Pennypinchers Adventure racing Team on Expedition
Africa 2012
Check out some pictures from Bruce Viaene and Kintetic on the link below
(https://picasaweb.google.com/114421207657151811852/ExpeditionAfrica2012?auth )
(https://picasaweb.google.com/114421207657151811852/ExpeditionAfrica2012?auth )
“Expedition Africa 500km was one of those races that reinforced why we do this crazy sport. It was fun but hard, beautiful but harsh, long but feasible, remote but easily accessible, exhausting but exhilarating........It was just how an adventure race should be BEAUTIFUL.” Is what Netski had to say as we travelled back from Port Alfred on Sunday?
To write a report on a 500km race is really difficult , there is so much that one wants to share , so many “if only you were there “ moments and so many places where you wish the photographer or TV crew were there to catch a special moment. Add to this the fact that we had a race that had no drama no huge war stories to tell and very few war wounds that can be shown in public I will try to weave a tale of our amazing race around one of the most beautiful regions of our country.
As always half the battle of an Adventure Race is to arrive at the start of the race with four healthy, keen team members. We achieved this and felt really comfortable as this team had now been together since January 2011.We had also done quite a few races together as well as organised two trail runs and spent some happy times together with our families ( all important aspects of building a team). At this time we had also developed really good relationships with our sponsors (Pennypinchers and GU being firmly behind for the past couple of years).
Heidi's attention to detail!
We arrived at The Halyards Hotel
in Port Alfred (the race HQ) and headed straight to the dinning room to enjoy
the first of many meals there over the next couple of days. Once we had done
that we were quickly able to make up our bike boxes and wrap them in the
packing tape (from Pennypinchers of course) after that came a quick an easy
registration and some photos in front of the Kinetic/AR world Series banner and
then back to our room to sort out the last bits of gear and relax before the
briefing at 19h00.
Pre leg 1 BRIEFING- I always feel that the race has started once you start the briefing
and are given the maps. The briefing was short and to the point. Two important
points were 1 If you go through gates into an area that is game fenced do not
sleep there keep moving and 2 Do not climb over a game fence because you will
be in Big Five territory!!(Some teams did see elephants and rhino and others heard
lions roaring later in the race).
Stephan also basically OK ed the
use of Google Earth prior to the race so straight after the briefing some teams
scuttled off to laptops and tried to look for hidden paths and short cuts. We
took our maps all rolled up and headed to the room for a cuppa and hit the
sack. Garth and I would do the maps after a good nights sleep.
Team Kit check Sunday Morning
Pack in the last of GU for 4 days
Leg 1 Orienteering Hike 17km- We started just after sunrise at the troposphere
in Bathurst after a short taxi trip from Port Alfred. This high point had a
view of 360 degrees and the whole area of the route would be visible from here.
On the stone wall were the names of the original 1820 settlers who came to that
area and the distances to their original farms. We would get a really good
taste of the country side that these pioneers tried to conquer fresh out of
England all those years ago. The blast of a vuvuzela broke the chill of the
morning and all thirteen teams headed of at a fast pace despite all the lies
about “taking it easy”. We tucked in behind what would be the race up front as Merrell
and Red Ants blasted off. We were comfortable picking up the check points one
after the other. We then went of the beaten track and soon realised we were on
the wrong ridge line and with no choice we beat a new path to the Bathurst Dam
coming out at the checkpoint but definitely not on the planned route! Back on
track we moved in to shuffle mode to T1. My heart sank seeing only 3 team’s
boats lying on the grass. Merrell had left 1hr 40 ago! With a bit of fire in
the belly we hit the water determined to make up lost time. We paddled right
through Castle Lite and Capestorm WACAD and down to Port Alfred
Back at the start line as tourists on Saturday after the race
Leg 2 Hike from Port Alfred to Kenton on Sea 25km
The sea was too rough to paddle
to Kelly’s Beach so the boats were left at The Halyards and we ran the extra
4kms to the T2 and a welcome cheese, gerkin and salami sandwich. We pushed hard
in the transition to try and break contact with Castle Lite which we did and
then had a good hike through the sand dunes and coast to Kenton on Sea. On this
leg we caught up with local heroes Husquavana and also Iala. The Russian girls
kept overtaking us here and eventually we caught up with them at the swim
across the Kariega River at sunset. T1 was at Homewards Restaurant on the beach
and we were greeted for the second time and certainly not then last by the
enthusiastic and helpful volunteer marshals from the ILALA Gap year group.
Leg 3 Paddle up the Kariega River.20km Warnings watch out for Elephants on the river
banks. We hit the water as the moon rose above the dunes and started a long
paddle on the full tide. I had paddled here before so knew the lines to stay n
the deep water for most of the way. A couple of hours later we were directed to
the bank by the marshals and immediately set off along the road to towards a
check point on the Bushman’s river about 10kms away
Leg 4.Hike from the Kariega to the Bushman’s river.17km An electric wire cattle
grid (actually designed to keep elephants in) shocked Jeff into reality sometime
in the middle of the night. We hit the Bahamans River and followed our way
around d towards the transition. Lights flashing in the sky drew us to the
river and we saw Olympus putting their boats into the water. We assumed it was
the transition and headed down to the water only to find a river bed with thigh
deep mud. We headed across got covered in mud only to find that Olympus had
portaged this muddy section. We then got into the map again and realised we
were a couple of kms away from the transition and headed back upstream.
Leg 6 paddle Bushman’s river17 km .We crossed the river and got into our boats and
paddle to the dam that kept the sea water out of the farmers irrigation and had
a great portage dragging our boats with bungee cords and ski poles to the deep
water of the Bushman’s river avoiding the muddy stretch encountered by most
teams .The monotony of paddling at night makes it really hard to stay awake so
there were numerous times when a dropped paddle banged against the canoe and
woke the owner up. Sunrise saw us back at the sea at the Bushman’s River mouth
hall. At last we would see our bikes
Leg 7 83 km bike- This bike leg would take us back up the Bathurst and towards Grahamstown.
The ride climbed constantly and by lunch time we had reached Bloukrans Farm.
Here we would leave our bikes for a rope section and short orienteering before
getting on our bikes again for another 47 km.
Leg 8- Rope work and orienteering.3km The old
steel bridge at Bloukrans was the site of a tragic accident years ago when a
train derailed and great grandfather of current owner Grant helped rescue many
of the survivors from the wreckage. With a Tirolien tight rope traverse and an
abseil under the belt we bashed our way up stream to a check point before
taking the tiger line up ravine to
search for the final cp on this leg a beacon on top of the hill. With the beacon
clipped we headed back down the hill and bumped into the chasing pack of the Russians,
Castle Lite and Capestorm.
Leg 10 47km bike We jumped on our bikes and pushed on to make the most of the last bit of
day light. We did realise that the orienteering in the dark would slow the
other teams down so we made hay while the sun shone. We nailed the checkpoint
in the quarry and carried on climbing towards Grahamstown. After by passing
Grahamstown it was basically all downhill to the mid way stop at Glen Boyd Game
lodge. Here beds, food and white rhino waited for us with the first two being
the most important. Luckily only the huge piles of digested grass on the road
told us of the presence of the rhino. What a place to stop, for the compulsory
5 hours. Lappies from the Cycle Asylum Shop was on hand to give our bikes a
wash and lube while we, repacked bags, Garth sorted the maps for the next leg,
and ate before stealing 3 hours of sleep.
Leg 11 Bike 123km- The alarm went off at 12:40am and we stumbled back towards our bikes
and headed out into the darkness across the Fish River. We decide to not rush
this leg as the navigation in the old Ciskei in the dark could be tricky. All
went well and we all coped well up the climb from the valley back up onto the
ridgeline as the sun rose. A regular pattern emerges as we traverse the Ciskei
with flat roads along the ridges and then a steep and gnarly decent of the
ridge across a river and then back up the other side to follow the ridge again.
We stay on track despite some turnoffs that lured other teams down mountains
and far of track. Towards the end of the leg we make a time consuming mistake
when we look at what could be a short cut but soon realise that the road is
over grown and we head back to the district road and see Capestorm come flying
past us. They had ridden really well and hard and had made up an hour on us on
the ride. We were careful not to get drawn into riding at their speed and
carried on as usual but slightly disappointed to have lost such a big lead.
About 8 km later we caught Capestorm sitting at a trading store drinking Coke
looking slightly worse for wear after their big chase. Jeff and Garth went into
the shop while I checked the map for the last bit of riding to Hamburg. The area
was fairly featureless and with some soft sand and winding tracks we need to
stay awake. Capestorm shot off again and we followed. Some sandy patches tested
our sense of humour here as we headed towards the only feature in the area a
hill where we would get the last check point of the day. We caught up with Capestorm
again and with some friendly banter rode into Hamburg together very happy to
remove our rear ends from our bikes.
Leg 11 –Paddle 20 km (two team members paddle 20km to collect 2 checkpoints while other two
pack bikes away, do maps for the next 2 legs and rest).This leg needed careful
strategy and not just doing the obvious one would think it obvious the Netski
and I would paddle but for once she was actually feeling a bit tired and could
have done with a rest. Jeff and I had paddled well on the previous paddle legs
but Jeff needed to fix his seat post on his bike which was a tricky repair.
Garth and I couldn’t paddle together because no one could do the maps and Jeff
and Garth I the boat would have entertained the Hamburg locals more than I was
prepared to put up with. So it was Jeannette and I who got into the Barges
again sitting on the spare lifejackets to ease our slightly painful backsides
for a paddle against the tide up and back the down the river. Hugging the lines
away from the tide we opened up a gap on Capestorm and got back to the
transition just before dark. A pair of Fish Eagles and a family of Red Billed
teal did take the edge of a tough paddle of just under 4 hours.
Back at the transition Garth and
Jeff had done all they could to get our stuff ready for the monster 58km hike
leg that lay ahead.
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Returning from the last paddle leg Lettuce and Bubbles dig deep
Leg 12- Hike Hamburg to Fish River Mouth 58km.This was going to be a killer leg.
Garth took the map and was spot on with the first two checkpoints that got us
back to the beach on the western side of Hamburg. With a slight lift in spirits
we headed quickly down the beach in stealth mode (lights off) and missed the
dry river mouth that would take us inland again. We over shot by quite a long
way and by the time we were back on track again Capestorm were just in front of
us. We hit the river with and over took them with the usual banter and
continued up stream until we felt we were away from the coastal dunes and could
head out of the river into the farm lands. This would be the last time we saw
Capestorm until they crossed the finish line. The noise of frogs lead us
straight to the next checkpoint and then with some good navigation from Garth
we got back onto the beach and headed to Biga (we did have the hope of seeing
Garths in-laws who live there) for a hot cuppa to keep us going along the
moonlit beach. This was not to be as they had see Olympus and then went home
just before we arrived. Once on the road out of Biga we decided to have the
half hour sleep we had planned for some time that night. The air was warm and
the navigation was going to get tricky again in about an hour’s time so we
curled up under some thorn trees on some soft grass and slept well for 25
minutes. The alarm went off and we were soon on the way again. The next check
points guided through some real Ciskei valleys and ridges and with a bit of
bundu bashing we made it through without losing too much blood to the
strangling Lantana weeds. Crossing the last river before heading up the hill to
the beacon above the Mpekweni Hotel Netski donned the now famous shkrt
(shirt/skirt) due some serious chafing issues. This was much to the boy’s
relief as we were told to walk/run in front and we could at least set the pace
for a change. The shkrt turned heads all the way to the Fish River Hotel some
25 km further away. After wolfing down the most expensive toasted sandwiches
ever at Mpekweni we hit the beach and had a very fast leg on the low tide.
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The now famous Pennypinchers shirkt
Leg 13 Cycle Fish river mouth to Port Alfred via,via,via,47 km
- There is never a straight flat
route to the finish and although we treated to the final 5 km being down hill
the rest of the ride seemed to be uphill. We passed pineapple fields and had
detailed tips from pineapple farmer Garth along the way. Just as night fell we
rode into the Halyards Hotel 83 hours after the start in 4 position less than
an hour behind 3rd placed Olympus.
We had an amazing race with no
war stories other than those of the route and the race. Jeff had a great race
and was back to his old self again while Garth and Bubbles were rock solid as
usual. It has taken over a year of hard work to get this team to be able to
race so easily together. We never moved as slow as the slowest person, we
hardly wasted a minute in transitions and our basic navigation was good. Some
of our decisions would have been better with more race experience but that will
come.
I feel very proud of our team and
know that we have got a great team and that showed in our result.
“Our team worked like a well oiled machine our
transitions where fast, our speed was consistent, our mistakes where corrected
quickly, our games to keep awake where fun but most importantly our laughter
was genuine
5 things I would do again;
-Race with team Pennypinchers anytime
-Race any of Heidi and Stefan races
-Wear my homemade shirkt to avoid more chafing
- Have Lucozade in the boxes
- Laugh
5 things I wouldn't do again;
- Eat as many sweets
- Let the boys go to shop to buy drinks I ordered Mango juice and got Cream Soda??????
That's all I can up with in this column it was just one of those races with not much of negative things happening.
Thank you to Pennypinchers for they unselfish genuine support who make it possible for us to race.
To GU whose unbelievable generosity of products
keeps us going on and on and on
To Earth Scout who helps us look good which is a
big task?”Netski
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