I contacted the troops Craig ‘Snakey’ Powell, Laura ‘The Law’ De Haast and Christo “’toffel’ or ‘the Stoff’ Viljoen and our team was formed and the serious training began.

I unfortunately missed out on all the pre-race hype and preparation as I was lying on an island beach while my team was at the race headquarters getting our race boxes and bike boxes sorted. I just received the odd photo or text but was apprehensive as I am a control freak and hated not being there to help sort the logistics out.

I arrived at the race Head Quarters on Sunday afternoon and was immediately in awe of the MASSIVE landscape and escarpment looming over the Orion Mont-Aux Sorces hotel that would be our start and finish venue. The battle field looked ominous and daunting and butterflies went havoc in my belly despite the calm exterior face I was putting up.

Immediately I could feel the apprehension of the racers that had already seen the Google Earth fly threw at race briefing and when I saw the maps for the first time my mouth went dry. We would be starting with a huge 75km trek up to the escarpment and to the Tugela Falls hereafter some serious route choices would need to be made. This is all we had at the moment.

There was much discussion between teams and navigators as to the best option to take on this leg either Ifidi pass marked as “rocky” and difficult especially if there was going to be ice, or the easier but further Rockeries pass. Eventually after much thought and debate our team decided to make the decision at CP 6 Tugela Falls as to which route to choose depending on weather and the time of day we reached the falls.

Race bags packed a good night sleep and 06h30 on the 6th of May 2013 we lined up with 31 other teams including 13 international teams on the start line of the 2013 Expedition Africa Adventure Race, little did we realize then what was in store for us hehe!!!!!!

As usual the ego kicked in and the 546km long Expedition Africa started of more like a sprint race with teams sprinting down the road to enter the Drakensburg Royal Natal National park to collect the first of 4 CP’s in the park before hitting the famous chain ladders to climb to the top of the world and onwards to the Tugela Falls CP. Man did the altitude kick us in the rear when we hit 3000m. It was as if someone had dropped a bag of cement on your back, tied weights to your legs and you had a ‘moerse babalas’ our whole team felt the effect of the altitude and this coupled with the fact that the weather was good and we hit CP 6 at the falls early influenced our decision to tackle the unknown and treacherous Ifidi pass, we just wanted to get lower as soon as possible to get rid of the baboon on our backs..

We hooked up with Team Olympus, what a bunch of genuine and great guys and Girl who were heading in the same direction to take on Ifidi. This was a blessing as Tim and Alex’s rock climbing background and the fact that they were wise enough to bring along a rope helped us get down this gorge that drops and impressive 800m. Despite this I managed to take a 2m free fall down an icy cliff and land with a thump on the ground first feeling if I could move my toes before trying to stand up, thankfully in Expedition Racing your packs are so heavy that they usually hit the ground first and break your fall as was the case here.

Descending this gorge it soon became apparent of the dangers that our sport holds when I dislodged a football size rock that missed hitting Kelly from Olympus by centimetres. If this had hit her I am afraid it would have been fatal. Thankfully our Guardian Angels were watching over us.

Ifidi pass was raw rugged and brutal yet strangely majestic and peaceful. What a privilege it was to be able to pass through such a wild remote part of our country and definitely a highlight of our race.

The worst part of this route choice was that we had to pass T1 and run up to CP7 then turn back and return to T1 a 10km little effort. Sole destroying when you are broken after being on your feet for 17 plus hours. We at least got to see the teams that were ahead of us on this out and back loop.

The 2nd leg was a transition bike to T2 where we would prepare for another Epic leg of this expedition namely a 75km paddle over 2 dams and consisting of a 5km white water section containing some grade 3 rapids. Before we got our boats however we had to contend with a FREEZING 500m swim across the Woodstock Dam. This swim loomed large in our team’s minds after race briefing and caused much anxiety. Once again Mind over matter we hit the icy cold water just after sunrise and swam in silence across the dam with the mist rolling off the glassy water. It was a surreal experience and once again proved that we as humans can handle much more that we think we can.

I experienced bad hypothermia throughout this paddle leg and thankfully Christo my paddling partner was as strong as an ox, he and Craig manhandled the kayaks through the portages as I was shivering uncontrollably as soon as I stopped paddling and couldn’t contribute much other than try keep warm.

Laura had a close call on one of the larger rapids being sucked into an eddy and under an overhanging rock ledge. With no place to grip the current was pulling her under and she had to rescued by Craig and Christo as I was blissfully unaware of her predicament and thought she was waving for us to shoot the rapid. (Sorry Laura!!!).

We were freezing by the time we paddled into T3 and spent some time at the fire warming our bodies and drying our clothes. We took some time in this transition to refuel and have a short power nap before taking on the 90km mountain biking stage.

Onto our mountain bikes we climbed for the 4th leg of this adventure and this is where we encountered our soon to be companions Team Black Diamond. We did most of this cycle without many problems except that I overshot the first 2 checkpoints on the railway line. After this we saw sunrise and the rest of the cycle leg was tough but uneventful, except for the Hike a bike section to the final CP before making our way to Midway camp.

Midway camp was a welcome oasis. It was great meeting up with teams that were just ahead of us and seeing friendly faces and getting to take a much needed break while plotting maps and getting ready for what looked to be an epic hike followed by a monster bike. As I had finished plotting the route and my team had already gone to sleep and I was due to follow shortly, I heard of changes that were going to be made to the route. I thus stayed awake waiting for these route changes so that I could prepare a route and prepare my maps this resulted in me only getting just over an hour of sleep instead of 3 hours that I was planning on. I would pay for the lack of sleep later. While plotting I spoke to James the Captain of Black Diamond and suggested that we tackle the night hike together. He spoke to his team and they agreed and so we set off into the night Teams Castle Lite and Black Diamond as a united front. I am forever grateful that we joined forces as not only was James an exceptional navigator in the testing conditions they are such a great bunch of people and we got to share a rare an amazing adventure with them.

On this Epic hike Christo who had been suffering from gypo guts since shortly after the paddle was struggling to keep anything down and just before the trig beacon we parted ways with Black Diamond so that we could ensure the Christo could get some relief and for our team to finish the race. After breaking forces with Black Diamond things went pear shaped for me personally as the hypothermia and lack of sleep took its toll and I became the walking dead. I was a Zombie.

When we hit the abseil I thought I would get some sleep as the rest of the team went down. WRONG!!!!!! The marshall soon informed me that I could go. I can’t remember how I got down the first abseil but after seeing the video footage all I can say is “IT WASN’T PRETTY!!!!!”.

I had developed serious “CHOMMY” chaff on this hike (think it was the compression tights squeezing my butt cheeks together for the 21 hours we were out on this hike) so after the abseil I pulled my tights down to below my butt and had instant relief. Smeared my delicate regions full of Vaseline and hiked the rest of the 15km to Transition with a kaal white ass to the amusement and detriment of my team mates and any locals who saw this Mlungu walking down their street with his bike helmet on and his gat exposed. A man must do what a man must do. In my defence I cant really remember much about this part of the race only knowing that I was woken up after a death sleep in transition to start the epic 150km MTB ride that would take us to Sterkfontein dam.

We started the bike ride late Thursday night and once we hit the town to collect the 1st CP on this leg found ourselves in a maze of houses and huts. People just built anywhere in this town and all the roads shown on the map ended up in a dead end in someone’s back garden. It was extremely confusing. After some discussion with a taxi driver who wanted to know what we were doing there at that time of night we found the reservoir and again met up with our mates from Black Diamond.

We decided to again join forces and finish this adventure together seeing that we were in each other’s company so much it only seemed fitting. Our nav on this leg was great till just before Bezuidenhout’s Pass. Both myself and James had an attack from the sleep monsters and just as we decided to climb the hill and make sure of our position team Olympus came cycling past seemingly with the same intentions.

We all stopped on top of the hill confirmed that the road that we were on is not the main road depicted on the map as this should be down in the valley next to the river. All three teams turned around and headed back down the hill to look for a junction to the correct road shown on the map. There was none. Team Indabushe joined us and much debate ensued before they raced off on the road we were on. Fox on Fire also passed us seemingly happy that they were going in the right direction. We deduced that this road was new and carried on following it thankfully getting to the start of Besuidenhout’s pass. Up and over we went and eventually arrived at T 6 Sterkfontein Dam Hall. This transition looked like a military war zone with broken racers lying around on mattresses marshals and medics doing their thing, team navigators plotting new maps and routes. The place was alive and electric.

As Lisa typed in her race report on the day: “Black Diamond and Castle Lite came in together – this partnership seems to be working well for team navigators James Lea-Cox and Adrian Saffy. They started the paddle together. Keeping the teams together for the hike would really be a good idea, if Silva’s track is anything to go on. The paddle is around 12km and these teams (also with Fox on Fire) got on the water at 17h15. Conditions out there are windy and cold – a la Sterkfontein style. I really hope it dies down for them with the coming of night.”

We did our thing and left the transition for a 12 -14km paddle across the infamous Sterkfontein dam as the sun was setting. Man o man what an experience. 1.5m waves crashing into our boats and drenching us with ice cold spray. Freezing water and our kayaks getting tossed and turned by the swell, we paddled this section like people possessed it was a severe case of self-preservation I have never been so determined to get my ass off a dam as at that moment. What an experience and only one that you would ever experience by doing an adventure race BECAUSE NO SANE PERSON WOULD DO THAT IN ANY OTHER CIRCUMSTANCE!!!!! EPIC.

On reaching the transition to hike we were freezing and had serious hypothermia. We were expecting a huge fire to warm ourselves. WRONG!!!!!! The only bit of shelter was a 2m x 2m fibreglass port-a-loo erected about 50 m away from the transition point we rushed to get shelter only to find 2 other teams packed like sardines in this toilet trying to get warm. Needlessly to say there was soon four teams with 16 adults cramped into this toilet trying to warm our bodies from the freezing paddle. I was so cold I ended up spooning with Kelly from Olympus just to get extra heat. Thanks Kelly I owe you.

After heating up we eventually decided to leave the shelter of the toilet to tackle the last 29km hike home and to finish this adventure.
Leaving the dam the rain started to fall and the mist started to roll in. I still said to James that we adventure racers are crazy MF’s because no normal person would even think of going into the mountains in this weather and here we were going in the weather and at night.

We hit the correct valley we chose and started ascending the mountain. When we reached the top visibility was down to 3 to 4 m and the rain and wind was seriously uncomfortable. After attempting to walk on bearings and not making much progress while everyone was suffering from extreme cold we made the call to erect our tents and sit out the weather till daylight. What a funny sight it was squeezing four adults (and Craig is not a small guy) into a two-man tent. Needless to say it was a joke with us pitching our tent next to Black Diamond’s tent and inadvertently over one of their tent pegs that was digging into Craigs ribs all night we had a couple hours of broken sleep.

6am and the mist was as thick as ever, 6h30 and a call to Stephan to let him know we are ok just stuck in our shelters waiting for a gap in the weather. He says down below it is clearing up and this was all the motivation we needed to pack up the tents and get moving. We contended with the weather and some great navigation by James saw us find the border fence into the National Park and soon we were on our way to collect the checkpoint and then homeward bound.

We thought we were home free but had to go up and over one more mountain range to get into the lowlands before reaching the finish. We saw Olympus behind us and as we ascended to the top of the range we had to pass over the rain and mist came in again. Murphy’s Law. We searched for a way down but were cliffed out in the mist. Olympus were having just as much trouble. Eventually Craig and Christo put us on a path that took us through amazing terrain to get us down the cliffs with a bit of rock scrambling and sliding. As we got down the weather cleared and Team Warriors made use of the opportunity to take a path down the cliffs that we scouted in the mist an hour earlier but couldn’t find. That’s AR.

What a relief to eventually cross the finish line after 129hours of racing and almost 16000 meters of vertical ascent in the race. Needless to say emotions were high and spirits high despite broken bodies. We were all ready for a huge party but this never materialized as we were all just to broken and exhausted.

Our thanks go out to Stephan and Heidi for organising and bringing to us a world-class event. Your passion and dedication and logistics are absolutely unbelievable. Thanks for putting in the time and effort to give us a playground to express our desire to push the envelope.

Thanks to our loyal sponsor Castle Lite for having the faith in us to proudly promote their brand and product that fits in with our healthy and active lifestyle. Believe me when I say that all you crave when you are out there is an ICE COLD CASTLE LITE. It keeps us moving.

Thanks to Salomon for the cool clothing, backpacks and footwear. Not one of our team had blisters despite the rugged and varied terrain. Happy feet make a happy racer hehehe.

And lastly but definitely not least thanks to my team and the guys and girls from Black Diamond and Olympus for sharing our journey making it fun and unforgettable despite the hardships. You all rock.

Saffman.
Here are some comments from the rest of the team:

Stof (Christo)

What an expedition adventure, there were too many highs but after 2 days of resting and reflecting 2 moments stand out for me far above the rest.

During the long hike of leg one there was a few route options. We decided to try the shorter, but more risky option of descending down Ifidi pass. No one knew the condition of this route as there was a possibility of ice and water down the steep rocky kloof. We reached the top earlier than expected and started to descend together with team Olympus. About 1/3 down there was this moment that, even if the route option did not save us time on the leg, it was absolutely worthwhile just experiencing the true beauty and magnitude of the Drakensberg.

The second last leg was a 12km paddle across the Sterkfontein Dam. We joined up with team Black Diamond and hit the water just after 5pm Friday. The weather had started to turn bad as we paddled around the point we hit the open dam section with an almost head-on wind and a significant swell. We knew it would take us around 2 hrs which meant we would be paddling a section in the dark. The 4 boats formed a diamond formation and we hit the deep-sea conditions and waves head-on. As it turned dark I turned on my headlight and visibility was only reduced to a few meters as the wind was spraying the water off the waves. It was bitterly cold. Thinking back I realised that never once during this short but epic leg I felt afraid although we were highly exposed. Looking to my left and right while paddling I saw the determination of the other boats. We knew it was the second last leg and we simply pushed through facing everything nature threw at us. Finishing the race was all that mattered.

Thank you to legendary captain Adrian Saffman, super tough Laura de Haast, and super strong Craig Powell and the opportunity to take on this expedition experience with you, it has been the highlight of my adventure racing career to date.

Craig Powell (Pack Horse for Team Castle Lite)

Firstly I would like to thank the sponsors of Team Castle Lite & the management of the team for giving me a once in a life time chance to experience a Adventure Race in the Drakensberg Mountains. The race was far better than I could ever imagine and tougher than I expected.

As for the race organisation there was no room for error and the whole event flowed perfectly. The logistics as well as the people helping at all the transitions was excellent. In all a very professionally run event.

As for the route, there was a great mix of technical and not so technical terrain. The route took me to places that I would normally never see and believe me they are worth seeing, some memories I will never ever forget. The mountain bike had some great single track and technical climbs. The hike took us to altitudes I don’t ever want to go back to (got a feel of what altitude sickness is about, felt very fat ass and slow with a bad head ache). As a paddler love the flowing water with some classic rapids.

The lows of the race:

1. Had a bad case of altitude sickness on day one at the Tugela Falls.
2. Had a stretch of about two hours with bad sleep monsters on the 160km cycle.
3. Riding over my team mate after she fell in front of me
4. Being misted out on the last hike leg and not being able to race on (had to sleep for 3hours to wait for mist to clear)

The highs of the race

1. Standing on the start line surrounded by so many of my friend and fellow adventure racers
2. The beauty of the Chain Ladder, Tugela Falls, Ifidi Pass on Day
3. The camaraderie shared with team Olympus as we descended the Ifidi Pass. The way both teams assisted each other to make sure no-one was injured during the descent
4. Surviving the swim to the Kayaks on the long paddle
5. Overtaking so many teams on the paddle with a team that does not paddle, machines for team mates
6. Being given the maps on the dam in the dark and pulling off a decent navigation to get a tired and cold team home without too much delay
7. A faultless trek leg on the 56km hike
8. A awesome abseil and having my brother in law get great shots of me descending
9. Being the path finder and pace setter for the final stage of the last hike after the last CP.
10. The amazing friends we made with Team Black Diamond
11. The way our team finished and the mutual respect we held for each other after a life-changing journey
12. The knowledge that in the future we will be able to carry out another epic journey as a team

Laura (the Law)

We knew this was going to be a tough race but never did we ever expect it to be this demanding.

For me hanging on for the first day is crucial to my survival. The 75km mountain hike for this first day was no exception. The altitude played a major roll in leg 1. Feeling very sick from the lack of oxygen, I climbed the chain ladder to feel even worse. Luckily my teammates helped out with carrying my backpack. Descending Ifidi was one of the most beautiful moments, not only did I start feeling better, but the iced rocks and water trickles were breath taking.

The bike ride was in the dark and was one of the easier legs to this expedition.

Always at the back of my mind was the 500m swim in the freezing cold water, when we finally climbing into the water I was pleasantly surprised, the water was warmer than the cold air.

Into the boats, and off on our 15 hour paddle. We made a big push here to make sure we did not hit the dark zone. All along the paddle we encountered rapids not as small as we thought they would be, now that was a concern as to how big would the big rapids be.
At around 16h00 we found out for ourselves. The level of the river had drop turning the grade 1 and 2 into 3 and 4 grade rapids. Having a paddling machine behind me in the boat was a bit of a confidence booster. Remaining upright for the first 2 monsters, we were soon brought down to earth with tumble, sending myself, Craig and the boat down the rest of the rapid. The shear strength of the water terrified me. I was bruised and battered and a little hysterical. We tried the next but again we were turned upside down. People and boats and gear were floating all around, but soon it was all over and we were on our way to our next transition.

We arrived at this transition as cold as I can remember. Fires awaited us and something warm to drink.

Back onto our bikes and out on our 89km cycle. Here is where we met up with the race long companions Black Diamond. A little bit of hike and bike took us into a fantastic single track in a forest. We were all looking forward to our half way stop and 6 hour rest.
No sooner were we in at half way, we seem to be leaving again. I said to myself at the start of the race, if I was able to leave half way point intact, I would most certainly be able to stay with my team and see the finish. The guys were all looking very strong. The next obstacle on my mind was the abseil.

This was a massive hike, starting late in the evening. We had now grown to a strong team of eight. Sleep monster were knocking on all our doors, and just to walk upright became a problem.

We seemed to walk forever. We finally arrived at the abseil and hell it was worse than I expected.

We had 5 different drops of different lengths into the waterfall. The rock face was slippery and the water cold. We all made it to the bottom safely only just, one of our Saffman decided to go down head first while sleeping. The cold water soon shocked him awake. Then 1 more check point and then a long tired hike to our next transition.

Here we rested for a couple of hours before making our way on our bikes on an epic 163km cycle. More sleep monsters and a mega crash from me, falling under my teammate’s wheels and being ridden over. A few more tears and on we went. The weather started changing and wind and rain began covering the skies.

We arrived at the last transition point ready to take on our final paddle and then our mammoth hike back to the hotel.
The paddle across the dam was more like a paddle across the sea. The waves were huge and were slapping us around and it was very dark very dark. We seemed to paddle forever and the lights of the bank came no closer. It was very cold. This is what hyperthermia feels like, it sucks…………..

After about an hour just trying to get my underwear on, we dressed and climbed into a toilet booth (all 8 of us) and got our body temperatures back to almost normal. We had to get moving.

It was raining hard now and the wind and cold was biting. Even more sleep monsters attacked us and it was difficult to keep on our feet. We were soon very high in the mountains and it was clear by the mist and sleet we were going to spend the night on the mountain. Time for tents and a little lock down until we could see where we were going. This was one of the happiest moments for, I was tired and cold and the thought of a dry tent was better than Christmas. 4 cold people in a 2 man tent no problem. The lightning and the wind battered the tent for the next few hours and then it was still.

All packed up and on our way again. Then came the cold hard rain. Our progress was slow and the mountain peaks were all covered in snow. I don’t think the weather has hurt so much but now we were all frozen and wet.

A few detours and we were on our way down the mountain. 5km more and we would be finished our six day expedition.

The finish line was oh so sweet……..honestly that was the hardest thing I have ever done, it’s unbelievable what the body and mind can endure to survive. LOVED IT!!!!!

Author: Adrian Saffy | Team Castle Lite | Expedition Africa, May 2013

“When I got the phone call asking me if I would be interested in taking part in EA 2013 I did not have to think twice, didn’t have to think at all! The four very short weeks leading up to the race was filled with mixed emotions. After spending some time with my soon-to-be teammates the nerves settled and I knew that these guys will push, pull and carry me through!”

This was Helena’s response to the late call up caused by the ‘great news’ that team-stalwart Jeannette was pregnant.

We would be joined in the 500km adventure race by 31 other teams including 11 overseas teams (5 of these teams are ranked in the top 10 in the world) as well as all the local favourites, Merrell, Cyanosis, Red Ants, Olympus, WCAD, Castle Light and old war horses Energy and not forgetting dark horses In-da-Bush-i.

Sunday morning saw all the teams head to the local school for a tree planting ceremony with the local school kids all singing and dancing.

With two farmers in the Team we made quick work of planting the tree.

When the race route was revealed at the race briefing it was plain to see that the race organisers Kinetic Gear had upped the ante from last year and that the 500km of running, climbing, paddling and cycling would be a real challenge. Winners of the last two editions Merrell Adventure Addicts would line up with the unfamiliar underdog tag against some of the best in the world.

Taking a novice into the race we needed to be conservative in our approach and could not afford to go out to hard from the start and this left us off the pace and constantly chasing our rivals.

After packing and plotting our maps we had Sunday night to consider our plight at the foot of the mighty Drakensberg.

After arriving in the dark and drawing the curtains from our bedroom window in the morning confirmed this all together with Woody’s comment, “Boys, it’s going to get ugly out there, those mountains are big!”

The weather looked good up until Friday so we had five days to finish this challenge. This weather caught all the teams at the end of the week.

My new all-time favourite adventure racing picture. Thanks Bruce Viaene.

Leg 1 – Run/hike 79km (4430 m of vertical climbing)
Highlights-It got ugly as Woody predicted with him getting the first round of cramps before the chain ladder (maybe that extra plate at the buffet on Sunday night helped??). Crossing the source of the Tugela and Orange rivers, experiencing racing in snow drifts and across icy rocks. Standing on the edge of the Tugela Falls at CP 6. The falls were half frozen and the view spectacular. This is the second highest waterfall in the world falling some 900 meters. We climbed 4440m vertical meters in this 79 km leg and the navigation was a real challenge and a sign of the things to come. Finding the Rockeries Pass which is a 40m wide gap in the escarpment in the dark with no moon was a great boost in confidence for my navigation to start the race. What was amazing was also watching the dew on your shoes turn to ice as the temperature dropped after dark. At this stage we also realized that the best place to be after dark was off the mountain and that even with all the compulsory kit we were carrying you would still be freezing cold if you had to stop for any length of time.

Lowlight- taking 5 hours to cover 5km and descend 2000m on The Rockeries Pass that was just a huge rock slide. Arriving at T1 to find out that we had made a route decision that had put us on the back foot and off the pace. We will never know if we would have been faster on the Ifidi Pass but we had lost contact with our rivals.

Leg 2 – Cycle 39km (150m loss of altitude)
Highlight- We had realised at this stage that we would not make the dark zone on the paddle (an area where the rapids were too technical to paddle in the dark so the race clock keeps going but all teams had to pull of the river at CP 14 until first light). This would allow us to catch up with a whole bunch of teams that had pushed hard to try and make it there before dark. So we took an easy ride to T2 to collect our boats. This easy leg might have just seen us take the foot off the gas and loose focus for a bit.

Lowlight- seeing how far the dam was from where we would receive our paddling kit (4kms). Here we had to carry our paddling gear as well as swim across a corner of the dam to get to our boats. With 75km of paddling ahead we were grateful to have rigged up our boats with back rests.

Leg 3 – 75km paddle

Highlight- paddling at night with zero visibility due to thick mist and sometimes ending up paddling onto the bank or down rapids that you could not see. We passed a couple of teams who had decided to sleep on the banks of the river due to the low visibility. We did get out scouting one small weir as we were waiting for the roar of the compulsory portage of a big weir but for the rest it was hit and miss as to whether would swim or making through the small rapids. I am sure in day light it would have been a whole lot more fun.

Garth had this to say “Then a paddle that will stay embedded in my mind for many years to come. With the network of dams and rivers flowing from one to another made for an exciting paddle. Never have I paddled, at night, where you can see more by turning your light off than having it on. And no there was no aid from the moon. With a maximum of 2m visibility and having to stop to hear in which direction the rapids were, made for very interesting paddling. Swimming at 2am in the morning down the odd rapid was rather fresh!! After being cut off by the dark zone we continued on again with some larger but now visible rapids. Awesome!”
Being the last team to shoot the Tugela Rapids before the course was closed because it was too dangerous was great.

Lowlight- falling out of the canoe more times than I have in the last 20 years. Losing all our juice bottles and food in the dark and mist.

Leg 4 (89 km cycle)
Highlight-The last 1km of downhill single track to the old arms depot at Cathedral Peak. This leg took us back to the mountains via the Spionkop Game Reserve where a loop through the reserve provided some great game viewing. “Next 89km cycle took us along some fast dirt roads and railway lines until climbing again steadily back into the heavens only to rapidly decent again with the final section being an amazing mtb downhill track, with no room for error, into the halfway mark. A warm plate of real food and salad, and a block of butter (Lettuce) was a real treat for the tummy! “Garth .Let me explain the last comment re the Butter. Butter is full of energy and dipped in salad dressing with salt and pepper makes a perfect snack!

Lowlight- Knowing we would have to climb up the hill 5 hours later.

Leg 5 – (59km hike/run) with abseil
Highlight-Finding the abseil point by dead reckoning with a compass in thick mist and darkness with Eugene from Team Energy. Abseiling down 5 waterfalls in the dark and cold. Helena showed huge guts here with only a couple of short abseils in training under her belt, going over the edge of a 5 waterfalls in the dark in a row takes some doing. The abseiling was the first challenge of the end of this leg the other was to get out of the kloof and get down the mountain to the road below which would take us to the next check point which in the dark would be an in and out affair although those in the day might have found the path along the river to the transition which we suspected was there but pitch blackness prevented us from finding it.

Lowlight- the last 5km of road to the next transition saw the whole team sleep walking down the road. The transition area was packed and it had started to rain so it was a fairly miserable place to be. Here Helena dived onto the first available mattress and curled up in her sleeping bag before we had even checked in.

Leg 6 – Cycle 169km
Highlight- Despite knowing that we would once again have to climb up and over the escarpment we were fuelled by the fact that the end was now in sight and that the majority of the ride did not cross to many of the contour lines that we had experienced in the mountains. The weather was awesome and the kilometres ticked along nicely until I got attacked by the sleep monster at about 1:30pm (this is an old habit picked up in boarding school where my body craves a power nap at lunch time)

After nearly riding of the road we pulled of onto a sunny verge and had a 10 minute power nap, this got me back on my bike and we continued at a great pace. We had to knock on the door of the general dealer in Gelukstad to get the pie and cooldrink we had been craving all day. Being an Indian General Dealer the choice of pies was Mutton Curry, Beef Curry or Chicken Tikka, very spicy and not great on sunburnt lips and empty stomachs – but we all wolfed down two each. This would fuel us well for the Besuidenhouts Pass – a long climb over the escarpment between Van Reneens Pass and Oliviershoek Pass. And then 15km of downhill to the Sterkfontien Dam

Lowlight: The only choice of pies in the Indian Trading Store in Gelukstad was Mutton Curry or Beef Curry.

Leg 7 (Paddle and Hike to the finish)
Highlight- none

Lowlight- we were told that in order to make the finish we be short coursed to the finish in the morning. This was due to the weather that had caused numerous teams to become lost in the mountains above the finish and some of them taking 36 hours to finish the 26 km hike to the finish. Short coursing is a reality in Adventure Race World Series and chatting to the overseas teams as many as 60 percent of the teams in these races will be short coursed. In fact in this race only 6 teams collected all the check points and the rest of the teams were short coursed to a varying degree. The fact that we were only short coursed right at the end was a plus I suppose. We did however get into the situation by not moving quickly enough to really have a choice in the matter.

Leg 8 – (50km cycle to finish)
Highlight-Awesome downhills

Lowlight- Freezing cold and wet. The adventure was over.

At the finish with all friends Team Energy – Thanks for the ride guys and girls

The first three place were filled by overseas teams after five days of nonstop racing:
1) Haglofs Silva (Sweden)
2) Technu Racing (USA)
3) Raid Light (France)

The first South African team was Cyanosis with favourites Merrell Adventure Addicts having to withdraw due to injuries to two team members. A further seven teams also withdrew due to one or members not being able to continue.

“Carrying our bikes through thorn bushes, abseiling over, through and under waterfalls in the dark, finding our way down the mountain after a 20 hour hike on a ‘path’ that in my opinion does not even faintly resemble a path, walking in a manner that will definitely get you pulled over by a cop for a breathalyzer test if done in town, shaking your head every now and again to wake up and figure out where you are.” Helena Ferreira novice adventure racer

“The race was a true adventure and one felt that at all times if you made a silly mistake like slipping or falling or getting lost you would be in a lot of trouble. The new Team battled with the high altitude as well as new dynamic but take with it a once in a life time experience of true African adventure.” James Stewart

The support that we had out there on the course was unbelievable and I would like to really thank Cheryl Dempster who kept you all up to date on our Pennypinchers Adventure Facebook page. Also all the journalist especially Lisa from www.AR.co.za who really kept you all in the picture with her on the ground reports. Tweet, from Merrell, who took some amazing video to show part of what it was like out there.

Our sponsors Pennypinchers, GU, Earth Scout without you our journey to the race and through it would have been completely different and not nearly as smooth. My absolute best friend on this whole race was the GU Brew Electrolyte Drink Tablet. These little puppies kept the cramps, altitude sickness and dehydration at bay for 5 full days. They are light and you just scoop water from a stream pop them in and sip away at 500ml of flavoured fizzy water AWESOME.

The Kinetic Team, Stephan, Heidi and all you helpers thank for a once in a life time experience until next year when we will be ready for another. To the Warriors you guys were great and I hope that seeing us out there will inspire you all to greater things in time to come.

To Bubbles our fifth team member thanks for all the support and doing our shopping before we left I am not sure what we would we would have ended up with if we had left that up to Jeffery.

Helena well done and thanks for joining us at such short notice a really brave decision and we really appreciated you coming along.

Garth and Jeff good job guys. Here’s to the next one!

Author: James Stewart | Team Pennypinchers AR | Expedition Africa, May 2013.

He is The Stephan!

Anyhow, The Stephan clearly got wind of the mutterings about his races being too easy.

(I mean Bad Medicine was actually finishing some of these!)

So The Stephan began plotting his revenge……

And what a spectacular race it was, in every way imaginable. It contained some of the longest legs I have ever seen in 11 years of adventure racing, through some pretty unforgiving terrain.

As Sue (“Isuzu”….our little diesel engine) says “getting cold doesn’t seem to be getting any easier” ….and we had our fair share in this race. The Sleep Monster was thoroughly defeated by the Cold Monster.

All the hype and pre-race adrenaline evaporated in an instant as the race set out at a blistering pace into the Rugged Glen part of Royal Natal Park. Before long we were in 2nd last place and the leaders had disappeared past the Camel’s Hump neck, the 1st checkpoint. We had almost expected some teams to head North out of the Park here and return to the Grotto, but it doesn’t seem anyone did that. WCAD, we later heard pulled a similar trick out the bag in their route from the Grotto to Witsieshoek….great, balsy idea guys!

We took the paths to Witsieshoek, but as we climbed it became clear that Con (the Fridge Midget) was struggling with his chest infection and the altitude wasn’t helping. We met up, for the first of many encounters with Hakuna Matata, and agreed to disagree on subtle nav variations…but we would keep on meeting up, proving neither of us right in the end. Thanks guys for the great company, even if we did have to take a lot of teasing about the yoga mats from you and T-Dragons (clearly THERE be Dragons, not Here be Dragons!)

The Chain ladders provided an interesting diversion and we had to push hard for a bit to avoid getting log jammed behind two large hiking parties. The vista from Tugela Falls was, as usual, mind-blowing (Jacob, I can see Nkandla from up here…) but the day was getting on. The marshalls there informed us that we were not to attempt any descent other than Rockeries Pass (a subtle miscommunication, it later turned out) and thus began a very long, very cold night on the top of the Drakensberg. (I live at just over 1400m in Joburg, and although the berg is just over a mile higher than that, spending too much time up there will not speed up your race!)

Watching our GPS track our nav was pretty spot-on until the last valley…. that was around 01h30am. Contrary to popular misbelief it is NOT flat up there. You cross multiple valleys with 200-300m drops/climbs in elevation as well as multiple ice fields. At night without a moon you are counting valleys and streams and the nav becomes tricky. We came to the realisation that we were not where we thought. And with no way to work out where we actually were, decided to use that tent. At 2am, in Isuzu’s words….”Hardship began with the discovery that the tent had shrunk about 5cm in the extreme cold and could not be coaxed into it’s poles even when cursed at repeatedly! Lucky for me, team work from the guys got it there and I evoked the mantra ‘Ladies First’!”

“Sleeping” (not!) 4-abreast, width ways in a tent is not good for crampy muscles! Grant (“Frewuigi”) nearly kicked Isuzu out of the tent when one of these spasms struck!

Dawn at 3000m brought the realisation that we were at the top of Fangs pass. Then followed possibly our only bad decision of the race…we backtracked to get back on the route to Rockeries. The retrospectoscope never lies, but one wonders how different our race might have been if we’d gone down Ifidi as planned (2 of us are climbers, we had 8 slings and a safety rope) or even Fangs that morning. Within minutes we hooked up with Hanno, Mike and Russ from Pure Adventures. Minutes later they dropped us. Over the next 2 days we would see them pass us many times (often moving significantly faster), but us “snails” (Lisa!!) were staying on the course, avoiding the scenic distractions of Lesotho and the Khatse dam. They seemed to revel in finding the path less beaten and ignored a clear smuggler’s path and the company of Hakuna Matata in favour of yet another detour into Lesotho. Their swim story still takes the cake but is best told by Hanno himself, who deserves a knighthood for continuing after a crash/injury that would have put ANY adventure racer I know out of the race.

Rockeries pass, when we eventually got there, seemed never-ending, as Isuzu’s toes (with their bleeding toenails) would testify. The views however made it all worthwhile.

Heading down the road to Mnweni Cultural Village, we were surprised to see Team Issy coming the other way to CP7, which we’d just passed. This is the way that the 3 South African teams that went down Ifidi would have come a full 24hours earlier. We learned later, because we kept bumping into them, that they had had an epic (there’s that word again) coming down Icidi Pass. (Local knowledge, thanks Stijn, meant that no SA teams tried Icidi, as far as I can gather.) The tracker read this leg at over 90kms, with only a 3k “value add”!

Transition at Mnweni was, like all transitions, (thanks Heidi and Stephan) a little too comfortable, but we eventually got out of there for the 4-hour cycle to T2. This transition was the exception, but it was 2am and the prospect of swimming the dam at that stage in the freezing cold just didn’t cut it, so we slept.

At 05h30 we rose and headed for the dam. Frewuigi and I had drawn the short straws, as we’d worked out that only two of us really needed to swim. (Isuzu later told us what a strong swimmer she was!!!) The water was not nearly as cold as we thought, just getting out was a wee bit unpleasant. When we arrived back with the boats Hakuna Matata had just arrived with Pure Adventures shortly behind them.

The paddle started out fantastically, with us pulling out distance between us and the other 2 teams. I wonder how many teams did that longer first portage over the road…cutting out 4kms of paddling. Slowly, though things started to go pear-shaped. At first I wanted to blame Frewuigi as it must have been his fault that I was putting in 2-3 times as many right paddle strokes as left. (I’m sure he felt just the same way.) But it turns out these boats leak!! (flashback to the Epics of 2003) When full of water the subtlest tip in balance (even a lopsided backpack) steers the boat squiff. We wondered why the boat was so bloody heavy at the last portage but we’d left the backpacks on so we assumed that was it. When we finally got to T14 to find out the river was too low to do the rapids section it was with a combination of disappointment and total relief that we took to the fire in the stone cottage to defrost and dry out. Our boat drained about 30litres!!

This is perhaps the biggest difference between the “racers” and “tourers”. The war stories and epic tales, wet gear steaming off the fireplace and soft matresses meant that it was 4 hours before we crowbarred ourselves out of Tugela lodge. All thoughts of privacy fled out the window as we made like the French teams and stripped off right there! Heidi – you were a darling to arrange that – but it was way too nice! We heard how the Irish team set up home on an Island in the river, Hanno and his version of the dark zone, we compared where teams had spent the night on the top of the Berg…and we drank cup after cup of steaming hot coffee – thanks Marshalls!

The next cycle got a bit blurry. I remember throwing my toys out the cot at one stage and my team agreeing to take a snooze in the long grass on a hill where a warm thermocline had settled. We later agreed that this was our best sleep of the race. 3 hours later we were back on the road, past Emmaus mission hospital, site of Hanno’s infamous wipeout. We turned at CP20 and came back up the hill, favouring this over a Hansel and Gretel session in the forest. Back past Emmaus and we were sleeping on our bikes again. At the T-junction we took 20mins in the long grass punctuated by a taxi driver in the pre-dawn who stopped to investigate the flashing red lights. Alien mlungus!! Dawn arrived and up the hill our pace slowed enough to be overtaken by two girls walking to school. We rode up and over into the Bell Park Dam valley, passed the old farmhouse and pushed our bikes up the grassy slopes before the Drak Sun.

That downhill into Dragon Peaks was wicked and I have the image of Frewuigi’s massive silly grin, as I ramped the final bridge, stamped onto my brain.

T4 was to be the Fridge Midget’s last. Unbeknown to us he had started the race with the intention to just get us through the paddle before chucking the towel in. He had been so strong and so brave and his lead in the nav had been indispensable, but listening to his obstructive sleep apnoea and fits of coughing throughout our 1,5hour sleep was disheartening and I hated having to break the news to him that his race was over. I’m pretty sure he already knew.

So with a lump in our throats we said our farewells. Fridge Magnet had been cool enough to plot our maps as we dithered with our boxes. It was late and soon gonna be dark. We headed up to Van Damms cascades and it soon got really dark and misty. We almost crashed into the beacon CP, which was not that hard to find (trig beacon….head vaguely in the right direction and keep going up) despite Isuzu telling me she could see it and me telling her that was impossible! Down to the contour path and we passed The Big Swing who had set up camp. By now it was pissing down and Issy passed us travelling quite fast. We caught them setting up camp at Blind Man’s Corner and tried to tell them there was a much better site a few hundred metres further on but that was clearly lost in translation. During the night 3 teams passed us, we later learnt it was T-Dragons, Issy and The Big Swing. All of these treams will tell you how hard it is hiking the contour path in the mist with a headlight. Unless you have a good flood (NOT spot) you have NO depth perception and keep kicking rocks/tripping over your own feet. Frewuigi went over badly on his ankle and this was to severely limit our pace for a while. This time with only 3 in the tent we slept better.

In the daylight we again moved better and the descent into the Injesuthi valley was so picturesque – glimpsed through gaps in the fog. Grant had planned to head down the road to T5 and Isuzu and I were going the head for the abseils. We arrived at Injesuthi with The Big Swing to find the Warriors bus and to be told the abseils were gone and to “hop on the bus Gus”.

At T5 we saw The Stephan, energetic as ever (how??) We were told that we were being bussed to T6 along with the back 8 teams.

The final challenge was staying alive during the hectic bus trip from T5 to T6! We were relieved to be unable to see exactly what we were dodging on the road, ducking backpacks and walking sticks raining down from the parcel shelf whenever we hit a particularly big bump! That bus really was driven like a rental!

The decision to move us puzzled me a bit and despite it being a relief, I would far preferred to have cycled the 110kms home to Orion Mont Aux Sources than have the 18hour wait at T6 then cycle 45kms home. The upside was, I have never experienced the cameraderie that we had at Sterkies Dam on Friday night. Watching the stronger teams come in from their 150km cycle. Really strong teams like Ugene and Trev’s Energy looking finished. Epic Stuff.

WHAT AN AWESOME RACE! Heidi and The Stephan, you guys rock! My only real complaint this time around was the complete lack of race route restaurants!! So we have to confess we stole part of that 18-hour delay and snuck into Harrismith for a real meal.

For two of us the hardest challenge of the race was the cold and sometimes moving faster was not an option. Our pace was slow but steady. Yes we knew we were not moving fast enough, but putting one foot in front of the other remained the priority. Although some watching from the sidelines believed we were suntanning and drinking tequilas, this was not the case.

We are just a bunch of ordinary Weekend Warriors but we pulled together as a team, moved as fast as we could, sharing food and encouragement. In Isuzu’s words… “Strong man Con (Fridge Midget) was always on hand with his tow rope in case I was lagging on the MTB legs…Grant (Freuwigi) happily bringing up the rear on the steep climbs was there with a hand in case I should slip, and Mark (DOC – don’t call me…) was leading with his local knowledge and advice. Thanks Guys, I (nearly) always felt supported and safe in your company!” What she doesn’t say is that she was the strongest of all of us.

We finished the race even better friends than we started and have memories to fuel us for a while (Some of them seared in!)

How does one manage to get past the anti-climax, which is the Finish Line?

Well a lavish post-race dinner and a good night’s sleep certainly helped.

What’s next team??!!

Mark (Doc – don’t call me, I’ll call you!)

Author: Mark Human | Team Bad Medicine | Expedition Africa, May 2013

Expedition Africa is the longest Adventure Race in South Africa. This 500km self-navigation race is made to test your boundaries. This year Stephan and Heidi really stepped it up a notch, and rightly so.

The field of competitors included 10 international teams and 21 local teams. I reckon this international contingent spurred Kinetic Gear to really show them what South Africa has to offer and boy did they do a good job. Of course we didn’t know this until we actually got there.

Alex Percival, Evan Price and Mark Loftus (Lofty) decided that they would put up with me 24 hours a day for 6 days of racing – a big feat if you ask me and together we made up Team Indabushe (it means lynx in Zulu but was more a prediction of where we would spend the majority of our time). With Evan and Lofty being super experienced racers and Al and I relative novices I relied heavily on their advice to get myself packed and ready for the task ahead of us – by this I mean constantly asking questions from how many bottles must I take to what should I wear. Thanks for putting up with me guys I know I must have been a bit of a pain in the rear end…

Of course we couldn’t start packing our re-supply boxes without knowing what exactly we were in for and so on Saturday evening (2 days before race start) all the teams were ushered into the hall to make introductions and get a race overview. What I heard may have scared the living poop out of me.

You can read her race report on her blog, “I wanna be an adventure racer”

(Tarryn, after this one I think you certainly are an adventure racer!)

Photo of Team Indabushe by Bruce Viaene.

Date is set for Tuesday, 28 May for an ExpAfrica-themed AR Club evening at Kinetic with a couple of 20-min talks by participants as well as photos and short videos.

Nic (Cyanosis) will briefly talk about the navigation aspect of the race and give you an insider’s view as to what went down on that final hike. Mac or Ryno (Cyanosis) will tell you about taking a novice through this race.

Shelly (Warriors) – a novice adventure racer – will tell of us her experience. They’re the team that started that last paddle at 03h00 and blitzed it to the finish.

Stijn (Charnas) will give us a bit of a low-down on the Drakensberg, altitude (and the effects thereof), cold, hiking in the Berg, good times to go, maps, mountain passes etc. Teams were reading his reviews of Passes online to decide on their routes for the first hike. He’ll also fill you in on a couple of Drakensberg challenge that may tempt you.

Gonna be fabulous.

Date: Tuesday, 28 May
Time: 18h30 for 19h00 (photos on screen probably from a but after 18h00)
Venue: Kinetic Gear – Exercise and Nutrition Centre, cnr North and Rivonia Roads, Rivonia

Everyone welcome.

See you there,

Lisa

Team Red Ants in the Spionkop Nature Reserve. Photo by Aya Kubota

Why I liked it:

It was hard, very hard long technical legs, there was lots of technical hiking:

• Scrambling up and down difficult mountain slopes and passes through uncharted terrain
• Lots of hard kloofing and rock hopping

The paddling had everything:

• Long night paddle (with fr!ggin 400m swim) over Woodstock dam
• Long river paddle with interesting portages
• Some serious rapids taking lots of casualties – we lost a paddle and had to finish the paddle with 3 paddles towing the one boat. Must say the rapids were great fun just wish we were more experienced at rapids – will have to look at that!
• Big waves on Sterkfontein dam with five-metre visibility in the mist. I initially nailed the bearing we were paddling on, then upon hitting the other side misread the land that we could make out through the mist and headed off in a 90 deg wrong direction. Realised the error and finally made it into transition.

The mountain biking had an excellent mix of gravel roads, single track and even a bit of hike-a-bike. I know some people complain about the hike-a-bike but personally I have no problem with that as long as it forms part of the natural flow of a race which in this case it did.

Route Choices – In the words of Whackhead “Oh my greatness”.

This might have been one of the best races concerning different route choices and options to go around or over, safe and long or dangerous and short. As a navigator I just looove that. The last mountain in the end proved to be a bit of a bummer since most teams hit it at night with about 5m of visibility in the mist and since there were no paths or passes indicated on the maps you had to guess where you might be able to get down based on contour lines. And as everybody knows by now it has caused major havoc among the teams trying to get down that mountain getting cliffed out at each corner. In hindsight it would have been nice if Stephan had just drawn in a couple of the passes down the mountain on the map to take the guesswork out of the equation.

Scenic – well you don’t get more scenic than this. It’s such a pity the cameras couldn’t capture everything we had seen:

• Top of Tugela falls (3rd highest waterfall in the world I think) looking out over the world below
• The hike down Ifidi or Rockeries pass, both extremely spectacular passes with towering rock formations and dizzying drops
• Snow-capped mountains
• Kloofing through the dagga fields after the abseil

And about the abseil. Yes, maybe it was dangerous, but only if you’re not competent. The paddle through the rapids was far more dangerous for me than the abseil because I am not a very competent paddler and I need to work on it. Similar with the abseils, there were enough safety ropes leading up to the waterfalls and if you followed proper ropes procedures and worked together as a team, there was no reason to be unsafe. I enjoyed the abseils a lot !

This adventure race has lots of war stories, and that’s why we do it !

You don’t remember the easy ones. You remember the hard ones.

Remember: If it was easy any triathlete could have done it.

Thanx Stephan and Heidi – As always I’m in for next year !

Oh yes and as usual the organisation, transitions, transportation, briefing, prize giving and dinner was all up to the, by now, well known high Kinetic standards.

Author: Cobus van Zyl, Team Red Ants

Photo by Aya Kubota

In the days after Expedition Africa, Cape Town adventure racer Steve Burnett, who was following the race from home, wrote: “For a while I’ve really thought that adventure racing would be the next big thing. That all the roadies who bought mountain bikes, the runners who now do trail events, and the triathletes who flock to Xterra are eventually going to look to adventure racing as the next challenge. It seems obvious to me because adventure racing combines outdoors, sport, teamwork, and strategy to make up the ultimate event.”

Read it online – with beautiful layout and images.

Graham Bird Report:

For the first time since discovering this wonderful sport, I sat on the sidelines as my team competed. I came here to help get the word out about this great sport and more importantly about this world-class event that Stephan and Heidi Muller and their team put on. It was a new challenge for me, and gave me an even better perspective on the sport of Adventure Racing and the people that do it.

The challenge?  To get through the 545km route that Stephan put on. For the top teams, to get through as fast as they could. For the mid teams, to build on their past experiences and push the limits further. For the novice teams to finish and get an understand and develop a love for Adventure Racing.

Adventure Racing like no other sport sucks you in and becomes part of your core being. Your Soul. Every time I complete an adventure race, I learn more about my self and come out feeling fulfilled and recharged to cope with the modern lifestyles that consume our time. This aside, some of the most joyous moments for me as an Adventure Racer, is watching the Novice teams going on this voyage of discovery. There was a lot of suffering, a lot of pain, a lot of joy, a lot of happiness, a lot of tiredness and ultimately a lot of accomplishment over the course of the past week. Each person in the race went through these emotions. Many times each day.

Seeing the joy and fulfillment, as they crossed the finish line having traversed a world class 545km Expedition race and realized that they can achieve anything has been overwhelming.

So, even though I did not get to race this expedition, the experience of following the event and watching these athletes on the voyage, has been has been just as fulfilling. I leave here with my “batteries” recharged and my SOUL rejuvenated. Thank you all 124 of you that embarked on this expedition.

It has been an inspiration watching all these awesome athletes competing against one another and more importantly competing against themselves………..and winning!

Hanno Smit Report:

The Addicts’ assault on EA 2013 was always going to be tricky. We were thrown into the turmoil of finding a female member for our team as well as replacing our team Captain, Tweet, due to injury. This meant that we were going to race as an inexperienced team essentially and it also meant that the navigation was going to be shared by myself and Sims, something not easy to pick up to a high level after years of hibernation as a navigator, when I last raced with my good friend James Stewart.

The voids were filled bravely by SanMari Woithe and the old hand, Craig Farmer-Brown, who last year filled in for myself. SanMari, better known as Sannie, stepped in at the last moment and came in on absolutely no experience other than what we taught her in our crash course just before the race! Craig on the other hand is an old salt and with his strength and commitment, was an easy choice.

Having said this, we still had to race for a podium and that meant that we could not afford to “ease” into the race, but instead we had to maintain a pace that would be competitive. The true expeditionary length legs was a brutal introduction, especially for the more novice racers as the physical impact is so much more severe than many shorter legs.

This eventually took its toll on Sannie and by T5 it was game over for her. Blistered feet became Sannie’s nemesis and with a final trekking leg of at least 10 hours still waiting for us, we knew we were going to crawl to the finish. With the incentive of a podium out of the window and with the knee/calf injury of Don’s from a bike wipe, we were left without charge and having weighed up the risk of further injuring Don’s knee for the sake of finishing, we decided against carrying on.

This disappointing end to our race did however not subtract from what we have learnt and experienced with this expedition. The Drakensberg did not disappoint and revealed its true nature during the race, eventually being snow covered after the initial warm start to the expedition. Thanks to those who supported us and to my valiant team.

Donovan Sims Report:

The past week finally meant the start of the much anticipated 545km Expedition Africa in the Mont-Aux-Sources region of the Northern Drakensberg.

The race kicked off Monday morning with a 75km hiking leg that had us catching our breath at 3000m above sea level.  This was an amazing start to the race with breath taking views. The next leg was a short MTB ride that had me taking a tumble and needing some running repairs at the next transition. Next was a great leg for the Addicts, a 76km paddle across 2 dams and some awesome rapids.  We managed to catch a few teams and come off the water in second position. Back onto the bike (89km), it was on this leg that had many following at home thinking we made a navigation  error BUT that was not the case.  We simply chose the gravel road route around the mountain and it turned out to be a good choice, getting us into half way some 30mins ahead of teams we were cycling around. A 6hr break at midcamp allowed us to have bikes serviced, collect and replot new maps and get a few hours of much needed sleep.

The next morning we were on our way again at 07h01, the start of a 56km hike.  This was a beautiful but tough hike that had us around beacons, into mountain basins and before the end of the hike had us at the abseil (a 5 tear affair). Then a short hike into T5. Unfortunately this is where our story ended, SanMari’s feet were in a bad way and she was not able to carry on.

This was truly an amazing route for an adventure race, Stephan really showed his true colors when he set the course, there are not enough words to explain just how great a route it was.

Stephan and Heidi and your whole Kinetic crew, well done on a fantastic event.

To my captain, Tweet, I know I`ve said it before but thank you some much for the role you played in this great event.

To my team mates thanks for the huge effort made in getting us to where we did in the race as effortlessly as we did.  Pity we couldn`t keep it going.

A huge thanks to our amazing sponsor, Merrell, for always making our racing so easy to do.

SanMari Woithe Report:

It hurts to watch the video at T5 where we finally decided to withdraw from the race and everybody had to say what they felt. Hearing and seeing my teammates’ feelings and disappointment will always be hard to deal with. I learnt so much from these guys over the past week. They have taught me life lessons that will stay with me forever. During this race and even afterwards, I went through so many emotional highs and lows.

This race was a life changing experience for me. I learnt that the mind is a mighty power, right there in your own hands. What you choose to do with it, will always be within your own power. I learnt that never to have any preconception of what lies ahead. In adventure racing you need to be ready for whatever gets thrown at you. And in adventure racing you need to learn to communicate with your teammates, say what you need to say, even if it doesn’t feel right.

The learning curve was steep the past 3 months, but in the end, inexperience from my side, caught up with me. It was the first time in my life I spent so many consecutive hours on my feet without stopping or resting. It was the first time I paddled for 13 and a half hours non-stop. It was the first time I had to paddle rapids. (Apparently class 3?!) It was the first time in my life I abseiled in the cold, dark early hours of the morning through an ice-cold waterfall after hiking for 24 hours through the night. It was the first time I had to swim half naked, with a backpack through a dam at 1am and pretend that the water is not cold. It was the first time in my life that I had to keep patient when you are so stuffed beyond yourself and you have to scramble up and down roads and mountains for hours on hours in the middle of the night to find a checkpoint, not sure that you are actually going in the right direction, but just trusting the navigator.   It was the first time in my life that I walked with hiking poles and thought this is the best thing since the wheel was invented. The odd 72 hours we spent out there, was tough as the pace was hard and I had to dig deep, and sometimes even deeper.

I look back upon this race only gaining knowledge, experience, hardship, friendship and walking out being a “richer” person. I guess this is what life is about, taking chances, doing your best, sometimes gaining, sometimes loosing, but always learning from the experience, because if you haven’t tried, you would never have known.

Craig Carter Brown Report:

31 Teams entered Expedition Africa this year. The race was located in the Northern Berg KZN and the start / finish was at the Orion Mont-Aux-Sources Hotel. The presence of the international teams made for an extremely strong field, with Team Haglofs Silva being the favorites with their current world ranking of 3rd. As a team we were quietly confident. We had a successful training camp at Kei mouth earlier in the year. The new look team had gelled well and we felt that a top 3 finish was a realistic goal.

After seeing the route flyover and the course breakdown it was very obvious that this year’s event was going to be more difficult than last years. The entire course plus minus 500km was broken down into 3 hike legs, 3 bike legs and 2 paddle legs. This meant for long legs coupled with the difficult terrain, it was going to be a tough one.

By Sunday evening the entire necessary pre-race organization that is part of expedition racing (packing equipment boxes and food) had been done and we were eager for the 6.30am start on Monday morning.

From the starters horn the pace was fast. The first leg saw us heading to the top of the Amphitheatre up the chain ladder and onto the Tugela falls. The Merrell Seismic shoes felt really stable in the uneven terrain and we were mixing it up with some of the best racers in the world. Once on top of the escarpment, plus minus 3200m above sea level, the first major route choice of the race came into play. Teams could either stay on the escarpment for longer and head down the Rockeries pass or teams could go down the more technical but direct route down Ifidi pass. We chose the latter. The scene was something out of Lord of the Rings heading down the pass with extreme drop offs and ice falling all around us. The decision proved to be a good one, and we found ourselves first into Transition 1.

Heading out on the bike on Leg 2 we were all thinking about the swim later that night which would take us to our kayak leg. Unfortunately on the bike leg Don had a fall on some loose rock and injured his knee. A navigation error on this leg saw us having to do an additional plus minus 15km so we were back in 7th place by the time we reached transition. Don managed to get some medical attention; his leg did not look good.

Leaving transition we soon found ourselves on the edge of Woodstock dam. Our Black Diamond Icon headlamps remained on our heads during the swim showing just how robust this product is. Once entering the water the temperature was not that bad. After thawing out on the far bank in front of big fires we knew we had a lot of work to do on the 84km paddle leg. Navigation on the water was extremely tricky with a thick fog settling over the water. Hanno managed to keep us on a good bearing and when the sun came out we started to catch the other teams. I really enjoyed a section of rapids where we managed to pass 3 teams. At the take out on Spionkop dam we had pulled up to 2nd position. SanMari showed great bravery, as it was her first time down rapids.

The next bike leg would take us to the half way stop. Some clever route choices saw us coming into halfway in 3rd position all feeling in good spirits.

The next leg of the race was to be a plus minus 60km hike. This was to be the breaking leg for the team. We left midcamp feeling good having had some hot food and rest and headed into the mountains above the Drak Sun into the Injasuthi area. During this stage, Sanmari’s feet, which had been suffering from blisters in leg 1, began to worsen thereby slowing the pace. We battled after Injasuthi to summit the lower berg and found several teams catching us from behind. Towards the end of the leg we tackled the abseil section, this was great. The cold water was a rather rude wake up at 3am in the morning.

Reaching transition we were in a sorry way with SanMari’s feet and Dons leg injury. They both had been brave to soldier on this far but unfortunately decided to call it quits at the transition. It is always sad to pull out of a race especially when you have been racing for over 80 hours.

Despite our bodies letting us down our gear did not let us down. Our Merrell racing garments kept us dry and warm in the difficult alpine conditions. Our Nikon camera captured all the action. There were times when I thought I would only find pieces when reaching for the camera as I don’t know how it survived all I could throw at it. Black Diamond products are hardcore and our headlamps did not falter once. The battery life one gets out of 4 AA batteries is amazing. The Merrell Proterra shoes proved extremely comfortable on the latter hiking legs. The square toe box makes it very comfortable on the feet. Our bikes gave zero hassles at all, this stems from having a sufficiently lubed drive train.  Squirt, despite being applied only 3 times, kept our bikes running smoothly for over 20 hours. PVM is easy to drink and provides energy in a very even supply. The sachets mix easily with the berg stream water and they provide a delicious refreshing taste.

Adventure racing teaches us: As humans we are built in such a way that self-preservation is over emphasized. If you ask the average person how far they can run, take their answer, double it and times it by 10. That is the real answer. Only adventure racing allows us to get close to our true limits!

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

Website: www.advaddicts.co.za

Facebook: Merrell Adventure Addicts

Twitter: @merrelladvadd

The race started with a brutal 76 km trekking on the world’s heritage mountain Drakensberg, most of the time spent above 3000 m altitude. The scenery was amazing, with one checkpoint placed at the world’s second highest waterfall. We also had perfect weather, though a little too hot for Swedes coming from winter. As the sun set we started to descend the mountain and we reached the transition in fourth place, with three south African teams ahead of us who had taken a different (apparently faster…) route choice.

A 2 hour MTB section took us to the next big challenge, 75 km kayaking on a big lake and a narrow and partly fast flowing river. We kept a good pace directly from the start of the section and team spirit rose as we started to see teams in front of us. Halfway into the section we had climbed to second position and just as the sun rose and we entered some tricky rapids, where we passed team Cyonosis who had the lead until then. Ironically, as we were on a river, we all suffered pretty bad dehydration over the last hours of this section. We were told that the amount of hazardous chemicals in the water made it undrinkable even if treated, and our water bladders were empty since hours ago.

Read their full race report on the Team Haglofs Silva website.

Photo by Andreas Strand.