The McCain Adventure Fanatics team of Jeannette Walder, Cobus van Zyl, Craig Carter-Brown and Donovan Simms headed to Swaziland for this annual classic. This year the race was again run on the 'Rogaine' format with the team collecting the most points winning. The Fanatics ended up collecting 91 points out of the possible 95 points on offer and finished second behind Cyanosis who collected 94 points.

Check out some awesome Jacques Marais images from the race on www.mccainaddicts.co.za

Reports from the racers:

Cobus van Zyl: Swazi Xtreme... why do we come back year after year to this event? Well for me the answer lays in the fact that Darren likes to keep the 'Adventure' in Adventure Racing. This year's event was very fast flowing on day 1 and day 3 which ensured no slog or boredom. Hmmmm, day 2 was a bit of a slog but we'll forgive you for that! Let me explain myself when I say things are fast flowing, before lunch on day one we have had an urban run between 4 OP's (which was fast paced up and down illy roads with a fair bit of challenging route choices given the old map) we've left town to collect a OP on top of a boulder which required some scrambling, went straight down into the valley following the beating of a drum to guide us to the entrance of a cave that didn't allow anybody with a round waist, collected two OPs inside this tight fitting boulder strewn cave, run downstream to a fast flowing river and shot 3 fun filled rapids in crocs. So what can you fit in before lunch??? It didn't stop there, for the rest of the day we can throw in a sizeable hike over a mur-of-a-mountain (had some Hano Otto feel to it), then down to a dam with a mur-of-a-swim (which nearly drowned me) ending it all of with a serious cycle that broke me and had us crawling into transition about 20 minutes before the first cut-off.

The navigation on this years race must have been some of the most taxing I've done in all my AR. The good thing about this is that it keeps me awake during those dark hours of the night where the sleep monster is ready to ambush you on every downhill. The Google earth map that Darren gave us really saved me during the night time navigation, unfortunately it only covered some of the areas and we still had to guess the whereabouts of some roads. For anybody that doesn't know the Swazi maps let me explain: In short, about 5% of the roads that exists in Swaziland are actually printed on the maps, the rest is all up to hope and surprises.

This is sort of all right in daylight when you can navigate on features but when the big light goes down all you can see in the forests are the silhouettes of mountain ranges around you, and this makes for interesting navigation... The cycle during the first night, collecting a heap of OPs in the forest mostly using Google earth maps was quite fast paced and once again full of additional fun, like hiking to the top and bottom of a waterfall. The cycle during the second night was a bit hair-raising at times, because this time I had no friendly google earth maps to help me with big parts of the cycle, and there were 2 times where I really felt sure about where I was on the map. It's at times like these where I just cling on to the fact that the bearing is still good and that according to the distance on my speedometer we are still safe. The feeling of immense relief when you actually get to some recognisable feature again, reminds me of getting my exam results at university - but that's a different story.

The night time navigation did take its toll as I couldn't find the right track down to a specific OP, and we eventually decided, based on remaining time and sleep monster attacks, that we would head back to transition leaving the last 3 OPs. Later we learned that this OP wasn't on a 'good track' as we assumed and that we should have just bundu bashed forward on the overgrown 'almost a track' instead of turning back looking for a better track.

Day 3 once again saw us racing up a steep hill collecting a point, dropping down into blackjack hell before entering the most overgrown kloofing section I've ever done. This section was definitely great fun and one of the highlights for me. It involved a couple of cool bum slides, crawling under and over fallen trees, wading through rock pools, climbing down an involved weir and a couple of waterfalls / rapids, before tackling the hike up to the base of the jumar via a diagonal crack in the cliff.

Down from the mountain it was back onto our bikes for the hike a bike from hell, I'm sure we could have run this last section faster. Theoretically there was this nice railway line that we could cycle all the way to the last mountain where we would cycle up a steep 4x4 track to the top collecting 3 OPs all on the tracks where after we would descent down the mountain on an awesome downhill to the finish. ONLY the awesome downhill into the finish materialised, the railway line was so overgrown that we saw glimpses of Dr. Livingstone at places. After getting really entangled with the Lantana bushes at some stage we had to backtrack and found a 4x4 track that lead us on a detour of a large section of the railway line. Then after finding the OP in the tunnel we ended up bundu bashing our bikes on the now hated railway line to a 4x4 track with a misplace OP which had a lot of teams milling around. From there it was hell getting to the top of the mountain and then realizing that very little of the tracks on top of the mountains are actually ride able. But since Darren is a cunning race director he knew that the awesome downhill would cool us down by the time we hit the finish. And once again this was an awesome finish to an Xtreme race I would like to voice my opinion on the format though.

1. The forced sleep is crap, that doesn't belong in AR
2. I like the rogaining format but with some changes. The race should only have cut-offs forcing teams that doesn't make the cut-offs to leave out some of the OPs, but it should not have stops and starts between certain legs, the race should flow continuously ( Like the UGE race earlier this year which had a similar format but without the stops)
3. In other words, for the top teams this race should feel no different from a typical AR, because they race against each other collecting as many points as possible and doing so in the shortest possible time. The rankings would then be as follows. The team with the most points win, if teams have the same amount of points, the team with the faster time wins.

Craig Carter-Brown: Day 1: This was probably the most interesting day, with my highlight being the caving section. We had a good day but made a mistake in not collecting all the OP's at this early stage of the race. During the night leg we should have used more sleep, however we did not realize how quick it would take us to get back to transition using the route along the river.

Day2: This was a long hard day, the team worked well together. We managed to catch up to and pass Cyanosis. Due to the format the lead we gained gave us no advantage as we could only start the night leg at 5pm. The night leg continued on the mtb, navigation was very difficult as there were many more roads than the ones on the map, however Cobus did a great job. After our remaining compulsory sleep we had three more OP's to get on the night leg these proved to be the most difficult of the race. Unfortunately our angle of approach was wrong and we were unable to get the OP's.

Day 3: This day was more interesting and included a jumar and kloofing section. The route was fast allowing most of the top teams to finish comfortably before the cut off at 5pm. The hike to the top of execution rock proved to be a real slog.

Team McCain: Having never raced with anyone from the team before I did not know what to expect. I feel that the team worked well together, personalities and physical attributes seemed to gel. I would be honored to race with the same team again.

Gear: Considering the amount of time spent on the bikes we were fortunate to have no mechanicals, only a few sore arses. The Capestorm wind breaker tops were great on the night legs. The Salomon packs were comfortable but when full were perhaps a bit top heavy.

Race format: I personally would like to race a format were one starts at point A and finishes at point B, the first team there with all the cps is the winner. In the rogaine format I feel that all ops cant be obtainable therefore a faster team can take advantage by obtaining more ops.

In summary it was a great weekend, thanks Tweet for all your help. Thanks Cindy for seconding. And thanks to the team, next time we'll beat those Cyanosis buggers. My Swazi experience this year was a great one, not only did I finish with my best result in 5 years but I made a couple of really good mates along the way.

Donovan Simms: This was my first race for the team McCain, I have raced against them plenty in the past but as the old saying goes "you don't realy know someone till you've raced with them". And I would like to thank Bubbles, Cobus and Craig for the great racing experience and of course to Graham " Tweet" Bird and Cindy for really going out of their way for us at transitions. RIGHT with that out of the way onto the race... This year's race was basically split into 3 days.

DAY 1 saw us starting on foot where we did a bit of the urban stuff and onto a really cool caving section and then onto a great rafting section which saw Bubbles and I shoot a 2m weir. We then had a huge climb on foot, a quick flat water paddle and a cycle to the end of the stage.

DAY 2: Was basically a cycle, hike, cycle and cycle and cycle.......... I got the saddle sores to prove it.

DAY 3: Kicked of with a lekker kloofing section, luckily we were through there first and the rocks were still fairly dry, no bum sliding. Then a quick ropes section, down hill hike and cycle to the finish. The navigation this race was tough as the maps did not have much detail, so hats off to Cobus for a great effort with the navigation.

To our captain Bubbles, great job keeping us focussed and relaxed throughout the race, stress was not a factor, even after we made her carry her bike up a mountain for 45min. To the team "lighty" Craig, I don't know what they feed you on the farm but I want some of that stuff. I want to finish by once again thanking our seconds, Graham and Cindy for all their help. And of course a big thank you to our sponsors without your support the racing would be so much harder.

Jeannette Walder: This time my race report will be a bit different since the navigation was so hard that it felt to me we went in circles so for that reason I can't say too much about the course but I can tell you about my team and the things we got up to during the race. McCain Adventure Fanatics was made up of the usual two members Cobus and Me (Bubbles) and newcomer Craig Carter Brown (the machine, also know as youngster) and Donovan (the social butterfly) and what a team it was. We had never raced together before except for Cobus and me but it felt as if we been racing for some time.

Our seconding team was Cindy (the experienced one) and yes the big boss "Tweet" Graham Bird. I never ate so much before in a race the food was just to good to say no too. Our team had a great spirit we tried our best but never forgot the reason why we do this amazing sport.

Firstly because we just plain stupid but also because it allows us the get to know 3 other people in a different way good and bad. It gives us the opportunity too see stunning places to push us to the limit and just to get away from the every day things. I only saw the good side of my 3 team mate's we laughed, helped one another, huddled together and walked quietly next to one another. Also just to mention where would one ever be able to snuggle together with 3 men during night time without throwing ones name away!! Which in this years Swazi was 6hrs of compulsory sleep which made it quite interesting being only allowed to sleep at certain checkpoints away from transitions. All in all it was a great and organized race.

Thank you to Darren and his team, but being old fashioned I still prefer the good old adv race where all points are compulsory and it is non stop. To our seconds Cindy and Tweet you where great. To my team mates THANK YOU for making the race beautiful... Thank you to our sponsors who of course make it possible for us to go out there and life the adventure. McCain for their unbelievable support, Squirt for our hard worked Giants bike. PVM who's supplements are still delicious even after using it for years and of course Capestorm for the clothing that keeps you cool and warm in any conditions and not to mention making you look good even after 3 days of not showering.

The McCain Adventure Fanatics wish to thank the following team sponsors who support our adventurous lifestyles:

McCain - For supporting our active lifestyles
Capestorm - For supplying the apparel to get us comfortably through the race
PVM - For providing us with nutritional products to keep us going.
Salomon - For the great footwear that gets us through the long trekking sections
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!