Queen Ant: HRH Nicky Booyens
Solider Ants reporting for duty: Cobus van Zyl, Robert Crichton and Brian Gardner
Mission: Deliver queen ant safely to finish line in less than 32 hours ahead of the opposition advancement.
Modus operandi: Navigate 250kms by bike, boat and on foot (hopefully unnoticed by the opposition).
Mission Location: Somewhere in the Vrystaat – TOP SECRET
Enemy: Heat, cold, fences, gates, rocks, fences, the very common spiked wood tree, more fences…
Operation completed: 31 hours and 58 minutes. Queen ant alive and kicking. Good work team.
“If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it.
The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.”- The Wear Sunscreen Speech written by Mary Schmich way back on June 1, 1997.
Loaded with rat packs, back packs and sunscreen, we headed out into the Vrystaat wilderness (and not so wilderness) to tackle 250kms. Why? We still not sure, and probably will never know. None-the-less, we were there, so we had to make the most of it in the face of 4 seasons in 1 day. 40 degree heat during the day (while thankfully wearing sunscreen), and what felt like -5 degrees at night while silently manoeuvring our slick racing bathtubs around Erfenis Dam. This is what we call fun. No, really, we do.
The day had dawned, as most days do, early. We were amped and ready for the task at hand! We knew it was going to be tough, a fast race with the opposition advancing at a rapid rate. We got off to a flying start, chief navigator Cobus aced all the points on the first orienteering run leg, and we had a small gap on the chasing pack. Battle lines were drawn, erased and redrawn about 5 times during the next 5 hours, as 6 or more teams jostled for position on a sequence of Paddle-Run-Paddle-Run-Paddle legs around Aldam. It felt like a sprint race! We wondered then when Generaal Muller was going to throw in the field splitter… We didn’t have to wait too long. An 18km hike/run was next up, and there it was – the field splitter!
Cobus in stealth mode (as he so often is) attacked the check-points on the hike with utmost precision and determination, that just over 3 hours later we were in the all clear and mounting our bikes for a 75km journey to rendezvous at Erfenis Dam. Brian then took over the navigation, and kept the forward momentum just about going in the heat of the day as we wound our way along open dirt roads, jeep tracks and cattle tracks into the heart of the Vrystaat. We were advancing well; except for the one moment that Rob found one of those notorious spikes from the very common spiked wood tree… Yes, Rob isn’t a tubeless convert, but hopefully he is now!
The earth had spun too quickly for our liking, which meant that the moon was the only bright celestial body in the sky as we rolled into Transition 5 on the shores of Erfenis Dam. The night was perfect for an amphibious assault on 2 checkpoints spaced rather ridiculously far apart (well we thought so). The air was cold and still and the nearly-full moon lit up the dam around us. A magic frozen moment in the midst of battle… Maybe this is why we keep coming back for more (or maybe it’s because we lose too many brain cells while racing and just forget about the pain)…
The following few hours on Erfenis Dam was when vasbyt of the highest order had to be called on. Our ace paddler Rob was struggling with his up and down blood sugar levels (but at least he was warm in about 10 layers of clothes) while the rest of us shivered and teeth chattered our way through the paddling leg. With such high daytime temperatures, we were taken completely off guard with these ice-cold conditions. The end of the paddle just didn’t come fast enough!
Having negotiated the paddle and successfully defrosted ourselves, we headed out on foot to tackle another 26kms of Vrystaat bush. Only 20 minute out of transition and the wheels came off. Properly off. We stopped briefly to try and put the wheels on again, but they kept falling off… We staggered like zombies in the icy air, with Cobus and Nicky showing just how experienced they have become at sleep-walking in a straight line. Believe me, this takes lots of practice, and they have it down to a fine art now after years of AR. We contemplated a power-nap, but decided against it as it was still very cold, and stopping in the cold was not an option. Eventually we stumbled upon a thicket of the very common spiked wood tree, where the temperature at ground level was warmer than in the open. A 30 minute power nap at 4am in the morning did the trick, and we were up and moving well again. Generaal Muller once again decided to show his humorous side by making us ford a “shallow river” (as he described it) at dawn. Shallow se-gat man! This was a full-on 200m swim with backpack and all, and you should know by now adventure racers don’t do swimming. Thankfully negotiated without drowning, we pushed on (still rather slowly though) toward to the mountain bike rendezvous at Transition 6.
Knowing full well that we let the wheels come off during the night hike, we were unaware of the oppositions advanced position. Whilst taking stock of a horrible hike and fueling up at Transition 6, Merrell arrived, then Olympus, then Pennypinchers, all within minutes. Needless to say, it didn’t take a rocket scientist with a calculator to work out that with only 2 legs left, race was well and truly ON!
We plotted the checkpoints for the last 2 legs on a master map at T6, and hit the road north through Winburg at a rapid rate. Motivation was up, team work better than ever, and speed was good. That was until Cobus called a loud STOP to our progress, jumped off his bike as though he was being stung by an angry swarm of wasps, and ran at full tilt off the road towards a windmill and reservoir. The rest of us stopped and stared at this… He proceeded to have the fastest swim we have ever seen. No sooner was he in the reservoir that he then jumped out, ran back to his bike, hopped on it and kept going. We were all a bit speechless… All in the name of staying awake apparently!
The kilometres rolled by quickly as we pulled into the last transition, T7, and still no sign of the chasing peloton we knew was just behind us. Our tails were up, and we were soon running out of transition towards the abseil. Generaal Muller admits himself that the last leg wasn’t quite as he expected (and not at all what we expected!), due to a last minute change in the abseil location… Anyway, no better way to end a gruelling 250km race than negotiate an abseil and then leg it down a tar road for 12kms to the finish when one’s legs are sore and the opposition is still not giving up its hasty advancement! The best part of this leg was however cooling down in the irrigation canal at the abseil point!
We raced hard and smart, with great team work and spirit, eventually crossing the finish line two minutes before the 32 hour goal in 1st place overall. Mission: accomplished!
Another epic battle played out on the open plains of the Vrystaat, orchestrated by Generaal Muller himself, and a battle it was against an unrelenting enemy that burnt us, picked us, froze us and made us very gatvol for climbing over yet another fence…
Stephan, Heidi, the rest of the Kinetic Gear crew, the race sponsors Salomon, USN and Petzl, thank you all for your unwavering determination to put back into the greatest sport on Earth. Your tireless energy and backing of our sport is what we appreciate most. Thank you!
Roll on May; we look forward to the battle in the ‘berg.
Until then: train hard, train smart, and don’t forget your sunscreen.
Team Red Ants