I always find the week leading up to a big race the
hardest! There always seem to be an unending amount of things to be finalized,
packed, purchased and organized! The fact that I have to do this for for not
only myself, but my child and my husband probably has something to do with the
fact that I find it so stressful....not to mention trying to work in between!
The final week leading up to Expedition Africa was no different!
The weekend before the final week before EA saw me and
Hanno doing one last navigation exercise. Tweet had set up a small Nav Course
which would take us into the web of
roads in the plantation area east of Knysna. With no teams mates to go out and play with,
and not wanting to go galavanting in that area on my own at night, I roped my
good friend Ben into coming to play! Ben is one of super cool buddies who will
always step up to the plate when I throw a challenge or adventure his way!
(Thanks dude!)
With the sun fast disappearing beyond the horizon, we
headed off to our start point on the Diepwalle Road. Tweet had given us an hour and a half to find
the first set of on-foot check points. Hanno teamed up with Helena, replacement
girl for Jeannette on the Penny Pinchers Team.
Being the weaker runners, it was obvious from the start (or so I
thought) that Ben and I would be on our own for pretty much the entire run
section. With this in mind, Tweet gave us one less check point to collect. We
headed off to the dam and in no time found the first check point there. Next up
was a point in the forest itself. Even with a beautiful full moon, it was going
to be a challenge. Navigating through forest is hard enough during the day, but
I was up for the Challenge and knew that it was good practice! When making our
way along the edge of the Dam, Ben and I saw Hanno and Helena's lights up on
the hill opposite. knowing that they were looking for the same check point as
us, I took a gamble on a path which I hoped ran along the edge of the dam and
to within spitting distance of the next checkpoint...in theory!
My gamble paid off!
It wasn't long before Hanno and Helena joined us on the
lower road. After consulting the map and
pointing out where I thought we were in relation to the checkpoint, we both
agreed that bundu bashing across a small stream up to a road on which the
checkpoint was located, was the best and quickest option. We set off, and after discovering that my
legs were shorter than I thought or hoped, landing short of my intended spot
when trying to jump across the stream and getting not only stuck, but wet and
muddy, we continued up to the road. After some scrambling and log hopping we
found the checkpoint. Running short on time, we all had to skip the final
checkpoint and headed off back to the start point to meet Tweet and get our
bikes.
Navigating on a bike is just so much harder than on foot
and adding night time just amplifies it! But I love riding at night! It adds a totally different dimension.....not
to mention wipe-outs! :)
So, with map inserted onto the map board on my bike, Ben
and I set off into the dark..... The first check point was relatively
easy....the second one I made a very novice mistake (which I should know better
than to make) of concentrating too much on trying to follow the roads and not
the contours and not trusting my gut feel when that 'I'm not where I think I should be' feeling starts to kick
in! So after a little detour down a very washed out, overgrown and stony road,
we eventually popped out in an open area near the main road. Whilst making our
way through sharp spikey head high grass, we were suddenly not alone. Somewhere
out of the darkness to the south of us came the blaring first few bars of
Credence Clearwater Revivals song 'up around the bend', then dead quiet
followed shrieks of drunken laughter, then dead quiet again! A couple of
minutes later, the same again, just the opening bars and then dead quiet,
followed by laughter!.....just one lost soul out in the dark entertaining
himself, and us!
After a very bumpy ride through tall thick grass up a
steep hill, with some rather spectacular over the handle bar wipes from myself,
we found checkpoint 2! Suddenly my
confidence started to return and we set off once again in search of the next
point, by far the hardest of them all. Far more in tune now with my
surroundings and cursing myself for the silly mistake I made earlier, we found
the check point in no time at all.
I think at this point I need to say a huge special thank
you to Ben again! Ha ha.....you put up with a lot from me!
From there we had to make our way back to the Diepwalle
/Uniondale road and then along the back Concordia road and into town down the
Simola Hill. Just before the main road
we skirted right along the edge of the location.....Saturday night and there
were many parties happening, so it was a bit of a nervous moment as we got
there. Ben turned very pale and jittery....it was only later on I learnt of his
high-jacking experience in JHB!
Not sure how far Hanno was and with Ben having to get
home as it was now well past midnight, we decided to skip the last checkpoint
and just ride on to Tweets house. I was surprised to see that Hanno was not yet
there when we got there. After a shower and getting warm, I raided Tweets
fridge and then settled on the sofa to wait for Hanno. Just after2am a rather
cold Hanno arrived! It seems that I was not the only one who had a hard time in
the plantation in the dark! In fact, I got off lightly....but he did have more
points to collect than me! The downloaded track from Tweets GPS which Hanno had
ridden with, made for some entertaining reading!
The exercise however was just what I needed and I could
now tackle the final week leading up to our departure for EA with a lot more
confidence that I was going to be able take on the navigation challenge without
getting my team too lost in the Mountains of the Drakensberg!
And so the count down began.........
