Training Log Archive: Stijn

We were transported to T6 at Sterkfontein Dam, along with 8 other teams who arrived at T5 over the next day or so. So the 4 Charnas were reunited for a final social ride in the rain with the other teams down the Oliviershoek Pass to cross the finish line.

C • Nice 5

We awoke to the sad news that Sals was too sick to continue. The medics did not know what was wrong but advised that she play it safe. So we set off on the hike as an unofficial trio of Charnas. We slogged straight up to CP25 via the Steilberg arete and found Rustproof, Merrell Denmark and Rusty along the contour path.

After walking with Rusty for a while, Oli started suffering from a sore knee so we dropped back to help him out. On the way down the Shada Ridge his knee pain worsened and he was literally reduced to a crawl. I took his pack and John helped him walk while I ran ahead to try catch Rusty and get the message to Stephan as well as possibly some pain killers. It turns out that they had taken a shortcut path as I made it all the way to Injasuti without finding them. By the time I had slogged the 3km back to Oli and John, Rustproof had arrived and I told John to go with them as he was still really keen to push on. I joined Oli on a leisurely hobble down to Injasuti where we caught a lift down the road to transition.

We got back onto the water once the sun had hit us and had a leisurely paddle through the remaining rapids to CP14, including yet another portage. Arriving at 11am we were informed that the upcoming rapids had been deemed to dangerous due to the low water level and we were to be transported to the end of the paddle for a restart on our MTBs at the expected time we would have started the next leg.

This gave us some time to dry our clothes in the sun and catch even more sleep :-)

We were set off from the Spioenkop Boat Club at 4pm in hot pursuit of Beast of Ballyhoura who had been set off 30 mins earlier. We caught them with puncture troubles after just a few km in the reserve. I really enjoyed this ride, with an awesome sunset, a good mix of technical tracks, gravel roads and hike-a-bike and some challenging nav in sections too. We had a great downhill from Barry's Grave to Dragon Peaks via some purpose-built singletrack, arriving in transition at 02:30. The rest of the team got some sleep while I plotted some more maps before a quick 45 minute nap of my own.

Left the MCC at first light for a quick out-and-back hike to collect CP7. Had many school children on their daily walking commute for company. Finished the trek in 24th place with Pennypinchers in transition.

Transition took quite a while with many maps to plot but we left shortly after Pennypinchers and passed them about 15km into the ride. Fun ride on some very minor but well worn tracks. Into transition in 23rd.

Out of transition loaded to the brim with food and water for the upcoming 75km paddling leg. Hiked to the shore of the Woodstock dam and then had to swim 400m across a channel to reach our boats. Luckily in the middle of the day so not too cold. Dry bag didn't work so well so my stuff got wet, including my maps...

This leg started with a 14km flat water paddle along the dam during which Pennypinchers caught and passed us again. The portage around the dam wall and skipping a loop of the river took quite a while and it was dark by the time we started paddling towards the lower dam. There was another portage at the 25km mark after which we put into the Tugela River, hoping for a bit of extra speed from the current. Pennypinchers caught us again at the next weir portage having lost their way on the previous portage.

There were regular small rapids along this stretch which were rather unnerving since we had to run them in the dark with mist rising off the water, making our lights pretty useless too. It was also VERY cold by now, with the regular drenchings not helping matters. I could have sworn there was ice forming on my tights...

When we portaged the small weir near Bergville, we were all close to hypothermic and shivering violently. We switched into survival mode here, attempting to make a fire and getting out of all our wet clothes. Sals couldn't find the waterproof matches so out came the sleeping bags and space blankets and we spent an uncomfortable night in the reeds on the banks of the river, huddling together for warmth. Unbeknownst to us, Team Rusty was on the opposite bank of the river, nice and toasty in a pumphouse...

Not sure exactly when we got off the water but I think it was about 22:30.

C • Nice and toasty 1

C • Nice and toasty 2

Expedition Africa - what an adventure! Raced with John, Sally-Anne and Oli as Team Charnas. It was Oli and Sally-Anne's first race of this distance so quite a big step-up for them. We didn't manage to complete the full course in the end, with the 2nd half of the field being short-coursed to skip the long biking leg and do a social ride together on the last day to cross the finish line. In hindsight, with the winners finishing in 99h31m, 133h was never going to be enough to get most of the field in. 12 teams completed the full course out of the 31 to start. I still really enjoyed the race and loved the course Stephan set out for us. A true AR with some loooong expedition legs.

I've logged the individual legs excluding transitions and sleep.

The first leg was a 76km hike with a significant short-cut option for the brave down Ifidi Pass. We were moving well on the paths in Royal Natal for the first 20km, steadily passing teams after a conservative start. Oli got hit by some mild altitude sickness as we approached Witsieshoek, only to have all those teams pass us again as we nursed him up and over the escarpment. We reached the Tugela Falls in 27th place and could only hope that Oli's condition would improve as we lost altitude down Ifidi Pass.

We reached the top of the pass (41km) at 16:30, giving us just enough daylight to get down the technical scrambles with a bit of teamwork. Oli started feeling much better on the way down and we could see several sets of lights lower down the pass ahead of us. Time to use my recent experience of the pass to full effect! The pass was very slow-going with a thin layer of ice having formed on some of the boulders. We took 5h to cover the 3km of boulder-hopping down to Cycad Cave. Now that we had picked up some cattle tracks, our speed increased significantly and we soon found ourselves on the main gravel road, having passed 2 teams (Merrell Denmark and Rusty) in the process.

We had initially set out to try reach CP14 on the paddle before the dark zone cut-off at 5pm but with 20km of hiking, 34km of MTB and 55km of paddling to cover before then, things were looking tight. So we decided to take a good sleep at the Mnweni Cultural Centre and collect the final hike CP in the morning, hence spreading the 13h dark zone stoppage over 2 nights. We arrived at the MCC at 01:30 and settled in for a good 4h snooze.