We were quick onto the bike for what was going to be a tough 17km.  I especially struggled with the rocks and the steep hills (usually at the same time!). We couldn’t escape from a male pair that seemed to have memorized the map at the start. They were flying along and didn’t seem to ever look at the map. Thanks to Alex’s spot on navigation we arrived back into transition first just in front of them .

Another quick (closely monitored by Brian) transition got us out onto the run quite a while before the other teams. And finally it was our race, our pace and our route! We did a bit of extra hill training repeats when we overshot CP2.  But back on track Alex made some good route choices and we pulled a bit of a lead. We climbed a game fence for a compulsory Waypoint on our way to CP5.  The big farm house where CP5 was proved much more difficult than one would think to find. We then climbed up the Koppie where the abseil was at the first Diamond Dash race and down the other side spotting some of the clues that we managed to miss while maintaining our can’t-even-breathe pace on the first leg.

On this leg we came across a herd of wildebeest as they dashed down the hill behind us.  I was suddenly worried that it was Stephan and co. closing in on us.  Just having recovered from the wildebeest fright we almost ran straight into 2 giraffe. Other sightings included Zebra and Springbok. The transition area was then in sight which forced everything out of our legs. My excitement at reaching transition and getting out of the heat (even if just for a moment) was dashed as Brian shouted – ‘Quick transition guys’.

First back into transition and first out for the last leg – a marked mountain bike leg. With no cycle computer in our team this leg was interesting with no way of answering my ‘how much further’ questions.  We pushed on.  Up another hill.  Down some single track. Gijima advertised ‘Brand new single track’ which translates to a portion of the veld where the grass has been trimmed. This should not be attempted on a hardtail – cramp is inevitable.  The ride was 19 km; it felt like 29.  We ended off with a compulsory floating bridge crossing made exciting by a couple of uneven sections.

We finished first only having been passed by a solo racer, in the last bit of the last leg, who could cycle much faster than me.  No thanks to me, but rather to Alex for his navigation and Brian the strong-as-an-ox teammate and pacesetter.

A tough race. A strong field. A hot Highveld winters day. Great team. Lots of happy AR faces. Cold coke and hamburgers at the finish. Is there any other way you would want to spend a Saturday?

Author: Jane Swarbreck | Team Red Ants | Diamond Dash #2, 17 July 2010

• Paddle:  11pm, portaging the k2 and the Fluid (plastic, double kayak) to the river (not mentioning that we initially walked past the river in excitement…), paddling upstream in the dark and mist, not easy to see which way the river was turning.  Sufficiently insulated against the cold… so far… 
• Hike: Grabbing a few checkpoints with ease, navigated by Ari and Lisa, all the teams still close together.  Seeing an exited Hardy (race organiser) at the mud- ruins checkpoint practically bouncing up an down with excitement at seeing us enjoying the race.
• Paddle: Paddling down river, ended up in a deadend at a stage with a couple of other teams (not easy turning five boats around in a small space… in the dark), being stuck in a converging reed bed, joined by a few other boats and having to heave our boats over into the main channel. No swimming yet, though Ari and Larry were in waist-high due to a bump from another boat. 
• Bike: After a quick transition and some new race instructions, we’re onto the bikes… Easy cycle, though very cold, ziplock bags in our shoes (to prevent losing our toes due to frostbite) and all our warm clothes on our backs. Ari kicked our butts on the cycle, we had a great time, munching happily away on everything we’d packed. 
• Hike:  More race instructions and up into the kloof we go, over fallen trees, past a waterfall, over huge boulders, up and up and up, heeding Hardy’s warning not to dislodge anything… (avalanche!). Caught up with other teams at the top, also looking for checkpoint 9, ending up seeing the sun rise from the top of the mountain, enabling us to finally understand the topography and the probable location of the CP. Finding CP9 after going down into a severely steep valley and up the other side, gave us all new hope and spread out the teams again. Larry started to sing and hum some tunes, giving the impression that he was not tired at all (…mmmh…maybe he WASN’T tired at all….). The photo below shows us climbing up the kloof and posing in the sun’s first light (ignore the smiling, it is not always a true reflection of our feelings, we were merely trying to be photogenic).

Kloofing, Nadine & Ari

Team LAVA: Ari, Nadine, Lisa and Larry

• Bike:  Another enjoyable cycle, finding the checkpoints easily and enjoying being able to sit down again.   We got the Ari back! After he missed his pre-dawn curling up under a tree, which he swore he would do. We found ourselves having cycled almost off the map [missed a turn-off ] at a stage but quickly turned around the 1.4km we went too far on.  At this stage Larry was doing his best to overtake Ari and Lisa and I had some girl-chat about mountain bikes, gear and avoiding blisters etc.
•  Paddle:  The paddling downstream was exhausting, besides the dunking Lisa and I got at the first rapid at approx. 8am on the winter’s morning. She would explain  it as a combination of Larry and Ari being in front of us and her effort to slow us down going into the rapid [I took the rapid at a VERY bad angle - Lisa], while my explanation would just be that I had my paddle in on the wrong side of the boat when the current grabbed us, twisting and then capsizing the k2, leaving us to be fished out of the freezing cold river by a worried looking Larry.  I saw that same worried face later on down river, when Larry and Ari stood shivering on the bank after an unplanned swim themselves.  Lisa quickly pointed out to me the ‘tongue’ of water to stick to in a rapid and we did no further swimming through the rapids.  The portaging of the boats (with severely bruised shoulders) around low bridges saw me and Lisa having to climb a fence at a stage and, later on, idling in a reed bed worrying our heads off, waiting for the arrival of Larry and Ari, not knowing whether they have capsized or drowned or worse.  The two gents did an outstanding job of handling the Fluid in choppy waters and the hard rowing they had to do. We were all relieved when the end was in sight.  Close to the last river-CP, we saw ourselves in a situation where we could either portage the boat around a drop-off in the river and paddle to the CP, or just plain portage the boats all the way to the CP.  We took the second option. 
• Hike: Spirits were quite high in the transition after having something to eat and donning dry clothes and socks.  We headed out to find the last few CPs.  Doing a lot of climbing up koppies and down valleys, through long grass and hidden boulders had us contemplating which was worse: UP or DOWN.  Answer: BOTH.  Lisa got the nickname of ‘Pink Dassie’ due to her climbing abilities and her pink shirt sometimes the only dot of colour up on the mountainside as her pace saw the rest of us falling behind. Oh, and Larry started singing again, that definitely meant that he was NOT tired.  After clipping the last CP, we had the knowledge of only ONE  KILOMETRE HORIZONTAL DISTANCE to go to the finish.  Not including the decent that we had to make (vertical distance). But surviving that we had a quick jog to the finish in 18 hours 10min. Truly exhilarating! Of the 12 teams, only 2 teams managed to finish the full course and clip all the CPs, of which we were the second. The rest of the teams were put on a shorter version after having missed a time cut-off.  But it is assured, that all the teams definitely enjoyed the race.  

From my side, I’m definitely crazy enough to do something like this again…

Heading out on the last hike: Ari, Nadine & Larry

 Author: Nadine Nunes, Team LAVA | Ystervark, 9-10 July 2010

Compulsory Disclaimer:

So, let’s be honest to ourselves: The thought of paddling in the middle of night, in the middle of winter did not exactly *warm *me up to the prospect of doing this race. But Hardy’s promise of ‘old school adventure racing’ (shudder running down my spine at the prospect of it) reminded a very race-rusty Team A2A that this is exactly the crazy kind of thing that Mr Darron Raw would dream up for Swazi X – which immediately brought us to the conclusion that doing this race should be considered compulsory Swazi race
preparation… and besides – it’s a club race for novices: a mild introduction into the niceties of AR – right? Errr – not quite!

Team A2A had a nightmare of a first paddling leg, with the low levels of visibility not helping one bit – we swam twice on our way to the first transition, ran up and down a mountain soaked to the bone and then took another swim on our way back, with some splendid bush-wacking portages thrown into the mix.

Warning to novices and reminder to experienced racers: Never make any assumptions about the difficulty level of a race based upon ’subjective’ pre-race perceptions or even advice from experienced AR friends…

For example: Even though the race was said to be geared towards novice racers – if you are not a river-proficient paddler, then paddling at night on a river is going to be extremely tough and probably very dangerous! You should never assume that you will be safe and that it should be reasonably do-able, just because you are in a race environment. Adventure racing is a dangerous sport, and the race organisers cannot watch over your shoulders every second of the race. You are responsible for your own safety,
as well as that of your team mates. This should always be your first consideration. There is also no grading system for the difficulty levels of adventure racing – it is highly subjective.

And this is where my feedback comes in to the race organisers: our team was one of the ‘more experienced’ teams in the field… I am soooo glad this was not my first adventure race, because it was really, really tough. Be careful that your years of experience do not taint your perception of the difficulty level that you’re putting out there into the field.

Adventure racing in Gauteng often becomes glorified off-road duathlons due to our limited access to safe rivers and open water to paddle on. Congratulations and thank you to the race organisers for coming up with a race location that included this into the mix. We are so direly in need of this in Gauteng.

Tip / Reminder nr 2: Paddling is one of the major disciplines in adventure racing – and you cannot afford to neglect it if you
want your team to perform well in a long-distance AR. Strong paddling skills might just give you that competitive edge in a race.

Back in transition, it was nearly daybreak and we realised with dismay that we hadn’t even progressed a third of the length of the race during the course of the night. It took all our will power and determination to motivate us back into the cold for the next leg of the race.

Tip / reminder nr 3: Once you’ve got all the racing disciplines under the belt, you need to realise that you need a seriously strong mindset to succeed in adventure racing. Race leg distances can sometimes be misleading, and when things start to go wrong you need to be able to dig deep and stay focused on the bigger picture. If your 10km hike turns into a 3 hour slog, don’t give up. Support your team mates by staying positive (being especially supportive towards the navigator, even though you think he needs to be sacked). Take time to rest and regroup.

Our perseverance was rewarded by a spectacular sunrise. Ultimately motivated by the heat of the sun and the living sensation returning to our cold limbs, we decided to grab the race by the scruff of its neck and finish it!

Arriving at the bike / paddle transition, we finally figured out what the Hoonatand was all about: having to make the very difficult decision of taking the chicken run to bike back to race start, or facing 15k’s of paddling again. We bravely undertook to face the waters again (with some surprising good luck over the first few rapids – awesome stuff!!) – but after having been spitted out by the river a few times and facing inpenetrable portaging sections, we realised that we would be spending more time hanging on to our capsized boats / or bush-whack portaging – with the prospect of never seeing the river again – than actually paddling down the
river and we reluctantly returned to our bikes (an extra 3k hike) and raced back on our bikes to transition for the final trekking leg.

Final tip / reminder then: Back at race start we learnt that only 3 /4 teams were still doing the official race distance at this point. Had we forced ourselves to finish the paddle and continued into the night with our final trekking leg, we would have probably finished in a good position overall. I’ve learned over the years, and was again reminded of this, that strange things happen in Adventure Races. The race isn’t over until you cross the finish line and despite the fact that you may think that your team isn’t doing too well, you do not know what the others are going through and your team may be doing much better than you thought!

One element that we found lacking though was some good mountain biking sections – especially coming from the Dark n Dirty crowd. but all in all we had some excellent pre-Swazi training. Thanks a million for being out there in the bushes and giving us the  opportunity to have a good time and put in some quality training we wouldn’t otherwise have been able to. So, herewith then congratulations to the Tshwane AR club team for coming up with a race combining some of the tougher elements of AR racing within the confined space of 60km’s of racing! That is quiet an impressive feat. Not to mention the fantastic atmosphere with fires, coffee, welcoming smiles and great sponsors!

Author: Adele Esterhuizen | Team A2A | Ystervark en Hoona Tand | 9-10 July 2010 | Wilge River, near Verena

Despite its small size and publicity this Ystervark and Hooona Tand took us through some spectacular places and provided a sustained challenge both on the river and in the mountains. It matched if not exceeded my experience on much bigger races. As I write this report my body has post race aches and pains associated with more prestigious endurance events yet it was only a 17 hour effort.

Clinton and Thursia Hardenberg and their supporters – and there must surely have been many – put on a well planned and executed event.

I have hope, and faith, that Clinton will take over the role that Darron Raw and the Swazi have played the past ten years feeding our needs. Aside from enthusiasm and a keen sense of adventure he also has those key attributes needed by a race director : a streak of cruelty and the ability to lie with a straight face about what lies ahead.

I just hope the big sponsors wake up in time before someone else takes the rights to this jewel of the future.

RACE REPORT:

Team : Bloed en OMO
Liesl “Chicken Licken” Hanekom
Piet “Kentucky Fried Hooona” Lombard
Jan “Mr Rooster” Bezuidenhout
Abel “Plaashooona ” van der Merwe

Once again Bloed en OMO sports two novices.

In the spirit of the new democratic SA, Plaashoona and Mr Rooster adopt the attitude that it is potential that counts not qualifications as regards Chicken Licken not being an experienced  mountain biker. While we wait for the start, Kentucky takes her for a quick orientation spin around the parking area where she learns about gears and night riding.

Phase 1: Paddle, Hike, paddle
An hour before midnight we’re off, boats on backs down to the Wilge for a quick upstream paddle, some foot borne CPs then a paddle back to the camp.

Plaashooona and Mr Rooster survive the launch and with clashing paddles catch up to Kentucky and Chicken Licken who are patiently idling up ahead.

Then it sinks in – either we are in front or we’ve headed in wrong direction. Some quick calculations confirm the former. D@#$&, now we have noone to follow and Plaashooona must, for the first time, do some serious navigating. This is clearly punishment for remarks in earlier reports about “teams rushing about like headless chickens at the start”.

The paddling turns out to even tougher than expected. Drifts of mist reflect our headlamps back like camera flashes, making reed covered backs difficult to see. Each twist in the river is a surprise event resulting in frantic paddling and screams of turn, turn.

Then the river becomes constricted into a narrow, fast flowing channel, dotted with clumps of reed and submerged tree branches. The Mr Rooster and Plaashoona pair takes strain. Mr Rooster having zero river and almost zero flat water experience, while Plaashooona lacks K2 coordinating skills. Despite all the shouting and screaming we tip over, desperately clutching paddles and boat as the river spits us back downstream. Eventually we’re back in the calmer water and miraculously find a foothold amongst the reeds.

Chickens is not ducks. Water does not run off their backs. Or bellies. And they smell when wet.

Life has suddenly become serious as hypothermia is not friendly and the many layers of warm clothing have turned into a sudden mass that steams when eventually stripped off at the transition.

To our surprise we find TA1 and we set off for CP1 just as the kayaks of the hounds reach shore. A trail of lights follow us to CP2, CP3 and CP4. Back at the kayaks our PFDs have sheen of ice crystals.

Plaashooona swims three times and Mr Rooster four times on the way back – the fourth on the account of Plaashooona launching the boat before Mr Rooster is properly seated.

A pre-requisite of Bloed en OMO membership is to forgive easily.

We arrive at CP5 just ahead of Land Cruiser to be informed that we are the first team in. Then I remember the old wisdom : “If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something”.

Carrying the K2 laden with wet clothes the 1 km back to the start, the missing bit comes to me: we’re getting competitive and losing our sense of fun.

Phase 2: Bike, hike and bike
So we have a leisurely transition. Kentucky and Chicken Licken take a hot shower while Plaashooona huddles under a blanket at the fire waiting for feeling to return to various appendages. Mr Rooster amuses himself by looking for dry socks.

An hour later, the hounds have all gone, and we leave camp for an easy MTB to CP6 and TA3 – except that our stupid navigator in one of his ever more frequent episodes of confusion converts one centimetre of map to 1 km on the ground and we hurtle past a 5.1 km turn off.

I shudder to think where Bloed and OMO would have ended up had there been a turn off at 10,2 km. But, with some fortunate assistance we recover and find TA3 and continue on foot to CP7 which is easily found at the waterfall.

CP8, a “kloof” is more difficult to find since the heading indicated by the compass yields a steep climb so we veer to the left towards a stream which must surely be more in keeping with a kloof. But the stream flows uphill according to our interpretation of the map.

Back at CP8 Plaashoona pulls out his secret weapon – a philatelist’s magnifying glass complete with built in LED lamp. The team is awed. Except that it is water logged despite the Ziploc bag. A few shakes and it works but the map is too coarse to yield any clues about a kloof. Kentucky breaks ranks and heads uphill and finds the kloof.

The kloof is a deep rift in the mountainside with shear granite sides higher than our lamps can reach. Gut feel tells me it must be beautiful and a privilege to be climbing it. It’s a hard and relentless scramble of several hundred meters – in the vertical dimension.

We eventually break out into the open roof of the mountain, steam pouring out our collars. Where now? There is no obvious “spur” and we must surely have covered the sufficient distance to have reached CP8. Indeed, we are disappointed to not be face to face with CP8.

The problem with kloofing – especially kloofs that don’t show distinctly on a map – is that aside from obscuring all distant reference points, they force one in a direction which is not necessarily that of the next CP so that when you exit you do not have the foggiest idea were you are in relation to the two CPs or how much directional and distance adjustment is required.

Seconds later groups of lights, four here, eight there, even groups of twelve, come bobbing up out of off the black void of the valley like the torches of Amazonian tribesmen looking for heads to shrink or New England villagers intent on witch burning.

Minutes later, satisfied we also do not know where the h#@$ we are, they disappear in the direction of a slither of moon and murky red glow of the coming sunrise. They all head for a deep valley. On the other hand, our instinct is to keep to the ridge line in search of the so called spur. We scoff some snacks and follow them down, at discretely heading 30 deg to their left so they don’t feel we are following.

The night air is broken by the sound of breaking branches and black jacks being wrenched from their pods.

Then Chicken Licken barely spots a flickering red lamp straight ahead, half way up the next mountain side. It’s in the last place I would have expected a spur and definitely much further away from CP7 than expected. It must obviously be CP10.

When we get there its CP9. CP10 is easily found in the expected place. Daylight, as always, makes a massive difference to navigation.

Back at TA3 we re-mount the bikes for a tra-la-la ride to TA4 and our waiting kayaks at the caravan park.

Phase 4 : Long Paddle
The third paddle leg includes numerous rapids and suchlike. This proves too much for Mr Rooster and Plaashooona who swim at least four times before they work out a winning strategy.

B&O catch up to team Lava idling on the river bank. Later, at CP15, we cruise past a rather dispirited team Land Cruiser.

Confidence at a maximum we take on the final weir and make it through with a crunch and a shout. Once again it’s a 1 km portage back to camp. This, I thought, was a cruel touch but we are chirpy, our clothes almost dry and the sun is shining warmly on our backs.

At the final transition we discover that Bloed en OMO are once again the leading (official) team. Drastic action is required as this could do irreparable damage to our reputation and result in unrelenting pressure in future races.

So, we have some food and tidy up our campsite while Plaashooona thinks.

Phase 5: Hike
B&O stroll out on the final hiking leg, strategy in place, Plaashooona drops a few cutting remarks at the clearly broken Land Cruiser encampment about their manliness and general state of hygiene. Some aspersions are also cast about expecting a better performance from a team that includes an ex Bloed en OMO member.

Twenty minutes later they came trotting past pretending nonchalance. We neglect to tell them we plan to call it a day at CP17 and watch them suffer into the distance. At CP17, we decide to bag CP18 just for the fun of it.

At CP18 it takes discipline to turn around as we know CP19 and CP20 are just over the mountain and the horizontal distance back to the finish is hardly more than that of going back. Minutes later we wish Lava well on their journey.

PS : Jokes aside, our respects to Land Cruiser and Lava. The Bloed en OMO batteries were rapidly running flat at the end. Hats off also to the teams who tackled the last stage in the dark.

Lastly :
- why did the hooona cross the road?
- – to clip the CP!

Author: Abel van der Merwe | Team: Bloed & Omo | 9-10 July 2010 | Wilge River, near Verena, NW Prov.

Having studied the course book after registration, and seeing that Leg 1 was a 14km paddle, we reckoned that the race would start at leg 2 for us… Paddling has never been our team’s strong point, and coming into this race very well rested on the paddling front we knew that we may be some way off the leaders at the end of leg 1.

We were in about 5^th place approaching CP3 on the paddle where we would pick up Gert again having dropped him off to do a short run from CP 1 to CP 3 whilst Nicky and paddled the winding river to CP 3. As luck would have it the 4 teams ahead for us, (and some behind us) decided that paddling all the way to CP3 was not a option, so they all disembarked their vessels and ran to CP 3 to pick their other team mate up… bad plan. Instructions said to PADDLE to CP 3, so when they arrived on foot, the marshal promptly sent them back to the boats to paddle there. Hence, we did a quick field jumper and arrived at CP 3 in front. J

The paddle back to T1 from there was a little easier as the paddling muscles finally found their “muscle memory”! However despite this we were still passed by a couple of boats, the male trio of Team Olympus being one of them.

Back on dry land and chasing Olympus we mounted our bikes and headed to T2, to start the 13km hike.  Our plan from the outset was to try and get the hike done before darkness fell, but that was hard to plan up-front as we had not plotted the hike CP’s yet, and we did not know how technical the hike may be. We arrived at T2 with Olympus, plotted our route and left before 3^rd place arrived. The hike was fairly easy going and uneventful as we pushed hard to be off the mountain before sunset. Gert started getting some serious stomach trouble on the hike, and we were concerned as we still had a good part 8 hours of racing left. Needless to say, Gert sucked it up like only he knows how, downed a litre of rehydrate and was back on track!

Having hiked in the vicinity (or with) Team Olympus most of the way, we both strolled into transition again just before sunset. This worked out really well for us, as we still had 20 mins or-so on the next bike leg before the lights went out and our bike lights came on.

Leg 4 was a 30km MTB to the start of the next paddling leg, and with Gert seeming to have recovered we were moving along well. Olympus was a few hundred meters ahead of us the whole time, and we spotted their lights on a couple of occasions, which acted as a good incentive to try and catch them! Catch them we never did, but we managed to get in to T3 just as they were leaving to paddle away.

Arriving back the start/ finish/ T1 we grabbed the Orienteering Google map and set out with Olympus into the Kungwini Estate darkness. We got thought the orienteering without incident, except having to scale a minor cliff on the route back from OP6 to our boats. Olympus managed to find another route and snuck away in the dark.

Reunited with our boats after a slug of hot coffee at the transition we headed off back over the dam to our bikes at T3. After getting warm at the fire at T3 and readying ourselves for a 50km MTB, we left transition (or rather left the warmth of the fire) and nearly froze… It was only 9pm by then but already bitterly cold. Gert, being Gert, only had short finger gloves and short cycling pants, and I thought I was cold… well, nuf said!

In AR there is one thing that you have to focus on when things are going pear-shaped, and that’s team work. Years of bush-whacking and pushing our bodies beyond what we thought was possible may never have been achieved without team work, and understanding. Gert was taking a bit of strain having dehydrated earlier in the race with stomach issues, so we all really needed to dig deep as a team and push on to T4 and a change of discipline. Olympus was still tantalizingly close ahead of us all the time and we could not let them slip away.

It is sometimes amazing how a change of discipline can lift your spirit again, and as we headed out on the last hike to the abseil that’s exactly what happened! Gert was back to his old machine self and we knew we were almost home… We arrived into T4 off the bikes at the same time as Olympus after catching them just before CP20, so we knew they would also be pushing the last hike hard. The Nav was OK, except we inspected the wrong “big tree” at CP 23 before we found the right one… What a beautiful hike it was, hiking most of it by full-moonlight and not relying at all on our headlamps.

As we arrived to do the abseil, we saw the Olympus lights coming over the ridge to the north towards CP24 and we knew the race was not over yet, we still had the small task of a 2km paddle at 2 in the morning. Fun huh? The abseil was spectacular, and under the full moon it was even more special with the glowing rocks all around us! At the end of many hours of suffering you realize why we come back time and time again. This night was one of those moments we will always remember! Yes, we do lose a whole lot of brain cells in the process which severely effects reasoning post-race, but what’s more fun than losing them doing AR?!

With a short run from the abseil to T5 and one last paddle to the finish, we crossed to finish line 1^st overall at 2:37am to a roaring fire and warm coffee! (O, and a warm shower!) Remind me why I do this again?? Well done to Team Olympus who were only 17 mins behind us in the end. If it wasn’t for you guys, we would have taken it a whole lot more relaxed and never have chased so hard! 

The whole team from Kinetic Gear pulled out all the stops to put on one of the best races I have ever done, thanks so much to all who were involved with putting this master class together, from the race organises, Heidi and Stephan to the marshals, sponsors and the Oom cooking breakfast. THANK YOU! 

I would love to thank our sponsors, but we don’t have any, so we’ll just thank our parents instead! Thanks folks! J

Until the next one, remember, it’s only 33% physical; the rest is mental and team work. You can do anything if you try! See you out there (never lost I hope…)

Here are some stats of our race: (sorry, I love figures and stats!)

Leg 1: Kayak 14km. Time: 1hr 51mins
Leg 2: MTB 10km. Time: 30mins
Leg 3: Hike 13km. Time: 1hr 44mins
Leg 4: MTB 30km. Time: 1hr 26mins
Leg 5: Kayak 3km. Time: 24min
Leg 6: Orienteering 7km. Time: 1hr 07mins
Leg 7: Kayak 3km. Time: 26mins
Leg 8: MTB 50km. Time: 3hrs 05mins
Leg 9: Hike/ Abseil 6km. Time: 1hr 49mins
Leg 10: Kayak 2km. 17min

Total transition time: 58 mins

Total race time: 13hrs 37mins.

Check out the Google Earth track (.kmz file) for their route.

By Brian Gardner | Team Red Ants | Kinetic Full Moon, Bronkhorstspruit, 26-27 June 2010

Thanks to Adrian and Greg for racing with me you guys are great to race with. Six years ago I weighed 104 Kg and could not have contemplated mixing it up at the front of the field in an Adventure Race in fact at the time I did not even know what AR was. Now I get to race with my son and awesome friends.

Leg 1 – 14km paddle on a plastic three up on a dam! You are cramped and a proper paddle stroke is impossible. We managed better than most dropped Greg of for the run and continued to a point where it seemed quicker to run and swim to CP2 bad mistake as we were sent back by the marshal to return with the plastic. This got us soaked and cost us time. The race instructions clearly state paddle to CP2.

Leg 2 – 10km Cycle uneventful.

Leg 3 – 13km Hike. Took a while for me to get my legs warmed up and working properly. Adrian’s nav was spot on. I am glad we found the quarry in Daylight!! Took a while in transition to get kitted up for the cold night ahead.

Leg 4 – 30km Cycle. Uneventful thanks to Adrian’s Nav. Adrian took fall 1 in a rut while looking at his map board. Adrian shouted a warning that there was a car coming from behind only to be overtaken by Cyanosis going at least 5 km / h faster than we were. Just before transitions they came flying past from the front going back to a CP they missed. Greg picked up a puncture just before transitions which we fixed before we paddled as we knew we would be frozen and not in the mood when we returned.

Leg 5 – 3 km paddle easier than first paddle as I could lean back against the dry bag with our kit strapped to the back of the plastic. We were met by Susan who made us hot chocolate what a treat thanks.

Leg 6 – 7km Orienteering. Not our strong point yet struggled with OP3 ended up on the wrong side of the fence and had to back track. We collected every black jack in the area though, they like Powerstrech tights.

Leg 7 – 3 km paddle. Back to bikes it was now properly cold the fire was most welcome to defrost when we got there Adrian did not have his warm tights so he soldiered on in just his cycling shorts!

Leg 8 – 50 km Cycle. Cold very cold fingers and toes took strain. Stopped to warm up at the guard hut while we re-arranged our map. Adrian took fall 2 & 3 a bit harder this time. All well up to CP 20 then the problem

We could not find a way through to ( T4 ) so we hiked our bikes up and over the mountain to arrive at ( T4 ) only for Kobus to tell us we were at T5. Adrian had not plotted T4 on our map! Kobus pointed us in the right direction and off we went to T4. Moral two people check your map twice with the race instruction book.

Leg 9 – 6 km Hike / Abseil. CP21 was further downstream than on the map Heidi found us on the bridge and pointed us in the right direction Luckily it was still dark and we found the flashing light. Greg had fight with the sleep monster and can now say he can walk and sleep at the same time. CP23 Big Tree for the record there were quite a few big trees!! Eventually we found it. The abseil was great.

Leg 10 – 2km Paddle. It was just light there was a light wind from the front and we were finished.

The finish was a welcome sight then a hot shower and kit sort out and Adrian rushed of back to Bloem to watch the England Germany game.

Lessons learnt

You can not have enough warm clothes.

I  have not yet found the solution to cold toes and fingers.

Adventure Racing = Navigation Adrian’s nav made this race a pleasure but you cannot navigate to a point you have not put on your map! Check and check again to avoid costly mistakes.

Look at how the race unfolded over the duration of the event (see results on www.kineticgear.co.za – look at the times between teams Hawkstone, Olympus, First Ascent Cyanosis and Gijima)

Check out the route we followed by following this link. Unfortunately it stopped recording at T5 so the final paddle back to the start is not included. I love the i-GotU logger it makes for really interesting reflection on the race and at 20 grams it is a piece of kit I don’t mind Greg carrying.

http://www.a-trip.com/tracks/view/53459

By Alec Alvierinos | Team Hawkstone | Kinetic Full Moon, Bronkhorstspruit, 26-27 June 2010

These were the things that stood out for me:

Paddle leg – unscheduled swim

So we’re on the first paddle leg, headed for the finish and making good progress. I could count 15 or 16 boats ahead of us. For a while the boat had seemed unmanageable and I was battling to keep it straight (I was at the back, paddle steering). It also felt like the boat was leaning to the left. We were getting more water in the seats, which we thought was due to the waves from the speed boats. Within a short space of time we were really getting unstable and we couldn’t figure out what was wrong and why there had been this sudden change – afterall, these Fluid sit-on-tops are as stable as anything. And then a speedboat wave hit us and we flipped over!

Brrr… the water was freezing. We battled to flip the boat over – it was so heavy. We climbed on board again and tried to paddle – we could barely sit upright and within moments were back in the water. We flipped the boat upright again, waving and whistling for the nearby boat.

Lauren’s team passed nearby and we shouted our race number so that they could report our troubles to the race HQ. With a splash we were then back in the water and had realised that our craft, which was floating almost below the water surface now, was water-filled. With me lying across the back, Steven almost in my lap and only Motlatsi paddling – gently, we limped, shivering, to shore. Litres of water gushed from the kayak’s drainage hole. I’m not sure how the water got in because the hatches were all so well sealed they were a battle to open.

With the boat emptied we raced, ice cold, to the finish area. Heidi and Stephan immediately swopped out our kayak for another for the night-time paddle.

We lost loads of places with this swim but made up plenty on the next cycle leg. I’m not sure how as the navigation seemed straight forward; perhaps people got stuck on funny little roads between houses?

Night paddle

After a good 30-odd kilometre cycle, we reached the night paddle spot on the dam; and it was cold down there (Heidi told us on the other side that it was 1C at this spot!). We were really worried about being freezing on the water. I climbed into a black garbage bag, wearing it like a skirt so that I wouldn’t get my bottom wet; and I used another like a vest, putting it under my PDF. On my legs I had waterproof pants over my thermal tights. On my hand? Just my regular half-finger cycle gloves with paddle mitts on the paddle shaft. With a Buff on my head and another around my neck I was ready to go. Motlatsi, like me, went for the waterproof pants. I can’t remember who did what with garbage bags. Steven left his cycle shoes with our bike stuff, knowing he’d get his run shoes from his crate on the other side. Yes, he got cold feet – very cold feet.

The water was superb – flat, calm, not too cold (especially as we were paddling hard) and beautiful under the full moon.

Back in the big tent with our crates we prepared for the orienteering run within the Estate. ARer Susan Sloane was there as a helper, bringing racers steaming cups of hot chocolate, tea and coffee (thank you Susan).

Orienteering run – disorientated!

We could collect the seven orienteering points in any order; we started from OP1. We ascended the hill on the road, en route to OP2, OP3 and OP4. Mmm… and this is where I made a big mistake. We got to the ‘traffic circle’ and the direction just didn’t make sense. Looked weird, like a new road had been added to our right. I just couldn’t reason it. We proceeded up the hill, took the road to our right. It didn’t fit what I thought it should. Luckily distances were relatively short. I was very confused. I passed the map on to Motlatsi and Steven, who had it figured out and they got us to OP3 and OP4.

As for OP2, our reasoning again flew out the window and without going into too much detail we were all not with the programme and so we lost a lot of time. After OP5 I got the map back and was now back with it. We nailed OP6 and OP7 quick-quick.

Needless to say, this little activity took us far, far longer than it should have. Irritating and purely my own stupidity and error. Grrrr…

Thenit was back across the dam to the fire on the other side. Steven’s feet really froze this time!

Long 50km cycle – like a horse bolting for home

Although this cycle leg, at 50km, seems long, the terrain was really good. Excellent quality dirt roads with smooth strips that shone in the moonlight. I haven’t ridden at night for way too long and it was actually pretty neat, especially with the full moon the whole night. As I’d been so warm and snug in my black garbage bag vest during the paddle that I kept it on for the cycle too.

After the paddle I had put on dry socks as a treat. I then put my feet into large sandwich bags and then into my wet trail shoes, to prevent the chill from the wind. Worked like a bomb! On my hands I had my half-finger cycle gloves and Gore windstopper mittens. The latter are not warm and fluffy – they just help to keep out the wind. As an additional precaution, I slipped my fingers into a sandwich bag and then into the mittens. Gotta love it! This worked really well too. Just call me Ms Plastic.

Again I made a big bloops! I had only drawn in T5 and not T4, which was nearby. So leaving the last CP on the cycle, we turned left and headed into the Bonamanzi recreation place-thing where the map showed a road along the river that would link to T5. We asked the guy at the gate if other cyclists had come through. He said they had; and we saw tracks too. Well, what we discovered is that this road didn’t exist. On leaving the place we asked the guard if the people who had come in had also come out. He said yes. We asked why he didn’t say so the first time. “You didn’t ask,” he replied. True.

So, approaching T5, we encountered T4. Stephan pointed out my error – one Adrian had made too. So silly. And this is the thing that I like about AR and that has kept me in this sport for over a decade. It is a leveller. No matter what your proficiency or experience, there’s always the opportunity to make mistakes.

The final foot orienteering, abseil and short paddle were, fortunately, without incident.

Super teammies

My teammates, Steven and Motlatsi, were gems. And best of all, even with my two bloopses they didn’t once tell me that I was a moron and instead helped to figure out the problem. We would still be trapped in the Estate on the O section if it wasn’t for their sound reasoning!

Importantly, all CPs were in the correct location – a sign of good organisation and attention. Also, the CPs were all obvious – on roads, at junctions, on bridges. Nothing hidden. Afterall, this is not orienteering, it is adventure racing. In orienteering we like them to be hidden for the challenge (also O maps have sufficient detail, topographical maps don’t); in adventure racing the challenge is between A and B, not at B.

The terrain was also well chosen; not technical on foot or bike – just right for this event.

I’ve been out of practise with through the night multidiscipline racing (Abu Dhabi only has night trekking and I’m used to being on foot at night) and it was a delight. My growing fears pre-race about freezing to death were really unfounded. The key to success was really in keeping moving and plastic bags.

Steven and Motlatsi, thank you for your enthusiasm and company. Stephan, Heidi and your crew of helpers and sponsors – what a superb event; I’m already looking forward to the next in late August.

Stats: My i-gotU GPS logger ran for 17h31. Our total race time was 20h51. We logged 131km on the logger and with the last part of the cycle, short foot O and final short paddle I’d say we would have covered close to 145km.

Email from Tatum (Thurs, 27 May 2010, 14h26 SA – 22h26 Oz)

Ok about the last leg… Yet another sting in the tail. Just when we thought the last leg would hopefully be a straight forward one, we were wrong once again! It ended up as another 26hrs of bundu bashing through rain forest, trying to follow an old loggers’ trail that was non-existent. 

Navigation was almost impossible and our spirits were getting lower and lower. It just seemed so relentless. As we stood to navigate we watched leeches start to climb up onto us; but we got to the stage where we didn’t care. All we wanted was to get home.

Finally after going down the wrong ridge, going up, going down, going up again we hit the right one and ended up on the gravel road. What a relief! Now it was just 20km’s of a mixture of path, road and river tracks to the end. It was that simple until we thought we saw lights coming down the hill. Just what we needed to get a fire under our bums and get moving! And that is just what we did. At this stage we had no idea we were lying second and we weren’t sure who it could have been. Probably hallucinations by that stage, but it got us going.

And, if the whole race hadn’t been enough for us by then we walked into three snakes on the pavement as we approached Cairns. I jumped and yelled “Snake!” but at that stage we had seen so many weird and wonderful things our reactions were pretty slow. It was so surreal. The snakes were just lying there; the one hissed angrily at us. I know it seems hard to believe but I promise that they were there.

All that was left now was to find the phone booth 1km away from the finish and let them know we were on our way. Not so simple! After one hour of searching frantically for a phone booth – even asking taxi drivers to search as well and waking up people in their apartments –  we went up to 
where it should have been and there was a clip! Somewhere along the line we didn’t find out about this part.

I can’t tell you how frantic and panicked we were. We could see the finish but couldn’t go there! We were seeing telephone boxes in every tree we were so stuffed. We were seeing people who didn’t exist. It was one of the craziest experiences we have ever had and it just wasn’t ending. Finally we made it to the finish where Noodle [Nikki] was jumping up and down with champagne, tears and a big chocolate cake!

We had finally got to the finish after 6 days 13h 30 min! [Start at 15h05 on 19 May; finish at 01h53 on 26 May 2010]

A huge thank you to all of you out there who followed us, sent messages and energy our way. They were so great to get and kept us going when we were really low. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

The day after: Ian was admitted into hospital with serious infections in his leg. After two antibiotic drips, one normal drip, tests, and some TLC he was released that evening. Tweet also went in for treatment and antibiotics. We are all now on the mend and relaxing with the other teams. Today we even managed to get in a snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef.

Wow what a race! There is just too much to say and write down and I need some time to think about it. This race was beeeeg. It was hard; the terrain, the length of the legs, the nasties that played a huge role and affected our morale and mental state. There is just too much to tell you but we will after a couple more sleeps.

So over and out from all us in Cairns. Lots of love and thanks again for the overwhelming amount of support you gave us.

xxhobs

They’re here! Broken, but smiling. Yay!

Filed by XPD Australia Media Team at 5/26/2010 1:39 AM

Congratulations McCain, celebrating 2nd full course team to cross the finish line. Also enjoying a wonderful b’day cake 4 Tatum!

McCain now ha a substantial lead on the next team in – could be Merrell or City Bike Depot. Merrell have been dallying - and then sleeping – on a hill to the left of the course taken by Blakheart and McCain. City Bike Depot may have overtaken them; their dot hasn’t updated for about 6hrs.

In a posting on SleepMonsters Geoff Hunt says, “It also appears that Merrell/Akali may be having some navigational problems as they appear a kilometre off the wrong side of the ridge – which puts them in ‘tiger county’. The race book specifically makes reference to the importance of staying on the tops and says if they stray into tiger country they will find it hard to get out again.” They’e been in the same area, within 800m, for 9h45 – there’s something more going on than navigation and sleep.

Merrell have been wonderful rivals for McCain and they’ve made the watching of our team that much more exciting. I do hope they hang on to 3rd.

Email from Nikki at 06h58 SA (14h58 Oz)

Yip, the suspense is really getting to me now. I just can’t seem to sit still. Blackheart’s tracker has not been working for a while so no-one
actually knows how far they are from the finish. Orion are really bummed about having to pull so close to the end… but then that is adventure racing and if you don’t look after yourself, you are going to break!

Alpineepic have also bailed. But, to be honest, I am amazed their guy carried on from Mulligan because the infection in his feet was severe.  so good on him for actually trying!

The news from one of the photographers who I got a lift with from Mulligan was that when he last saw McCain at around 8am they were flying and in good spirits. They have consistantly been about an hour ahead of Merrell. Man, I just hope that they can maintain that! They have all just been so awesome! i get quite teary when I think about what they have been through the past 7 days. words cannot describe it.

Australia is definitely not a place for sissies!  I have seen some insanely big snakes about! The landscape has been incredible and I am lucky to have been able to see a huge amount of the course!  Everyone is so friendly and this just adds to the whole vibe! Some of the teams have just been incredible. Team Scar, a four-man team, are just the friendliest bunch of guys and so appreciative; always saying thank you!

Now that I have a bit of a chance I can fill in some of the gaps of what I have been up to!

I went to the start at Dunk Island on a really strange looking rubber duck called ‘Three Legs’. It has three wheels that get lowered as they near the beach and then they drive up the beach so that no-one has to get wet! Insane!  It was a very chilled start and we got to swim in the beautiful tropical waters and go for a bit of a wander around the island.

Once we got back, Liz (the lady who I was teamed up with) and I drove on to Tulley Gorge. Man, that place is stunning. Also saw an absolutely enormous snake on the way as well as heaps of cassawaries (think that is how you spell it!). We got to the start of the rafting in the dark. It was pretty hard to get any sleep with the raging sound of water. And between that and teams arriving right through the night, only managed to get about 1.5hrs!

The rafting started a bit late due to the overcast conditions and the light being bad. I got to go on the last raft with Team Goldfish as they send two at a time for safety. Geoff Hunt, Elo and a couple of the other volunteers also went… WOW it was amazing!  Pretty hairy at times especially through one particular rock garden where you were guided through by ropes. But an incredible experience and probably the highlight!

From there we drove to Ravenshoe, which is on the table lands. Lovely little town. This is where the teams came in after having crawl through all that stinging tree. The night was insane and I can honestly say that dealing with all those poor teams that got nailed was harder than having to deal with all the emotional and physical stuff of having a baby whilst hanno was at Bull!  When they were treating Tatum, I had to leave because I just could not watch. How she didn’t pass out I don’t know. She is one tough cookie!  Probably around 1 in 3 competitors passed out when  putting on the hydrochloric acid treatment, only to wake up and pass out again when getting waxed, but it worked!

This treatment was only discovered in March. The alternative is to have to deal with intense pain and discomfort for a couple of months after getting hit!

We worked pretty much non-stop till around 4am. I eventually fell into my sleeping bag at about 04h30 only to have to go back onto duty at 6!  I managed to get a bit of shuteye on the way to Dimbula though!  This is where I left Liz and the next day at sparrows drove to Chillagoe. Don’t blink too long because you really will miss this town – can I actually call it a town?

Anyway, here we went off road – rather interesting in a truck, but we eventually made it to the river, where we got properly stuck!  After about an hour of deflating tyres, digging out the axels and a lot of pushing we eventually got it out!  The camp site and TA was stunning! Located in part of the Walsh River river bed, it was a great place to spend two days!  It took me some time to get used to swimming in a creek with crocs, but i was assured they were only small ones and not really aggressive…. but I am sorry, a croc is a croc!  Luckily the water was shallow and very clear. but I just could not get my head around seeing them all scuttle up the banks when we dived in!  Hanno had one climb up his leg at one of the portages… eeerrrrrhhh!

Got a bit of sleep at midday and then only had about 2hrs that night. But it was amazing lying under the stars listening to all the night sounds especially the funny purring noise that the baby crocs made!

Can’t remember which day the next day was – they are all just a blur! But I left nine-mile with two photographers on what was to be the most hair-raising drive I have ever experienced.  Man, my knuckles still have not returned to their normal colour!  Muzza, who was driving was actually a really good driver, but I still crapped myself!  We got to Mulligan as the sun was setting – stunning place. The station/farm is a million hectares with an incredible mountain in the middle of it with some insane climbing. The vegetation is similar in a way to Mpumalanga. The nav for the teams was really hard, very often with no landmarks visible.  This was a very hard stage. The team were shattered when they evenutally arrived at around 2am.

The hike, which was meant to be 20 hrs max, turned into a very hard 35hrs! I don’t know who was the most broken! Poor Iain fell asleep whilst spooning some spaghetti into his mouth. They were cold and wet and I had a really hard time trying to sleep after they arrived knowing that they were really hungry, wet and cold! Tweet woke me at around 5am looking for Hanno. Eventually we found him amongst a whole bunch of farm equipment in the shed next door!  I guess he felt right at home there!

They were in remarkebly better spirits when they woke up and set off on the bike. I opted to go to Lake Tinaroo with another set of photographers, much less stressfull! It is a lovely big lake to the west of Cairns. I had a nice swim and felt alot better once I was a little cleaner! It has been really hot with no chance of a shower anywhere!  After Blackheart and Orion checked in I went for a run to see if I could see the team and met them on my way back, which was a luck.

I arrived back in Cairns late last night and spent the night with my cousin. This morning i have spent getting our guest house ready for the guys and also arranging a birthday cake for Tats as well as stocking up with food. Going to make them a nice seafood paella for after their sleep!

Anyway, that is all for now. Will send some more news when I have some!

Nikki