The Swazi Xtreme is the most hyped race of the year and the biggest in Southern Africa. Every year it is held in some remote area of Swaziland with a proliferation of massive mountains, fantastic views and the real possibility of a lurking crocodile. Team Cross Contour consisting of James Lea-Cox, John Pattinson and Alice and Stu Rawlinson seconded by Richard Lea-Cox and Jess Rawlinson (a family affair, yes) quickly signed up for the Pro Event as soon as the entries opened. With the successful completion of the typical logistical nightmare that details just getting to a race, we gathered in Johannesburg on Thursday the 27th ready to pack equipment worthy of a major expedition. Our plan was to try and get to the race start at the Malkerns Club at lunch time to allow us some time to relax, set up camp, scrutinise the maps and sort our kit out. Well this did not happen.

After realising that we had far too much kit, we set about extending the trailer packing height, packing and repacking the Isuzu and trying not scratch some very expensive bikes that an unsuspecting parent had somehow misplaced to his children. Our eventual escape from Gauteng saw us progressing very slowly towards Carolina, stopping for lunch at the Ultra City Maanlig where we enjoyed a verbal lashing between a patron and a really tough looking Steers Manager. Border formalities went quickly on the South African side and slowed down to African time on the Swaziland side where we queued for ages and were repeatedly requested to purchase nice shiny passport covers.

Our R5 road tax paid and passports stamped had us on our way to Malkerns via Mbabane and its “under construction” highway and diversion. We finally arrived and quickly claimed a campsite alongside the cricket pitch and began to contemplate the monotonous jarring sound of the adjacent canning factory. Maps and race envelopes were circulated just after 17h00. Both the Sport and Pro events would traverse only two standard topo maps! This probably led most into a false sense of security. Master maps in place outside the dining hall allowed navigators to fight amongst each other to copy down pre-plotted coordinates. Comparing the race instructions received to the coordinates plotted revealed a ‘zigzag' course consisting of seven legs of varying lengths and time estimates. Instructions for leg one would be provided in the morning.

A race briefing followed just as it got dark which had Darron playing MC on the McCain's free hot chips stage. He rapidly went through some of the finer details of the race and highlighted the dangers of grade 4 rapids and mass murders in the forest. Real Blaire Witch Project stuff! With the welcome and briefing complete everyone amassed in the dining hall to stuff their faces with pasta and salad before sulking off to ponder over the maps and endeavour to make their packs that much lighter. I'm quite sure there were many people wondering what the hell they were doing entering the XL Swazi! With route options marked and all kit packed and waterproofed, Cross Contour somehow got to a bed at the decent hour of 21h00 with an aim of waking at 5h00 for the pre-start briefing. I cannot vouch for the other team members, but the canning factory kept me awake most of the night together with the ominous responsibility of navigating the team to the end without getting a punch to the jaw from irate team members…

Both the Sport and Pro Teams gathered at 5h30 on Friday morning to receive instructions for Leg One and to have their photographs taken. Leg One consisted of four checkpoints with directions to each provided in the form of magnetic bearings with distances. A coordinate was provided for CP 4 which was on an island. The race started at 06h00 with the lead teams rushing off at a decent running pace in search of CP1. Cross Contour kept pace with the like of Cyanosis, USN, Red Ants etc and soon it became apparent that even these teams (including Nic Mulder) had no idea where the first CP was. Much deliberation and bewildered map scrutinising had us locating CP1 and CP2. Clipping CP3 required that we swim across a dam with full kit. The water was surprisingly warm so this obstacle was quickly achieved. CP 4 was on an island in the Usutu River located approximately 8.2 km away as the crow flies. We had Single Track Africa, Red Ants and Mcain hot on our heels so we set off at a fast jog negotiating our down to the river. We all joined in the fray of locating CP 4 finally finding it attached to a football post. From here it was little more than following a single track to the causeway and Transition 1.

The next leg was to be a 20 km white water rafting section with team members being paired in Ark Crocs. We set off just behind the Red Ants following a quick service and oil change with our seconding team. The first section was nice and easy, much like a lazy day on the Vaal, but suddenly it became quite hectic. Now I'm not exactly your white water expert so was placed in the front of the boat with Alice taking control at the rear (and also taking time out to smack my head with a paddle!). I was instructed to just paddle and to counter intuitively lean into the big drops and walls of foaming water as if my life depended upon it. The plan was to follow the race instructions, go quickly and possibly scout some of the bigger rapids… I don't recall scouting anything. The whole team portaged the Toilet Bowl for fear of permanent injury and Alice and I portaged another that looked a bit to much like a leg breaker.

Filled with bravado we decided to shoot the Grade 4 rapid without scouting. The result? Well John and Stu's boat ended up in the hole below the rapid, John found himself upon a rock in the rapid, Alice misplaced her paddle and parted company with our boat and I somehow held onto my paddle but was then pummelled by some hidden rocks thus resulting in another lost boat. I'm not quite sure were Stu ended up. And all of this was captured on camera much to the amusement of the onlookers. Boats, paddles and team members rescued and packs still in place we made our way down river to the take out. By this stage we were ahead of a number of teams that we started with. We got to the take out in 3rd position. Somehow Cyanosis had misplaced themselves downriver.

Following a brief interview with Darron and camera crew we gathered our paddles and PFDs and headed towards T3, 5 minutes behind Watt Sports Endure. We rushed into the transition to blaring tunes and unprepared seconds. “We did not realise you would be so fast!!!” A quick transition with the assistance of Thursia from the Kreature.co.za crew (old rivals!) had us on our bikes on the way to CP 7 at a school via T1s. We were trailed by the camera crew for most of this leg who took great pleasure in capturing our utter pain of climbing those hills in the scorching heat. CP 7 clipped we headed to CP 8 and suddenly for all of 10 minutes we were in 2nd position. On our way to CP 8, John bought a nice plot of Swazi-land, bending his rear derailer and chain at the same time. A kilometre further, the chain snapped. One link bent at right angles to the first. John lay back to contemplate his wounds while we fixed up his bike as best we could while a number of the top teams flew past us. We were soon on our way to CP 8 and the promised XL down hill section.

This short but intense section was awesome to say the least. Disc brakes were steaming and people were falling everywhere and Craig Dutton was there to capture all the highlights. We had only two falls. Alice crashed into Landy of Jeep (??) and was filmed doing as such. Stu took flight over his handles bars executing a double tuck and roll escaping unscathed. We clipped CP 9 and made our way to T4 just as the sun was setting.

We had some hot food and packed a stash of sarnies and chocolate bars for what promised to be a marathon trekking section. We departed just before USN on our way to CP 13. Our aim was to follow the right bank of the Ngwempisi River, which did not go exactly as intended. By following the right bank of the river we also headed up the tributary to be followed by the Sport competitors. A CP quickly loomed and we clipped it failing to notice that it said CP 10s on it! We took this as 13 and headed upstream looking for the hiking trail. We soon bumped into a bearded Sport pair who kindly informed us we were “misplaced”. Stupid navigational error!!! But you are allowed to have one as a concession, before being whipped with a cat o' nine tails. We had a brief indaba before heading straight over the ridge into the next and correct valley. Finally on track we headed to CP 13 having lost 2 hours.

This section of the leg was not trekking at all. It was more like scrambling, rock hopping, wading, bush wacking and cursing (read: excessive cursing) for a really long time. I still cannot fathom it, but despite the amount of coarse river sand in my socks and the fact that my feet were permanently wet that I did not get even a hint of a blister. And nor did anybody else in the team as far as I can gather. We bumped into a Sport team just before CP 13 so we clipped in together. We decided to head for CP 14 via the Sport CP 12 as the path was apparently in better condition. On the way we bumped into a wandering surviving pair of Ryno and Andrew of McCain who had left their hiking map at the transition. We quickly teamed up and tried to seek out the trail. Without much luck we sat down and closed our eyes for 20 minutes or so until the sun rose and then made our way onto the ridge and towards the main dirt road.

At this stage Andrew of Mcain wanted to drop out due to knee problems so both he and Ryno headed straight to the transition. Cross Contour made their way down the hill past the school to CP 14 located at an amazing backpackers mountain top lodge. As is team policy, a coke is carried by each member (thanks Stu) for “emergencies”. This was not one but it was a good excuse to have a coke anyway. We headed back up hill to T5 and a hint of hotdogs without tomato sauce.

T5 was in an open field next to a road. As Ryno was now teamless he asked if he could join us as a silent team member. After a feeding by our really top seconds, who somehow adapted quite quickly to us messing up all their hard work in 10 minutes, we headed towards an OP signifying the start of a jeep track, which was to lead us straight to CP 15 and a new camp site on the banks of the Ngwempisi River. We clipped the CP after a quick tuck shop stop for Sprite and a rather roundabout route of “go straight” as suggested by the locals.

At this stage we had lost a position to GM Motors who had taken an alternative route to CP 15 without using the jeep track. We continued cycling uphill hot on their hills before someone spotted a sprinkler so we took a quick break and watered ourselves down. Really refreshing. We clipped CP 16 at a junction and made our way to the tar road until another OP and an exhilarating downhill track to a CP 17 at a school. At this stage we had caught up to GM Motors and both teams pondered the next section to CP18. We opted for the OP route with the new road. GM took a tigerline over the mountain to CP 18….! By this stage it was dark which meant cool weather and with much panting while pushing our bikes up the mountain it was well received. Clipping CP 18 we raced downhill to T6.

We checked into T6 as the 7th team. The next section was a kloofing and rope work leg. We donned warm kit and packed additional climbing gear kindly lent to us by Gert Foster of Gravity Training. Much scheming about locating an unlit CP 19 in a thickly vegetated kloof had as aiming off slightly for good measure and keeping a watchful eye on one's altimeter. This kloof was like an Amazonian section of jungle deposited in Swaziland. We spent most of our time either trying to follow the river and scrambling up or down the slopes. The vast array of thorny vines and other plants had us losing blood at a rapid flow rate. Eventually we came upon the confluence and Alice spotted the CP “What's that little white thing on the tree over there?” We performed a sliding balancing act down a fallen tree trunk lying against the waterfall to clip the CP. From there we continued downstream until CP 20 was clipped at the main confluence.

CP 21 was located a short distance upstream which unfortunately suggested a rather long slog based upon our current rate of progression. A number of waterfalls were avoided by scrambling up around and over granite boulders of various sizes, up heavily vegetated slopes and adjacent to the waterfalls themselves. CP 21 was clipped after much inner cursing of where the hell is that bloody checkpoint and a bit of shake up of Ryno falling and breaking his helmet in process. We scaled the last waterfall shortly thereafter and came upon CP 22 and the start of the rope work section.

We were required to climb the first section on a circular belay, jumar the second section, scramble the third and then do a tyrolean traverse across the main waterfall before escaping to the transition. It was still dark at this stage so the full impact did not quite set in. I'm sure it looked magnificent in the daylight. I belayed the team up the first section and then was belayed from the top. This went relatively quickly. The jumar was another story. As only a few guys in the team were climbers, this section went slowly coupled with wet rocks and fatigue. As each of us completed the jumar we clipped into the safety and promptly fell asleep until the final team member surfaced. A short rope assisted scramble led to interesting tree climb up two parallel pines before clipping onto the tyrolean traverse and hauling one's self across and above the waterfall. The same principal applied here. When complete, fall asleep if the shivers of cold don't keep you awake. We were soon finished, clipped CP 23 and raced to T6 to collect our bikes.

Our seconds were a snoozing on our arrival but quickly arose to hand us our bikes and relieve us of jumars and crolls. The next section was a 12km cycle to the finish, which saw us passing through the area where a number of mass murder bodies were found and our first experience of mud for the whole race. CP 24 was clipped before a quick downhill to the main tar road to Malkerns and the finish. We finished the race in 7th place in a time of just under 48.5 hours. With jubilant yet tired spirits we made our way to the dining hall to enjoy a typical country club breakfast before seeing our seconds on their arrival. And then… climb into a tent and pass out until the prize giving, which yielded many amusing anecdotes and the eventual finish of Vlok and Fordyce before departing in soggy weather on Monday morning!! Glad we missed the weather during the race!

Thanks must go to Darron Raw and his crew for putting on a truly memorable race which always seems to better the last. Thanks to Roc and Rope for a Top rope section. And to my team, guys it was really fantastic racing with you all and despite two swollen ankles and bike related scars among us, I think it went really well. And our seconds Richard and Jess, we have already booked your services for the next race, don't worry. You guys were great, thanks!