Pure Adventures at Double Moon

Pure Adventures consists of a squad of Bloem adventurers who are all keen to do a race from time to time. The idea was that we use the Double Moon as a dress rehearsal to gauge how we were doing for the BIG one in later in May. We planned to enter one mixed 4 team and one mixed pair and race the Double Moon as a combined team of 6 people. Due to some late issues with sponsors not coming to the party for the Double Moon event our pair had to withdraw, but the mixed 4 made it to the starting line one Friday morning.

Where: The VERY mountainous Free State region between Bethlehem, Fouriesberg and Clarens (ok to be fair it might not be that mountainous, but if you come from Bloemfontein anything higher than Naval Hill is a HUGE mountain!!!)

The distance:

• Leg 1: Orienteering Run (approximately 14 km)
• Leg 2: Orienteering Paddle (approximately 5 km)
• Leg 3: Long MTB (approximately 65 km)
• Leg 4: Longish hike (approximately 18 km)
• Leg 5: Long MTB (approximately 65 – 70 km)
• Leg 6: Shortened hike (approximately 6 km)
• Leg 7: Medium MTB (approximately 35 km)
• Leg 8: Shortened paddle (approximately 12 km)

TOTAL DISTANCE: Approximately 225km

The Team:

• Michael de Haast (fighting fit and doing Iron Man in a few weeks’ time – a bit night blind though!)
• Laura de Haast (super fit, strong like an ox but doesn’t like technical MTB descents)
• Jacques Booyens (or late sub from Johannesburg, works hard, never complains, solid as a rock – punch card bearer)
• Garth Flores (not so fit, if he wasn’t holding the map the team may have decided to ditch him a few times)

The Race:

It was great being at the base camp and mingling with the other teams, it was tough deciding what should go in our race crates and perhaps we packed in too much which resulted in some time wasted later on at TA’s.

On the first leg all went smoothly, we found all the OP’s easily enough and spotted one or two of the paddling leg OP’s (is it legal to clip these points already? It is a bit of a grey area…). We lost focus on the last CP and mistook the line of trees and lost about 15 minutes. Overall this was an enjoyable hike, with the sun rising and mist in the valleys it was really quiet except for the occasional wildebeest snort or the sporadic banter between teams.

We got onto the boats for a quick paddle, we battled with the steering and I was wishing we were paddling in a Foxbat! We decided to run for some of the points as it would be easier and quicker.

Then we started the first long MTB leg. The climb up to CP1 was quite steep and I maybe went out a bit too fast for my current fitness levels because later on in the bike leg I was really taking strain! We had one or two mechanical stops for flat tyres etc and lost about an hour or so on this leg. An ice cold coke at Fouriesberg helped rejuvenate tired legs and we arrived at the TA tired but keen to get onto the long hike.

On the hike we somehow missed the chain-ladder and climbed up some other “ladder” where someone had cut some “steps” into the rock face. We quickly found the ladder and Jacques climber down to get the CP. The dam looked very inviting for a quick swim, but the team was itching to soldier on so I gave up the thought. It was a bit tricky finding CP 5 where we had to enter the “tunnel”. We mistakenly went downstream for about 10 minutes but then retraced our steps and continued upstream towards CP6. CP6 was not marked on the map and we were instructed to continue up the kloof until we reached CP6. There was always the niggling doubt that we might have missed it and it was a relief to finally find CP6 and climb out of the little kloof. At the top we met team Unchartered who warned us that it was still a LONG hike that lay ahead. We filled up our bottles at a spot called “The Potholes” and went straight up the mountain side. At the top of the ridge we spotted our next CP far in the distance. We collected it without too much drama, but somewhere in the process I lost my MTB helmet (we needed helmets later on for the 45 m abseil).  As it starting getting dark we descended down to the plateau and towards the abseil. We could see Fouriesberg’s lights in the distance and knew the abseil was downthere somewhere. It was at this point that my compass was giving wrong directions which got me a bit confused. I finally ditched using the compass and was orientating the map using landmarks and Fouriesberg’s lights (the landmarks business is a bit tricky at night, but we had clear skies). We finally found the right road after about 30 minutes of wandering and then it was just a bit of a slog to the abseil. The abseil was great, I was rather nervous and relieved once it was all over.

We decided to sleep for a few hours as we were all a bit buggered by this stage. After about 3 hours of uncomfortable sleep we got our things together and left for the long MTB at about 4:00 am. Mike was a bit twitchy on the bike at night but we knew the sun would soon be up and made good speed on the tar road. Stephan Muller was on his way to Clarens and passed us just before the turnoff to the next CP which took us back onto gravel roads. We met up with Dew Point at this CP and Senselss and Do It Now zipped passed us while I refolded our map and we took a 5 minute breather. We had a strategy of riding 80 minutes and stopping for 10 on this leg and it worked more or less well for us. Everytime we would stop for a few minutes to eat something and take of a layer of clothes / put on sunblock a team would zip past. However due to nav errors or them stopping a bit later we would then pass them. We realised we were now “fighting” for third place and I knew in the back of my mind that if we just finished as a team we could get a podium position. The long slog up the pass was really great in a way, and the only bad thing was that we missed the hairpin bend, we realised our error and an hour later were back on track and it wasn’t such a serious error at the end of the day. Down the other side of the mountain was some technical downhill riding, Mike and Laura were not that comfortable but Jacques was in his element and raced down (his back break was not working well so stopping him was difficult). We eventually limped into Clarens for a quick transition to the hike.

We ordered a toasted sandwich to get the energy levels up and off we went to climb another mountain. We met Alligators coming down the mountain, they had not found the CP, I informed them it was a bit further on. 10 minutes later, Alligators came running passed us and were off to find the CP. I rather envied their strength at this stage.

Back on the bike we were racing against the sunset and to get as much of the paddle done before dark. We finally finished the paddle at about 20:00 and with our teeth chattering from the cold after the paddle we started the last bike leg. Looking for CP 20 we found a reservoir about 500 m before the actual reservoir, this threw us a bit, but a friendly farmer arriving back from the rugby and cricket at a friend’s house showed us the way. With a new burst of energy to keep up with his driving we followed him about 2 km and then with a last word of thanks were off for the last CP and the finish line.

We sat in those comfy chairs sipping Grapetiser and chatting and I think if they had, had a small knee blanket I would have dozed off. It had been an awesome race, I think we were all relieved it was over and surprised by our third place. We gelled well as a team and it showed the chinks in our armour and what work needs to be done before the Expedition Africa. So mission accomplished!

The prize giving was like a Christmas party with Stephan and Heidi giving our gifts, trophies, prizes and a whole lot of spot prizes. The race cost R1000 in entry fee but we got about R5000 worth of goodies and effort out of the race. Thanks for your generosity and for spoiling us rotten. Heidi said she felt like a mom and worried about all the teams and was so proud when each team finished. Thanks Mom for that loving touch and to Stephan, thanks for the route, the terrain was tough and made finishing the event a worthwhile experience.

• Thanks to all our family and friends who were supporting us and encouraging us to push on.
• Thanks to all the other teams who made the event a fun experience. We shared some laughs and reminisced about other races.
• Thanks to Mike, Laura and Jacques for a good effort and being good company!

 Author: Garth Flores | Team Pure Adventures | Kinetic Double Moon, 11-13 March 2011