Team Dewpoint were super excited for Expedition Africa this year, Kelly and I were doing our second 500km expedition AR after completing Bull in 2008 and it would be the first 500km for Kev and Mark. Kelly (who is South African but plies her trade in Aus) flew out for the race and spent a couple of days with us in Joburg getting all her gear together.
We split the driving duties and Mark and Kel set off on Friday 6th May for the big drive to Hermanus (staying over in Beaufort West) with a fully loaded car. Kev and I flew down on Saturday and my Dad kindly picked us up from the airport before we popped in at my folk’s house in Botriver for a quick visit. When I was visiting my folks there in December I ran every day on the Van Der Stel pass and later in the race was quite chuffed when I saw that we’d be heading through Botriver- but I am getting way ahead of myself!!!
We all met up at the Onrus River Caravan Park on Saturday afternoon and the excitement at seeing all the banners, the race packs, the tents etc… was palpable. Having done most of Heidi and Stephan’s races, including the 250km Double Moon in March we knew we were in for a treat of superb organization, fantastic route and efficiency not easily matched. Saturday evening was spent enjoying pizza and pasta at a local Hermanus restaurant before heading back to Onrus for the team introductions and race briefing. We were encouraged by the number of novices to this distance and to AR in general as each team shared a bit about their race expectations.
We were up bright and early on Sunday morning for kit check (with my Dad!!) and then Mark and I spent Sunday morning ensuring we had the maps marked and ready while Kev and Kel assembled our HUGE bike boxes for us with metres and metres of duct tape and packaging tape. It was so cool to have such big bike boxes which only involved removing the front wheel to get our bikes in (even mine with the map board on!!). We then spent time going through the race booklet and sorting out all our food into Gear box A & B.
We were excited about how the route looked for the first 250km and the only unknown was what paddling we would be doing as this would be weather dependent and only finally decided on Monday morning. By 4pm on Sunday all race related boxes had to be in, so thereafter we had lots of time to sort out race packs, have a good meal and a great sleep. We also chatted about our expectations for the race with the main focus being on enjoyment and completing the route.
Monday morning we listened to gospel music in the taxi that ferried us to the Old Harbour in Hermanus and although it was pretty chilly we were rearing to go. The sea paddle had been cancelled due to big swells so our first leg would be the 14km orienteering type leg around Hermanus and the surrounding mountains before heading to Grotto Beach and the lagoon paddle towards Stanford.
Something in Kel’s system resulted in stomach problems in the 3 dams area of the hike and she was reduced to crawling up the side of the mountain in pain. Not a great start, but we made the first of many visits into the first aid kit and tried to find something to help the cramps and pain. This slowed us a bit, but with many days of racing ahead we took our time so she could recover a bit as we headed back down into Hermanus and the paddle.
The paddle was largely a great leg despite the waves crashing over Kev and Mark in the front of the boats. Mark hit the channel spot on and soon we were cruising up the river to Stanford. We managed to pass Lickety Split and Green Warriors on the paddle and Kel had recovered quite a lot so we set off on foot rather optimistically through the village of Stanford.
The next leg was about 14kms on dirt roads before hitting the beach at Sopiesklip for another 20km or so to Gansbaai. It was on this bit that we realised Mark was suffering big time with his feet already. He was wearing a pair of shoes that he forgot had hurt his feet the last time he wore them and already big blisters were forming. After Sopiesklip we hit the beach and took his pack to relieve some of the weight off his feet but by the end of this section the damage was done. It got dark while on this hike, the stars were beautiful and it was one of my favourite parts of the race. After overshooting the next point a bit we turned back for it before checking in at the church hall in Gansbaai.
Already about 2.5 hours behind our ‘predicted’ time we sorted out our gear and caught 45mins nap before heading off into the night on the 140km mountain bike leg. Here we rode with Kubusi for a bit and saw Stephan driving somewhere along the road before sunrise. Even on the bike Mark’s feet were taking strain with the blisters across the balls of his feet getting bigger and bigger.
The navigation went smoothly and we were treated to a stunning sunrise as we made our way steadily, filling up with water in the Agulhas National Park, 70km into the ride. The Park Manager was very intrigued about what we were doing and warned us against the Perlemoen poachers along the coast. He mentioned that he had seen a few headtorches the night before moving through the park and thought they were poachers, not knowing that teams were passing through on their bikes. Then came the next problem- as we tried to leave Mark realised that the front shock on his bike had blown. We didn’t have a shock pump with us so ended up wrapping duct tape around each fork to give him some room for his wheel to turn. This actually worked very well but was obviously uncomfortable and far from ideal for Mark as our pace slowed a bit more.
We continued on our way, saw some cars being searched by the police, past the Qouin Point lighthouse where there were some hallucinations about chicken pies!! We pushed our bikes through the soft sand, watched a seal play in the waves and popped out at Die Dam, which I thought was a very odd, deserted place. Anyway, we had a quick snack and powernap before setting off again being watched by a police helicopter overhead.
The next stretch on the bike took us through farmlands, a little place called Elim and my nav error around a farm called ‘Kersgat’, which cost us about half an hour I think. It got dark again and we saw Pure Adventures on the road setting off on their hike as we approached the farm. We cruised into the farm after 19 hours on the bikes, meeting the friendly farmer along the way who told us how he’d changed the road on his farm and that’s why it didn’t match what was on the map!
In the transition Mark drained his HUGE blisters straight away so they’d have some time to dry out a bit while we re-packed and had a sleep. It rained while we were in transition but luckily by the time we woke up it had stopped. I strapped Mark’s feet and wondered how he was going to handle the pain of the next monster 47km hike. Luckily his Salomon S-labs were in this crate, but unfortunately his feet were already bad.
The first section of the hike up to the ridge was slow going through the thick fynbos and luckily we had heeded the warning to wear full leg coverings. Mark’s line was spot on and we clipped the CP as the sun rose- what a sight- WOW!! Past the radio tower we headed down the sandy road and followed a jeep track into the mountains. The topic of going via the little town of Napier came up briefly but we decided to stick to the route across and head for the game fence. This was not the best option and we took hours to negotiate the route, blisters now affecting Kev as well and I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw how steep the game fence line was even although we were following a highway of footprints along the fence.
We fought our way to the bottom of the valley, refilled with water and then climbed our way up the other side, not up the fence line but a bit right of the fence line up to a ridge of rocks where we were treated to 2 Black (Verreaux’s) Eagles gliding in the thermals. From here we had a good view of Napier, the route around on the road and where we would be heading next and we could see the road we would be taking to the next CP. We clipped the CP on the fence corner and set off for the road. After making our way up the steep jeep track we clipped the CP at the beacon as the sun set on Wednesday.
The next section of the hike is a bit blurry, it was dark, cold, misty, and windy and Mark was taking serious strain. We shared carrying his pack to try help get weight off his feet again and he did so well to hang in there and his navigation was flawless. Kev, Kel and I took regular powernaps as we fought the sleep monster for hours and knew our friends and family would be concerned with us being out on this leg for so long. Eventually after 26 hours we crawled into Beloftebos and the halfway camp with its compulsory 5 hour stop- and wolfed down warm pasta and malva pudding…YUM!! We knew only Green Warriors were out there behind us as Lickety Split had gone for the Napier route choice and passed us. George and Joan were great marshals as usual and we quickly sorted out some gear and went to have a sleep in the tents that were provided.
Mark and I got up a bit earlier, me to sort out the maps for the rest of the race and Mark to try sort out his front shock issue on his bike. He managed to pump it up again and all seemed 100% much to our relief!! After a bit of faffing we finally got on our way around 11am Thursday. We were feeling a bit refreshed and knew we’d be facing some short course options along the way but were determined to give it our best shot. This all came to an end about 1km from the transition when Mark’s front shock blew again. By this stage we were basically out of duct tape and we used some duct tape and some ankle strapping plaster- this time we had also taken the shock pump with us, but it didn’t help. About another 2km’s down the road we pulled out the maps on the side of the road and had a good long look at what lay ahead and what we could realistically expect to get through considering our setbacks.
We decided that at our pace we would be forced to skip the hike and probably the paddle and effectively just do 200km + on the bikes to get to the end by Friday evening so with much disappointment we turned back to Beloftebos to go and fetch our hiking shoes so we could go and do the orienteering leg and phoned Heidi to let her know of our plan. We took a short course option via Stanford, stopping for some toasted sandwiches and then rode back to Hermanus along the lagoon we had paddled two days before. We turned up the Hemel and Aarde road and set off for Hamilton Russel Wine Estate, and I was so glad to see my Dad who had heard about our short coursing and had decided to come and visit and cheer us on for the last little bit.
Both Mark and Kev could not face the orienteering leg with their shattered feet so Kel and I set off at the same time as Uncharted as darkness fell. This was another favourite leg, Kel and I jogged around the estate, saw a Spotted Eagle Owl and laughed at the strange statues in the gardens we passed. I made a small detour when looking for the stone church, but soon we were on our way again and we finished a couple of minutes behind Uncharted who then set off for the finish line.
We decided to give Uncharted some time on the ‘finish couch / camp chairs’ and took our time changing and putting on warm gear for the last stretch. The marshals had a great fire going which kept us warm. My Dad left for the finish and by the time we would reach Onrus he would have a fantastic braai going with huge steaks nearly ready. We blitzed the last bit to keep warm and rode across the finish line after about 86 hours of racing hugely disappointed not to have completed more of the route. Merrell were there to cheer us in which I thought was great- thanks guys!!
We chatted with Heidi a bit, and then we were so happy to see my brother and Pam arrive- and they had a cooler box full of beers! We sat down to juicy steaks and cold beers at midnight- what fun!! We got to bed around 2am and slept like the dead. After spending Friday sorting out dirty gear and having the prize giving we had a good night’s sleep at Hortensia B&B in Hermanus before starting the trip back to Joburg, Pam and I driving and Kev and Mark flying. Kel stayed in CT to visit family and enjoy a well earned holiday.
I would like to thank Heidi and Stephan for a fantastic race. The organization and route was amazing, I’m just sorry we didn’t get to do more of it. Thank you to the Iala marshals, George and Joan van Jaarsveld and all the sponsors and helpers who drove around and ensured everything ran smoothly. Thanks to Analog Media who did the designs on our team kit- it really looked great. Thank you too to our family and friends who supported us through another expedition race, we couldn’t and wouldn’t want to do it without your support!
Author: Lauren Goulding | Team Dewpoint | Expedition Africa, 9-13 May 2011