A new look Pennypinchers AR Team headed to the Drakensberg
for the third edition on Expedition Africa. Helena Ferreira joined regulars
Jeff Willcock, James Stewart and Garth Peinke on the trip to the Northern Berg
.” When I got the
phone call asking me if I would be interested in taking part in EA 2013 I did
not have to think twice, didn’t have to think at all!
The four very short
weeks leading up to the race was filled with mixed emotions. After spending
some time with my soon-to-be teammates the nerves settled and I knew that these
guys will push, pull and carry me through!” was Helena’s response to the
late call up caused by the “great news “ that Team stalwart Jeannette was
pregnant.
We would be joined in the 500km adventure race by 31 other
teams including 11 overseas teams (5 of these teams are ranked in the top 10 in
the world).As well as all the local favourites, Merrell, Cyanosis, Red Ants ,Olympus,
WCAD, Castle Light and old war horses Energy.
Attention to detail
Heidi Muller from Kinetic gear
Sunday morning saw all the teams head to the local school
for a tree planting ceremony with the local school kids all singing and dancing.
With two farmers in
the Team we made quick work of planting the tree
Eating again Garth .Dinner the night before the start at Mount Aux Sources Hotel AWESOME
When the race route was revealed at the race briefing it was
plain to see that the race organisers Kinetic Gear had upped the ante from last
year and that the 500km of running, climbing, paddling and cycling would be a
real challenge. Winners of the last two editions Merrell Adventure Addicts
would line up with the unfamiliar underdog tag against some of the best in the
world.
At the briefing 36 hours before the race start
Taking a novice into the race we needed to be conservative
in our approach and could not afford to go out to hard from the start and this
left us off the pace and constantly chasing our rivals .
After
packing and plotting our maps we had Sunday night to consider our plight at the
foot of the mighty Drakensberg. “After arriving in the dark and drawing the
curtains from our bedroom window in the morning confirmed this all together
with Woody’s comment, "boys it’s going to get ugly out there, those
mountains are big!"
The weather looked
good up until Friday so we had 5 days to finish this challenge. This weather
caught all the teams at the end of the week.
My new all time
favourite Adventure Racing Picture. Thanks Bruce Viaene
Leg 1
Run/hike 79km (4430 m of vertical climbing)
Highlights-It got ugly as Woody predicted with him getting
the first round of cramps before the chain ladder (maybe that extra plate at
the buffet on Sunday night helped??). Crossing the source of the Tugela and
Orange rivers, experiencing racing in snow drifts and across icy rocks. Standing
on the edge of the Tugela Falls at CP 6. The falls were half frozen and the
view spectacular. This is the second highest waterfall in the world falling
some 900 meters. We climbed 4440m vertical meters in this 79 km leg and the
navigation was a real challenge and a sign of the things to come. Finding the
Rockeries Pass which is a 40m wide gap in the escarpment in the dark with no
moon was a great boost in confidence for my navigation to start the race. What
was amazing was also watching the dew on your shoes turn to ice as the
temperature dropped after dark. At this stage we also realized that the best
place to be after dark was off the mountain and that even with all the
compulsory kit we were carrying you would still be freezing cold if you had to
stop for any length of time.
Low light- taking 5 hours to cover 5km and descend 2000m on
The Rockeries Pass that was just a huge rock slide. Arriving at T1 to find out
that we had made a route decision that had put us on the back foot and off the
pace. We will never know if we would have been faster on the Ifidi Pass but we
had lost contact with our rivals.
Cycle 39km (150m loss of altitude)
Highlight- We had realised at this stage that we would not
make the dark zone on the paddle (an area where the rapids were too technical
to paddle in the dark so the race clock keeps going but all teams had to pull
of the river at CP 14 until first light). This would allow us to catch up with
a whole bunch of teams that had pushed hard to try and make it there before dark.
So we took an easy ride to T2 to collect our boats. This easy leg might have
just seen us take the foot off the gas and loose focus for a bit.
Lowlight- seeing how far the dam was from where we would
receive our paddling kit (4kms). Here we had to carry our paddling gear as well
as swim across a corner of the dam to get to our boats. With 75km of paddling
ahead we were grateful to have rigged up our boats with back rests.
Leg 3
75km paddle
Highlight-
paddling at night with zero visibility due to thick mist and sometimes ending
up paddling onto the bank or down rapids that you could not see. We passed a
couple of teams who had decided to sleep on the banks of the river due to the
low visibility. We did get out scouting one small weir as we were waiting for
the roar of the compulsory portage of a big weir but for the rest it was hit
and miss as to whether would swim or making through the small rapids. I am sure
in day light it would have been a whole lot more fun. Garth had this to say “then a paddle that will stay embedded in my
mind for many years to come. With the network of dams and rivers flowing from
one to another made for an exciting
paddle. Never have I paddled, at night, where you can see more by turning your
light off than having it on. And no there was no aid from the moon. With a
maximum of 2m visibility and having to stop to hear in which direction the
rapids were, made for very interesting paddling. Swimming at 2am in the morning
down the odd rapid was rather fresh!!
After being cut off by the dark zone we continued on again with some
larger but now visible rapids. Awesome!
“
Being the last team to shoot the Tugela Falls rapids before
the course was closed because it was too dangerous was great
Lowlight- falling out of the canoe more times than I have in
the last 20 years. Losing all our juice bottles and food in the dark and mist.
Highlight-The
last 1km of downhill single track to the old arms depot at Cathedral Peak. This
leg took us back to the mountains via the SpionKop Game Reserve where a loop
through the reserve provided some great game viewing. “Next
89km cycle took us along some fast dirt roads and railway lines until climbing
again steadily back into the heavens only to rapidly decent again with the
final section being an amazing mtb downhill track, with no room for error, into
the halfway mark. A warm plate of real food and salad, and a block of butter (Lettuce)
was a real treat for the tummy! “Garth .Let me explain the last comment re the
Butter. Butter is full of energy and dipped in salad dressing with salt and
pepper makes a perfect snack
Lowlight- Knowing we would have to climb up the hill 5 hours
later.
Leg 5 (59km
hike/run) with abseil
Highlight-Finding the abseil point by dead reckoning with a
compass in thick mist and darkness with Eugene from Team Energy. Abseiling down
5 waterfalls in the dark and cold. Helena showed huge guts here with only a
couple of short abseils in training under her belt, going over the edge of a
waterfall in the dark 5 times in a row takes some doing. The abseiling was the
first challenge of the end of this leg the other was to get out of the kloof
and get down the mountain to the road below which would take us to the next
check point which in the dark would be an in and out affair although those in
the day might have found the path along the river to the transition which we
suspected was there but pitch blackness prevented us from finding it.
Lowlight- the last 5km of road to the next transition saw
the whole team sleep walking down the road. The transition area was packed and
it had started to rain so it was a fairly miserable place to be. Here Helena
dived onto the first available mattress and curled up in her sleeping bag
before we had even checked in.
Leg 6 (cycle
169km)
Highlight- Despite knowing that we would once again have to
climb up and over the escarpment we were fuelled by the fact that the end was
now in sight and that the majority of the ride did not cross to many of the
contour lines that we had experienced in the mountains. The weather was awesome
and the kilometres ticked along nicely until I got attacked by the sleep
monster at about 1:30pm (this is an old habit picked up in boarding school
where my body craves a power nap at lunch time) After nearly riding of the road
we pulled of onto a sunny verge and had a 10 minute power nap, this got me back
on my bike and we continued at a great pace. We had to knock on the door of the
general dealer in Gelukstad to get the pie and cooldrink we had been craving
all day. Being an Indian General Dealer the choice of pies was Mutton Curry,
Beef Curry or Chicken Tikka, very spicy and not great on sunburnt lips and
empty stomachs – but we all wolfed down two each. This would fuel us well for
the Besuidenhouts Pass – a long climb over the escarpment between Van Reneens
Pass and Oliviershoek Pass. And then 15km of downhill to the Sterkfontien Dam
Lowlight: The only choice of pies in the Indian Trading
Store in Gelukstad was Mutton Curry or Beef Curry.
Leg 7 (Paddle and
Hike to the finish)
Highlight- none
Lowlight- we were told that in order to make the finish we
be short coursed to the finish in the morning. This was due to the weather that
had caused numerous teams to become lost in the mountains above the finish and
some of them taking 36 hours to finish the 26 km hike to the finish. Short
coursing is a reality in Adventure Race World Series and chatting to the
overseas teams as many as 60 percent of the teams in these races will be short
coursed. In fact in this race only 6 teams collected all the check points and
the rest of the teams were short coursed to a varying degree. The fact that we
were only short coursed right at the end was a plus I suppose. We did however
get into the situation by not moving quickly enough to really have a choice in
the matter.
Leg 8 – (50km
cycle to finish)
Highlight-Awesome downhill’s
Lowlight- Freezing cold and wet. The adventure was over.
The first three place were filled by overseas teams after 5
days of nonstop racing
1) Haglofs
Silva (Sweden)
2) Technu Racing (USA)
3) Raid Light (France)
The first South African Team was Cyanosis with favourites
Merrell Adventure Addicts having to withdraw due to injuries to two team members.
A further seven teams also withdrew due to one or more members not being able to
continue.
“Carrying
our bikes through thorn bushes, abseiling over, through and under waterfalls in
the dark, finding our way down the mountain after a 20 hour hike on a “path”
that in my opinion does not even faintly resemble a path, walking in a manner
that will definitely get you pulled over by a cop for a breathalyzer test if
done in town, shaking your head every now and again to wake up and figure out
where you are” Helena Ferreira novice adventure racer
“The race was a true adventure and one felt that at all
times if you made a silly mistake like slipping or falling or getting lost you
would be in a lot of trouble. The new Team battled with the high altitude as
well as new dynamic but take with it a once in a life time experience of true
African adventure. “James Stewart
The support that we had out there on the course was
unbelievable and I would like to really thank Cheryl Dempster who kept you all
up to date on our Pennypinchers Adventure Face Book page. Also all the journalist
especially Lisa from ar.co.za who really kept you all in the picture with her
on the ground reports. Tweet from Merrell who took some amazing video to show
part of what it was like out there.
Our sponsors Pennypinchers, GU, Earth Scout without you our
journey to the race and through it would have been completely different and not
nearly as smooth. My absolute best friend on this whole race was the GU Brew
Electrolyte Drink Tablet. These little puppies kept the cramps, altitude
sickness and dehydration at bay for 5 full days. They are light and you just
scoop water from a stream pop them in and sip away at 500ml of flavoured fizzy
water AWESOME.
The Kinetic Team, Stephan, Heidi and all you helpers thank
for a once in a life time experience until next year when we will be ready for
another. To the Warriors you guys were great and I hope that seeing us out
there will inspire you all to greater things in time to come.
To Bubbles our fifth team member thanks for all the support
and doing our shopping before we left I am not sure what we would we would have
ended up with if we had left that up to Jeffery.
Helena well done and thanks for joining us at such short
notice a really brave decision and we really appreciated you coming along.
Garth and Jeff good job guys here’s to the next one
