Eden Duo 2011

With Jeannette heading for Tasmania on Thursday the rest of the Team will be heading through to Wilderness for the Eden Duo on Friday. Jeannette will be taking part in the Adventure Racing World Championships after a late injury to Hanilie Booyens of Team Cynosis.We will be following her with live tracking and I will be "tweeting" this site so keep it on you desk top next week.



We have got three teams taking part this weekend at the 150km Eden Duo. Nic Cuthbert and Brandon Willcocks will be entered in the senior mens divsion along with Garth and Jeff and Me and my new partner Voitec Orchecovski ( no speel check on that word). Voit is a seasoned paddler and has done the Duo twice before so is an able replacement for Jeannette .



Over the weekend Jeff Voit and I went through to George to check out the first two legs of the race . The Kloofing section up the Kaaimans River was really worthwhile as was riding the single track through Saasveld. That was untill I went head over heels on my bike doing a lot of damage to my ego and some to my body. The bike was fine by the way.

Netski steals the limelight.

While our Juniors Nic and his Team from Oakhill were doing us proud in in the final raft building section of the AR Nationals at Baynesfield in Natal Jeannette was tying the another type knot and marrying Colin Wylie on a small holding just outside Plett.With the wedding held amoung the fynbos and the dress code casual it was a great day for the small group of friends and family that were there. The priest Pieter from Knysna who also happened to be a runner and cyclist got right into the spirit of the couple getting married and in his sermon proceded to compare marrage to the Comrades Marathon , with all the ups and downs that one can go through. It was not long before he started talking about the hard times that will confront you along the way and this is where you will need help and one of the best sources of help on the "big hills" is a GU ( this is with out any idea about our relationship with the products) . He proceeded to discuss the differnt flavours and making sure that you used the right ones at the right time etc. As everyone said afterwards "only at Netskis wedding"

Pieter fills us all in on the benefits of Espresso Love flavoured GU

As if this was not enough less than a week after she tied the knot she hit the jack pot. Nic Mulder from Team Cynosis one of South Africas top AR teams asked her to join his team to go to Tasmania to the AR World Championships . This late call was necesitated by a very unfortunate injury to Hanile Booyens who was due to go with Cynosis to the AR Worlds.


Adventure racing being a team sport as well as a very physical one often ends up offering people unexpected these type of oppurtuinities. With less than 2 weeks before Cynosis leaves for Tasmania I dont think they could have found a better replacement. Netski has raced over seas before and kicks into another gear the longer these races go on. We wish Netski,John Collins,Nic Mulder and Nathan Thompson all the best. Team Merrel Adventure Addicts will also be flying the SA flag high in Tasmania and are hoping for a really good finish.We will be posting news from Tasmania on our blog as the 700km race progresses.


As they say one door opens ,another closes and then another will open. This great oppurtuinity has left me (Lettuce) with out a partner for the Eden Duo, also in 2 weeks time. With time an issue as well as the poularity of the race a decsion need to be made quickly. Voitec Orzechovski lives in Plett and comes from a paddling back ground and has done two Duos so he has been roped in to do the race with me. We are definatley looking forward to the extra 5 km paddling leg that Jan Heenop has added to the race. Watch this space as we head out for our first training session together this evening.