretty straightforward and after crossing a few rivers and fighting what felt like endless uphills we clipped the CP’s and made our way to the dam. It was a good leg for us and we jumped up about 3 or 4 positions in the race.
Pam took good care of us and then ushered us off onto the Mweni river (which runs into Woodstock Dam) so we could make sure we completed the 20km paddle in the daylight. After fighting some sandbanks and quicksand the rest of the paddle was flawless and we pulled back into transition just as the sun went down. I’m very glad we all have at least our flat water proficiency so we don’t have to paddle the sit-on-tops!
After a quick bite to eat we headed off on our mountain bikes again for +-18km ride. After an initial climb the rest went very smoothly and we soon found ourselves back at the Mweni Cultural Centre preparing for the last hike of about 25km.
It was now close to 11pm and the first 2 teams were already back and finished, but this didn’t deter us at all. A refreshing river crossing was the first obstacle and then we headed off into the mountains again. The navigation was quite tricky due to the darkness, but Mark was spot-on and we found our way and were surprised to find that someone had stolen the glotoob and punch from CP 16- no wonder we couldn’t see it until we almost tripped over it! CP17 was situated alot higher on the mountain side than we were expecting and CP 18 was found due to Greg’s tenacity in finding us a way around a thick forest to the trident rivers confluence!
As the sun rose we were heading for the last CP19 and we were treated to crisp morning air and a beautiful sunrise. After clipping the last CP another team popped out of nowhere (turns out they had spent a few hours sleeping) and they came storming past us to pip us to the podium. We were still very chuffed with our 4th official team position after 28 hours of racing! Thanks Kev, Mark and Greg for racing, it was awesome being out there again with you guys, especially in such a scenic area. Thanks to Pam for being the best second as always, we really appreciated the help and support!
So next up? Well, we’ve entered Kinetic’s Double Moon AR from 10-13 March followed by Wartrail the following weekend which will all be fantastic training for Expedition Africa.
2011 looks to be a busy and exciting racing year!
Dew Point Adventures’ blog can be followed at teamdewpoint.blogspot.com
Author: Lauren Goulding