The 40-kilometre Leg 8 hike from Port St Johns to T6 at Mboyti River Lodge is tough. During the day teams get through in 12 hours. It takes double this at night.
Even getting to the first checkpoint, CP22, has teams in a tizz – and it isn’t far from the transition. Reportedly Cinnober headed out for CP22 and returned to transition four hours later unable to find it… They didn’t return again so presumably they found it and continued.
Where most (all?) teams pushed on from the CP22, Castle Lite appears to be the only team to take the ‘easier’ option. Hit CP22 and backtrack to the road near the transition and walk along it to the beach. Follow beach until they need to exit it to get to CP23. They could gain some time here.
We could see more positions shuffling overnight – on both this hike to T7 and the 230-kilometre cycle to Port Edward.