Leg 1: 5km Run
The race started at 4am with a mad rush around Stanford Lake College. We had a smooth start hitting the first few checkpoints well, but the next 2 checkpoints had been swapped around so we did a bit of extra distance. We also did a tour of the school buildings looking for the swimming pool.

Leg 2: 10km Paddle and portaging
With our 2 paddling pro’s, Anthony and Craig, we had a good paddle leg making up a few positions. Our competitive side started to come out as we put in an interval to pass Xhale. It was a beautiful time of day to be on the water with the sun rising over Ebenezer Dam.

Leg 3: 7km Hike / Run
Alex was a bit baffled when he was handed the map for this hike. There was no start marked so our position on the map was unclear. He even asked me what I thought! We tried to match up the contours on the topographical map with the hiking map and headed off with Xhale and Piers. We soon worked out that we’d made a 180° error.

Once we got back on track we enjoyed the undulating trails. It was fun locating the “sally’s slope” and “tryst” signs and taking team photo’s at them. The last uphill of the hike to the Cemetery gate, through some long grass was tough going and the bungee got some use.

Leg 4: 49km MTB
This bike leg was tough! The hill up to the mine made Breedts Nek look flat! It was also hot and we were dripping. We all made good use of our small cogs and I made sure that Alex and the tow rope didn’t feel left out. We packed in some cramp stop and all made sure we ate and drank properly, mindful that we still had a long way to go.

It was nice to have lots of other teams around. We passed Lickety Split, caught Olympus, got away from Piers and Shelly and stuck with Stijn and Seth for a bit.

CP5 – an impressive cave – was a welcome break in the cycle leg. Ryan’s New Balance advertising techniques also put a smile on our faces.

We had 2 mechanicals in this valley with Craig’s saddle falling off. They guys got it back on in good time. And then up a big hill Craig’s chain broke. I was rather relieved to get a short break but Anthony and I hadn’t even put our bikes down before it was fixed and we were on our way again. The fastest chain repair I’ve ever witnessed!

We worked hard on this leg. We all did well to manage ourselves and keep the pace consistent.

Leg 5: 15km Hike / kloofing
We were relieved to be off our bikes and moved consistently on the 15km hike / kloofing. We’d seen Lickey Split and Xhale come into transition as we were leaving so we wanted to try and hold the gap. The kloofing was brilliant and the guys enjoyed cooling off in the water. Once again it was nice to have the company of Olympus as well as Charnas for some of the leg. The question at CP7 also kept us entertained for a while: “What is Garfields Surname?”

We managed to keep track of the path zig-zagging across the river and then began the climb out of the valley back up to transition. It was tough going! We were sweating buckets and I was very grateful for the bungee which dragged my butt up the hill.

We maintained our position passing team Alligators and being passed by Stijn and Seth.

Leg 6: 31km MTB
We set off on the final bike leg hoping to get the technical sections over before it got dark. I was very slow down the long, rocky hill – my hands were sore so I had to keep stopping to give them a break. Not fun! I made a promise to get myself a full suspension bike with disc brakes asap! The guys were all very patient as Xhale, the Alligators and Piers and Shelly whizzed passed us.

We moved steadily along the bottom and were very happy to hit the tar road just as it got dark. Our excitement faded a bit as we headed uphill again for what felt like hours! It was a big relief to finally see Nicky and Gert at the final transition.

Leg 7: 10km Paddle and portage
Another great night paddle! Craig and Anthony were once again strong on the water and the guys did a great job to find the way across the dam. We struggled a bit through the reeds just before the bridge under the road, but after hearing stories from other teams we actually had it easy. Turns out we passed Piers and Shelly while they were stuck in some thorns near the bridge.

We crossed the line in 17 hours and 44 minutes.

We ended up losing 58min to Xhale. We were 6th overall in and 2nd mixed team. Xhale unfortunately got a 1hour penalty for missing mandatory kit, so we got the prize for 1st mixed team by 2 minutes.

Thanks to Alex for helping me through my first long race! Thanks to Craig and Anthony for joining us. It was great to race with such a strong, patient and enthusiastic team.

Thanks to Brian and the Red Ants Team for a fantastic race and thanks to all the marshals and helpers. The little trophies were great. The course was tough, but beautiful and I’m happy we took part in the 2012 Rumble.

Author: Sarah Pope | Team Geronimo | Red Ants Rumble, Magoebaskloof, 28 January 2012

This was the fourth AR World Champs that Cyanosis has competed in, with the team result each year improving steadily. We didn’t finish the full course back in New Zealand in 2005, then in Portugal in 2009 we were 22^nd. This was followed up with 13^th in Spain in 2010. Our goal was to continue on this trajectory. The final team composition saw John Collins and Jeanette Walder (aka Bubbles) joining myself and Nathan Thompson for the race. Bubbles was a late replacement for Hanlie Booyens, who just 2 weeks before the race start, had to pull out of the team when she suffered a freak injury, tripping on an easy training jog and tearing the cruciate ligament in her knee. Bubbles immediately stepped into the breach when asked, despite the race taking place shortly after her wedding. On the bright side, she did get to go on honeymoon with 3 guys to New Zealand. Just a pity that none of them was her new husband!

In the end it all worked out. Although only myself and Nathan had ever raced an expedition race together, all the team members had extensive racing histories and had all raced against each other at the highest level on a regular basis. We also got reasonably lucky with excess baggage charges compared to some other international teams. The rest went according to plan. We got to Burnie, the start and finish venue of the World Champs in due course. We settled comfortably into our hotel, which was perfectly situated opposite the best supermarket in town, where we did all our last minute food shopping for the race. Race registration, kit checks, briefings and race box packing and map preparation went smoothly and then we were waiting for the start of the race at 9am  on a cool windy morning on Burnie’s main beach.

The AR World Champs race course was going to be a 733km, 5 – 10 day odyssey through some of the most remote terrain that the island of Tasmania had to offer. After starting with a 17km sea paddle, we’d soon be faced with mountainous terrain with dense forest, dangerous snakes, raging rivers and cold and wet weather. From the town of Burnie on Tasmania’s north shore, the course would head south for the first half of the race, with lots of trekking, mountain biking and lake kayaking legs. After reaching the south-west coastline, the race would again turn north, with coasteering, mountain biking and river paddling through more jungle and coastal vegetation taking us north and then east back to Burnie. Cyanosis had packed enough food into our support boxes for 6 days of racing, but we were hoping to come across some civilization every now and again where we could walk into a shop or café. 80 teams from around the world had made it to Tasmania for the race, including almost all of the world’s top teams. We had decided that we were going for a Top 10 placing, believing that the non-stop, unsupported expedition style of this race, together with the tough rugged terrain suited our team very well.

On your marks…

The start was spectacular, with 80 teams, each with 2 kayaks (one a red plastic and the other a yellow inflatable). We turned east for the 17km paddle, which thankfully had a mostly tail wind. Every now and again, there was a slight cross wind, which made steering difficult. Although cool and partly overcast, this was actually superb weather by Tasmanian standards. The fair weather would be a notable feature for most of the race. In the days preceding the start, we had seen how bad the weather could get, with some heavy downpours on some nights and strong westerly winds coming off the Southern Ocean. Paddling is not one of Cyanosis’ strengths, so we were quite happy to settle down in a position that must have been late 10’s or early 20’, blissfully unaware of a recent news headline in the local paper that said reported on a 6m Great White sighting off the coast of Burnie. Oh well. We had one check point en route before a transition at the town of Penguin (ah, cute). From there we trekked of into the Dial Mountain Range, but not before visiting a Clay Pigeon shooting range.

John, despite not having picked up a gun since his tweens, was our designated sharp shooter. One member from each team had 5 opportunities to hit the targets or face a 10 minute sit-down time penalty. We weren’t expecting much (I was actually about to get some food out and repack my backpack) when John surprised us by knocking two out of the sky. So much for a quick rest… We were off again in about 14^th position, having made up some good time since the kayak.

This first section of a 20km trek through the mountains allowed me the opportunity to get used to the maps. The quality was poor, mainly due to printing, but also a lot of detail wasn’t shown compared to other maps that we’ve raced on from around the world. Nevertheless, it was the same for everyone, so I settled down with them and got my eye in very quickly. We also got used to the terrain very quickly. Although this was a Eucalyptus forest (with some trees of absolutely incredible size), the bush was a lot denser than we expected. We stuck to the paths wherever possible, and took the shortest, most direct ways into the checkpoints that were scattered around the mountains. We nailed most of them, moving our way up the field until we were around 8^th place, running in the illustrious company of some of the best teams in the world, including current World Champs, Team Buff from Spain and a multitude of top teams from Sweden.

We picked up our bikes for the first time in the early afternoon, having made quick work of the mountain trekking. Our second transition wasn’t as fast as it could have been, but then this was going to be a long race, with most of the shorter legs on day 1. We completed a quick 20km bike leg on tar roads that took us to one of the special highlights of the race, a caving section.

Mind your head…

The caving was timed-out. Team were given 1 hour in which to complete the caving section, a fair period that ensured that there was no racing and thus any accidents in the cave. The first few CPs were in the ‘tourist’ side of the cave, with nice walk ways and spectacular formations. Then we dived into an underground stream and crawled along it into the ‘adventure’ side of the cave. This involved some freezing cold water, lots of tight corners and a bit of searching, but we made it out, even with about 20 minutes to spare. We used this time to give our bikes a once over and get some more food into us. We checked headlights as well, as it would be dark in a few hours time. Our objective was to get as much of the next 50km mountain bike done in the remaining daylight.

The cycle took us onto the first of many forest tracks. With the heavy rains in recent days, these started to get noticeably muddy in places. The navigation was also quite intricate, with some forestry and mining tracks not shown on the map. We made good head way before dark, getting caught out on the last technical but fun downhill. With bike lights on, it was only another hour to transition at Leven Canyon on a gravel road. We disassembled and packed away our bikes back into the bike boxes and then dug into our support box for our first proper meal, tinned pasta and meat. Unfortunately it had to be eaten cold.

The Expedition starts…

Leaving Leven Canyon, we started out on the first big stage of the race, a 60km trek over the mountains and down another canyon that we expected would take us about 18 hours. In the end, we did it in about 20, one of the better times for a team. We left the transition in about 14^th place and immediately crossed the lower end of Leven Canyon, setting out on a small long-distance hiking trail. A few CPs saw us walking around in wet streams and climbing under rocks to enter a small cave before the trail started climbing, from about 300m above sea level to the 1200m altitude of Black Bluff. With the altitude, the weather worsened, with a light drizzle in the bitterly cold conditions. Due to excess baggage problems, we’d travelled to Tasmania very light, and we paid for it here with a lack of enough warm gear. What we did have, got put on very quickly. We also encountered Team Quechua from France for the first time. It would be the first of many, many encounters during the next few days as the two teams kept passing and re-passing each other.

The navigation on the high ground near Black Buff was once again critical. With few paths, sub-zero temperatures and a strong westerly wind, you didn’t want to spend more time hanging around then needed. Within hours of us passing, there was snow lying on the ground. The vegetation was tough going as well, very reminiscent of the top of the Drakensberg back home, just soggier. We pushed on, more or less following the best route across and off the mountains, finding the check points without problem. Just around dawn, we located the last of the check points for this part of the course, a forest vegetation boundary, and got to see the landscape for the first time. It was absolutely stunning, with scattered eucalyptus forest and soggy moorland bisected by brooks in full spate. We got to see some of our first wildlife during the race, a few wallabies hopping around.

Sunrise brought the usual questions from the rest of the team…. How much further? The answer didn’t cheer them up. The terrain in general was very slow going and it was about to get worse. We crossed the only real mark of civilization since starting this trek, the tarred surface of the Cradle Mountain Road and then proceeded into even more remote country. The jungle section was about to begin.

Separating the Ferns from the Trees…

From the tar road, we started following a track which steadily became smaller and smaller, first a footpath then what could only be described as an animal track. Surprisingly, this was depicted on the map. A lot of careful navigation and path finding was required here, as we almost lost the track on numerous occasions. We managed to sneak past Quechua and another team at some point as they explored alternative options in the dense jungle.

Our end goal was Reynolds Falls and the start of the race’s rope work section. The track was tough going and we struggled to even get 2.5km every hour. Towards the end it speeded up as we descended towards the fall, only to find out as we checked in that the abseil beside the falls had to be cancelled due to a swollen river. Interestingly enough, that we were about to start canyoneering / kloofing down the bottom of this river didn’t seem to be a problem! The biggest surprise for the team however, was that we signed into the checkpoint at the abseil in 7^th position. We had started the trek in about 14^th, but were only aware of passing 2 teams. As usual, even though we had thought the last few hours had been tough, so had the other teams.

A marked route let us down into the Vale River canyon just downstream of the falls. Quechua caught us at the bottom and the two teams worked together to get across the first section of the canyon, rocky pools with strong water flow, including two swims through ice-cold (about 8’C) water, about 10 and 40m in length. We stripped to a minimum of clothing so that we had something dry to put on when the canyon opened up a bit. It looked like this would take a while, with steep cliffs on either side downriver as far as we could see. At least we could count ourselves lucky enough to reach this section in the early afternoon; pity the teams who need to swim at night.

This kloofing section will definitely go down in memory as one of the most incredible, on a par with some of South Africa’s canyons on the Wild Coast. The main difference was that even by Wild Coast standards, this was remote. The rocks in the water were extremely slippery, so we stayed to the edges where possible and soon started hacking our way through the forests on the river edges. As usual, the grass was always greener on the other side and we ended up crossing the river innumerous time.  Every time we thought we had made a good route choice, we would see Quechua either just ahead or just behind us again. In the end, everything must have evened out and we arrived at the bottom of the canyon and the edge of Lake Mackintosh together. Just two minutes later, fellow South African Team Merrell arrived as well. They had had a strong start, racing in the Top 5 for most of the first day, but had somewhere fallen behind us on or after the mountains.

On the Mountain Lakes…

We set out onto Lake Mackintosh with less than two hours of daylight left. The first 12km section was completed with all four of us in a single inflatable raft. This was obviously quite uncomfortable and resulted in us getting quite cold by the time we reached a shoreline transition at dusk. Merrell and Quechua, both faster paddling teams, were still here and we quickly joined them beside the warm fire before swapping into 2 red plastic boats and heading back out onto the lake for a further 20km of paddling with an additional 2km portage.

The first section on Lake Mackintosh was stunning. The wind had died for the first time in the race, perfect timing to avoid an otherwise nasty headwind. With the moonlight and scattered clouds hanging over the mountains surrounding the long, elongated lake, we had an eerie two hours until we got to the take-out. At the start of the portage, we were quickly passed by Swedish Team AXA, who had had the foresight (and excess baggage allowance) to bring along a kayak trolley. They did struggle to load two kayaks onto it, but were still significantly faster than us on the road over the saddle of the mountains and down to Lake Rosebery on the other side. Here we re-caught Merrell for a moment before pushing off into the lake. However, the last section went poorly for me as tiredness set in and we had to slow down whilst I worked out direction on the lake. It was with great relief that we reached transition in the lakeside town of Tullah, where we got 2 hours of sleep before setting off, the first sleep of the race.

Jungles are just so much more fun with a bike…

Our two hours of sleep was perfectly timed so that we left transition on our bikes at first light. As a result, we had a good average speed for this section, being both refreshed and having the advantage of full day light.

The 105km route took us through a variety of forested landscapes. It started off with a steep and slippery climb up a single track under the forest canopy. At the top we had our one major mechanical of the race – a puncture. Nathan managed to get a spare tube in place before we got too cold in a light drizzle that was falling on the mountain top. The single track continued on the other side, where we almost missed a turnoff to start the trail. The majority of it was decidedly unrideable however, with big erosion ruts running down the centre. A few kilometers of this and it was over and we were entering the town of Rosebery. At this stage, it was 9am on a Friday morning, so perfect timing for a café stop where we quickly bought some pies and fruit juice, our first hot food in over 2 days. After that the route climbed once again to an abandoned mining town where we picked up a disused and ancient railway line. We were passed by Aussie team CBD at this point, only for us to see them again a few kilometers later returning in the reverse direction as they went back to punch the CP they had cycled passed at the abandoned town.

This section of the route was a real highlight, as we followed the gently sloped cuttings left by the railway along steep wooded mountain slopes. The result was some highly enjoyable and technical riding, including a long sweeping downhill section of about 10 km. Even the highlight had a highlight however, as we had to cross the Montezuma Falls suspension bridge at one point, a hiking trail bridge that replaced a long lost railway bridge.

Next followed a flatter, more open section, where we picked up another old railway line (the historic Emu Bay Railway) that led us into the town of Zeehan. We thought that this would be a faster section, but that notion was disproved quite early as we started hitting densely overgrown sections of the route, with lots of prickly gorse bush and deep mud holes in our way. In Zeehan we took another opportunity to get more fresh food into our bodies as we stopped at another café, leaving town just as Team CBD arrived.

The final section from the town of Zeehan to the town of Strahan (the southern most point of the race course and the mid-way transition) went by much faster as we hopped onto the main west coast tar road, only taking one detour towards the end to find a CP in some sand-dune covered forest. Our route choice was poor here, as we found ourselves carrying bikes over sandy ground and tree-fall whilst Team CBD bypassed us on a more rideable route. We had one final CP in Strahan itself, before arriving at Midway for our compulsory 6-hour stop. We’d covered the 105km ride in around 9 hours, arriving mid-afternoon in 12^th place. After scrubbing down our bikes (environmental regulations) and packing them away again, we were presented with a cooked Tazzie breakfast (with a lot of much needed fatty foods) and then got about 4 hours of sleep.

Coasteering and Fynbos…

We left Stahan at 9pm on the third day of racing, exactly 60 hours into the race. We knew the time would be misleading, as the three longest legs of the race now lay ahead of us, all following in consecutive order. We started by trekking the 4km from Strahan to the west coast, passing an American team on the side of the track, one of their number having a bit of problems with gyppo guts. Less than 15 minutes later, Nathan was having the same problem as we started walking north up the beach. We started plugging Nathan with electrolyte replacement and any other medication that we had, but it would be a few hours still before he started feeling good again. This was a common thread amongst all the top team, with on average, one person per team suffering some stomach trouble within 30 minutes of leaving mid-camp. Hmmm.

The team managed a very fast walking speed going north, with the flat beach and low tide giving us a superb hard surface to cover lots of ground every hour. We could see the lights of two teams in the long kilometers of darkness ahead of us, presumably Merrell and CBD. We were quite pleased to cover this ground in the dark, as the monotony of the landscape in daylight hours could have become a bit much. However, we also didn’t get a glimpse of it in the dark and had to wait for the photos to see what we missed.

About 12km along we got to the Henty Dunes, the most technical navigation section of the entire race. We had two CPs to punch just inland of the coast, made all the more difficult in the darkness. We managed to nail them spot on, sneaking into the first as various other teams scoured the nearby area, their headlamps doing huge sweeps of the sand and dune vegetation a few ridges away (comparing notes afterwards, this was Teams AXA and CBD). We got to the CP just as Quechua approached from the other side and a joint effort a short while later saw us locate the 2^nd CP without too much time loss. From here it was back to the beach and the first river crossing.

At 2am, the river was icy cold. As soon as we got to the water’s edge, we did the standard trick and stripped to down to nothing, keeping our clothes dry for the 40m swim across a lagoon. Quechua were more hesitant and we put in a small gap on them that we slowly extended.

The second and final river crossing was a much easier affair. We only got wet to our hips when crossing at the river mouth, so we didn’t slow down much at all. On the other side, we knew we had to trek 1km upriver, but the bush looked impenetrable. The next hour was spent trying various alternatives up and down the coast with no further luck. In the end we returned to our original starting point where Quechua were still warming themselves up on a fire next to a fisherman’s camp after swimming the river. We decided it was just time to plough on through the riverside jungle and quickly found that it wasn’t as bad as we first thought. An hour wasted.

We left Quechua behind at the fire. They looked to be in very poor condition and we never saw them again, finding out later that they pulled out of the race shortly thereafter. We found the CP further upriver and then started a mountainous section of the course, slightly inland from the sea. Getting out of the first gorge away from the river on a slippery foot track was the toughest part. We soon broke out of the forest and started traversing mountainous terrain with scrub bush that was almost identical to the fynbos back home in the Cape region. For John and Bubbles, it must almost have felt like being back home on the Garden Route, with dense temperate jungle similar to that near Knysna sitting at the bottom of fynbos-covered mountains such as the Outeniquas.

There were quite a few significant climbs, the first up to Cumberland Hill, where we had a CP in an ancient mine quarry near the summit. We had a big surprise here when we saw the top Aussie team, Blackheart, just 15 minutes ahead. This perked the team up, as we realized that we had a good night, with Blackheart leaving the previous transition many hours ahead of us. We kept them in sight over the next few hours as we climbed more mountains, but never managed to catch them. At another CP at Gap Peak, we saw Blackheart catch another team in the distance, which later proved to be fellow South African’s Merrell.

It was mid-afternoon at this stage and for the first time in the race, the weather had gotten uncomfortably warm. At the same time, following ridgelines had meant we had been away from fresh running water for a while and the combined effect took it’s toll on the team. After a further CP, we crossed a forested ravine where I saw my first tiger snake of the race, sunning itself nicely on a sunny patch on the track. These are supposed to be the most dangerous of Tasmania’s plethora of dangerous snakes. It moved off quickly and I didn’t mention it to the team. Only when comparing notes after the race, did we find out that we’d seen about 6 of these tiger snakes between us out on the course.

The final section of the trek was a long downhill on a dirt road into Granville Harbour. We passed Blackheart on the way in, who were spending about an hour sleeping in the shade of a large bush. Merrell were still in transition as we arrived. This section of the course proved to be the worst for me. I had come down with a throat infection just 24 hours before the race, and although I almost managed to contain it, the cold sea-paddle and the subsequent conditions saw it get into my lungs, leaving me coughing my way through the intermediate 4 days. I was now running a good fever as well and spent well over an hour trying to assemble my bike and get down enough food and water before the next 150km bike leg. At the same time, we were loosing valuable daylight hours, as the first section of the bike leg would be a technically and navigationally challenging coastal ride. I ended up taking some antibiotics and hoping I could contain it until the subsequent leg, where a river paddle and compulsory dark zone section would give my body the break it needed.

Heading inland, and a nice café stop…

The first section saw us pushing their bikes frequently as we constantly bogged down in the soft sand of various vehicle tracks. There were a lot of locals about near Granville, enjoying a nice Saturday evening on the beach with their scrambler bikes and fishing rods. Needless to say, we got more than a few comic jests thrown our way. We were soon passed by a much refreshed Team Blackheart, who took an alternative route from us just as the race course was about to leave the coast and head inland. We had a choice of following a track that was marked ‘Track Navigable, but Not Rideable’, or heading further up on a flat beach and darting inland to pick up another track on the map behind some sand dunes. We chose the latter.

We had a stunning 4km ride along the shore line on flat, hard sand before turning inland. John had taken over the navigation until I recovered and he hit the turnoff spot on. We then pushed our bikes for about 1 km, into the dunes, but it wasn’t as bad as expected. We came very close to hitting the intended track at the edge of the forest, but we stopped just one dune short, then spent the next 30 minutes searching elsewhere before returning to our original point and finding the track on the other side. Annoying, but it could have been worse, with some teams spending 2 or 3 hours trying to get through to the CP on the alternative route choice. On the other side we started heading up the track for the CP, bumping into Team Merrell who had spent even longer trying to get there. After a bit of climbing, we got to it in an open meadow and then started following a series of larger forest roads that took us further inland into a famous section of natural forest called the Tarkine. After not sleeping the previous night (we’d slept in mid-camp the afternoon before), we decided to sleep early. We pitched our compulsory tent for the first time and got a great 2 hours worth of sleep before continuing. We crossed a large river at a small hamlet called Corinna. There was no bridge, but the organizers had been kind enough to provide us with a makeshift ferry, four inflatable boats strapped together that got the whole team, the ferryman and our bikes across in one go. From there we started a never-ending climb. We slept once more for another hour on the side of the road (no tent this time). A few teams passed us, but with various teams sleeping all over the place during the course of the night, it was impossible to tell what position was which.

Sunrise brought the joy of a tar road as we passed the Savage River Mine, adding some speed to an otherwise extremely slow leg. We passed Team Buff, the reigning world champions, who were having mechanical problems with a bike. They also pulled out of the race at the next CP, when one of the team got too ill to continue. The 30km section on tar until we hit the town of Waratah was the quietest tar road we’ve ever ridden on, with only 1 car passing us.

In Waratah we punched the CP and immediately headed to the nearest café, which was thankfully open at 9am on a Sunday morning. Leaving town we met up with Merrell again, who had been in a second café, riding with them for a few kilometers before entering the forests again and starting the final part of the leg. Apart from the standard fair of steep ups and down, the final few kilometers were dominated by an ugly 7 km long stretch of boggy forest track, where pushing, pulling and carrying our bikes through it took 2.5 hours. We suffered more than the other teams, loosing contact with Merrell and being passed by the two Australian teams, Blackheart and CBD. Exiting the muddy track, we crossed the Arthur River, where Team AXA were busy putting their boats into the river in 4^th place for the next 75 km paddling leg, then a short 4km uphill cycle into transition, passing the British team, Adidas Terrex on their way down to the river.

Paddling through the Tarkine …

There were four teams in transition (Merell, Blackheart, CBD and Cyanosis) at the same time. Added to this was the looming dark zone cut-off at 7.30pm, after which teams were not allowed to continue paddling until the dawn the following morning, and things were very busy. We were last onto the water, but CBD had to immediately return due to a puncture in their inflatable boat. We then paddled hard to get 6km down river in the remaining 45 minutes before the dark zone started, so that we could get within walking distance of a CP in the surrounding hills which the rules allowed us to collect at night. We got to the most suitable spot with 7 minutes to spare, to find the boats of AXA and Merrell still there. Blackheart took their boats out just around the next corner and CBD joined us a few minutes later. With Team Adidas Terrex only 40 minutes further down river and a Columbian team , Vidaraid about 20 minutes behind, it meant that race positions 4^th through to 10^th would only be separated by an hour when racing resumed at 06.30 am, after 5 full days of racing.

After pulling out boats up out of the water, we quickly located the CP about 1 km up a small forest track. Team AXA was still in the area looking for it, having previously lost lots of time searching for it too high up river. We returned to our boats, pitched our tent and after a quick communal supper with Merrell around a camp fire, got some much needed rest.

We were ready to go 1 minute before 6.30 the next morning. Since no-one had synchronized watches, all the teams started paddling downstream together, Merrell and AXA pulling ahead as expected and us settling down between Blackheart and CBD. The region was pristine wilderness, with thick forest coming down the sides of the gorge on both the left and right. From the put-in till the take-out 75 km later, we floated through the heart of the Tarkine, only seeing one man-made feature, a pipeline bridge. Through this whole distance, the river was a regular series of easy to moderate rapids, with no major dangers of tree blocks, strainers or siphons. About mid-morning, we were given a chance to stretch our legs to get a CP on a small hilltop to the left of the gorge, which gave us good time checks on all the positions from 4^th through to 9^th. Round about midday, Nathan and I took our first swim in a rapid. The red plastic boats had a tendency to allow water over the shallow back deck (especially when coming to an abrupt standstill on a rock in a rapid), which quickly flipped the boat. Shortly after our swim, one of the Blackheart boats did the same, resulting in a map loss for the team. Rob, their navigator, quickly checked our maps to try and memorize the river ahead and the final CP up a side river before the team pulled away from us again.

Nathan and I took a second swim a few kilometers later, which allowed CBD to catch and pass us. They were pushing the pace to stay in contact with their fellow Australians, Blackheart. Meanwhile, I got a bit confused with the navigation for a while, as the dense forest didn’t leave too many distinguishing feature whilst paddling down the river. Keeping tabs of the map for a few major river bends helped and we soon started looking for the side river to our left, whilst Blackheart, then CBD paddled about 500m ahead of us.

We eventually found the side river and paddled up it for about 400m where we reached a rapid. Team Adidas Terrex passed us going the other way as they made their way back downriver after finding the CP. We left our boats lying at the first rapid next to AXA’s and Merrell’s, with us wondering where Blackheart and CBD were. The bush on the side of the river was unusually passable and we made good progress for the remaining 700m upstream, hearing, but not seeing Merrell and AXA as they returned to their boats. We found the CP and retreated as quickly, getting back to our boats with no sign of the two Aussie teams. From there, it was a final 15km stretch down to the end of the paddle, with us pushing the pace to avoid spending a second night on the river. We got to the take out at about 5.30pm, finding that Blackheart and CBD had both missed the turnoff up the side river and were now preparing to trek back overland through the night to get to the CP.

To the Coast…

Our bodies had had a good rest in the last 24 hours on the river and with the dark-zone, so we had a quick transition and set out on a 70 km mountain bike leg that we expected would go pretty quickly. We were now firmly in 7^th place, but there was a danger that a few teams could complete the entire paddle within one day, getting off the water before the 7.30 pm dark-zone and challenging us for this position. The first part of this cycle did go fast, as we averaged about 25km/hr along flat tar roads which gradually took us north and east towards Tasmania’s north coast. There were a few route choices where we stuck to the flatter sections as long as possible, before entering a final hilly section with some more forest. With darkness now hanging over us again, we struggled to find the correct trail shortly after crossing the Black River, and in the end decided to reverse and take a longer detour around this complex section. We must have come extremely close to getting out, but the map just didn’t make sense at the time. A final downhill took us to the coast near Rocky Cape, where we reached transition, about an hour adrift of Team Merrell.  Just two short sections left!

The standard sting in the tail…

Needless to say that it wasn’t simple or short (time-wise), and that we spent a lot longer than planned on the next 25km coasteering leg. We left transition at midnight, but immediately found ourselves struggling with sleep deprivation. We found the first CP fairly easily, and then set off down the beach before hitting the first pieces of rocky shoreline. Our pace was achingly slow, although we did get an adrenaline shot when we saw the light of a team coming down behind us. We never found out who it was, as we spent the next hour searching various dead-end trails before finally finding one that took us across the Rocky Cape peninsula to the next CP at a jetty.

At 3am in the morning, we decided to give in to sleep deprivation and seek shelter in a parking lot’s toilet facilities for a short sleep. Sleeping on the cold concrete floor of toilets has become a common theme in all of the teams expedition races over the last four years. Whilst sleeping, the weather finally decided to take a turn for the worse and the roof was soon being pelted by a good storm. At the time, we felt lucky to have found this shelter to sit the storm out, but at the same time, a 1 hour sleep turned into 2.5 hours, much more than we needed in hindsight.

At dawn, and with an improvement in the weather, we headed out onto a hiking trail that went over the hills just back from the shoreline, allowing us to avoid a particularly nasty section of the coast with cliffs and lots of rocks. Returning to the coast, we had our biggest surprise in a while when we saw Team Merrell just 15 minutes ahead of us, having spent the previous night negotiating the coastline right at sea level. We pushed hard to close the gap, having a brief chat to them as our paths crossed going to a CP on a rocky peninsula jutting out into the sea. With the race on for 6^th / 7^th or 8^th (we didn’t know our standing), we kept the pace high, jogging the coastal trail as it weaved around headlands and through small seaside towns.

We finally caught them searching for the final CP of the leg, which was positioned slightly dubiously. The control description indicated it was 20m upsteam of where a creek crossed the trail. There was no specific stream or hollow here, rather just a medium sized valley between two hills. After about 5 minutes of searching, we eventually found it only about 20m to the side of the lowest part of the valley. Unfortunately, 20m in this bush made it fairly invisible, with many teams struggling to find it, particularly at night. We attempted to sneak out of there before Merrell saw the CP, but were unsuccessful, leading to a head-to-head race along the coastal trail to the final transition in the village of Boat Harbour. About 1km away, Merrell took an opportunity to get away from us and ramped up the speed, in the end opening 4 minutes on the final rocky section. We were disappointed, but not surprised to see that another team had passed us in the night, Team FJS from Sweden, who had done a sterling job to finish the river paddle within 1 day and avoid the darkzone.

The sprint for home…

We had our quickest transition of the race, less than five minutes, before starting the final leg, a 35km cycle to the finish in Burnie. We pushed hard, but never got in sight of Merrell, who were undoubtedly also going flat out. The terrain was hilly and the roads wove us past Table Cape, taking us east into a headwind that had been our standard fair for all of the bike legs. With team work, we managed to keep the speed high however and covered the distance in just less than 2 hours.

We entered the velodrome at Burnie’s main stadium for 1 and a ½ laps of the track, taking the South African flag for the final lap. After 6 days, 2 hours and some minutes, we finally crossed the finish line to take 8^th place. This race will be noted for its close finishes up and down the field, with less than 2 hours separating winners Team Thule from 3^rd place, and a track sprint between Adidas Terrex and AXA separating them into 4^th and 5^th position by 1 second. We were 15 minutes behind Merrell in 7^th and a further 8 minutes behind FJS in 6^th, but the disappointment on loosing out on a close race paled into insignificance compared to the joy and relief of having finished this 733km expedition.

Overall it was a great result for the team, achieving our goal of a Top 10 finish and once again improving on our World Champs final position. The team worked very well together, despite having been put together quite late in the day, and have taken a horde of valuable experiences away with us. Cyanosis couldn’t have asked for much more, with our race strategy paying off and with navigation mistakes kept to only a few hours. We thoroughly enjoyed the race and the Tasmanian wilderness; it was definitely a World Champs that was not to be missed!

Team Cyanosis

www.teamcyanosis.com

www.facebook.com/team.cyanosis

Cyanosis AR Team is proud to have the following brands supporting them:

- First Ascent outdoor apparel, Salomon adventure footwear, Petzl headlamps and Foodstate vitamins and supplements.

-       Specialized bikes and accessories, Summit Cycles in Midrand, Form and Fitness sports supplements, Suunto field compasses and wrist-top computers, O’Neill wetsuits and Island Tribe sun lotion.

For more information on adventure racing in South Africa, visit www.ar.co.za

Author: Nicholas Mulder | Team Cyanosis-Marquest International | Adventure Racing World Championships, hosted by XPD Australia, 31 Oct – 11 Nov 2011. Tasmania

Graham “Tweet” Bird’s report: 

I am always amazed when looking out of airplane windows when I fly across the country and the world. You get to see the best and worst of what the world has to offer.  You see the massive areas of urbanisation, industrialisation and commercialisation that have sprung up to support the world’s huge population. From the different housing structures, suburb layouts, green areas, rubbish, you see the massive differences between the have and the have not’s. We are all part of it, no matter how we all try to stay away from it or limit our part in it. We are sucked in. All necessary to support the world, as we know it.

You also get to see the vast areas of open land and wilderness below you. Green lush areas, dry arid areas, flat areas, mountainous areas, water areas. Majority of it explored, but some of it still wild and unexplored.  It is these sights and the ability to GET OUTSIDE and explore this wilderness, becoming part of it, that keeps me going. It’s raw. It’s simple. Just me verse the wild outdoors.  It is these experiences that allow me to recharge after being part of the world, as we know it.

In May 2010 we attended the Australian XPD staged in Cairns. The 780km Expedition Adventure Race was one of the most brutal and hardest adventure races I have ever done. It took us six and a half days to complete. It broke me; physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. It made me stronger. It recharged me. It re-ignited my passion for the outdoors. The sense of achievement was overwhelming. This is why I do this fantastic sport.

After our experiences at XPD 2010, our team set a top 5 finish at XPD Tasmania, the Adventure Racing World Champs for 2011. We hoped for a race that was as extreme as the 2010 addition and we longed to be pushed to our limits. As a team we have been racing together for many years. We enjoy racing together. We have fun racing together. We have the same goals, objectives and get the same things out of the sport. We wanted to be part of the race for the win. We knew we could race the top teams and set about working on our weaknesses throughout the year.

Arriving in Tasmania, we were all quietly confident and knew our preparations had gone well. The atmosphere, hype and anticipation in the small town of Burnie was infectious. After a few days of gear and food preparations, we finally received the course information a day before the start. We spent a frantic 6 hours doing the final preparations before handing in all our race boxes to the officials whom would be moving them around the course.

The course was broken down into 15 legs, 37 maps, 120km paddling, 180km trekking, 430km mountain biking. From the outset it looked a very fair, but tough course. The big expedition style legs were in the second half of the race with the shorter faster legs in the first half. We as a team felt this suited us. Traditionally we are stronger in the later part of races. We knew we needed to have a good first half and be in touch with the top teams at mid camp in order to use our strength.

We raced well in the first half, arriving at Mid Camp in 9^th position on the afternoon of the third day, approximately 4-5 hours off the top 4. Our race speed was good and we had only made one error that had cost us a few hours on the second morning when we searched for a CP in the wrong area. We were content with our position, knowing that the race effectively started once we left Mid Camp. Upon leaving mid camp, we had three big legs (65km trek, 150km mtb, 87km paddle) to complete before the final few shorter legs to the finish. We made up good time on the 65km trek, completing it in 5^th place. It was then onto the mtb. We spent hours in the dunes looking for a track, doing something like 20km in 5 hours. The fourth night of the race was probably our lowest point. I battled with sleep monsters like never before. We stopped to sleep 4 times, with none of them really helping, the highlight being when I came off the bike on a tar downhill after falling asleep. Nothing like waking up with a jolt.

When you are having a bad leg, your mind just goes negative and we saw the race slipping away from us. To our surprise we finished the leg in 6^th place only a few hours behind 4^th. It appeared that everyone had had a bad leg. The fifth night was spent on the banks of the Arthur River with the 11-hour dark zone, sharing a campsite with four other teams, getting 8 hours sleep!

After a successful paddle leg, we were in tied 5^th place, only 40min behind the 4^th placed team and the 7^th team being 20mins behind us. We realized the final three legs were going to be fast. We thought we had had a good 70km mtb, but lost two hours to the 4^th and 5^th place teams. Seems our route choice was not as good as there’s.  We did however manage to open the gap on the 7^th place team. A 25km beach and coasteering trek followed. The race staff told us the leaders had done this leg in 4 hours. We were on the home stretch, or so we thought. With the tiredness and the urgency to chase the 4^th and 5^th and stay ahead of 7^th, I completely failed to see a path marked on the map. We ended up trekking along the rocky shoreline while the other teams took the path. We lost hours to the teams around us, with one team passing us and our fellow SA team catching up to us.

We crossed the finish line after 6 days and 2 hours in 7^th position. The 4^th and 5^th teams, separated by 1 second,  were about 2 hours in front of us, the 6^th team 10 mins ahead of us and with the 8^th placed team only 15mins behind us.  A close race in the end.

As always, crossing the finishing line of an expedition race is special and indescribable to someone whom has never done it and this was no different.  Physically, you pus h yourself to the extreme going through days with minimal sleep and food. Mentally, you go to deep dark places as you drag yourself through the many bad patches. Emotionally, you have to deal with all the ups and downs that go with all the physical and mental exertions. Spiritually, dealing with all the questions that you ask yourself about life throughout the course of the race.

The race lived up to all that I had hoped it would. It was a great course that was well worthy of the status of World Championships. A tough race that pushed us to our limits. Having now spent sometime reflecting about our race, I am content with our position and understand it is a great result, something to be proud of. I do however have a feeling of disappointment not having achieved our goal of a top 5 finish. We raced hard and showed we had the speed and ability to mixed it up with the top teams in the world. I don’t think we could have moved quicker and I feel the error on the second morning, the terrible fourth night and missing the path on the last trekking leg, cost us dearly. But this is adventure racing and you need to get through the good and the bad. To my teammates, Tatum, Hanno and Don, again another special journey and it was a great honour to have raced alongside you guys!  This is why I do this fantastic sport.

A huge thanks go to Craig and Louise from Geocentric Outdoors for a brilliantly organized race.

Tatum “Hobbit” Prins report:

This year the ARWC was going to be our race, the race we had built up to, the race we had focused on, the race we had sacrificed a lot for. The time had come. It held huge importance to all of us, it was going to be a defining race for us and we were excited and nervous of what lay ahead. There were 80 teams taking part, a huge field in ARWC and it was said the top 15 teams were all going for and possibly all could claim a podium finish. We were part of this top 15 but our aim and goal was a top 5. We knew we could do it and we wanted it.

After sorting kit, packing, repacking, shopping and a few days of anticipation in Burnie we were off. From the start the race was exciting and fast paced. There were just so many teams wanting what we wanted and no matter what we did we could not seem to pull away from anyone. Quite early in the race the top 3 teams got away but from 4th place to 10th place it was a constant ding dong battle. No sooner had you passed one team you were been passed by another. This continued the whole race. At times it felt like if you stopped to pee you would be passed and that is crazy in a race of this length for the top teams to be just minutes apart.

The course itself was amazing, well thought out and wonderfully diverse. We really experienced Tasmania and its true beauty. From the rugged mountains, untouched rivers, pristine beaches, lush forests, incredible caves, beautiful kloofing sections, we could not have raced in a more beautiful country. I would even go as far as to say the “the dirt was clean.” That is how it felt. It felt like no one had been there before or seen what we had seen. One particularly scenic moment that really stands out for me was the most perfectly placed checkpoint in a mine on Mount Cumberland. It felt like we had a 360% view of Tasmania. Truly breathtaking. Just a pity we couldn’t stop to enjoy it.

I have so many highlights of the race, or maybe I should rather say moments that stand out for me. Some not because of the beauty but because of other challenges, like the cold, navigational errors, sleepmonsters  – just a few of the challenges that occur in AR.

If I close my eyes I can see and feel one of my coldest moments – the four of us stripping down for freezing cold river crossings in the middle of the night. The swims literally took our breath away it was so cold. However it was also one of the more “funny” moments as it was here we caught up with a few teams and there seemed to be naked racers everywhere with boobs and butts for all too see! The most frustrating and emotional leg for me was probably the 8km muddy mountain biking section on the 150km bike leg. I was so frustrated, tired, sore and definitely left my sense of humour in that section. We pushed our bikes through mud for 8km! No one see’s the light side of that after a couple days racing.

Another highlight or rather a strange experience was our little camping excursion on the Arthur River. Because of the dark zone we were forced to camp alongside the river with 3 other teams. It was a weird feeling. One I had not experienced before. There we were racing our guts out for 4 days to suddenly come to a grinding halt, sit around a campfire (thanks Smelly) and enjoy each other’s war stories. It was as if we were suddenly granted a holiday in the middle of a grueling race. With that goes the truly wonderful experience (NOT) of sharing a 2 man tent with 3 overgrown men who happen to smell particularly bad. As you can imagine the sleep was not exactly the best one I have had.

However the rest of the 65km paddle was truly spectacular. I can also picture our very own Tweet falling asleep on his bike, then the realization when we stopped that he wasn’t with us. The panic that we felt as we realized he had crashed his bike while falling asleep… Then last but not least I see the four of us coasteering in the true style. Making our way over endless rocky outcrops. We could not have been moving any slower and unbeknown to us there was a path that took you to the ame place but 4 hours quicker. The joys of adventure racing but unfortunately this cost us a position. Even though I can smile about it now it was a hard pill to chew at the time.

So even though we didn’t accomplish what we set out for we can honestly say we did our best. Yes, I am very disappointed. I won’t deny it and it is always hard to deal with disappointment. When you give your utmost for so long and everything hinges on this one race, the race I had chosen as the pinnacle of my racing. In the same breath we left nothing out on the course and even though we did not get our top 5 we raced hard and you know what….. now we have even more reason to go back for more…

Again thank you to “my boys – Tweet, Smelly, Tiny.” Some of you may see this as claiming the boys as mine…. well quite frankly I do! In those 6 days when we are out there racing, in the elements, sleep deprived, frustrated, happy and sad, they are the ones by my side. They are the ones lifting me up when the going gets tough, they are the ones checking I have eaten enough, making sure I am warm, encouraging me when I am tired. Without these boys I would not be racing, doing the one thing I hold dearest and closest to my heart. Without them I would not be following my dream. A dream that I have been chasing for 8 years. Without them I would not hold the light that fuels my passion. It is these boys who make up such an important part of my life. You will often hear me say I love my boys dearly… well I do, with all my heart.

Thank you to our ever-faithful supportive sponsors. Again they are the reason we are OUTSIDE doing what we do best, letting us live the life we cannot live without.

Then lastly a very special thank you to my husband Lofty. He has stood by my side for 8 years, supported and loved me as I have made racing as a priority in my life. He has supported and allowed me to follow my dream, he has never asked anything of me, never voiced his frustration as I have missed out on social engagements, have been away for so many weekends or weeks at a time. It takes a very special man to let his wife love 3 other men and support it. Thank you Lofts for being you!!

Until the next time…Over and out. Hobs

Hanno “Smelly” Smit’s report: 

XPD 2011 was also the World AR champs and the location was the beautiful and untouched North Western part of Tasmania. The latitude is around 40 degrees south and that means that the wind consistently blows hard, fuelled by the many cold fronts that pass by and regularly pours rain over this first land obstacle after Cape Horn. The temperatures are low compared to what we were used to and would typically not exceed the mid teens in centigrade. The terrain is mainly forested wilderness where the gigantic Eucalypts tower majestically over the pristine rainforests with many rivers and streams allowing for the regular rains to drain.

As we competed in XPD 2010 in tropical Northern Queensland and experienced the harsh terrain, vegetation and weather conditions, we were well aware of the potential adversity which lay ahead of us for this year’s race. The field of competitors was the strongest ever for a World Champs and of the 80 teams, about 10 teams were realistically standing a chance of winning the race.

After a very professionally organized race briefing, the race start was a very comfortable 9am start at race HQ. An ocean paddle leg kicked off the 6-day odyssey for us. Immediately we had problems on this paddle leg in that the blow up boat would not track properly in the side wind conditions and allowed many teams to overtake us en route to the next hiking TA. This set the tone for the rest of the race; we consistently had little setbacks or problems, but fought back every time without these getting the better of us.

The race route structure was basically the same as XPD 2010. The first half of the race dissected Tasmania from the town of Burnie to the harbour town of Strahan, halfway down the West Coast. This is where mid camp was situated and spend a compulsory 6 hour stopover. The legs were relatively short and undaunting and the going easy. The race from here onwards would take on a different form in three epic expeditionary legs through the Arkine region and then another 3 short legs essentially completing the course from the Arkine to the Northern coast and finally into what was the starting for us 6 days prior, the coastal town of Burnie.

The first of the big three legs was a trekking leg. This hike started off with a long beach drag, including 2 big river crossings, which we negotiated in the chilly nighttime. Next curved ball was a dense bundu bashing mission towards an orienteering type CP. The trek then became a jungle walk up into the mining mountains and from there onwards we were left with route choice aplenty. The terrain was dense veld and it made for energy sapping traversing. This hike eventually descended down to the coast again for the start of the next epic bike leg.

The push bikes were immediately steered onto the soft beach and intermittent beach tracks. Soon we were carrying our bikes up big sand dunes and hiking along long stretches of unrideable terrain. It was already epic and we were 5km into this 150km leg! With darkness setting in we covered mainly forestry roads and secondary roads. As daylight appeared we were moving into rough forest areas again and were dealing with hour-long sections of mud riding and pushing. The final push towards the transition just before sunset was an inspired effort as we were chasing the 19h30 dark zone on the river and needed to use the available 90 minutes to our best advantage.

The 3rd epic paddling leg was 75 odd km long, but the going was easy and fast and it came to the rescue of many of the lesser paddlers! We spent our compulsory dark zone (19:30 until 6:30) on the river bank inside our tent, snoring a melody in pain. The paddling came to an end in the late afternoon and from here we mounted our pushies again for a 70km fast leg towards our last coasteering leg and then onto the pushies again for a brisk pedal into Burnie.

For me this race had all the essentials of a great race: the competition was fierce, the terrain was beautiful, wild and demanding, the route was challenging, but enjoyable and the conditions were testing with the race being consistently wet and cold. We finished a slightly disappointing 7th, but I felt content with an honest effort and knowing that a slightly different bounce of the dice it could have been very different.

I salute my teammates for an unforgettable 2011!

Donovan “Tiny” Sims report:

It was the 26^th October and we were finally off, on our way to the land down under for the Tasmanian ARWC 2011. This was the race that our whole years preparation had been all about. After 2 days in Sydney, we finally arrived in Burnie, Tasmania. This was where it was all happening from, race head quarters.

After 2 days of packing and other admin we were finally ready to get started. We started off with a 17km paddle, which saw Smelly and I leading the race, all be it for really short while. Half way into the paddle Hobbit and I had to make a quick change over, which saw Tweet and I and Smelly and Hobbit finishing the paddle together.

After a quick chilly transition we where onto the first of our hiking legs, not long into this leg one of each team had to shoot clay pigeons, missing them would result in a time penalty, luckily this was not the case for us. This leg went well for us and had us at the first of our bike legs.

This was a quick ride at first with it all tar road, we then got to the caving section where we were given an hour to collect CP’s inside a spectacular cave. We managed that in enough time to allow us to eat and rest up before getting back onto our bike for a MONSTER climb heading toward our next hiking leg.

This was definitely one of my favourite sections of the race, it’s all a bit fuzzy, but I think this was where we thought we would try a “short cut”. That took us through a kloof or two too many. None the less, this hike was breath taking as we made our way to the top of the abseil, which made been cancelled due to it being way too wet. A quick downhill scramble had us in one of the coldest, wet kloofing sections I`ve done in long time. We then criss-crossed the river a few times making our way to start of the next paddling leg, where we caught up with Cyanosis, whom had passed us when we searched in the wrong place for a CP.

Another quick transition (no slow ones with Hobbit around) and all 4 of us were of in one blow up boat, which was pretty cool as long as you were not at the back of the boat. Tweet had the back spot and he was absolutely frozen at the next transition, where we received a second boat. At the end of this paddle we had to portage our boats (NO DRAGGING) to the next river put in which finally got us to the end of the paddle.

Back onto the bikes and we sped into the half way stop and compulsory 6-hour stop.

From here on in, the race took on a real expedition type style. The next 3 legs were epic slogs. First was a hike that took us around 19 hrs. Then a bike leg that lasted 23 hrs. with major sleep monster hassles along the way and then we were onto the much anticipated loooong paddle. Of these 3 legs I really enjoyed the paddle. We had a dark zone in it, which had Smelly making a camp fire and for a while we almost forgot we were racing until the next morning and the race face was on again.

We were back onto the shorter legs of the race again with a 70 km bike, a 20 km coasteering leg and then a 35 km bike to the end. We missed a path on the map and turned the coasteering into a bit of a monster but we got through it albeit losing a place to a Swedish team.

We had a 7th place finish at the end of it all. We were all hoping for top 5 which I really do believe was well within our reach.

We had a great race and I know I say this every time but hats off to my teammates. Tweet for all the organising before the race and for the determination shown during the race even when the sleep monster was getting the better of you. To Smelly for once again just being the pillar of strength the team relies on so often. To the Hobbit for always driving the team even when you are tired and for the huge leadership role you so quietly carry out. It is that role and your raw passion for the sport that puts you a step above the rest of the girls in the sport.

A big thank you must go out to our GREAT sponsors for allowing us to be able to take part in this great sport…..THANK YOU !!

And last but NOT least to our families and loved ones back home, who show patience and support when most would get grumpy send us packing, a huge thank you to all of you for allowing us to follow our dreams.

The Merrell Adventure Addicts wish to thank the following team sponsors who support our adventurous lifestyles:

Merrell                                 –              For supporting our active lifestyles and allowing us to GET OUTSIDE

PVM                                      –              For providing us with nutritional products to keep us going.

Black Diamond                  –              For Icon and Cosmo head torches that lit our way brilliantly

Giant Bicycles                    –              For providing the team with exceptional Anthem MTB’s

Island Tribe                         –              For protecting us from the harsh African sun.

Squirt                                    –              For keeping our Bikes lubed and operating smoothly!

Glider                                    –              For Polarized eyewear

Team Merrell Adventure Addicts | Adventure Racing World Champs hosted by XPD Australia, Tasmania. 31 October – November 2011

(Graham “Tweet” Bird, Tatum “Hobbit” Prins, Hanno “Smelly” Smit and Donovan “Tiny” Sims)

Various photos from Andreas Strand, Photoevents.net.au and SleepMonsters

Leg 1: 17km mountain bike.

The 1^st cycle was actually just over 20km and mostly on sand roads and jeep tracks with a short single track section. This early morning cycle in the cold and misty morning was a fairly uneventful cycle for us. The day had started off rather cold but once we were moving we warmed up fairly quickly. The 1^st leg ended with a steep downhill which unfortunately claimed a few competitors. It was also a hill we would be cycling up the next time we were on the bikes. Leg 1 had taken about 1.5 hours.

Leg 2: 16km Trek & kloofing.

This was the leg I had been looking forward to the most and in particular the potholes. But 1^st we had the matter of a 6km trek to them. We started the trek down into the gauge at a fairly brisk pace and once in the gauge we could get up to a running pace until the potholes began.

The 1^st pothole was the highest and as we arrived at it, I pointed out to Caro where the rope was for her to climb down only to see her launch herself off the ledge to the pool below. The potholes, pools and bum slides were great fun with a few teams moving together through the area.

The hike out the gauge was more than just that. When we got to the top mountain we could see teams summiting the next, higher mountain. Then again we dropped down and went up. At the top of the next mountain we again dropped into a gauge that again we would summit. Leg 2 had taken us almost 4 hours.

Leg 3: 3km Trek & canopy tour.

We put on our harnesses and trekked 1.5km down to the gauge where we started the with the zip-lines. We did 5 zip-lines starting with the shortest 55m line and ending with the longest 120m line. From the last line we crossed back over the gauge on thin (but safe) bridge. Then we climbed about 100m almost straight up out of the gauge and made our way back to transition to start the next bike leg. Leg 3 took us a little under 1 hour.

Leg 4: 24km Mountain bike.

At this stage we were in 5^th position and Caro was the leading lady but both our legs were already mostly gone and as mentioned before, this leg started up the same hill we had come down. A 4.5km hill with almost 250 of ascent but we were told at transition that once we were up this hill it was mostly downhill to the next transition. This turned out to be totally false and yet again, at the top of every hill we could see the next hill we would be climbing. In fact, there were 5 big climbs and a couple smaller climbs on this leg which lead Caro to have one of those “This is my last race” moments and I my reeked state, all I could come back with was “let just keep moving slowly”.

With about 5km to go in the stage we were together with 4 other teams, unfortunately we were the last of the 5 teams, now in 9^th position.

In the last kilometre of the stage we had to pass through a cattle gate and although that doesn’t sound very interesting, getting though the gate with 29ers proved to be very interesting and took us about 5 minutes. The end of this stage couldn’t have come soon enough as the 24km had taken us 2.5 hours.

Leg 5: 4km Kayak.

I’ve never been so keen to get onto a kayak in a race in my life. The kayak leg gave us 40 minutes to rest our legs as we battled currents while collecting the 2 points on this stage.

Leg 6: 3km Mountain bike.

The last 3km from Hawane dam to finish line at Hawane village took us only 9 minutes. We pushed hard on this stage as we had passed the “Dundee Crocs” team on the dam and wanted to consolidate our position even if they were racing in a different category to us.

Conclusion.

The Swazi Adventure has potential to be an incredible race with the key being your personal fitness. Caro and I had looked at it and thought that 70km would be fairly easy and we were both under trained for the race. Admittedly I had expect us to take between 10 and 12 hours so our finish time of 10h 01min was expected but I had though our pace would be dictated by thick bush and not by the gradients of the climbs. In the end my Polar had registered almost 4000m of ascent. That more than the base camp of Everest to the summit or any of the days on the Cape Epic. That over just 70km. I think the only flat on the race was the 4km kayak.

Well done the Kinetic team with the support from Assitport AR. I’ll be back next year but I’ll definitely do a lot more training before I head back.

Check out our video of the race at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PJzhqWCTyo

Author: Andrew Wiggett | Team Senseless Linebreak | Swazi Adventure, 28-29 November 2011, Swaziland

30 teams of two lined up for the 4h45 am start at Fairfield Cottages and set off on the 8km Micro-Navigation leg  first-up. Teams had to use a 1:10 000 aerial photograph to find their way to 9 Check Points (CP’s) on the farm just as the first rays of sunlight struck the orchards. Most teams made fairly easy work of this and were back where they started about an hour later.

From there the pairs hopped onto their bikes and made their way towards Ceres town and up to Ceres Zipslide Adventures where they zipped through a gorge on the first 3 slides totaling about 450m of gravity fueled fun! The professional set-up and experienced guides managed to get competitors through safely and in high spirits for the day to follow.

Teams then meandered through the farmlands along the bottom of the Skurweberg Mountains towards Eselfontein all the while keeping a close eye on their navigation in an effort to pick the quickest route through the maze of orchards and farm roads. The main transition for the day was situated at the picturesque Eselfontein dam and came after about 30km of mountain biking. Here teams had access to their race crates and refueled their bodies before heading up the mountain via a beautiful kloof (if they opted) in search of an illusive Protea bush bearing the CP that would turn out to be the bain of most team’s navigational efforts. The trekking leg was roughly 7km and brought teams full circle back to the dam for a quick dip before continuing on the bike.

Eselfontein farm boasts some of the best singletrack around and riders got a taste of this before starting the hard slog home into the wind, through the rolling farmlands. Once back on Fairfield Farm, they headed straight for the main dam and a 30min kayak loop was all that stood between them and the home straight.

The fastest time of the day was posted by Team WCAD Racing, consisting of Evan Price and Quintin Smith who blitzed around the course in 7h16min. The winners of the mixed category and overall series winners were Paul Hatfield and Robyn Ferrar of The Way Across who took exactly 8hrs. For the full set of results visit www.wcad.co.za or visit our facebook page (and ‘Like’ us while you are there)

Thanks to all those who attended and made it a special day of adventure. Special thanks to our sponsors and all the helpers for your hard work and Ceres Zipslide Adventures for accommodating us. We have 5 races scheduled for 2012 and look forward to seeing you at the first one on 4 February 2012.

Author: Chris Fisher (race director) |  WCAD Series 80km Adventure Race, Ceres, 12 November 2011

Leg 1- Paddle from Ebb and Flow to Wilderness Beach on the Touws River

After a quick prayer by Jan Hennop (race director) we ran down to our K2 and hit the water for the first paddle. Voit and I were second behind the Merrel Relay Team and more than comfortable as we hit the beach and headed into the Kaaimans Kloof. Brandon and Nick didn’t start well, with an embarassing capsize as they entered the river, they entered T1 with Jeff and Garth.

Leg 2 – Kloof from Wilderness to Saasveld

Garth enjoyed this leg the most and said if it was just for this leg alone it would have been worth the 600km from East London. Jeff and Garth came into the kloof not far behind the lead pack which consisited of Voit and Lettuce and the juniors and two Merrel relay teams. We swapped positions up the kloof until the juniors put the hammer down leaving a trail of blood on the rocks for the rest of us to follow where Brandon had fallen. Jeff also missed his footing in the kloof leaving him short of puff when they hit the bike.

Leg 3 – MTB from MNNU Saarsveld to Herold Wines

Coming out of the Kloof in first place, Brandon and I, made a hasty transition, which was hampered by forgetting the clip card as we were about to check out. Recovering from this embarrassment ungracefully, we sped out of the transition, at the same time as the first of the relay teams were arriving. For Brandon, having injured his knee upon the kloof leg, this was an opportunity to recover.
Wending our way through a small sampling of the single tracks around Saarsveld, we clipped CP1 and then emerged onto forestry roads, which led us to a hiking trail, which was in my opinion unrideable. As if just to disprove this point, Brandon cruised over most of the obstacles. At this point, the first relay team caught us, and as ours was not their race, we didn’t try to stay with them. The route took us past an extra-ordinarily large amount of cyclists and a number of dog walkers. The dogs stared at us as we went past with beady eyes and were remarkably well behaved.

The hiking trail emerged onto the now defunct railway and the promise of terrain far more traversable. Picking up speed here, we were able to reach the devilish Montague Pass in good time. The pass’s steep gradient presented Brandon and I with a challenge. I, mostly due to a lack of cycling experience and Brandon due to the racing bike he was using, which only had two blades on the front gearing system and thus presented no granny gears, meaning that he ground it out, till the top of the pass. The view, has to be mentioned, if only because it is compulsory on such a devastating climb; the view, was splendid and made more splendid by the fact that down below, many would have to ascend this @#%&!@#$ of a hill. In transition, we grabbed all the necessities, I took reams of cramp block and we went to confront the mystical ou tannie, the gate-keeper to The Outeniqua Mountains. Barely passing muster, with our minimalistic kit, we set out for the hike. Voit and I hit this leg feeling good and I thought that I would catch up on the bit of energy I had used in the last bit of running from the kloof to Saasveld. Instead my legs deserted me and must have spent the rest of the day in a cold pool in the kloof because from then on I struggled on the bike and on foot. Jeff picked up two punctures on the ride and was starting to have a testing day.

Ed: The boys headed on untouched, mixing it up with the relay teams.

Leg 4 Herold to Saasveld hike/run 25km

This is the one leg that has been the same in all of the Eden Duo Races and it is really the start of the race proper. This is where fatigue kicks in and one starts feeling the pace from earlier in the day.The route follows an awesome path in a series of switch backs in a kloof deep in the shadows of Cradock Peak. on climbs nearly 300 vertical meters in a space of a kilometer to get out of the kloof to a sadle that gives one a spectacular view of George.The water at the bottom of the kloof is cold and the only guaranteed water untill you reach Saasveld. This leg went slowly for me as a battled the “cramp monster” but there was no letting up of Voits inthusiasim and before long we hit the transition for what should be an easy bike leg. Garth and Jeff hit the hike in good spirits but Jeff toiled a bit and Garth soon had his back pack and used his experience to get them through what was a tough leg.

Leg 5 Greonewiede to Hoogekraal Bike 35km

It was nearly “tea time ” in the civilised world but not at the Eden Duo- a quick change of shoes and we were on our bikes. The juniors now had a big lead and were doing us proud. Voit and I were hanging onto second place . We both were really ready to get to the end of this leg to get in a canoe and give the legs a break. The ride was fine but we did get passed by two “cycling strong” teams. One got lost and the other we passed again with 2 minutes in our canoe (justice?).

Jeff ‘s woes continued as he decide to try and ride his 29er over two Boerbulls. He felt he had a good chance at 40km and hour but the dogs won and Jeff hit the tarmac hard.

Leg 6 Hoogekraal to Gerrikes Paddle 15km

A great leg for all the Pennys Teams despite the incoming tide. Voit and I arrived at the Sedgefield Caravan park all to soon and had to have a quick transition to make the most of the last hour and half of day light. Erez and Incha our trusty seconds were there as always along with a host of other locals including my partner from last year Rhona and her husband Jan, Mike from Knysna Pennys, Hien and Susie who seem to be everywhere. Thank you all for the support and words of encouragement. It defiantly got me on my feet and out of the transition .

Leg 6 – Beach Run (An ordeal)

Ed: Nic’s account below shows what an ordeal a 21 km run on the beach at high tide can be. Jeff and Garth got there a bit latter but still had to slog it out. Voit and I pulled back nearly an hour on the juniors on this leg but it was too little too late.

This was in our minds the last barrier to succeeding. To us this was the deal breaker. We’d heard the same thing over the course of the race from our wonderful seconds; that the rest of the field reckoned that due to the blistering (literally for me) pace we’d set at the beginning of the race and our (as youths) developing endurance, we’d burn out in the later half of the race. Our doubters were more than half right…

Injuries sustained at the start of the race, had plagued Brandon and had worn him down, and it was with a supremely brave face that he began the stage. In a change from previous years, we were able to cross a significant stretch of the onerous beach before dark, which was fortunate, as the tide over the rocky sections of the beach was not working with us.Until about halfway, we were able to sustain an acceptable pace but coinciding with night, we slowed down to a shuffle. The malicious streetlamps in Wilderness, our destination, then turned on, as if to mark the occasion. To anyone not acquainted with these lights, know that the reason they are so curséd (with an extra éd) is because they are psychologically damaging. These lamps torment you with their nearness and then laugh when you realise that there is still many clicks to go till the end of the line. What made the run this year especially tense, was the lack of any lights behind us. We couldn’t see any approaching teams, and so couldn’t moderate our pace. Three-quarters of the way through, we lost much of our hope of a victory, after all we couldn’t have had that much of a buffer from the last transition could we?

Shuffling onward, there was still no teams emerging from the dark behind us and so we allowed hope to rise again. Passing groups fishing, playing and walking was quite refreshing, as it indicated that we were nearing the end of our race. We got a massive wake-up call when lights suddenly came bobbing up behind us. Brandon steeled himself for one last effort and we rushed towards the Wilderness bridge and the start of the paddle, with another team hot on our heels. Hopping into our boats, we believed that it would require a supreme effort in the paddle to claim an overall win. It turned out to be the third relay team (but we surprisingly topped them on the paddle anyway), claiming first place

It was a great weekend for the Team to go and fill the top two places in an event that saw athletes come in from all round the country.

Our new kit worked really well in its first real endurance test. Voit and I wore our Second Skins running shorts and the short sleeve shirts from start to finish. The others chopped and changed a bit but what was great is that the branding stands out really well .

Image by Jacques Marais. 

Team Pennypinchers – www.pennypinchersarteam.blogspot.com.

It all started when we were told that we were entered into the Kinetic Full Moon Adventure Race (120 km), we had no idea of what lay ahead of us. As a team of four consisting of myself (Daniel Patrick), Jonathan Wocke, Danie Botha and Greg Avierinos, who had the most experience, we had a lot of training to do. This started with two afternoon sessions at TBI where we learnt teamwork skills, what to expect in the race, how to be mentally prepared and rope work skills. We were on the right course.

Sooner than we knew it we were on the starting line at 1 pm on a Saturday afternoon with a very limited number of saddle hours behind us and one or two paddling sessions that mainly involved failing out of our canoes in the middle of Rietvlei dam. On starting we had to carefully manage our pace so as not to burn out right in the beginning, we were doing well, slowly getting into a rhythm for the 50km cycle ahead of us. The first cycle was relatively easy riding along the train tracks on smooth dirt roads; our average speed for the first cycle was around 30km/h. On raising the last crest of our first cycle we saw the dam where our paddling leg was to take place.

Into transition we went, taking more time than was necessary, we lost two places in transition.

Our paddle leg was very good, we overtook two teams on the water and furthered our lead on them in our portaging leg where we chose to carry our canoes over land while the others chose to paddle, and in doing this we maintained our position. After the paddle we were into our first trekking leg which took us through cattle lands adjacent to the dam. The first trekking leg was easy walking but mental staying power was coming into the race for the first time, we had to keep on moving forward and we had to try and retain our position. On this trekking leg one of our teammates started cramping which we told him to run off, luckily and courageously he did just that and all was good in no time.

In the final kilometer of running to our bicycles we strategized as to how we could achieve the fastest transition time possible and this we did, we came in fourth and left fourth overall. We were doing really well.

The second cycling leg proved to be a lot more challenging than the first due to cramping muscles, fading light and increased pressure from teams behind us. It was in this leg that the tow rope came out, Greg and I took turns towing the other two who were starting to take strain, this is what made us work well together- teamwork.

We joined up with a smallish peloton and stayed with them for the duration of the cycle until we had a lucky break where we were a bit more daring and ventured onwards to look for a checkpoint that everyone thought was behind us. We had a decent lead on them which we kept through all our cramping, towing and motivating of each other, this we did up to the last 3km where we encountered the HILL.

This was no ordinary hill, at least not to us for we had been going for roughly 8 hours and were starting to get rather tired. This hill was in most of our cases the biggest tester yet and we knew that just over the rise lay the next transition point with its promise of food, water and something other than a saddle to sit on. Up and up we pushed the top so tantalizingly close yet so far. This was the biggest tester of mental staying power yet. I was determined to conquer this hill and show it who was boss. I was the first of my team to reach the top and in doing so cheered my mates on; just climbing that hill without stopping was an achievement in itself. Unfortunately we were passed by two or three teams about 100m from the transition point as the hill had had negative effects on some of our team mates.

On reaching transition we dropped our bikes and found the nearest chair where we promptly set about stuffing as much food and liquid as we could down our throats, this not being the most sensible thing to do but it felt right at the time. We were knackered, almost at the point of breaking and yet we had one more leg head of us. We finally left transition in a somewhat uncaring mood; we were just so tired that concentrating on putting one foot in front of another was enough effort.

Joining up with another team we decided to tackle the hike together until we take different routes due to different navigation options. The last trekking leg took us a lot longer than it should have due to several nav errors and fatigue setting in. After collecting the final CP we were on our way home and a new sense of energy and urgency seemed to enter us. We had one more rather tricky obstacle to tackle, a rather hairy descent down a steep slope. Overtaking a team in what must have been the last 100m of the race felt good and we all joined up and sprinted the final 15m over the finish line, we had done it at last. Sitting down on a chair sipping champagne and getting our breaths back was one of the most heavenly things we had experienced that day. After that if was off to the tents and then into slumber land, finally we could rest.

The race was a huge success with us coming in 3rd for the men’s category and 7th overall. We learnt a huge amount on the race and grew immensely as a team. Our awesome backpacks and hats sponsored to us by Columbia worked like a dream making the racing easier and more pleasurable. Thanks to our main sponsors PS. Hawkstone who made a massive contribution to getting us started. And also without Alec Avierinos us boys wouldn’t have been able to complete what we had, all the motivation and advice we received from him was priceless.

In the end we had done 102km of cycling, plus minus 16km of trekking and 10km of paddling in just under 12 hours – all of this done by four boys who are 17 years old, not bad hey! You old toppies must watch out, there is some trouble on the way it’s called CUL8R.

Author: Daniel Patrick | Team CUL8R | Kinetic Full Moon

Leg 1: 48km MTB

Cyanosis Salomon 1h47

We weren’t sure if this team was an exercise in youth development (Jane and I being looked after by Mac and Ryno) or a pensioner’s day out (Mac and Ryno being looked after by Jane and I). Either way, we were looking forward to testing the combination against some strong competition.

The first leg was made interesting by 3 route choices to CP2. The centre option was the shortest but depended on a good road next to the railway line. The longest option involved a tar road and a dog-leg back to the railway track. This was about 2.5km longer. My choice as we started the race was the central option, but I decided to take the risk on the longer option. I was hoping the railway track road would be bad enough to give our 4 person team time trial a significantly higher average speed. Our surface was faster but we did more climbing. We ended up losing 5-10 minutes despite riding at a very good tempo. Nic got me on that route choice. Our enthusiasm dropped when we saw tyre tracks ahead of us.

We had a very near miss on the tar road when an oncoming car overtook a truck without seeing us – scary moment! We took care to drink and eat properly in the heat. We held a good speed all the way to the transition and arrived with Cyanosis First Ascent already on the water.

Cyanosis First Ascent 1h38

This team was put together at the last moment, with Nathan and Nicholas inviting Piers and Nicky to join them. It had to be the most experienced team out there, with Oom Piers now having been racing for 11 years, with Nicky and Nicholas both having been around for 10 years. Nathan was the relative newbie in the team, with only 5 years under his belt.

With the race off to a good start, we tucked in behind the Salomon team en route to CP1. This served two purposes. Firstly we were able to shelter from the strong headwind (thanks guys!) and secondly we could wait and see what route choice they would make from CP1 to CP2. The Salomon team opted for the tar road route, whilst First Ascent went for the ‘middle’ option of a short tar section and a longer section next to the train tracks. I’d worked out that the ‘middle’ option was about 2.5km shorter than the tar option. However, the tar would have a higher cycling speed, so it was a close call as to which one would be fastest.

With the Salomon team heading one way, and us heading the other, we gunned it and went flat out to try and ensure that we got to the next CP first. Everything went according to plan, with us finding a good quality servitude track next to the railway as expected. We then went flat out along it, averaging just on 30km/hr for the entire leg to Middelburg Dam and getting onto the water before Cyanosis Salomon arrived in transition.

Leg 2: 8km paddle

Cyanosis Salomon 54 min

We had a slightly side-on tailwind. We could see the Cyanosis First Ascent ahead so we had a good carrot to keep the tempo up. Mac and Jane make a super paddling combination, so Ryno and I had our work cut out. It was hard keeping the barges going in a straight line, but we seemed to be catching Cyanosis First Ascent. We got close to the end of Middleburg Dam, with the N4 a few hundred meters away. There was a short muddy portage, a few hundred metres more of paddling, and then a portage to the Kinetic Truck. We closed the gap to about 1 min by the end. Good paddling from our team! And I was happy that Ryno and I could almost keep up with Mac and Jane.

Cyanosis First Ascent 56 min

Our transition had been a bit slow, so we only started the paddle with a 4 minute lead. Since this team combination had never raced together before, we didn’t get the correct paddling combinations right at the start. Halfway down the dam we decided to swap team mates between the boats to get a better balance of strengths. This took 30 seconds in mid-water, but probably helped us save 2 minutes on the second half of the paddle. The Salomon team were gaining steadily the whole way, so we kept pushing hard, also portaging across the mud and to the transition as quickly as possible. We were hoping to be the stronger team on the upcoming 8km run, so our focus was ensuring that we started this run with a slight time gap.

Leg 3: 8km run

Cyanosis Salomon 55 min

We set off close behind and again with a carrot to keep us moving. We weren’t moving as well as Cyanosis First Ascent and when I slowed us to a walk to spot the tree at the end of the forest, Cyanosis First Ascent seemed to already have a good lead. From there, I saw Nic go very straight over the hill. I tried to save a bit of climb and went further left. By now we had lost a few minutes. We headed into the google-earth cloud. I had it in my head that the fence would run perpendicular to the shore. So we’d run into the fence and I’d go left to find the crossing.

My assumption was bad – the fence in the cloud was parallel to the shore. So we overshot it and lost more time. We managed to lose a large 7 minutes to Cyanosis First Ascent.

Cyanosis First Ascent 48 min

The First Ascent team had a great leg here. We pushed the pace hard on the run and everyone coped with it well. We saw the gap grow on the chasing Salomon team most of the way and all I had to do was ensure that we hit all the check points spot on. As a result, we went tiger-line across the terrain, running as straight as possible and crossing the barb-wire fences as quickly as possible. We had a super-fast transition and were able to take a time split on the Salomon team as we cycled out, 9 minutes behind.

Leg 4: 50km MTB

Cyanosis Salomon 2h24

We had quite a slow transition compared to the others. Perhaps we faffed a bit filling bottles. We set off disappointed with our time loss so far. We rode well. Mac and Ryno did some good turns on the front. Jane was strong and steady. It got dark after about 30km, but with the open roads and good lights the dark didn’t slow us down much. The final hill came as we were all starting to get uncomfortable – so it was hard work. We lost 7 min, so Cyanosis First Ascent was cycling very well.

Cyanosis First Ascent 2h17

After leaving transition, we slowed down the pace a bit so that everyone could take a few gulps of food properly and let their stomachs settle. If we didn’t look after ourselves now, we’d have lost time later on in the leg. The navigation on this leg was fairly straight forward, but we kept up a constant tempo, trying to get as much of this leg done in the day light as possible before it got dark, and trying to stay ahead of a looming thunderstorm that was approaching from the south. In the end, we switched on our headlamps at the last CP on the cycle and did the final 5km uphill to the final transition under the threatening storm.

Leg 5 8km Hike

Cyanosis Salomon 1h58

We arrived at Ribbokloof and passed our kit check with no trouble. We thought we were in for a fast final run. But against the trend of the
race we faced some hills and slow going. The Google earth photo didn’t show the contours we had to cross. Early on we caught sight of Cyanosis First Ascent’s lights ahead which lifted us. After the dam wall, the navigation got a bit trickier. Compass bearings were very useful – we tiger-lined everything. We kept seeing lights ahead – not far ahead each time. This would give us the impression we were close behind, but then we’d have to drop into and climb out of a big valley. It turned out that the gap stayed very constant. The team was moving well with the end close and lights in the distance. We had the same time as Cyanosis First Ascent for the leg. I was happy to have matched Nic on a moderately technical nav leg. I’m starting to enjoy night-time AR navigation.

Cyanosis First Ascent 1h58

We were very slow in transition as we felt the pace of the earlier cycles. However, we knew we’d feel better on our feet and were looking
forward to a short quick trail run. That idea went by the wayside quickly!

The team got into a good rhythm early on once we realised that the final leg wasn’t a simple trail run. At certain stages we could see the headlamps of the chasing Salomon team, which had closed from 20 minutes before transition to about 10. We kept regular time checks on them and made sure the keep the gap at least 10 minutes. We were confident and knew we had enough left to maintain this gap… as long as we didn’t make any navigational mistakes. In the end we hit everything spot on and managed to get the gap back to 15 minutes by the finish line.

Finish

Cyanosis Salomon 8h16

In the end we were 16 min behind. A good chunk of that was due to my poor route choice on the 1st leg. There is room for navigator
improvement on all the legs though: I could set a more consistent pace and continue to take notes from Nic. Cyanosis First Ascent was strong competition that out-biked and out-ran us. Not by much though. And that is encouraging for me.

So, pensioner’s day out or baby-sitting? It is great to race with the massive experience of Mac and Ryno. Although we joke that they’re much older than Jane and I, they’re as strong as ever and with all that experience, they make it look easy. I think the young half of the team managed to hide the fact that we’ve done a fraction of the racing our team mates have done. All in all, a good team effort. We need to save some time on the navigation subtleties and get more speed on foot and bike.

Thanks to Stephan and Heidi for another good race. I love the idea of showing up with your bike and some gear and racing hard. There’s no admin. Thanks to the marshals and helpers. And well done to everyone who took part.

Cyanosis First Ascent 8h00

This was a beautiful race. The organisers, Stephan and Heidi suggested that the faster teams would find it too easy, but this was not the case. The competition between Cyanosis First Ascent and Cyanosis Salomon, as well as the other teams made this race a memorable one.

We were able to go flat out for most of the race, which was actually very enjoyable, testing team strategy and technique to the full and requiring a lot of tactical thinking. Many experienced racers will tell you that an AR team doesn’t go as fast as the slowest team member, but rather goes as fast as a supportive team will allow. This race was a superb example, with the team members supporting and looking out for each other in ways that made them faster than any individual athlete could have gone. This race was all about team work and we loved it for it.

Authors: Nicholas Mulder and Alex Pope | Team Cyanosis First Ascent and Team Cyanosis Salomon | Kinetic Full Moon AR, 15 October 2011

Anyway, to the race!

Leg 1: 47km MTB (2h03m)

Yes, that’s right, a 24km/h average speed on a MTB leg! Most of the ride was on a railway service track, with a few sections of riding on the railway track itself. After the first few km of trying to find each other in the confusion at the start, we formed a good paceline and Kev’s nav was spot on. This was serious stuff and we were blasting past other pace lines as if we were on a road race J We pulled into the transition at the Middelburg Dam in 5^th place, just behind a team of 17 year-olds but managed to sneak out ahead of them on the paddle.

Leg 2: 7km Paddle & Portage(s) (1h05m)

We set off at quite a pace on the dam, in an effort to stay ahead of the teens and maintain our 4th place. My arms were suffering badly and I was bracing for a tough leg when I looked back and saw Kev & Marts’ boat way behind. Seth and I had a pretty chilled paddle in the end as it turns out Kev & Marts’ boat was filling with water (they had forgotten to take out the plugs). So the teens passed and dropped us while we had a fine time checking the maps, eating some snacks and shooting the breeze. We took a bit of a foolish “shortcut”, wading across 100m of thick clay and algae, sticking to the river at all costs afterwards. Once Kev & Marts had drained their boat of water, they managed to keep up fine and we carried our boats into transition in 4^th place overall.

Leg 3: 8km Hike/Run (1h09m)

We had a google earth map to navigate off for this leg, which is usually ok, except that this one had a few clouds obscuring important features (like where the checkpoint is). We alternated a brisk hike and a comfortable jog to collect CP4 in a forest away from the dam and then head back to the dam edge to find CP5 in the cloud. We found a cheering Fran and Irene instead which really lifted our spirits, even though we had slipped a further 3 or 4 places on this leg. The last part of this run was past all the weekend braaiers and fishermen who gave us a good few chirps on the sanity of what we were doing. We ran into transition in 8^th place. The race situation at this point was two Cyanosis teams up front, with 3^rd place to 8^th place separated by just 5 minutes, an hour back from the leading teams. I downed a steri-stumpie and some coke in transition which was not wise in hindsight.

Leg 4: 52km MTB (2h50m)

We got back into our paceline on the opening 10km of this leg and hauled in 3 of the teams in front of us pretty quickly. A bit of a peleton formed until we turned onto the long gradual climb of the mine road where we put a gap into the rest of the teams as it got dark. Actually, the rest of the Charnas put in the gap while I suffered like a dog and hung on for dear life (did I mention that Kev was supposed to be sick?). My legs were pretty much empty and our 20km/h+ pace made the going pretty hard. Kev was navving really well again and we gradually opened the gap on the chasing teams. A last nasty 8% climb had us all suffering just before transition where we arrived in 4^th place to our djembe-drumming supporters J I quickly copied down the checkpoints and after a kit check, we set out on the final hiking leg as the 5^th placed team (Uncharted) arrived at transition.

Leg 5: 11km Hike (2h47m)

The hike was navigationally fairly technical, having to find checkpoints at night without many paths or tracks to follow. We managed to use the valleys and fences well and progressed from checkpoint to checkpoint pretty smoothly. Team Xhale caught us just after CP12 and we weren’t able to (or weren’t inclined to) hold their pace. Their lights made for a good navigational aid anyway… Plenty of bundu-bashing through forests and heading up every hill available in the reserve later, we had one last steep scramble down to the finish line at 11:18pm. About 5 minutes before reaching it, we heard a shout, asking which team we were. Once the reply of “Team 16 – Charnas” was made, the djembe-drumming and whooping from Fran and Irene started yet again. What a way to finish the race! J A bottle of champagne was destroyed fairly quickly as we sat around the bonfire and shared our race stories with the other teams.

We crossed the line in 5^th place but a pair ahead of us had received a 4hr penalty for not carrying the minimum emergency equipment required. So we finished in 4^th place overall and 1^st male team. My Charnas, it was great racing hard with you guys! Get ready for the Red Ants Rumble 150km (28^th/29^th Jan 2012), where the adventure will definitely be put back into AR!

Author: Stijn Laenen | Team Charnas | Full Moon, Middelburg, 15 October 2011

These suburbs, like at the previous Metrogaine Jo’burg from Zoo Lake, are well suited to metrogaining because there are very few road closures, which opens up route choice options.

METROGAINE REFLECTIVE SLAPBANDS

All participants received a Metrogaine Jo’burg reflective slapband, which can be worn on upper arm, wrist or ankle. Although it is a super memento, it serves a safety purpose. You can’t have enough reflective goodies. Bibs are still recommended in addition to the slapbands.

ROUTES

I went crazy with controls, setting up a vast number to accommodate walkers (many controls close to home) and fast runners. This is the thing with any rogaine format; even the top runners should have a choice in which controls to get and to leave – it really is no fun when you’re able to get everything in the allocated time period.

I have included below a couple of routes taken by runners.

With Tony Abbott stuck in traffic, Alex Pope ran as a solo and was thus an unofficial finisher. But his route is great to check out as he obtained the highest score, even with a 50 point penalty for being late. Nathan Thompson and Michael Crone won the 1h30 course overall and are also indicated on the map. Piers Pirow, who has an ankle injury, gave the course a go on his mountain bike. He did say that even though his route was a bad one, he did find mountain biking in this environment to be really slow. It is far more efficient to be on foot.

Mark Dickson and Gareth Evans covered 12-kilometres and collected 730 points to place as the 4^th male pair (8^th overall) on the 90-minute course. Stijn and Fran Laenen were third overall on the one-hour course. They collected 550 points.

There were 49 controls out there and a total of 1780 points up for grabs.

GREMLINS

There were a few gremlins out on the course. As I always say in the briefing, if you find something weird out there, don’t hunt, move on and let me know about it afterwards. With 49 controls out there, even though I aim for zero errors, they can happen.

The first was #49 where the green cement cylinder is no longer there. Although I generally select controls that are permanent fixtures, I can’t resist something a little more fun and in the time that this control was ‘placed’ the large green cylinder was removed (only the two white ones remain) and the house has almost been completed.

I haven’t been out to confirm but I think I must have placed the control for #35 on the wrong block – incorrect by one road. I had the answer down as being a blue wall, but 17 of the 18 pairs who went to this control said it was a white wall. The one pair who got the ‘correct’ answer must have done what I did. I have awarded the points to these pairs.

Control #31 – seems people couldn’t decide whether the wall was white or grey but looking at the stats… 23 pairs went to this control. 19 said it was white, 2 said it was grey and two were uncertain. I’ve kept the answer as white and the scores stay as is.

Control #45 The lights on the wall at house #44. Seems that the house number is #45… 13 pairs went to this control and all got it correct, bar one pair.

Palm trees at control #39… My control circle was a little South of the correct location. The answer was 2 – the two palm trees together on the corner. Little did I know that there were other palm trees around. I didn’t even notice them. Serves me right for peeking at the palm trees from the park instead of checking out the area around them too! If people said 4, they also got the points.

It is always important to remember that I try to look for things that will be visually clear to you at night. I’m scouting during the day but even so remember that the feature should be clear. The centre of the control circle is the control location, it is appropriately placed on the map indicating placement on the block and also the side of the road and the item will never be hidden behind a wall.

RESULTS

For me, Metrogaine Jo’burg events are about utilising our suburbs for more than driving through and as access to our houses into which we lock ourselves. As one participant, Bronwyn Hemer, said afterwards, “I enjoyed being out and about last night in a suburb that has so many people walking around at night. It reminded me of my childhood.”

As someone who lacks sentimentality and throws away 98% of the medals and trophies I receive at races, these won’t ever be included in Metrogaine Jo’burg events. For me, taking part in any event is about the sport, the race, the challenge. Not about stuff. That’s also why Metrogaine Jo’burg can keep its low entry fee of R45pp, which covers slapbands and maps and keeps the event self-sufficient, not requiring sponsorship.

The control sheet marking process is improving with each event but it still remains a time-consuming, manual process. I have an improved idea for the next one, which will be in April 2012. This should speed up the process dramatically. Post-event, I do go through every single one to check marking and adding. As a result, some results have changed slightly.

Because of this, the whole results aspect of Metrogaine Jo’burg is low-key. People are encouraged to hang around afterwards to socialise and the results string goes up with control sheets added as they’re marked – participants get an idea of their placing.

Winners in the categories on each course get free entry to the next event. For this event I have two gifts and free entries for the pairs who collected the least number of points (excluding penalties) and most value for money (longest time out there).

90-minutes

• First male pair (overall winner: )Nathan Thompson & Michael Crone
• First mixed pair: Jane Swarbreck & Anthony Mundy-Castle
• First female pair: Lauren Freemantle & Zoe Goodbrand

One-hour course

• First female pair (overall winner): Sarah Pope & Magi Lingnau
• First male pair: Andrew Wiggett & Caroline Wiggett
• First male pair: Patrick de Jongh & Ryan Burger

Lowest point score: Jonty Pile & Jacqui Glover (40 points on the one-hour course; first timers – they’ll get better with practise, which is why they get a free entry too)

Most value for money: Kim van Der Lith & Esti Louw (they spent 1h50 on the 1h30 course)

Full results are available here. (Excel file)

THANKS

Thanks first to you, the enthusiastic participants who have taken to metrogaining like a duck to water. I’d like to encourage you to consider entering the annual foot and mtb rogaine next year (too late for this year’s event, which happens this coming weekend) and also regular orienteering events. The annual rogaine is held  in forests with the longest course being limited to eight hours for the foot rogaine and five hours for the MTB rogaine. Information on the sport of orienteering is available on www.orienteering.co.za.

Fred Richardson and his son, Mike, assisted with control placements; Ray Chaplin accompanied me on one of the scouting outings.

On the night, Nico van Hoepen came through and assisted with finish times; Ray and Fred took on the task of marking control sheets. Mike ran between the finish and the markers; Pam handed out cupcakes and stapled results… many hands make light work. Thank you.

Photos from Metrogaine Jo’burg, Norwood are available on Fred’s Facebook page.

Details for the next event (11 April 2012) will be available on this page on www.AR.co.za.