This weekend's Salomon Swazi Xtreme was... eish, where do I start? Well far from boring - particularly from Team Organiser's perspective. There were plenty of surprises and curve balls waiting for us.

The weather that hit Team Organiser just 1 hour prior to at the start at Waterford Kamhlaba College was the first surprise. A bit intimidating; wind, ice-cold rain and dark-grey threatening clouds - someone muttered in passing that this was a "cold-front like never before". Fortunately that prediction did not live true... and apart from a very cold night that Saturday the skies cleared and the winds died away. Team Organiser delayed the start by an hour and a half just to take stock of extreme weather access to certain marshalling points. Also the impact of not having access to our helicopter, which we rely on for rolling out the course, was a major hurdle.

The event started 1.5 hrs later... and teams headed off. Calling my first manned marshalling point CP3... I wasn't convinced that our team member was where she was meant to be. Flat rush to get there... on a very roundabout route with Martin Potgieter's Suzuki jeep on 2-wheels most of the time. We found the CP point very easily as it was already predictably occupied by Nicholas Mulder and about 5 other teams. A few minutes lost...but at least this was the only marshalling mishap for the rest of the almost 50 points laid out during this event.

I had no comm's with Gustav from Roc n' Rope Adventures, an essential member of Team Organiser. He, Thulani and Mandla had got up early that morning to set up the abseil on the lip of a waterfall. He needed to bolt anchors for the mass of ropes we were having at this point. At least nine ropes were needed so as to avoid a bottleneck at this point early in the race. On our pre-race scouting his drill battery had failed hence the last-minute rush. But he and his crew are rock solid and I was confident that they would ensure Team Organiser got things ready, come hell or high water or both. I raced off to place the other points that top bike rider Mike Craigie (on a KTM) wasn't able to reach. Martin got us to Ngwenya North peak - the second highest point in Swaziland for CP14 - a boney 3 hour 4x4 excursion. A two-hour 14km run got the CP20 point set-up in the Malolotja Potholes Gorge just as the sun set. Both these points would have taken 15 minutes with the helicopter.

Then the next surprise hit Team Organiser - from a clear sky mist suddenly came in. As thick as pea soup - so bad that people were getting lost in the 50m gap between the marshal point and the campsite at T4. Teams were going to struggle with this. T4 was the day 1 finish of the staged SPORT event. We'd said that this race was suitable for novices - but conditions were far more demanding than that...there were going to be plenty of stories to be told and no doubt a high rate of attrition.

Team Landrover USN weren't wasting time though and they cruised thru' T4 with a 51min lead over Adventure Incorporated Red Ants, who had a few minutes over Team Cyanosis on departure. They all headed down into the depths of the Malolotja Gorge for a cold night of kloofing and bundu-bashing. There was a section of trail here that has been abandoned and it is almost impenetrable. We'd thought of tossing it out, but had kept it in the PRO race to slow them down a bit, as the race was looking to be too fast.

John Collins and his Landrover USN team didn't look like they could be slowed by anything so Team Organiser had to make sure that we were in place ahead of them. Yael had closed T2 and was heading down to T7 at Maguga dam. She wasn't interested in stopping of at T4..."too cold, too misty, I nearly hit a cow...are you crazy - I'm getting out of the mountains". Mike, Zulmiera and Martin Potgieter needed sleep, as did the other 25-odd members of the team. Sifiso was in position at Luhhumaneni School T6 and Zoe at a scenic spot on Maguga Dam CP25. Andrew Begg had undertaken a 4-hour 4x4 journey to reach CP22 - a route that had only been driven once before in the past 5 years. All was under control except the two most remote points on the course, which Team Landrover USN were bearing down on. Bennie Botes, our ever-enthusiast SALOMON sponsor and Lisa de Speville, took me thru' to the Mkhomazana Valley at 23h00, so that I could hike up to place CP23 and then complete a long chilly wade down the river to access CP24 in the Hydro Gorge. This gorge is incredibly inaccessible. For a change I was getting some value for money in this year's race - some REAL adventure.

With a Paul Mitchell's memory in my mind I was quite cognisant that I was breaking plenty of AR rules; alone, with a serious sleep deficit and carrying just the bare minimum of gear. The descent into the gorge on a rickety set of wooden ladders was slow, because, as racers had been warned these ladders were not to be trusted and I safely belayed myself down three stages of steps before reaching the bottom. The first waterfall was passable with a scramble and jump into the pool, the second had been bolted for good reason. Part of my mission was to put the hangers back on these bolts. Another surprise, no nuts on the bolts (I'd been quite sure there would be nuts here and had only come with hangers...now pretty useless). Fortunately PRO racers had been warned that this may be the case, so at least they were not to be surprised and having of plenty of gear and teamwork to rely on - they would overcome the problem. Team Organiser was not so well resourced. I used the full length of my 20m safety rope for an abseil and abandoned it, as it was impossible to untie. At least this would be of use to the other racers who I presumed would be an hour or two behind me at this stage. But this gorge has three pothole waterfalls and not just two...which left one race organiser squarely between a rock and a hard place. Again no nuts on the bolts, not that this would have helped me anyway sitting there without a rope. I was stuck. Should I hang in there until the first team arrived ? I was shivering uncontrollably despite wearing a wetsuit.

Was it possible to get past with just my last remaining sling? Problem was I couldn't see properly. It required a plunge into a no-return pothole on the edge of the main drop to get a proper look. It was too cold to park off, so I decided on pressing on. My lack of gear was confirmed on the lip of the next fall - about 6m down, onto jagged rock and at least 4m out to try jump clear. Jumping off a slippery ledge was not an option so I fashioned a ladder out of the pack of cable ties in my backpack. Singles broke, but doubled loops seemed OK. Lowering myself down I discovered that cable ties just don't cut it as climbed gear and the split-second I let go of the sling there was a loud crack and I found myself falling the rest of the way backwards. I landed in a tiny deep water pothole between the jagged protuberances...talk about luck. I was back with Lisa and Bennie by 05h00 with big eyes and big stories.

Back at T4, the survivors from the SPORT race were re-started at 07h00, some had only just arrived at the camp and this was becoming a non-stop race for them too. Chopper pilot Peter Lincoln arrived and Team Organiser was at last complete. A quick spin around the course revealed SPORT teams streaming out the lower end of Malolotja Nature Reserve and news that Team Landover USN had cleared T6 at 07h55. They were clearly slaughtering the course, and despite being a bit slower than originally expected on day 1, they were fast catching up with the race estimates. I saw John Collins, Martin Dreyer, Hanno Smit and Jeannie Bomford as they passed CP25, dropping their bikes for a hike and swim to the Maguga island to fetch rafts. These were needed for collecting their bikes for a water shuttle to T7. Team Landrover USN came in at speed and departed on foot at speed - these guys were really moving. Still there was no sign of other teams at T6.

Then I got a call from Team Voels McCain's Ryno Griesel, saying that team mates Mark Collins and Phillip Swanepoel had entered the hydro gorge then encountered problems, advising the rest of the team and Team Cyanosis who were racing with them to return and skip the CP 23 point. Unable to return Mark and Philip had carried on. Ryno said that this was 2.5 hrs back and they still hadn't emerged. What now?

Good question. I was confused why two of SA's top adventure racers could be in a predicament when earlier that day both myself and the race leaders had passed through. I was sure that they were just missing each other in terms of meting up downstream. On arrival in the chopper we spotted them still in the gorge... just the quickest flash of red and blue colour way down in the darkness.

Five or six teams had now stopped at the top of the gorge, more interested in seeing the problem being resolved than in their race positions and times. On the ground and running upstream to the gorge Clinton and Arrie of Cyanosis explained how Mark had taken a beating at the 2nd waterfall... and how Philip had been somersaulted backwards by the force of the water. "Ding !", the penny dropped, here was the problem, this was meant to be a dry gorge, no water in it apart from stagnant seepage pools. This is how Team Landrover USN and I had found it some hours earlier in the same day. First stop the hydro station. A handful of technicians confirmed that they had stopped power generation and no, the water was not going through the bypass tunnel either...which meant a torrent of water was rushing over the dam wall and down the gorge... no wonder Philip and Mark were stuck. The technicians immediately opened the bypass tunnel. This rectified we rushed up to the top of the gorge, assembled a selection of gear from all the teams that were there, then headed down to see whether Philip and Mark were still OK or frozen solid... as they were not responding to whistles.

Team Organiser was properly equipped this time (thanks to Graeme Bird, Stu Rawlinson and others) and in the presence of rope work experts Ryno Griesel (Team McCain's) and Gert Foster (Adv Inc Red Ants) was definitely the junior member. Clinton MacIntosh of Cyanosis, never short of energy, made up the 4-man mission. As we entered the gorge, the water started slowing down and by the time we had rigged the second fall, Mark and Philip had noticed the same "act of god" and had begun preparing an attempt on the difficult 3rd fall. They were in good spirits and had made good use of their emergency gear. It was a good call for them not to have attempted the 3rd fall in the previous torrent of water, as this would have certainly ended in injury. With X-amount of gear and lots of hands we headed down and out to join up with the rest of the waiting teams.

Once again.. what now? How was the race to continue, no times had been taken since Andrew Begg's remote CP22 in the Mgwayisa Valley. Another difficult one for Team Organiser. A couple of options were bounced around and finally consensus was reached that the racers would continue on foot to T6. No-one would have been able to reach T7 at this late stage to complete the rafting section before the dark zone, other than the leaders Landrover USN, so the best plan was to restart again the following morning at T7 with the rafting leg. How to deal with the timing, positions etc. was left up in the air, possibly the race was to be two stages with times added, possibly two separate races, each with a winner or possibly the race should be decided on the route to CP22, with day three just being a fun day. There were plenty of logistical issues that needed sorting out... not to mention a SPORT event that was still carrying on.

Team Organiser did a quick recon of SPORT event marshalling points. Mthunzi (a community member from Mthunzi's Paradise Village) was manning T8. Buhle was on her deckchair at the CP27 junction and Mike had replaced CP28 three times, after it had grown legs. Zulmiera had T9, the SPORT overnight at Malandzela Nazarene School tied down.

The only loose end was catching Team Landrover USN who had already left on the rafting leg below Maguga Dam. As we flew in that direction, word came in that John and his team had found no water in the river and had called for their seconds to pick them up. No water? Team Organiser were again confused, but a quite flip over the downstream side of the dam showed no flow from the main dam and only a minor release from the buffer weir downstream. What was going on? My last comm's with the water authorities had been an expectation of 12-16 cumecs or at worst scenario 6 cumecs - which was 100% fine. I'd scouted the section at 7 cumecs so 6 would be equally OK. A call to the Water Bailiff confirmed that the flow was only 2 cumecs, cut right down due to the recent rains and because the farmers wanted the water saved for winter. A couple of calls later I was up to speed on the mechanics of dam releases and had an assurance that 8 cumecs would be released right throughout the night so as to have the right level of water available the next morning - all the way to the rafting end-point 15km do-nstream.

In a kind of roundabout way these two curve balls in the PRO race were working together to cancel each other out. The only mission now for Team Organiser was to encourage teams to keep racing as it was clear that many minds were not pre-prepared for a stage race format and the stop-start nature was playing with minds, bodies and future commitments. A couple of teams were clearly prejudiced by this change of format - Mark Collins of Voel's McCain had to be back on Monday evening for a flight, as was Arrie de Swart of Team Cyanosis. Team Organiser couldn't guarantee that they would be finished in time to make the border, so these two teams (lying second and third overall) were effectively out. Likewise, no matter what format was to be used going forward, Graham Bird's McCain's Adventure Addicts team was to be prejudiced as well by the fact that they had banked some sleep before CP22, pushing them back to 8th place, which now was not going to provide them with any return at all. And probably the most prejudiced altogether were the race leaders Team Landrover USN who undoubtedly had stretched their lead even more during the day and who had completed a bike leg, a swim leg, a two hike legs and a paddle leg - all of which the other teams hadn't reached.

Team Organiser sympathised with these teams... but there wasn't time to debate, as 80 sets of paddles were sitting at CP25 and 40 rafts were on the Maguga Island and this needed to be sorted out by morning. Roland Thorne fetched his boat from Mbabane to tow the rafts across and I headed off with Andrew Begg at the wheel for a long descent into CP25 to retrieve paddles. By 03h00 all was in order and Team Organiser (as a whole) banked 3 hours of sleep.

Monday 06h00, the day dawned, the river was flowing and Team Organiser cajoled teams into the 07h00 re-start scared that the dam may switch off again. Off they went. On the other side of the mountain, the SPORT teams were off again on a hike and kloof descent leg. Team Organizer now had a mass of unmanned CP points to lay out. CP31 right through to CP 39 had to be positioned. The helicopter was worth every cent as the points were dropped one after another with military precision, sending dagga farmers running into the hills in every direction.

Back over the PRO course an SMS from Lisa at T10, the end of the rafting stretch, reported that Team His People had gone over the waterfall, a compulsory portage, but were fine with no serious injuries. For the rest of the day I was under the illusion that she was referring to the waterfall into The Gap and not the smaller waterfall near the end of the section... and was totally numb at the thought that someone, in fact, two persons could have survived this. Only later at the finish did I ascertain that it was the second waterfall, a nasty little Grade 6 drop that Alec and Wayne had tackled by mistake. Definitely easier to survive, but no less dangerous - they are definitely they first paddlers ever to run the newly named His Waterfall.

T11 was now the centre of attention, as SPORT teams approached from below having descended the kloof, whilst PRO teams came along the ridge having climbed the same Kloof in reverse direction. For a change the PRO's had the easier option as descending the endless waterfalls on tired legs was a much bigger ask. Despite this the teams emerged commenting on how beautiful the kloof was. This was great to hear... because this year more than any of the 6 races in the past, I'd personally found this race route more beautiful than any before. Awesome scenery, awesome views and some great natural features like waterfalls, patches of forest and sheer cliffs. It was no accident that our T-shirt was branded "Xtreme Beauty". Now the teams had the last leg of the race, a predominantly downhill MTB ride along the interconnected foothill ridges reaching down from the heights of Malandzela to the Lowveld finish at Panata.

Team Organiser was at last feeling that the race was back under control. Teams were flying towards the finish and started arriving just before dark, SPORT pair Lesley Fitton and Sam Hodgson were first across the line, having taken back an hour from other teams after a bad first hike, closely followed by two pairs Confucius and Confused racing as a team, then Aieesh.com and Limpopo.

Tweet's McCain Adventure Addicts arrived as an unofficial three at 18h54, Cyclelab KZN at 19h23, and another unofficial Voel's McCain at 20h44. Adventure Inc Red Ants 21h29 Sterling Lite at 23:18 brought their full teams home.

The last curve ball and probably the cruelest of all, was the fact that Landrover USN had to pull out three hours before the finish, when John Collins was unable to continue after being struck down by a severe case of gastro. Knowing John's tenacity and his teams ability to take up the slack, this was clearly a life-threatening situation. There was no water available on this last 65km leg of the race and losing fluid at the rate that John was, was certainly a short-cut to circulatory shock and total collapse. The team decision to stop and seek assistance was prudent, but it denied both them and Team Organiser of a result that would have sat comfortably with all participants. Had the race been called off at CP22 they would have been clear winners, had they been given credit for the extra distance they did on Day 2, their lead would have been unassailable, and had they even cruised in 7 hours after the eventual winners on Day 3 they would have won. There is no doubt in most people's mind's that they are a world-class team, and under Chester Foster's management they will be the team to beat in all upcoming events.

The above comment is not intended to take anything away from the overall win notched up by Cyclelab KZN, followed by Adventure Inc. Red Ants and third placed Sterling Light. The defining characteristic of Adventure Racing is the ability to get all 4 team members to the end of the race, no matter what happens. These three teams did just that and for his reason they are the podium finishers in the Salomon Swazi Xtreme PRO event. Deon Bruss, Andrew King, Clint Pretorius and Cally Marsay of Cyclelab KZN kept slogging away, kept their eye on the ball and did what was necessary to snatch victory in a mentally and physically demanding event. Nicky Booyens, Brian Gardner, Ryan Hodierni and Gert Foster ensured that the Red Ants maintained their record of never finishing below 4th place in the Swazi Xtreme and the Adrian Saffy's foot soldiers under the banner of Sterling Lite, Owen Middleton, Ina van Tonder and Gerhard Beukes took 3rd overall. A high attrition rate in the PRO pairs saw Team JEEP Voetsak's Piers Pirow and Philip van der Leeuw as the only official finishers in this category.

In the SPORT event, the overall winners were Team Wasp (Bruce McQueen, Adam Wood, David Hall, and Elmare Mulder), followed by Team Aieesh.com (Shane Raw, Tammy Raw, Gordon Johnston and Blaize Thompson), with Team Gifblaar taking third. In the pairs the Swazi Racing Snakes (Lesley Fitton, Sam Hodgson) dominated, followed by Isivungu (Matthew Hemming, Steven Hughes) and the tied result of the Confucius and Confused teams.

Team Organiser was also finished, although a few more hurdles remain until the event can be packed away until next year. We'd like to say a big thank you to all who participated, all who provided venues and facilities and to our sponsors, Salomon, Bonaqua, and Netcare 911 in particular. As a team we have one last CP to manage and that is CP 40 at the Rustic Tavern this Friday night – to all our marshals, see you there, and to all others hope to see you next year... with less curve balls. No, send the curve balls too, we're not scared of the unexpected; we'll be one year smarter in 2008.