side-swiped......

We all, at some stage in our lives, get completely side-swiped by something, literally or figuratively, but they all essentially have the same effect!  Its a bit like walking accross a field on a lovely sunny day, surrounded by the beautiful scent of spring grass and flowers  and suddenly finding yourself knee deep in a mole hole!

We have no control over what happens to us and when, something which many of us don't fully appreciate.  But one thing I am certain of is, everything in life does happen for a reason, even if that reason is completely uncomprehensible to us at the time.

This week, I, and many special people close to me, got side-swiped, and it sucks! I'm still struggling to come to terms with and understand why.... but what it has made clear to me is, we should never take anything for granted. Everything in life is temporary, even the bad things, which gives me hope even though sometimes it is hard to see it that way!

I previously wrote a post about a run we were a part of in aid of breast cancer and how inspiring and amazing people can be.  The human spirit never fails to awe me. Its ability to stare an adversary in the face and challenge it! The ability to smile no matter how crappy you feel, or how much skin you've lost under your feet from that 100km trek in wet grit filled shoes over the mountain, or how cold you are from cycling in the pouring rain surrounded by snow covered mountains.....and most importantly, the ability to stay positive when you find your body has been challenged by the toughest and most unforgiving of apponents.....cancer.....

The news that a close friend is now having to face this challenge, has rocked me to my core!  Suddenly the pressures and stresses that have been consuming me these past two weeks, seem totally inconsequential! I find myself reprimanding myself for being so selfish in thinking that I was having a hard time, when in reality, life could not be better!

For Don and his family, the road is not going to be a short, nor easy one, but I am once again humbled by the strength and amazing positive attitude he has. I salute you all! He's one tough guy and I don't think Cancerquite knew what it was taking on when it challenged Don!
I have seen him in some pretty hardcore and just plain shitty situations and states during various adventure races, and a stronger person you will struggle to find! He's always got a smile and a kind word, and I am truly honoured to call him a friend! I will not lie and say that his news has not left be feeling completely devastated! But.....I do strongly believe that it is just temporary, and it won't be long before he is back to living the life that he was born to live!

We will be with you every step of the way, if not in person, then in heart and soul! :)

Get better soon! Someone needs to keep the Elandskraal Fish shop on its toes,......and carry Tweets Backpack!

YOU ROCK!

adventure part 2....

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.........

adventure (noun)

so whilst looking for a title for this post, i looked up the meaning of adventure, both in the dictionary and then in the thesaurus...

the dictionary:
an exciting or challenging experience...

the thesaurus:
1. a life full of adventures: exploit, escapade, venture, enterprise, undertaking, deed, feat
2. in search of adventure: excitement, danger, interesting times, fun, stimulation

Darlings...... You are quite MAD!  

Every time I hear this I can't help but chuckle! As far as I am concerned..... I, and my wonderful husband are quite normal....

Something that I do believe quite strongly though is that with the advancement ( as most people see it) of society, we as humans are becoming softer and to a degree less able to deal with hardship with the result that what would have been considered a normal day to day activity, now becomes an abnormal over the top adventure of mad proportions! 

I'm by no means saying that long distance adventure sport is a walk in the park.... Because that, it is not! But, I have immense respect for the historical pioneers. They did not have the luxury of carbon fibre equipment, or electronics, or super advanced nutrition! For them, most of the time, survival only happened through true grit, mental perseverance and maybe a bit of luck! And one story that probably shows us this  best is the amazing and inspiring story of Sir Ernest Shackleton, polar explorer extraordinaire! A must read for anyone wanting to learn about true Perseverance and survival!

But enough about books etc, I guess what I am trying to point out is, most people live soft, un-adventurous lives! They have I suppose, forgotten how to live because society and technology have made life.....easy....

I'm not a natural athlete... in fact, I'm so far from being a natural athlete it's scary. I don't even really consider myself an athlete! I just love being outside, and although I do enjoy to sit in the sun (preferably in a nice hammock) with a good book every now and again, I can't do it for too long, as the ants in pants syndrome starts to kick in after a while and I then find myself thinking about the day being wasted and that I actually want to get out there and enjoy it! But it's not always that simple! Work tends to get in the way and then of course I have 'mommy' responsibilities! I am finding it easier to incorporate Daniel into my 'outdoor' adventures and like it or not, he does tend to get dragged around with mommy either in the canoe, or off-road pram.... Which with his increase in size is becoming more challenging with each outing! I find myself regularly In a bit of a catch 22.... I can't wait for him to be big enough to actually ride his bike either with me or ride with me whilst I run, but then also find myself getting sad at the rate at which my baby is growing! Typical woman, never knows what she wants!

With Hanno having slightly more serious race commitments and expectations than me, his training does tend to take first priority, but I do still manage to fit in sessions, though not nearly as many as I would like. My biggest problem is that I tend to think I am GI Jane and that muscle memory or my head will get me through most things! I haven't always been like that though. The more long distance and challenging things you do, the more you think you can do and the more you learn what your mind and body are capable of, not always a good thing as sometimes I bite off more than I am physically prepared for, resulting in a broken body!

This year has definitely been a better one for me on the health and fitness front! Last year was just horrible! It kicked off on the wrong foot and I was plagued the whole year with sinus and bronchial infections resulting that I never actually felt well enough to do any serious sport! But, that is all in the past and so far 2013 has been fantastic, with many amazing adventures!

The main focus for the first half of the year was Expedition Africa, a race I did for the first time in 2011. This year, it was to be held in the majestic Drakensberg, a place which is not only extremely beautiful, but also extremely harsh, and taking place in May, cold was going to be added to the list of challenges! Training build-up started early in the year as did the challenge of trying to put a team together, something which is actually harder than one expects, as to find four fit, healthy, like minded individuals who have the time, finances and most importantly the right mental attitude and whose dynamics would gel.....is hard!

Slowly but surely I managed to assemble a team...and hoped that everyone would get on and all be on the same level mentally and as far as possible, physically too!

Our first big challenge was a training weekend in the Transkei. We were lucky enough to be able to piggy back on a training weekend organized by Hanno's team Captain for their team (Tweet was out due to injury). 

The weather forecast was bleak.....rain, rain and more rain! It didn't disappoint. It start as we arrived at Kei Mouth and only stopped when left Kei Mouth three days later! It was however the best possible preparation weekend we could have asked for! 

The weekend, although tough, was not without its fair share of entertainment! And it all started with our camping at Kei Mouth. Everything was wet and dripping and whilst getting my stuff ready under the Gazebo, a huge crab somehow founds its way into one of my team mates bags! With some help from one of my hiking poles, I eventually managed to get it relocated. Based on the increasing number of crabs, and the amount of water inside our tent, we all decided to go sleep under the veranda roof of the local bowling club, which was right there. Before going to bed I went to find Hanno, who was sleeping under their team Gazebo, to say goodnight. I told him to watch out for the crabs to which he answered, I'm not scared of crabs! When I woke up in the morning, Hanno was now sleeping with us! When I asked him about this during the night relocation, he said with absolute indignation, 'man, I woke in the middle of the night with something crawling on my head! When I put the light on, I saw the biggest friggin crab ever crawling onto my face! Needless to say, I nearly wet my pants!

We started at sunrise with a short paddle up the Kei River (in the rain!) then we 'negotiated' our way across the river, having left our boats at a lodge and up a really steep and already slippery path to a settlement where Tweet was waiting with our bikes, and then mud fun and games began in Earnest! We learnt a few VERY valuable lessons about route choice.... The shortest route on paper, is not always the shortest route time wise and that single track paths through valleys in the Transkei generally are places to avoid....especially when it has been raining solidly for 24 hrs!

The path slowly but surely became little more than a figment of our imagination, with the downward gradient increasing as well as vegetation, we soon found ourselves sliding/crawling through spikey bushes and thick mud in pouring rain and mist, hoping we were in fact traveling in the right direction! After a few river crossings and lots of stopping to orientate the map and peer through the rain and mist, we eventually popped out on top overlooking a series of valleys. We stopped a local girl to verify that we were indeed where I thought we were..... According to her, we were not at all where we thought we were, in fact, according to her, we were miles away from where we thought we were! To me, this was just plain impossible. I refused to believe that I could be that crap at navigating! I told the rest that it was impossible and that we would carry on in the direction I thought we should be going......and a good thing it was because a few minutes later, we popped out right at the checkpoint! This was a huge boost to my confidence and we set off once again in the pouring rain! Once back on a road, our progress was relatively quick and it wasn't long before we had clocked in with Tweet and the others, putting on dry socks (what for I don't know as they were wet within minutes) filled up with food and headed off on what was to be about a 30km hike.  

With light fading, and the rain showing absolutely no sign of letting up, it was going to be a long, cold and interesting night!  The first check point was relatively easy to find. When we were at the check point, looking at the map, deciding which was the best route to follow, and very intoxicated local joined us, breathing enough fumes to knock out an entire rugby team! Eventually however, we managed to loose him and we carried on our way. We had in the mean time spoken to Tweet and been advised not to take the inland route as Hanno and team had done this and struggled immensely through thick forest with paths going in the wrong direction. I think that now might be a food time to add some very important information regarding our 'route!'  You see, normally, a race organizer actually does the entire route himself, physically biking and hiking every km to ensure that all the route choices are actually doable and that the check points are accessible ! Being in the Transkei and having an injury meant that Tweet was not able to do this.... so the route was designed on Google Earth... 

So, after consulting the map, we decided to rather head for the coast than struggle through the dark and through valleys similar to what we had been through during the day and through forests with no roads. After a rather scary and close encounter with some locals en-route to the coast, we eventually arrived at Cebe Mouth.  Our next challenge was a swim across the Cebe River Mouth...something which I had been dreading since our decision to head to the Coast! I Don't do river mouths at the best of times, and flooding river mouths in the Transkei, in the dark even less so! They are so far down on my TO DO list, they don't even feature! But, luckily I was not alone. I very quickly realized that my team mates were just keen to not swim as I was! We decided to stop for an hour or so, get warm and have a bit of a sleep as it was now about 1am. We eventually found an open container (Renovations were on the go at Cebe) with some big window frames and heaps of goat droppings inside. Out came the sleeping bags and space blankets, we stripped off and tried to get some shut eye and it wasn't long before there was a symphony of snoring.... But try as I might, I could not sleep! Having spoken to Tweet before we settled down, it was decided that we would go south to the Jakaranda wreck, some 20km down the coast and meet him there instead of going north to Mazeppa. It was going to take too long for us to get to Mazeppa.

Going south meant lots of river crossings, and with the heavy rain which had now been falling for over 24hrs, all the rivers would be flooding!

It's not so much the water that was making me so scared, I love water and I'm a good swimmer, it's what is in the water! The Transkei coast is notorious for sharks, and river mouths tend to be a favorite hangout for sharks, and well, a flooding river mouth is like a Cordon Bleur extravaganza for sharks! (In case you hadn't noticed I'm terrified of sharks!)

After 2hrs of hoping the rain would at least let up a bit, we got dressed in our remaining dry clothes and headed out into the dark and the rain! The going was easy, albeit it wet and muddy and we were treated to the most beautiful stormy sunrise along the coast. We hit the first big river crossing just after sunrise. There was no option but to swim! I told the rest that they had two options, they could either swim across with their only semi- dry clothes on and be soaking wet and salty for the rest of the day, or they could strip off, put their semi-dry clothes into their dry bag and have dry-ish clothes for the rest of the day (bearing in mind it was raining of course!) I knew which option I was going to take so with clothes in my drybag and nothing on but my birthday suite, I proceeded to break the world record for a 100m swim across a flooding Transkei river mouth with a backpack! Our swim happened to be right at the Wavecrest holiday resort, and being Easter weekend, the resort was rather busy. But being early and really horrid weather also meant that most people were still tucked warmly under their duvets.... Well most that is. Upon arrival on the lovely lawn at Wavecrest, in my birthday suite, we were greeted by an open curtain and a row of little faces... Peering at these clearly mad adults swimming naked across a flooding river in the pouring rain. Then they disappeared to be replaced by the mothers face, she waved excitedly and disappeared to be replaced by dad.... Dad didn't seem to be as enthusiastic about us as the mom.... But then again Janine and I were at this stage almost dressed and all the dad got was the two white bottoms of Ico and Marco!

When walking out through Wavecrest I spot a car with a CX registration.... a person can never hide!!!

After another slightly longer swim where I once again broke the backpack swimming record, we eventually reached the Jakaranda. To our amazement, we heard that Hanno and co had not yet arrived. When they eventually arrived, It seemed they had had a nightmare of a hike the night before to get to Mazeppa and when they eventually arrived, had been through even worse on the bike to get to Jakaranda. I didn't want to hear of their death defying stories! I was just glad they were all safe!

We set off on our bikes and Hanno and team set off on foot. The roads had now deteriorated so much, that it was like riding in glue. When we got to the transition, Tweet wasn't there and after a phone call we discovered that the axle had broken on the trailer. We trudged back to the main road to meet him there.  Once the bikes were loaded onto the already very dodged looking trailer, they set off to see if they could get the trailer sorted out and we set off back towards the river. 

We certainly made for an entertaining site. Me with raw feet from all the mud in my cycle shoes on all the hike- a - bike sections, Ico with severe Chaffe from mud in his cycle shorts and hiking in them!

Walking down the steep grassy slope to the river, one could hear water rushing everywhere. The Kei River below us had risen considerably and was now a great big swirling brown mass. The path down was no longer a path but now a river in its own right! My main concern was the valley below where the path went. Bundu bashing if the valley floor was flooded was not really an option! We eventually made it to the bottom, after much slipping and sliding and now it was our final swim accross. The river is about 100m and I was terrified of swimming accross! But, it had to be done! This time, knowing that we only a few km from the finish, we kept our kit on and waded into the water. Surprisingly it was still shallow enough for us walk accross! Ico chose to go accross where the river came down through the valley..... I was staying as far away from 'rich' water as possible for fear of whatever opportunistic water creature might be lurking there! When we were nearly accross Janine said for the first time, perfect conditions for Sharks everyone! I just laughed and said asked why they thought I had been sprinting accross all the rivers?

Once safely on the other side, we resembled mud men as we were brown from head to toe! The mud in the shallows just about swallowed us and at one point Marco, who is incredibly tall, all but disappeared in the mud when he slipped!

The wind had picked up and the paddle back was hard! But eventually, wind swept, salty and a little less muddy, we arrived to much cheering and smiles at the slip way at the mouth 34 hrs after our departure the previous day!

It was the perfect training weekend and a great test and learning curve for us all! 

Thanks Tweet, Bruce and Emil for doing the backup, without you guys, it would not have been possible!

Thanks to my team for sticking it out and the laughs along the way!

Every boob counts

After my recent 'participation' in the Every Boob Counts fundraising initiative where a bunch of passionate and maybe little crazy people got together and ran, walked and biked a 100miles (160km) for breast cancer, I wrote a letter to everyone who took part. It started with the word- PRIVILEGE, a word which I feel very strongly about and which is sadly not appreciated fully by most of us.

Privilege (noun) - a special right given to a person or group.

Many of us, myself included, have so many things for which to be thankful for. Sadly, the most important and often least appreciated is health. And only when we are faced with ill health, whether it be ours, or someone close to us, do we fully appreciate the importance of it!
We have all of us, either directly or through someone we know, be it close or just an acquaintance, been touched by cancer. It has no vanity, it has no off button and it isn't something that you can just quit when you get tired or sore. It also does not discriminate..... It can affect anyone, tall, short, fat, thin, smoker, non-smoker... Many of us have never really given the whole cancer thing (or any illness for that matter) and the implications of such an illness, its effects on not only our lives, but on those around us, a huge amount of thought, or contemplation, call it what you want. I know I hadn't.

This all changed.... For me at least. Cancer is something that I have become more and more aware of through people I know who either have it, or have a loved one who has it. My first real encounter with Cancer was when I was still too immature I guess to really fully appreciate the harshness of  it. It's total disregard for everything we know in life. But as awful as cancer can be, through it and the people who have had, and have it, I have learnt many a humble lesson!

I continue to be inspired by cancer sufferers. Their ability to just keep going, staying positive, with a smile on their faces no matter how crappy they are feeling or how dire their prognosis! I have met many amazing people in the past few years who have, or who have had cancer and I am continually awed by them! I recently met one of these exceptional people, and I can honestly say that I am a better, fuller, 'wholer' person because of it! It not only levels one, but forces you to take a step back from our general day to day rut that we slip into and take stock of who we are, what we have and the privilege of good health. 

Like most things in life, there is always more to something than meets the eye.... this something that I refer to is actually something that very often is overlooked, and these are the many wonderful men and woman who are the support system for those with cancer.   I have unbelievable respect for them! Caring for someone with Cancer, who you love, is never easy, and normally those who do it, have full time jobs and families, and still they manage to give their all!  Special, doesn't even come close! 

I am privileged to know many amazing people, who through Cancer,  have touched my life in some way or another and I thank each and everyone of you to teaching me the true meaning of being humble!

transbaviaans, or was it langs baviaans?

yip, so the transbaviaans has come and gone, leaving me with that only too familiar feeling of "what now?" it is hard not to suffer post race blues when one has completed an epic 240km nonstop mind-bending journey through one of the many beautiful areas our country has to offer.

like most of my decisions regarding my rather social sporting activities, not too much thought actually went into the whole thing when i eagerly committed to riding this epic annual event. i seem to be either a slow learner, or just plain stubborn as i have not learnt from past experiences that i am not invicible and doing a nonstop 240km mountain bike without training, isn't going to happen without it's fair share of pain!

after expedition africa in may, i was forced to take some rather unappreciated sports leave due to injuring my achilles. after 4 wks of still not being able to put on a closed  shoe i decided not to do transbaviaans and told my prospective team mates that rather than let them down at the last minute, i would do the sensible thing and sit it out.... well clearly that decision didn't last very long as 5wks later the idea to ride slowly started to creep back into my mind.

after my first session back on the bike without any pain, i thought that maybe i could do it! its amazing how one can convince yourself that you can do something when you really want to and how blinkered we can become to anything else. with this being the case, i went about trying to sort out an entry for myself, and finding a willing victim to ride with. the latter proved to be very easy and within about an hour, this part of the equation was sorted. a couple of days later, confirmation that we had an entry came and suddenly mild panic started to settle in - as one would it expect it to! 240km is a long way by anyone's standards! last time i did it, i had put in a good couple of months and a few 1000km's of solid training, now all i had was 3wks with toddler induced time constraints!

after managing a sum total of 7 rides, the longest being 2 and a half hours, we set off to the great metropolis of Willowmore. now for those of you who have never had the wonderful opportunity of visiting this karoo dorpie, don't blink too long whilst driving past as you may miss it. i think the towns survival rests heavily on this event each year. i think that per capita, it has the greatest number of accomodation establishments, but this didn't make finding accomodation any easier when there are 1200 other people also looking for accomodation!

eventually i found a spot at the villa d lockyer guest house and with a big smile, billy jean booked us in and showed us where everything was.

i find that once all the pre-event excitement and organising has been dealt with, there is little to think about but what lies ahead and strangely enough, the nerves start to set in. add to this the fact that the route was different to the normal route due to the baviaanskloof being impassible after all the heavy rains of late. i was scared of so many different things that it is difficult to pin-point which was the most scary!

saturday morning we woke up to freezing karoo weather. ben recorded 3 degrees at about 8am. the max for the day was reported to be a little over 10 degrees and some rain was also predicted.... it was going to be a very cold day (and night) out!

after catching up with friends on the start line we headed off at a leisurely pace out of the town. i was really hoping that i would make it to the finish and that ben had the patience to ride with me all the way. i don't think he knew (in fact i know he didn't know) what he had actually let himself into when he agreed to ride with me!

the frist section was pretty and then we hit the road that goes into the baviaans. this road climbs desceptively and one has to be carefull not to overcook it as it is at the start of a long ride! i really struggled to get going and things didn't improve, in fact they went backwards fast. i just had no go and my lack of training was really starting to pay off!  getting to the first water station and discovering that there was not more food left was a huge knock, but thanks to some friendly co-riders we soon stuffed our mouths with yummy boiled potatoes ( i think it was actually a ploy by them to get me to shut up - as i was still talking at that stage!)
the section from the first waterpoint to the second i felt like death warmed up. my legs were just nowhere. i had nothing in the tank and suffered serious ups and downs in the energy department. to add insult to injury i was also mistaken for being male ( with a pink and white helmet) but at least the offender was gracious enough to apologise and continued to holler support and encouragement from the roof of his landrover everytime we saw them en-route!
the farmers at checkpoint 2 made up for anything that checkpoint may have been lacking. there was enough food to feed an army! sosaties and wors as far as the eye could see and lots of yummy potatoes. my guilt at taking more than 3 sosaties lasted about 2secs as i gobbled them up. i saved one for on the bike on the way out, man they were good!
sadly the sosaties didn't contribute much to the energy requirements and it wasn't long before i had to check if my legs were still attached to my body because they did not seem to be contributing much to my forward motion. at one stage i think we were moving at less than 10km/hr.... on a flat road.... things were looking a bit bleak!
amazingly though once we hit the dark and the slightly more technical terrain of the grootrivier poort, i started to perk up a bit. after telling ben that i was a real "benny bang broek" on the downhills, i proceeded to have my best downhill ride of my lfe! i just flew, we passed about 40 people on the way down (despite my near head over heals flik flack en-route) and then we got to the first of the river crossings. we managed to get accross the first without getting our feet wet, the second we weren't to be so lucky.
despite the dark, which had now settled in properly, one would see that this was going to be cold and wet! shoes off i started to make my way accross. suddenly my mistaken man identity offender appeared out of nowhere (well actually from behind but i like to think of him as my guardian angel who appeared from nowhere - lets keep with the fairy tail here!) and offered me a lift accross. apon closer inspection i saw that there were already a tangled mess of bodies and bikes on the landrover, clinging on to every conceivable  open space available. i hopped on the step and holding molly (my lovely bike) in one hand and the roof rack with the other, continued accross the river, leaving ben to wade through the ice cold water on his own - nice partner aren't i!  this earned my mistaken man identity offender a kiss and a wave!

then the real hurt started. my memory of this section of the route was a little fuzzy to say the least and as i was in a car when i had last gone through there, the little bit of memory that there was, proved that it was not very realiable.... at all!
what i remembered as being a short descent into the grootriver valley, was anything but that! being the 1000th odd idiot to hit that section of road in the past 5hrs, with some vehicles churning it all up and a little bit of a drizzle, the road resembled something out of 'dummies guide to kakkest roads to be traversed'. one of my pet hates in life is to push my bike... i made peace with that about 1km into the great push, which carried on for the best part of hours too numerous to mention! somewhere along the line i started getting some very irritating little cramps in my one leg, that is until i discovered the wonderful power of "rennies!" our progress was snail like but at least i was still smiling although i think that ben did get a little worried by my silence (never a good sign when the noodle stops talking!). ben and i had devised a simple way of staying in contact en-route, when we got separated or wanted to check on how the other was feeling, we will screech 'kakaaaaaaa' apon which the other would respond in the same manner, not only was it effective, but it drew a few smiles from those around us!
we eventuall it the 3rd checkpoint. i was frozen. a sweaty body in a cold wind up on top of an exposed hill at night in the karoo in winter.... not good. thankfully they had hot soup which although it did not do much, it did help a little, and it certainly warmed my soul! the tent looked like carnage, broken bodies everywhere. suddenly although i was not feeling too hot myself, i felt alot better. only 80km! a chip and a put!

my spirits did not stay high for very long as the climbing was far from being over. it just never seemed to end.  the road was reduced to slush and the pushing continued. eventually we hit hard, dry district road. it felt like tar, except the first section was a bit too steep for my tired legs so i ended up pushing! then it was the long rolling downhill into patensie ( i say rolling because it was not all downhill!) once we hit the tar road we had a short ride to the 4th checkpoint where we would see our backup crew for the first time.

after a biiiig hug from meisie meisie (my friend kate - also known as dingetjie dingetjie after a few long bike rides) we had some lovely slap chip rolls compliments of stef from cycleworx and a very yummy homemade soup which kate had rustled together. ben and i were both like little ice-blocks by now and were keen to get going again to warm up a bit. we had both put on an extra layer of clothing - not that it helped much!

we had 50 odd km to go. the next 25km were 25km i had been dreading as it involved the netorious never-ender climb - not named that for nothing i might add. last time, possibly because i had actually trained for the ride, never-ender seemed like a breeze, not the case this time round! it really never seemed to end. but as with everything in life, it did eventually come to an end and before we knew it, we were at the next checpoint being greeted by the smiling but sleepy faces of kate and craig. suddenly, after 200 odd km, i was ready to ride. my legs had rediscovered themselves and had remembered what it was they were meant to do. i set my goal as getting to the finish ahead of the other merrell team which were also at the checkpoint and so with this in mind, ben and i set off.... at pace. i felt possessed as i road the relatively flat road all the way into jeffreys bay. just before the finish it started to drizzle and we were thankfull to be almost done.

it was with great relief, but a little bit of sadness that i rode up the ramp and through the finish of this years 'langs baviaans' race at 04:40am.  having started at 10am the previous morning, it had been an epic ride, one which i was glad to have done, but one which i will not do on so little training again.... but then again, ones memory of discomfort quickly fades!

after a wonderful shower, i flopped into bed, sometime around 6am (my normal wakeup time!) and tried desperately to fall asleep, but the brain would have any of that boring stuff and after about an hour of cat napping, i gave up!

thanks ben, you were really an amazing partner.
meisie and craig, you guys rock. thanks for sacrificing your sleep to cheer us on!
and of course, a HUGE thank you to MERRELL for giving us the opportunity to GET OUTSIDE!
xxxxoooooo

expedition africa..... from the back!

Expedition Africa

500km Unsupported Expedition Adventure Race

(well for some it was a race…. for others…. it was a journey!)

For once, I have been at a loss for words! I have been thinking about this story quite a bit since I crossed the finish line, and I do not think I am any closer to knowing what it is that I want to write than I was then! There are so many emotions and thoughts racing through my mind, and I still have not been able to process or deal with them in an orderly fashion!

Without sounding too deep, my time at Expedition Africa was a journey not only to the many wonderful places that Stephan and Heidi laid out as the course, but also many to new places in my mind and heart!

When I first heard of Expedition Africa, I was really excited at the prospect that maybe this time, I would be able to take part as I’d had to sit the Bull of Africa race out due to having a rather large stomach…. Which incidentally choose to make an appearance into the world whilst Hanno was racing the Bull of Africa!

But as life would have it, it clashed with another awesome event that I had already committed to, the Eden to Addo Mega Adventure, so once again, it seemed that I would be missing out on the chance to test my endurance and resolve in a 500km adventure race.

In February, the news that the Eden to Addo event was being postponed came through, and I was sorely disappointed, but at least now I was free to do other stuff….. like Expedition Africa. I hadn’t really thought about it much and then whilst going through mails in our inbox I found a mail from a team looking for a team mate. Then I found another from the same team saying they had found a team mate… bummer. Then…. I found another saying they were looking for a team mate AGAIN! Was this a sign?

Before giving it too much thought (like – can I actually do 500km!), I mailed asking if they had found someone. Man, it wasn’t even 10min later and a reply came back…. “are you keen?”

“holy crap!” I thought. What have I gotten myself into?

My reply started something like this:

“It’s a bit like a fish nibbling on a tasty hook.....it could potentially be really enjoyable, but it also has its painful side!  It’s all about the challenge!”

Needless to say, I obviously said the right thing because they chose me! (might also have something to do with the fact that I could speak English and that I was married to Hanno!) but I prefer to think it was because of my lovely personality and good looks!

And so the preparation began. Not having months to train, I decided to do as much as I could and try to avoid injury, a swearword to any potential athlete. Having a toddler meant that finding time to train was another challenge all on its own, but I managed to sneak in sessions here and there during the week and of course over the weekend.

It is at this point that I must thank various friends for their undying belief in my ability! Even those who had absolutely no idea what I would be putting myself through, were encouraging, probably because they had no idea, but it helped! Nothing like having ones ego polished when trying to convince yourself you can do something!

I was terrified of disappointing my team mates, of not having what it takes to finish a 500km nonstop expedition race! I was terrified I would not like them, or even worse that they would not like me!

But of everything, I think what terrified me the most of all, was the possibility of disappointing myself.

As race day loomed, I started to feel a lot more at ease about my team-mates. We had enjoyed a lot of e-mail bantering and joking and if nothing else, I knew that we would definitely have a couple of good laughs en-route!

One of the biggest challenges I think of Adventure Racing, is getting all four team members to the start healthy and getting all the equipment needed by those four team members to the start in one piece and without forgetting anything vital!

Now before I continue any further, let me explain the inn’s and out’s of adventure racing, so that those who are not too aufe’ with the sport will understand what it is all about.

Each race is run in a different place, no two races are ever run over the same route (except for races like Eden Duo or Wartrail which are staged races and run on the same route each year). The route is not marked and teams have to use maps (normally 1:50000 topographical) and a compass to navigate. No GPS is allowed. Teams are required to visit check points en-route which are regulated by either a marshal where teams have to sign in, or a passport which has to be clipped.  The race is nonstop so teams decide when and where they sleep. The longer races tend to have a compulsory stop midway, normally around 5hrs, where teams get a chance to recharge, sort out maps if necessary and have a good feed!

Teams consist of 4 members, of which at least one member must be of the opposite sex. Teams must finish with all their members having done the whole route, collecting all the check points, to finish officially. The team to complete the course officially in the fasted time, wins!

Disciplines normally include biking, running/trekking, swimming, paddling, kloofing, rope-work (abseiling, ascending etc); sometimes other disciplines like horse-riding, sailing and in-line skating are included.

So now that you have an idea what it is all about, let me tell you all about Expedition Africa.

Being the slightly more organized member of the Mr & Mrs Smit family, I decided to do my kit sorting and packing during the Easter week as we were closed. My massage bed suffered an identity crisis as I continued to dump stuff onto it each time I walked past! Needless to say that by the end of the week, I had a good selection of stuff to chose from!

nutella at the start......still looking clean and spritely!

Having never done an expedition race like this before, I had NO idea what I should be taking with, even though I have spent time around Hanno and his team, each person is different! I decided to try and keep everything minimal, but at the same time, not compromise on warm stuff as it was winter after all!

Luckily for me, I scored a couple of hand-me-downs so had some awesome technical clothing to take with. Very important when you are stuck up on a mountain in the rain and mist at 2am!

Once my compulsory gear was packed, it was time to sort out race clothing! I had learnt from some previous shorter races that I that I tended to keep on whatever was on top for the duration of the race, except if it was soaked and change whatever was on the bottom to suite the disciplines.

At last all my gear was packed, now it was a case of trying to stay injury free for the remaining week leading up to the race! Taking my rather frequent close encounters with snakes that I seem to have been having lately into account, this could prove to be a challenge!

12 days before the race, I did something REALLY stupid whilst riding my bike in the forest behind us which resulted in me flying over the handle-bars and colliding head first with the ground! A little shaken, bruised and scratched I climbed back on and rode home! Luckily nothing broken…… except my helmet, which I did not notice until I was packing my cycling gear a couple of days later!

Eventually departure day arrived and with Molly (my bike) serviced and ready to go, my bags packed and Daniel organized, tweet picked us up and we were off to Hermanus, the registration and race village venue for the race.

Suddenly, with nothing to do other than think about the next week, the reality of it all started to sink in! I won’t repeat some of the words that went through my mind, but they weren’t pretty! Was I off my rocker? Here I was about to do a 500km nonstop race, with people that I did not know from a bar of soap! I was suddenly really nervous about meeting them!

We arrived in Sandbaai and spent the night at Lofty’s parents (Tatum’s husband and in-laws) which was where Hanno and his team  would be staying in the days leading up to the race along with lofty and his team and the camera crew that were going to be filming Hanno’s team. Things were going to be VERY crammed. Luckily a good friend of mine who lives in Sandbaai came to my rescue. His in-laws had a house just around the corner from the race village in Onrus, which they rent out…. Team Kubusi were suddenly going to be staying in style!

My team mates eventually arrived to collect me. All fears were very quickly dispelled and I realized with great relief that I had picked a winning combination of personalities to do the race with!

fort rock checkpoint in hermanus

With Molly rather precariously tied onto the roof of James’ car, we headed to Onrus to offload our gear at Craig’s in-laws house and to do some race-food shopping! After presenting each of my team mates with their official “Team Kubusi” shirts that I’d had made, we headed off to the shops! We must have supplied a fair amount of entertainment to our fellow shoppers as we threw everything from nutella to smoked sardines into our trolley. The end result was a mixture of very interesting goodies… I was worried we were going to have too little, Jenny on the other hand, thought we had enough to feed an army – I guess I should have listened to Jenny as I think that James and John are still eating nutella and sardine sandwiches!!

We collected our bike and gear boxes in the afternoon and spent the rest of the day assembling them and packing our bikes. Suddenly I had to make some serious choices about clothing etc as all my clothing and other equipment that I was taking with for the race, was going in my bike box. We also had to pack our kayak bags for the kayaking legs. I found it really hard to focus on what was needed. Needless to say, although I had everything I would need, I still did not pack very sensibly. It took the entire race for me to eventually get it right!

Saturday night was briefing night. It would also be the first time that all the teams would be together. After all of the teams had a chance to introduce themselves, and briefing was over, we received our race maps.  We copied the CP’s off the master maps and headed home to do some plotting.  This done, we hit the sack for some much need sleep time!

Sunday morning we had kit check at 09:30.  This done we went back home and finalized the packing of our bike boxes and food bins, which had to be dropped off during the course of the day. This was the tricky part as I had to ensure that whatever I would need for the first 3 legs of the race, I had with me! Something that I didn’t quite get right, but luckily I did not need anything serious, just food!

Once our boxes were delivered, we spent the rest of the day lazing in front of the TV! At one stage I lay there thinking that for the next few days I would probably be dreaming about lying in front of the TV!

05:00 Monday 9^th May

I could not believe it when my alarm went off! I can’t really explain how I felt when I woke up, but what I can say is that I was nervous as hell! It was here, no turning back now!

Once at the start, we were loaded up into taxies and transported to the Old Harbour in Hermanus. Due to the strong winds, the organizer had decided to cut out the sea paddle. I was part disappointed, but also part happy as I did not fancy paddling those bath tub boats into a head wind on the sea! Once everyone was assembled and after a short period of silence for everyone to ponder and contemplate what we were about to take on, it was game on and everyone scrambled at various paces back up the slope to start leg of the 2011 Expedition Africa.

view towards betty's bay

After a short stint of running (or as in our case – walking) around Hermanus collecting checkpoints, we headed up into the mountain behind the town to a collection of Dams. Whilst on the path to the dam, I slipped and fell and managed to slice the palm of my hand quite badly. I felt really stupid as this was the first leg and we had chatted about taking gloves with (something that the others did do, but I didn’t – part of my packing issues!) john very kindly lent me one of his, which I tried not to bleed on too much! We decided after collecting a CP at the dam, to head straight up the slope to the path at the top instead of doing a long detour back and around…… I think this is a good time to add that I am TERRIFIED of heights! We climbed straight up. At one point, I could no longer see the edge of the dam; we seemed to have gone over a bulge overhang. A couple of big gulps later and thoughts of: don’t look down and “why don’t I have a rope and harness?” we slowly made our way up. Somehow, through bad route choice on my part, I seemed to spend most of our ascent with my face in James’s backside, luckily he managed to contain any turbo-boost urges he may have felt!

Once on the path, we made our way to front of the mountain overlooking Hermanus and back down a steep zigzag path to the beach. Here we collected our boats and after a VERY smelly walk to the water’s edge (man, there was some SERIOUSLY dodge stuff amongst the seaweed, far too similar to the stuff we tend to flush down the loo) we started what was to be a rather windy and wet paddle.

john on top of the mountain

We made good headway, and our navigation was pretty spot on. James seemed to have forgotten at some stage during the paddle that we were actually doing a race as every time I looked at him and Jenny, he seemed to be lounging in the back, paddle up, enjoying the ride! John took great glee in punching through the waves, leaving me soaked and spluttering for air whilst desperately trying to spit out the dodgy water of Stanford Lagoon. Memories of Dusi came flooding back…

at the start of the zigzag descent

Having past a good number of boats en-route, some seen crawling through reeds whilst others were heard making calling noises from deep inside the water’s edge vegetation, we were in good spirits at the end of the paddle and set off through the quaint village of Stanford on what was to be a VERY LONG HIKE! After eventually locating the correct Church to punch the CP, we set off down the gravel road to the beach…a road which seemed to take forever and never come to an end! But then again it was about 15km! I discovered on this long straight road why I hate running in town and on tar… it hurts! The monotony of one foot in front of the other hurt not only my feet and my legs, but my brain too! My hips really started to take strain and I can’t say that I enjoyed it very much! We hit the entrance to the beach reserve as the sun was starting to set. After stopping to do some foot maintenance and get out some warm clothing, we hit the beach for what was to be an even longer hike on soft beach sand, as we had now it at high-tide! Gansbaai looked an awfully long way away!

on the beach at the start of the paddle

Walking along the beach in the dark was very peaceful and once in a rhythm we just chugged away. James’s feet were starting to take serious strain as he had done all the walking for the day in his vibram five finger shoes. Normally they are great, but like my hips, they really did not like the long gravel road from Stanford! As the evening progressed, the pace slowed with ever more frequent breaks. I don’t think Jenny and I realized at that stage how bad poor James’s feet were, and the lights of Gansbaai were like that ever elusive pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, they just never seemed to get any closer!

Eventually we hit the corner of the bay and then it was just a hop-skip and a jump to the Transition…. Well, that is how it was on paper! Our progress to the next CP was slow. We had to find a beach path, eventually after some bundu-bashing on my part, I found the path and then it was vasbyt the last few km to the transition. It took us nearly 3hrs to cover the last 5km, things were not good! It was at this point that James broke the news that he was not going to carry on. Naturally I was disappointed and although we tried desperately to convince him to rethink after a rest at the transition, he was adamant, and I must say that I also fully understood how he felt and told him that I respected whatever decision he made.

before the wind!

We arrived at the transition just after 11pm, to big smiles and encouragement from Stefan and Heidi. I think I drank about 3 cups of milk and then shoved my very smelly and dirty body into my sleeping bag for 2hrs sleep. I’d had the forethought to pack earplugs as I really struggle to sleep if there is any noise, especially snoring, but once again, my bad packing left me unable to find them!

Whilst lying shivering on my mattress, John came in, climbed into his sleeping bag (nice of him to share!) and was asleep. Then the snoring started. I lay there thinking all kinds of lovely words, and then eventually decided that my sleep was also important and said: “john, roll over!” man, instant reaction and the snoring stopped. Clearly this is something that he hears on a regular basis from his wife!

My sleep didn’t improve and after probably about 3omin of fit-full shivering sleep, it was time to get up. The sight of James warmly wrapped up in his sleeping bag was almost unbearable!

john before the beach

It was hard work concentrating on what needed to go with on the bike. I also realized to my distress that there was something drastically wrong with my front brakes as my front wheel would hardly turn. After much swearing and cursing, taking the wheel on the off, loosening the brakes and soliciting the help fellow racers, I accepted the fact that I was in for a hard ride! No matter what I tried, the brake pads kept touching! 

Dressed in just about everything I had packed, we headed off on the bikes. We were now heading inland and after about 2hrs on the bike, the sleep monster came to visit and wasn’t very interested in going away! I really had to concentrate hard in keeping my eyes open, always a good idea when going downhill and around corners! But I can’t say that I was altogether successful as I found myself doing some unplanned investigating of the side of the road a couple of times, and at one point had a rather close up encounter with a bush! At about 3am at a junction, John said he needed to have a little rest, so we all climbed off our bikes and lay down in the sloot next to the road. Within minutes there was familiar snoring from John and shivering from myself and Jenny. 15min later we were on the bikes again only to be confronted by an immediate uphill! Why we hadn’t stopped at the top of the incline where it would no doubt have been warmer, no-one knows!

early morning bike stop

The sunrise was beautiful. It was really amusing coming across teams climbing out of the bushes, looking like they had been dragged through them backwards, rubbing sleep out of their eyes! To anyone else, they must have looked like they had lost their marbles. Who on earth would want to sleep amongst prickly fynbos in the middle of winter with nothing other than the clothes they had on wrapped in a space-blanket?

Our route now took us back down towards the coast where we would collect some CP’s at Walker Point. Once at the coast, I started to feel right at home as we now turned off the gravel and hit a very sandy jeep track, which we rode on all the way to the light house. I think I was the only person to actually enjoy this section as most of my riding at home is on sandy plantation roads! When we got to the lighthouse, I exclaimed with great glee…… “that was fun!” I had a giggle at the response from Laura De Haast, a fellow competitor – “you have got to be kidding right?” she did NOT enjoy the sand… at all!

We caught up to a few more teams on this section and then stopped at the “holiday resort” at the start of the gravel road. Here we had a bit of a picnic and Jenny did some fabulous nursing to my very painful hand. The gash that I had picked up the day before was in the exact spot where my hand rested on the handle bar, making riding very painful indeed!

Jen on the mountain

Our calculations told us that we had done just on 100km on the bikes and only had about another 45 to go to the next transition. The road from there to Elim was what I would call, undulating flat. No major climbs, but not flat either. At one of the little “towns” that we passed through, we had all psyched ourselves up to buying something to drink at the local store, but as luck would have it, when we got there it was closed for lunch! When we eventually arrived in Elim, we all descended on the local store like crazed hungered people…. Well, we were! We were all feeling a little wilted at that stage! As we neared the transition, we could see some very dark clouds starting to assemble, threatening to dump their load on us! A small navigation error saw us on the neighbouring farm to the one where the transition was. After some directions from the local nanny, we headed off across some fields and eventually arrived at the very muddy (and cow patty) dairy farm.  Here we were greeted like lost long adventurers by a very perky looking James who announced to our glee that he would be joining us again!

Our elation at reaching the transition was very soon replaced by concern as John starting to look greener by the minute and then suffered uncontrollable hurling, following by a case of gyppos! We decided to bunk down for a few hours to see if we could get some fluids to stay in him and with the hope that he would improve enough to continue with us.

Sadly, his hurling continued through the night and next few days, so he was not able to carry on. In the early hours of the morning, the three of us set off across the fields to tackle the 2^nd of our long trekking legs. This leg was the one that scared me the most, 47km over three mountains! I was really worried about my ITB and really hoped that it would hold up!

We had spoken to the local farmer the night before about the best route up the mountain, and armed with some local info we headed off. Initially everything went well, and then we made a bit of a blunder, heading up a little early! We found ourselves in a wattle jungle. The thin trees were so dense that if Jenny or James was more than 2m in front me; I could no longer see them despite the light from their headlamps! After spending close on an hour climbing over and through the jungle and only covering about 100m, we eventually got out and then made good speed up the side of the mountain to the tower at the top! Once at the top, we easily found the path and made our way to the next check point. Soon we joined up with a road and sped off down towards Napier.  Initially we had plotted a route along the mountains to the next check point, after some unnecessary time wasting trying to find the route, we realized that the mountains was not an option we really wanted to tackle as there were a number of gorges between us and the next check point. At some point I said to the other two, “why don’t we just go on the road?” We looked at the map and saw that it would only be a shortish hike up the mountain to the next check point from the road and we would end up saving a lot of time. At this stage, I was also starting to feel a rather niggling pain in my left heal and calf. I mentioned this to the others and my concerns as to what it would develop into. Jenny suggesting strapping it so we stopped and did this.  Once we got going again we made good speed, first across some farm land and then we met up with the main district road. We had been looking out for some fresh water, but had not had any luck so far. It was now starting to warm up considerably and we were all starting to feel a little parched. Suddenly we found ourselves eyeing out the puddles on the side of road, which due to some rain the night before were plentiful. However, none of them looked particularly appetizing, in fact they looked really dodge! James kept talking about a river that we would cross at some stage, but it certainly seemed to take its time. Eventually the river arrived….. what river?  So we trudged along even further and eventually came across some relatively “clean” water. All I can say is, it is amazing what you will drink when you are desperate!

After filling our bottles it wasn’t long before we caught up to some teams in front of us. Once off the district road we went along a jeep track back up into the mountains. The views were really stunning, but the temperature was also starting to drop. We met up with a number of other teams at the trig beacon check point and enjoyed a bit of a catch up, I suddenly felt a lot better despite my now VERY painful Achilles as there were many other team members looking A LOT worse than I did! But I can’t say that I was relishing the thought of walking back down the mountain as that was what really hurt! My feet were really tender by now as well so after some foot maintenance (blue steel anti chafe lube is the BEST!) we headed off.  The nav was pretty easy and it wasn’t long before we hit the next district road. Once at the road, we had a look at the map and decided to stick to the road and not head into the mountain. The light was beginning to fade and there was thick mist up in the mountains. Nav was going to be a nightmare and although it was longer on the road, it would be quicker. By now, I was also hobbling and I all I can say is thank you to my team-mates for being compassionate and patient! James has estimated that we had about 15km to the next transition, which was also the half way compulsory 5 hour stop. I cannot tell you how long this section was for me. Normally, 15km would be a doddle, but with very sore feet and an Achilles that felt like it was exploding with each step, it was going be a long long way!

The downhills were the worst. Even the slightest down hurt. Without realizing I started to compensate and obviously this caused other things to start hurting. James and Jenny were amazing! They kept up the spirit and James kept telling his really bad jokes! – only kidding!  With the light almost gone, we started to see all kinds of things in the road (probably a little bit of the sleepmonster issue creeping in) coupled with the fact that we had seen a night adder in the road earlier, we had some good laughs as each of us in turn would leap into the air or off the road because of something we had “seen” in the road. The best was jenny getting a huge fright at a reflection/shadow of the handle of her hiking pole in the road….

heading off the mountain

When we thought we were about 4km from the transition, we met up with a team who had just left the transition on their bikes; they told us it was bout another 9km….. man I nearly cried. This news just crushed me. I had psyched myself up for each km, now I suddenly had to do more. I couldn’t bare it! But somehow I just put one foot in front of the other and kept going in my now very funny little hobble/walk. I was desperate to stop and rest my feet and Achilles, but it was excruciating trying to get going again once I did stop, so I tried to pace these stops to when I really could not bear it anymore! All I can say is: thank goodness for hiking poles, although in my case they were not being used as hiking poles, but more like crutches. We had looked at various possible short cut options but realized that none of them would be advisable.

When we were about 4km from the transition, James stopped and had a look at the map and declared that we could take a short cut across some fields to our right, but he wasn’t too sure if there was a river between us and our intended destination. Man, at that stage, I was ready to scale an electrified game fence wearing nothing but a pink feather boa if it meant shortening the agony!

What I hadn’t bargained on, was the effect that walking across a ploughed field, knee deep in grass would have on my feet and Achilles, suddenly the pain of the last few hours was nothing compared to what it was now! The knowledge that it was only for a short section was what kept me going. I could now see the lights of Beloftebos, our intended destination. We came across a dam in the middle of the field and were greeted by the flutter and squawking of hundreds of flamingos. This did a lot to lift my spirits. Not long to go.

At the bottom of the field, just 30m or so from the transition, we encountered the river. After bundu bashing through the reeds, we hit the bank. It wasn’t very wide, but it was deep. James was sure there was a way across, a bridge or something or at least an area where it was shallower, I did not care, I was ready to strip off and swim across. We were now 15m from the tent. After wandering up and down through the thick bush, James did indeed find a “bridge” and before we knew it, were greeted by big smiles and a huge hug from John (that was the bestest hug I could have had…. From the heart – thanks!). Man was I glad to be there!

Just to sit, take my shoes off.

Here we would get our next set of maps. We quickly unpacked our bikes and tried to sort out our kit – challenging when one feels totally brain dead, not to mention body dead. But the fabulous meal supplied by the organizers certainly did a lot to revive one.

We decided to do the maps after a nap and we headed off to our respective tents. Despite the fact that I had a few days grime and sweat now almost permanently engrained into my skin, I wasn’t going to make use of the lovely showers they had, my sleeping bag was far more attractive!

It felt like I had only just fallen asleep and it was time to get up again. At least my feet were a little less sore than when I had gone to sleep, and although my Achilles was still making its presence known, it had also settled down somewhat!

The first half hour on the bike was absolutely freezing. I could hardly peddle my body was shaking so much, but slowly I started to warm up. We rode the section of road we had missed out on the way in and suddenly I was very grateful for the shortcut across the field. We met up with a couple of other teams doing what we had done, skip the mountain and take to the road. Reports had come through that one team had somehow mislaid one of their members somewhere up on the mountain in the mist, but luckily the mislaid member had met up with another team so was not alone…. Suddenly we were glad to have opted for the road. (we later heard that teams that were with us at the start of that last mountain section came in some 6 hours behind us at the midway camp)

Our nav was pretty sharp to begin with and then we hit a glitch. After some debate as to where we actually were, we decided that no matter which road we took, we would end up at the main tar road, which was essentially where we wanted to be! Once on the tar we headed west for a short bit and then turned off onto district road again. We stopped at a crossroads, surrounded by farmland to eat some breakfast just as the sun was starting to make an appearance. It was very misty and visibility was limited to only a few meters. It was still bitterly cold, making it hard to get going again.  The scenery was very pretty and the roads undulating. Luckily no major climbs which would definitely had added insult to injury. My legs having warmed up started a feel a little better, but by no means pain free! We stopped once or twice en-route to snack and take in our surrounds, these we generally tried to tie in with a map change.

 Slowly the sun started to burn away the mist and the heat started to become a factor. The many layers of clothing started to come off and we found ourselves hunting for patches of shade!  Eventually we arrived in the very pretty town of Greyton. Once we located our CP, we headed off in search of something cold and wet. We ended up at the local farmers co-op and to many odd looks from various farmers and employees of the co-op, camped out in the front yard gulping down cokes and sifting through our munchies bags (which by now were very unappetizing and very boring!) we then hit Genadendal which could not be more different from Greyton if it tried…. I will not comment any further for fear of using some very unladylike words!

The road from there to our next transition was thankfully very flat as we were all by this stage feeling a little wilted. I started to feel the effects of not eating enough or drinking enough and my Achilles had definitely woken up again and suddenly the knees started to complain about all the compensating and generally it wasn’t very comfortable and I started to wonder for the first time why I had actually paid to do this to myself? Every pedal stroke hurt, and the entrance to the big fruit farm where the transition was, didn’t come a moment too soon! 

Once off my bike and inside the shed where our gear and bike boxes were, my body seemed to go into shock and I started to get uncontrollable shakes. I felt a little better after eating and drinking something and then wrapped up warmly (even though it was warm outside) and lay down on one of the mattresses provided. I had serious doubts about the next 28km hike. I could hardly walk my Achilles and knees were so sore. I desperately wanted to finish, but I also didn’t know how much more pain I could endure!  I asked the others to give me an hour or two to rehydrate and try to recover a bit, which they were both happy to do. Once I got up, despite still having the shakes, I felt like a new person. We packed up our bikes and headed off up into the mountain once again. The first section took us through some apple orchards. Looking up it looked like we could cut out a big loop in the road and decided to take the short cut up the side as the road looked to zig zag quite a bit in the beginning….. big mistake. We ended up coming to a dead-end (well we could have carried on but would have ended up scrambling through thorn bushes and getting very wet!) so we turned around, and headed back down onto safer territory, the road! The climb seemed to go on forever. The views were beautiful and we were treated to a magical sunset. It was going to be cold and by the looks of it misty. We had decided at the start of the hike to skip the kloof. So far the mountains were proving to be very misty at night and negotiating the kloof section in those conditions we decided was going to be too risky. I was also very glad about this decision as I didn’t know how I was going to make it to the next transition on a road, let alone a kloof!  Once over the top the temperature dropped radically. We skirted around the dams and headed on our own route which would eventually take us to the Theewaterskloof dam, our next CP. We arrived at a settlement of houses near the dams and decided to ask one of the locals if he knew of any shortcuts. As we went into the yard I said to Jenny, “I hope there are not viscous dogs at this house”, upon which the words had hardly left my mouth and we heard barking. “oh crap” I thought, now we’re stuffed, but luckily the dog that came around the corner was not too agro. We called hoping to get a person, which had the desired result, but also summoned another dog; this one was not at all friendly or excited about these uninvited guests! The owner, a young guy, ushered us out the yard very quickly and once safely on the other side of the fence, told us of a great short cut a few km down the road.

Down the road we trundled in a steady rhythm. I don’t think that my walking can really be described as walking, more like a rolling waddle. Things were starting to get a little painful again!

We found the short cut easily enough and before we knew it we were on the tar road headed for the yacht club. At one point a bakkie went passed and then turned around, stopping to ask if we’re ok! We must have been a sight!

The road to the yacht club turn off seemed to go on forever. I constantly find it amazing how the last 5-8km always seems to feel and take the longest!

Eventually we hit the turn off to the yacht club. I have lost count of the time, and I was suffering from a serious case of the nods!  I made a point of walking in the middle of the road on the white line so that I would not go off into the bushes…. It didn’t really help much, I still found myself wandering off the edge of the road every now and again.  I was hating the tar. I found the uneven terrain of the mountain jeep track far easier on the joints and muscles than the monotony of the tar and gravel road. It started to hurt again, a lot, even more than the night before! Once again I found myself asking myself when on earth I was actually paying money to do this! But in a warped way, I must have still been enjoying it as I wasn’t going to give up…. I couldn’t!

Finally the gate the yacht club came into view. We almost got lost trying to find the club house, and after ambling around the boat park, we eventually find the entrance. We were greeted like heroes by the marshals who fussed around us making us coffee and tea. We chatted to another team who were about to go out on the paddle and I had a little giggle to myself as only in adventure racing can one person say to another “man you look like crap” and know that it is meant with the utmost empathy and that no-one will be offended! These were the words uttered to me by Lara de Haast of Pure Adventures…… she wasn’t far wrong…. I FELT like crap. I had the shakes again and I wasn’t even doing a rolling waddle anymore…. I don’t what to call it!

I climbed into my sleeping bag, sipped my tea and tried to sleep.  Thank goodness for my ear plugs! When I woke up, I felt even worse than when I had gone to sleep. I felt like I had been punched in the face. I had huge bags under my eyes and my face was really puffy. I felt like I had swallowed a blow fish. The real shock however was saved for when I looked in the mirror…… I looked like I had swallowed a blow fish!

Shaking uncontrollably, I unpacked my bike. I was really struggling to function at this stage. I honestly did not know how I was going to walk to the bathroom, let alone cycle another 80km to the finish! I seemed to take forever to get my stuff together. Eventually I got it right and we were on the bikes headed back toward Hermanus. We would miss the paddle due to only being three members, and the boats were doubles, I was not going to paddle that bathtub on my own!

The first part of the cycle I felt like I wanted to curl up and die. It was very very cold, my body ached, I could not keep my eyes open and I kept seeing things that weren’t there. It was very misty and the lights from James and Jenny where were riding behind me formed a shadow of me in the mist in front of me, constantly giving me the illusion that there was someone walking in the front in front of me, I kept swerving only to discover it was my own shadow. After a while I got used to this “phenomenon” and stopped swerving… that is until I rode into some poor guy walking to walk!

At a junction we turned off the main road and headed towards Botriver via Die van der stel pas! My heart sank. I just did not have it in me or my legs to climb any mountain passes! I rode every km downhill with dread in my heart. What goes down, must go up! I kept waiting for the big climb back up, but it never seemed to come. We rode through beautiful valley with fruit trees as the sun started to peak over the mountains. It was freezing! I had all my clothes on and was still frozen. Going downhill did not help. Jenny was great; she helped me a lot on the little climbs as every time I moved my foot in my shoe I felt like my Achilles was exploding! I eventually resorted to taking a strong painkiller. It took a while to kick in, but boy did it help!

We arrived in Botrivier and ordered a sandwich from a little local general dealer. Was it the tastiest toasted samie ever!  We headed out into farmland straight away and once over the N2 hit a jeep track across some more farm land. Once back on the district road we saw a familiar looking Landrover heading towards us. It was Adrian Saffey and his team, and with them was John. They had driven out to find us and to drop John off. Adrian had kindly offered his bike to John (even though there is about 2ft height different between them) so that he could finish the race with us! (thanks AD!) It was fab to have John back with us.

By now, my painkillers had kicked in properly and I felt like a million dollars! I don’t think I had felt so good the entire race and I suddenly realized that my body was actually coping fine with the distance etc, and was amazed at what a profound effect pain has on ones performance and mental state!

After a rather long but gentle climb, James started to look a little off colour. Jenny realized that not all was well in camp James when he started to talk more nonsense than was normal for him. We stopped on the side of the road and gave him some water and something to eat. We were running seriously low on liquid and after about 5min; I remembered I had a red bull in my bag which had been there for a few days as I hadn’t been able to stomach even the thought of drinking it. I offered it to James adding that it would give him wings to fly to the finish…… after about 30sec he came out with the following reply: “new freedom pads, they come with wings” at which point we all knew that he was back on track!

Suddenly we were flying down the hill and Hamilton Russell wine estate appeared on our left. This was where the final run leg was to take place. It was a 7km orienteering run around the vineyards. Sadly I was not going to be running (or walking for that matter) anywhere fast. We decided to ride in and have a look at the estate (which is beautiful) and possibly buy a bottle or two or wine to celebrate our arrival in Hermanus. We left James under a tree near the entrance to the vineyard and headed off to the wine cellar. Here we were greeted by team Cyanosis who had fresh oranges and cokes for us. It was a real treat and it was great to see the front teams coming out to meet the back markers and cheer them along. After a bit of a chat (and buying some not so cheap wine) we headed back in search of James who upon our arrival had a camera stuck in his face and was being interviewed (not sure if the interviewer actually got any sense out of him). It took quite an effort to get him back on his bike and facing the right direction for what was to be the last 7km of the race.

The last section was fast and it felt really odd to be riding amongst the traffic into Onrus. Although I was relieved it was almost over, I was also sad as it had definitely been a wonderful journey of not only self discovery, but also of new and beautiful places!

When we rode under the finish arch we were greeted by a huge amount of people and to enormous cheers. Hanno and his team were in the front line and it was great to see them there. Everyone was hugging everyone, but one person stood out and made finishing the race even more special to me (other than my husband of course) and that was Tatum. I will never forget the look of pride on her face at seeing me cross that finish line. Normally it is me waiting vigil for them to finish, now it was my turn. It suddenly made all the pain of the past few days seem so very unimportant and distant! She just kept hugging me and telling me how very proud she was of what we had achieved! It was amazing! Thank you Hobbit!

I was so chuffed that I had stuck it out and I was so chuffed that I’d had the team mates that I’d had. They were absolutely amazing and although we did not complete the whole route as a team, it was an amazing time spent with truly amazing people and I would do it again with them in a heartbeat! Thanks Jenny for helping me when it hurt and for being patient and understanding! You are an amazing woman and it was a real priviledge to not only be able to race with you, but to get to know you as well!  The team would not have been complete without John and James, whose company I really enjoyed and who certainly kept the nights and days entertaining! I look forward to many more adventures with all of you!

NUTELLA – make sure you use the right hand!