Day 5

Even though we overslept , there was no great hurry to get out of transition. Local teams had advised us that we didn't want to get to the Kei river crossing before dawn, it was a wide deep crossing that was potentially dangerous for the unwary. We set out from the TA with the intent on getting to the river at around 4:30-5:00 AM, if the locals were exagerrating we'd have the jump on them, if they weren't. we wouldn't have to spend to much time waiting on the river bank for the sunrise. The weather was in distinct contrast to previous mornings. Them temperature could only be described as 'balmy' as we cycled towards out rendevous with the river. Nothing is as easy as it may seem in Africa. As we descended to the river, the temperature dropped quickly, making the thought of a river crossing decidedly unpleasant. THe Uragauy team had been tooling around the river bank for over an hour when we got there, and we scoped out the river for a further 30 minutes until we discovered a relatively safe and easy crossing several hundred yards downstream. We waded across with nothing more than wet feet. Any difficulties had been well exagerated. The Uruguans gleefully followed, then took off into the Transkei.

Once we found the road into the Transkei region we were quickly initiated into this region of SA. We had been warned the roads would be poorly maintained, what we didn't realise was that the whole region was lost in time. On one side of the Kei river, modern farming practices and fast well kept roads were the order of the day. On the other side, people lived in regional villages, there was no running water or electricity and people seemed to live a semi-subsistent lifestyle.

Navigation in the Transkei was challenging. Tracks and roads were marked on the maps, but you had no way of knowing whether a track was rutted single track only suitable for hike a bike or two lane 4WD track. Often they went from one to the next and back with random abandon, so that you would be flying along making great time one minute, only to find yourself crawling along at snail's pace the next.

The locals were enthusiastic in with their cheering and their directions. Though when asking directions, questions had to be carefully worded. "Is this the right direction?" would always be met with a wide grin and a nodding head; regardless of which direction you pointed. "Which way would you go?" might have you going via a relatives house several kms out of the way. "What is the fastest way?" proved to be the safest, but you had to be prepared for everyone to have their input and then you needed to choose the option from the half a dozen different routes you were offered. Offering a local the map was just not worth the effort, as you woudl soon draw a crowd all offering an opinion and generally none of them seemed relevant.

We passed through village after village; the country seemed to support an impossibly large number of people and you could only imagine what it could be like in times of drought, when there is not enough food for everyone, but we were there in times of plenty and the kids were well fed and healthy. The air was often thick with smoke from burning off and several times we passed within meters of flames 6 foot high. This was Del's day to suffer and we paused briefly for a cool off in a river. Again it never fails to surprise me, the rejuvinating effect this can have. After struggling to stay positive, Del was back to her bubbly self (almost), while the bike seat was still a challenge, cooling her feet had reduced them in size and she could now walk without significant pain. While a 15 minute stop may be agonizingly long when you feel like your in a hurry, it probably made us up well over an hour, because we were able to move faster and for longer for the rest of the day.

We cycled down to the Wild Coast for the next section of the race, sorry to leave the beauty and simplicity of the interior, but thankful that we would be walking along the coast, and Lukie should be able to give his brain a rest for a while.

Arriving in Mazeppa Bay we had a 45 minute rest after paking our bikes up, with the idea of pushing as far as we could before resting. Consequently the march along the coast was fast. Lukie was glad of the break and even gave the maps to Grant, as a consequence of not having to think his brain shut down and trying to stay awake became a problem for the first time in the race. By the time Grant was walking like a Zombie there was no need to even consult the map, 'just keep walking until you run into a river'. We timed our arrival at the river poorly, it was nearly high tide, but the water was still running in at a frightening speed. The decision was made to get a few hours sleep in the dunes before trying to continue. It was relatively mild on the coast compared with the high country, but some pretty tight spooning was still justified. [ed. Grant and Luke haven't still been able to look each other in the eyes since that night]

Day 4

Having arrived at the TA at 9:00 PM, we had an extra long sleep and were still on the road for the next trek at just after 2:00 AM. Lukie decided to avoid the plunging back into the river valley and climbing back out and instead kept to the high ground and the roads, although this did mean we bunder bashed for a couple of kilometers it was significantly less thant the more direct route. It also added several kilometers to our total trekking distance. But soon after sunrise as we reached the first CP (which was manned) we were informed we had made up several hours on those teams ahead of us. The rest of the morning and early afternoon had us slogging up and down hills in the hottest weather so far. At the top of one we were informed by Gerry, the landowner: "I know the country you've already covered and I know where your going, believe me, what you're doing would test the elite troops of any country". I didn't feel very elite, hot tired, dehydrated and foot sore, pretty much covered it. By the time we had descended back to the river, we had run out of water and most of our enthusiasm. We filled up our water bottles as far out into the muddy stream as we could and waited for the thirty minutes to pass before our purification tablets cleaned the water. Then it was more bunderbashing up a creek bed before we made it the bottom of the Jumaring section.








We waited for 15 minutes while the team ahead of us ascended the ropes then headed up behind them. I waited at the top of the first pitch for Del to come up not realising there were two more 50 meter pitches to go. The views of the valley were breathtaking but we didn't hand around to admire them for too long. Even though we were all novices at ascending ropes we took to it well and climbed quickly, Even the cold beer the marshalls had waiting for us at the top didn't distract us for too long. We set off quickly with confusing directions and stories of Russians mad with drink accosting teams along the way, to get the next
section of bunderbashing completed before dark. The African scub is thick and ALL of the vegetation has either prickles or thorns, it's not a place you want to be trying to find your way through with a head torch if it can be avoided.



Along the way we again teamed up with the same South African team, Extreme Outdoors, as we had the night before. This time it was their turn to aid us with local knowledge and help us find a road through thick scrub. We found out later that the female in their team lived locally and actually trained on some of these tracks. So we marched along with them up the final hill and as thanks, left them as we moved ahead towards the next hunting lodge. The hospitality was, as we were beginning to expect first rate. All the rooms at the lodge we full, so mattresses were laid out in the dining room for the adventure racers and all types of food and drink were laid on. One of the race doctors was summoned to attend to Del and Grant's feet, before we again snuggled up under blankets supplied by the lodge and overslept our alarms.

Day 3

Day three started after what was for all practical purposes a waste of time at TA. We tried to sleep, but the cold noisy conditions made that impossible. The only other justification for staying at the TA was so that we didn't arrive at the paddle section before the sun had time to warm things up a bit. The overnight temp was -5 deg C, and none of us wanted to brave the water in those temperatures. We only set up our bikes after rubbing the ice out of our frozen jerseys (authors note: 'If you ever have to put on a frozen jersey only do so AFTER putting on your thermals). We set off into the clear pre-dawn morning with chattering teeth and fozen camel backs. One of the couple of checkpoints that morning was a quote from black activist Steve Biko: 'It is better to die for an idea that lives, rather than live for an idea that is dead'. On this particualr morning when I had woken up stiff, sore and doubting my ability to keep up with the others, I hopoed it was in no way relevant.

We gained the dam 2 hours later than we had aimed to and manged to scoff the worlds worst (but in some wierd way desirable)hamburgers and filthiest coffee, before heading out to collect two CPS. This was to be a 40km sufferfest in tub-like sit on tops, but one CP had been cancelled so the paddle was only going to be about 20kms. Lukie was pretty pleased about this, but he was still only half as pissed as he would have been at having to paddle 40kms, which made him still pretty grumpy. Made worse when he realised the tiny wind chop exploded on the bow of the boat and drenched him and left me dry as a bone in the back of the boat. To warm up Luke and Grant headed off for the CP while Del and I minded the gear (caught up on some sleep and did some stretching). Thius proved a turning point for me. Prior to the break, unable to barely raise a trot, I was questioning my ability to finish the race, 40 minutes later I was feeling like a new man, and even jogged the 50m or so to get the next check point. Such are the vagaries of adventure racing.

Off the boats it was back on the bikes and a long MTB to another hunting lodge TA. There were several memorable moments the first of which was Grant's frightening one handed descent down a killer fire road, steep and rocky, I'm sure there were people that would have baulked at tackling it two handed, but Grant kept up while taking a video of the rest of us plunging down to the Kabusi River. The other memorable moment was the look of despair as we realised we had to carry our bikes up the ciffs on the other side of the river. The property owner declared: This is where 'The Bull' grows balls." He obviously wasn't aware of what we had already been through., This Bull had always had the full package. The course then returned to the river via the Kabusi Safari Lodge, we were warned as we departed that the buffalo were last seen down by the river, where we were heading. Luckily we didn't have to avoid these notoriously dangerous beasts. It is a well known fact in South Africa, that buffaloes kill more people each year than any of the carnivores. Difficult nav through the river saw us team up with another South African team, Outdoor Extreme, although Luke ended up leading us all out before we powered ahead to arrive at the next hunting lodge.

Again we just missed out on a luxurious bedroom. Rivals Pepto Pro, who initially were going to keep going decided to stay and forced us to again sleep in the lounge room. This time though we put all the cushions we could find on the floor, put on all our clothes and crawled into our bivy bags. Making full use of 'The Puppy Principle' we spooned hard enough that we had the first warm and uninteruppted sleep of the race. So much so that none of heard our alarms and we overslept by an hour. A fact none of us regretted at the time.

Day 2

After a very cold night in the Mnyemi hut the day dawned clear and fine. We raced a couple of other teams out of the hut and headed off up the valley. The waslk out was nothing short of spectacular. We wold follow the river up until it hit a large 30 m waterfall at which point you would have to zig zag up out of the gully before heading back to the river to repeat the process. After doing this several times we eventually broke out onto the Amatole high plains.

It was about this time we realised our food was getting a bit low and would need some rationing. There was no option for scavenging on the way as the nearest town was probably at least a two hour detour. From eating a Torq bar every hour we would need to restrict ourselves to a bar every three hours, and hope that the rest of the walk went to schedule. After walking over 50kms we arrived at a high saddle; Lukie explained the rest of the walk, we go down to the CP at Kata hut climb up and hopefully find a way around Mt Thomas before climbing up the escarpment on the horizon called Kabusi, after that it's only 10-15 km to the Transition. At Kata hut we were met with the news that we were now in 20th position. Teams that had gone cross country rather than sticking to the walking track had made up nearly 5 hours.

Going around Mt Thomas we experienced our first South African burn off. Regardless of weather conditions the scrib and grasslands are burnt to promote fresh growth. Tramping around the mountain our progress was sped up by the crackling of a scrub fire and the sight of flames up to six foot high only a couple of hundred meters from where we were.

Kubusi was finally climbed right on sunset and it turned out to be the highlight of the trek. We took a snapshot of the CP and headed off on the long slog to the TA. By this stage we were all over the trek and just wasnted to get the weight off our feet. Yet that was still hours away, and the walk down the fenceline was done on autopilot.

We finally got into the TA tired and hungry with news that dorm beds awaited us. Alas, they were all taken and another couple of hours of shivering together on a couch while other teams came and went and interupted any thought of productive sleep awaited us.

Day 1

Rise and shine 2:30 AM for the bus ride out to Katberg resort and golf club. The bus trip took longer than expected and the race start was postponed an hour to 9:00 AM. We gathered under the starting banner, with the helicopter overhead and a few words from Hano we were off. As usual there were a few rabbits at the front of the field, but most of us jogged along at a steady pace. We took a conservative approach and decided to stay on the road as long as possible before heading up the hill. We smiled smugly to ourselves as we saw other teams tackle the nearly sheer sides of the hill. Our smiles turned to frowns, then gradually to tears as we headed off the road and into impenetrable African Scrub Think of the thickest Australian bush you can think of then add thorns, spikes. This was our first encounter with African bunder bashing, and we were quick to learn that it is to be avoided. By the time we covered the next 500m we had lost nearly 40 minutes on the front runners.
Our next lesson was in getting directions from the locals. A local lad confidently gave us the direction in which all the other teams had gone. We failed to communicate that we were actually looking for a checkpoint, after following his directions for 30 15 minutes, we eventually realized we had to back track to get the CP. Not a great first leg.
Onto the MTB’s and heading for Seymour dam for a paddle rogaine, collected a few CP’s on the way, and probably made up some places. The paddle rogaine was another lesson. On top of the hill, can mean anywhere along the summit ridge line (thanks to the local teams who helped us out here). Back on the MTB’s we heading off into the sunset. As darkness fell we passed several more teams and heading up towards Hogsback. The climb was steep and long and rocky, and while the others pushed granny gear, I pushed my bike. Over the top we picked up speed and flew itno TA. A quick transition and we headed off on the first trek. A 70 km monster through the Amatole Mountains.
The first CP proved elusive and many teams, us included, found ourselves at the top of the waterfall instead of the bottom. Although only 20 meters away it was 300m straight down. 30 minutes later we had rectified our mistake and re-climbed the steep 300m back to where we had been when we discovered our mistake. Although we were trekking strongly, we were impressed by the all girl Russian team, who during this section trekked away from us. We would cross paths several more times before the end of the race. We also built a rapport with South African Team Pepto Pro. Their navigator Donovan had helped us with getting our Torq gear into South Africa and we had slept at his parents’ house when they arrived in East London. Following the walking trail while others cut across country we ended up at Mnyemi hut at around 3:00 AM. We decided to bed down for three hours sleep before heading off at first light.

Pre Race Prep

We’ve all arrived at the Balugha Inn which will be race HQ. Our digs are quite comfortable, with good food and coffee on tap and plenty of other international teams staying here. Race

preparation is in full swing with rego, competency checks, marking maps and organizing food taking up plenty of time. We were pretty pleased to find our Torq gear waiting for us in East London. Everyone was very nervous sending it on ahead of us, and it’s a relief that this part of the preparation went to plan.
We were asked by Sonja (one of the race directors) to take part in a project they have organized to give out footballs to the local schools. The program is a Christian initiative where the balls have a Christian message printed on them. We went along to one of the schools were the children from three secondary schools had gathered. They sang songs for us in the African way, with lots of harmonizing and clapping, in what was a truly uplifting display. We made some short speeches and then played soccer and rugby with the kids. Grant and Stewart then tried to teach them how to kick Aussie rules style. It was a real privilege to be involved and it was an experience none of us will forget in a hurry.
Competency checks were pretty basic. Although with a huge abseil (180m) and a big 150m Jumar expected our climbing skills were thoroughly examined:
Climbing instructor: “So Del, you’ve climbed before?”Del: “Uh huh”CI: “Can you rig up your Jumar for me?”Del clutches a random piece of nice shiny climbing kit and holds it up; the CI raises his eyebrows and shakes his head.Del: “He he he, that’s the going downy thing, not the going uppy thing isn’t it. You mean this don’t you?”CI: “Yeeeees, you sure you’ve done this before”. The others in your team have they got any climbing experience?”Del nods enthusiasticallyCI: “and will they look after you on the ropes?”Del nods even more enthusiasticallyCI: “Goood, I think were done here, you can unclip and make your way back up……NEXT”
Luke has been flat out marking up 15 maps all of which are 1:50,000, navigation is going to be challenging, but it’s the same for everyone, and even without local knowledge, Luke will be better than most.
The African way is certainly different to what we have come to know as typical in Australia. In Africa it is understood that we have signed up for an adventure. We are expected to be self sufficient and have the knowledge to be able to look after ourselves. We will only see our gear boxes three times in nearly 600 km, so we will be carrying heaps of gear and food in our packs. Torq bars and gels will certainly make this part of the race easier for us than most of the other teams; trying to carry enough normal food to meet the ~10,000 cal we need per day, would be hugely taxing. We always expected this to be a tough race; we are only now coming to realize just how tough it could be.
Race start is at 3:00AM in the morning, when the buses leave for Katberg resort where the race start is a 10 km trail run. There’s nothing like a full night’s sleep before you start a big race.

Cape Town "Acclimatisation" Phase!

After a few days we are all still waking up at 4:30am; not sure if it is jet lag or just because there are so many exciting things ahead of us! Our city centre apartment was pretty full with 8 people ans 8 bikes whilst Rob, Kim, Richard and Damon of Australian tema team Blackheart/Stingers crashed with us for a night. They are currently driving East towards the race via an elephant park. KEEN Torq'ers are all flying over tomorrow/Weds.

Here in Cape Town we just got back from an incredible ride up the tracks and road around Table Mountain. We took some video and photos of us riding with a backdrop of impressive mountians and sheer cliffs on one side, and spectacular city scape on the other. We were grinning and laughing like kids all the way - Somehow the boys managed not to kill themselves larking around though I did nearly ride Grant off the track at one point (serves him right for undertaking!). The contrast between poverty and affluent society here is stark, and we have not quite worked it out yet. But one thing for sure, Cape Town has an enchanting natural beauty which our cameras won't do justice to.

On Saturday we went to the Cape of Good Hope, we saw Osrtiches on the heath, Baboon (eating it's lunch on top of a car) and had a great walk along the coastal path. Stew and Grant couldn't resisit doing a timed run up the staircase from the beach (homesick for Torquay sets?) . By that time Lukie had "seen enough rocks" and went back to watch the baboons! It was pretty chilly and blustery - we started to worry that packing just a light weekend size bag of clothes each

might not have been so smart.

We remedied this by conducting a thorough survey of Cape Town outdoors stores and climbing stores and bought lots of adventure gear (most of which we do actually need!). Despite feeling white and wealthy and conspicuous we have had a good time exploring, we found some nice places to eat, made friends with the Big Issue seller at the market, Luke and Stew saw squirrels for the first time in the botanic gardens. Tonight we have done some final race prep and gear organising, and are starting to get focussed the race (i.e. we ate a bit less cake today!).

The pictures are taking an age to upload to blogspot so Stew has jsut given up and put them on Facebook instead (see link on the right og this page)...

'till next time..
Delxxx