BULL OF AFRICA RACE REPORT AND PHOTOS

I couldn’t believe the day had actually arrived that we were in the midst of kit checks, registration, media interviews etc…at Balugha Inn. After living and breathing The Bull for the last 8 months we were 2 short days from setting off on the adventure of a life time. We really enjoyed seeing the international teams milling about and got to chat to a few of them about what they thought of SA so far.

On Thursday we did a handover of the funds we had raised for Masimanyane Women’s Support Centre. Through personal donations and 2 fund raising evenings we managed to raise R 100 000.00 which was very well received by Dr Lesley Ann Foster and a few of her colleagues. This money will be put towards setting up another satellite victim support centre which offers counselling and education to women and girls who are victims of sexual abuse, domestic violence, rape and gender discrimination. This culmination in the handing over of funds was fantastic and quite emotional after all the effort that has gone into raising these much-needed funds.

We still had the race in front of us so we needed to focus our energy and we were all very eager to just get going, so after checking and double checking our team crates and bike boxes we handed them over to the race logistics crew on Friday afternoon, this left Tam and I some time to pour over the maps for the first few legs of the race- the rest of the maps we put in “Crate B” and we hoped we hadn’t made a mistake with which maps we needed.

A very early morning bus ride to the Katberg Eco Golf Estate on Saturday morning just made the nerves churn even more. We were still concerned about Tam’s chesty cough that she’d had for the last week and we knew we would just have to take it easy on the first bit of the race. After assembling bikes and taking some final “pre-race” photos we were off. The first leg was a so-called 10km trail run which involved very thick vegetation and definitely caused most of the damage that our legs suffered on the whole race. We made quite a few errors with distance and route choice and found ourselves right at the back of the field but this was just the beginning and we knew we had many hard days of racing ahead of us. A relatively quick mtb ride took us to Seymour Dam where we crossed paths with many teams coming off the water. Here we had to paddle to various areas on the shore of the dam and then trail run to find some points- our navigation was spot on for this leg but unfortunately the arrival of darkness hampered our quick finding of points- this delayed us quite a lot and we found ourselves still bringing up the rear of the field as we climbed on our bikes for the tough ride to Hogsback. I must just say that the marshals here and all along the route were just fantastic, not sure if we got extra “looking after” coz we were an all-ladies team but somehow I think they were just generally super!

Kel came up with all sorts of stories about why the road to Hogsback was so steep and unrideable in places, something about affairs and angry spouses and retaliation in building the pass…all this was a bit blurry and soon we were feeling (or not feeling) frozen fingers as we rode down into the mysterious Hogsback and the Arminel Hotel. Quite a few teams were catching a snooze here and we decided to do the same but it was very unsuccessful as the cement floor gave us uncontrollable shivers. Eventually we got up and grabbed a bite to eat at the hotel restaurant before setting off on the mighty 70km hike to Thomas River. Here we saw Siyeza returning with Fred not looking good at all and we hoped that he would recover during the hike after all the effort he had gone through to get his team to the start line. After CP 10 and Kettlespout Falls we spent a bit of time finding the forestry roads but were soon on our way. We chose the option of cutting across the top for a more direct route and especially when we saw the entire mountain was burnt and we would therefore not have to struggle through any thick vegetation. Due to our unsuccessful sleep the night before we had a 1 hr afternoon nap before going into the night and heading for CP 11 at Cata Hut. On the way we couldn’t believe that Falke Sportswear were already running out of food so we gave them some bars and headed through the saddle just as it got dark.

The descent to Cata Hut seemed to take forever and my mind blurred with the little yellow footprints indicating the hiking trail....the flashing red light just didn’t seem to be getting any closer! Eventually we got to Cata Hut and found about 12 teams all having naps and resting before the next push. Again we tried to sleep (unsuccessfully) in the lapa area but after 1 of the teams left the chalet we got to share some bunk beds so the team managed about 2 hrs of sleep. I had still not managed any sleep, I think I was on some sort of high, I just could not get my mind to slow down. Anyway at 2:07 am Monday we left and set off towards Thomas River. The navigation was pretty straightforward and we made good progress. By first light we popped out of the forest and then unfortunately our pace slowed quite a lot. We took a while to get around to the Thomas beacon and made an error heading along the ridge from this beacon instead of the beacon on top of the mountain, but luckily we soon realized our error and crossed Kubusi Nek to climb the killer hill to the beacon. When I think back I’m not sure why we lost so much time on this section of the hike, and so after dark we were descending from the 5 fences CP into Thomas River, avoiding the aloe-strewn little cliffs in the process.

At Thomas River we assembled our bikes and ate delicious cottage pie before having 2hrs sleep in the bathroom of a house…once again I was left with racing thoughts and no sleep and before we knew it we were off on our bikes at about 3am Tuesday heading for Wriggleswade Dam. I really enjoyed this mtb leg (after what seemed like an eternity negotiating WP1 Tunnel under tar road) and we came across Katberg sleeping in a field on the way. The navigation was straightforward and we made good progress passing friendly locals on the way. The D4 production cameras kept us company around the Rangers Cottages CP and I provided some entertainment by accidentally setting off the emergency response on our Sportstrack device just before we got to the dam. A quad bike and bakkie appeared out of nowhere, frantically searching for us…..oooopppppssss! Much apologizing from me and we were soon riding along the dam shore looking with apprehension at the waves on the dam! We caught up with the Finnish all-ladies team (Haglofs) here as they finished their paddle and other teams around were Thule, Katberg, Nubi, Falke, His People, Siyeza and many more still on the water. We tried to get going quickly eager to complete the whole paddle in daylight, so very soon we were fighting the wind and waves, frantically trying to empty our boats as waves crashed over the bow.

We paddled straight to an area of shore where we left our boats and did the 6kms on a dirt road to fetch the CP. I only had half booties and socks and Kel was also in booties so it wasn’t comfortable, but we set off with Tam while Daleen caught a quick nap waiting for us to return. The return paddle was in perfect conditions and we got the second CP before heading back to the club house CP 22 just as it was starting to get dark. Our spirits were still very high and we were having a super time, I had to remind myself every now and then to really savour each moment of the race as it was what we had been planning for for so many months. We sucked pronutro and meal replacement shake out of ziplocks before heading for CP 23. No errors saw us make good time and we were welcomed by Tina who offered us “vetkoek” and coffee which we gladly accepted. We also caught a quick hour and a half nap in her guest house- this was the first time I actually managed to get some sleep, so from 2am on Saturday morning I had gone over 90 hours without sleep and it was good to finally get some rest. We followed the jeep track and WP2 to the river and before long were hauling our bikes up the side of the mountain. This was certainly character building and there were a few choice words muttered! We ran into a clump of teams (Katberg, Thule, Nubi) who had been looking for the correct path out to the road but luckily we hit it quite quickly and didn’t waste much time…our motto throughout the race was “Slow and steady wins the race” and Tam and I were very particular in double checking our route and taking our time in ensuring our route was good. Even though we would be winning no races at least we knew that our nav was pretty spot-on and our slow and steady pace would eventually get us there!

At CP24 we kept our eyes open for Buffalo but didn’t see any. The very generous ladies at the lodge fed us rolls and we knew that with the next section down to the river and up the other side being quite tricky we’d rather wait for daylight. We slept for 1 hour and then got ready after treaty coffee and rusks. Geoff Hunt cheered us along and by 7am Wednesday we were flying down the jeep track on a hand drawn map…yip, Tam and I had thrown the map whose little bottom corner we needed to get to CP 25 into “Crate B” (which was at the next CP) so we drew in the features, the river, the 708 spot height on the koppie and the tracks and hoped for the best (we did keep this info to ourselves, only showing Kel and Daleen when we got to CP 25 in what we thought was a very fast 2.5hrs). Our mood took a bit of a dip at this CP, with close on 100 hours of racing and feeling it a bit, but there were still teams around us going about their business and we eventually managed to pack up our bikes, eat a good hot meal and pack enough food and water for the next hike. My pack was at it’s heaviest at the beginning of this 45km hike and it took some adjusting to get it comfortable. We sweated up the jeep track in very humid conditions with Tam suffering from a bit of dehydration but by the time we were walking along the ridge line our moods had lifted and we went off in search of the elusive track which seemed to fall off the side of the mountain.

We didn’t want to waste any time getting down to the river so we just fell the 400m down to the river with bundu bashing, bum sliding, rock hopping and cursing the thorn bushes- we could see other teams had also fought their way down there. Down at the river we got into warm gear, had a bite to eat and headed off into what was definitely the worst leg of the race as the daylight quickly slipped away and we headed into our 5th night of the race. We named it the “pygmy lantana jungle from hell” as we crawled and fought our way through thick vegetation, being stripped of gear along the way. Daleen lost her Dry Light jacket, a hiking pole, a bottle and we’re not sure what else…we knew we were on the right route; it was just a matter of hanging in there. We didn’t swim once and the path seemed to appear out of nowhere just when I thought we had gone wrong, after what seemed like an eternity we spotted the red flashing light and George the friendly marshal welcomed us to CP 26. We all downed a meal replacement shake and moved about 200m from the CP before crashing for 2.5hrs of sleep next to the river. A bit of faffing made our start a bit slower than planned but we all seemed to be rejuvenated and walking along the Kei River in the early morning of Thursday was refreshing and we found renewed energy.

We came across the UK team Halo waking up from a sleep and together we made our way to Moodenaar’s Kop as the temperatures climbed. We had to stop for me to cool down at one of the animal water holes (my water bladder had popped the night before so I was carefully trying to ration my bottles, but luckily the water in the animal troughs allowed us to fill up). We were treated to a wonderful view and Bontebok and Impala on top of Moodenaar’s Kop where we stopped for a quick snack while deciding on a route to CP28 and the rope work. From experience the night before with supposed tracks off the side of mountains we went with the safe option of following the road all the way around to where the river in which the ropework was situated met the road. We then made our way up this river bed which seemed to last way too long, we were also running out of water and desperately staring at the cliff faces in order to spot the ropes. Eventually they came into view but still in the thick vegetation we managed to overshoot the base of the cliffs a bit which resulted in some bundu bashing and hair raising sandy bum slides to the base of the ropes. Sharing 1 bottle of water we slowly got our gear together and talked through the ropeworks. Kel and I climbed on the left with Tam and D climbing on the right over the 3-tiered 150m+ climb. The last bit was very frustrating with the completely twisted ropes, but eventually we made it up having taken some lovely photos on the way up.

Vandre (from the medical team) informed us that the cut-off time at CP 30 had been moved forward from 8am on Friday to 8pm on Thursday night- we were disappointed that we would miss this cut-off resulting in a short course but at the same time also acknowledging that our pace had been way too slow (mostly on the hiking legs) for the full course anyway. We found a water trough and all had a rehydrate before heading off to CP 29 at the Boma. We followed the roads and then decided to follow a dry river bed all the way down to the river in which the CP was situated. Although this was time consuming it paid off and we walked straight into the CP a couple of hours later. On the way we had seen quite a few team’s headtorches wondering around searching for the point, so I was even happier that we had just stuck to the river bed. The next leg to CP 30 is a bit of a blur, we had been warned not to take any short cuts because of high game fences so after not finding the road we thought we wanted to take we opted for a complete round-about route, along the railway line and around on the road. Team Katberg were with us on the railway line and opted for the route up under the powerlines, the end result- they got to CP30 about 2.5hrs before us having fought through fences and thorns on the way. CP 30 at Mpotshane Lodge was breathtaking; the view when the sun came up was amazing. We slept for an hour from 5-6am on Friday morning and then had the standard cheese burgers for breakfast. We also ordered some toasted sandwiches to take with us and after assembling our bikes we set off towards more game farms and the Transkei…I was very excited about this next section of the race and I was dying to see the sea and experience the friendly Transkei locals. The shortened course meant that we had to go straight from CP 31 to CP36 cutting out the leg up to Mazeppa Bay and the 30km coasteering leg and also not seeing our 3rd crate for new clothes and food. We made our way with no errors and not much game spotting all the way to the Kei. Our feet took some strain crossing the rocks but the cold water was refreshing and soon we were grinding our way up the valley, climbing and climbing and being greeted by lots of friendly locals going about their morning duties of collecting water and tending to their land! Being an all-ladies team drew quite a bit of attention and resulted in even louder cheering and encouragement- we were having such fun!

As we exited the valley we had to fix a puncture which attracted quite a crowd- we then made our way to CP 31 at the Qolorha Trading Store making sure we didn’t make any wrong turns. The trading store was like stepping into another world- bicycles hanging from the roof, wire, animal feed, toiletries, drinks, tinned food, farm animals and a VERY friendly Hulley family who cheered us on and fed us delicious fresh rolls and bread. The ice cold cokes were a heaven send and we left the trading store with renewed vigour and immense excitement taking the short course route straight from CP31 to CP36 at Seagulls Hotel. At Seagulls we were hit with a curve ball, through some confusion the marshals thought that we only had till 6pm to decide whether we were going to carry on or not (it was 5:55pm), a decision we didn’t have in our repertoire as there was never a question of withdrawing! Anyway, after a phone call to Hano and all confusion ironed out we checked out the rest of the route and mentally got ourselves ready for the coastal leg. Team Katberg (who had already lost Werner to injury) had decided to withdraw here but David decided that he’d like to join us for the rest of the race. As the cold front moved in our mood was a bit dampened but Garth from Team Katberg helped us out with meal replacement shakes and extra warm kit and after a quick bite in the restaurant we set off on the last part of our epic journey.

It was pouring with rain but we found our way straight to the Kei river crossing and having especially delayed our departure from Seagulls to coincide with low tide, discovered this was in fact the worst time to cross as we physically could not get through the mud. Tam tried and sunk up to her armpits, we had to use the safety rope to pull her out. Dave also badly twisted an already compromised knee trying to get to the water and after ages standing in the rain and repeated attempts the kind marshal organized a boat for us which took us across to CP 39 at the River Lodge. Dave’s knee was buggered with huge fluid build up already. He decided to withdraw and stay at the lodge while we tried to get a bit warmer with coffee and drying our clothes a bit in front of the fire. Eventually after a few hours we knew we had to get going and so we set off into the night. There was much cursing as we slid all over the clay mud roads and we were just hoping that we were staying on the right track as there were lots of cross roads. There were a few moments of real frustration and colourful language and Tam was falling asleep on her bike so we decided to crawl under a bush and have a power nap. After 10 minutes a massive storm came through and we could virtually not see just in front of us. I heard a cock crowing and decided there must be a farm or something nearby. We continued about 300m down the road and discovered a farm house and realized that by pure fluke we had stayed on the correct road all along. Looking like a drowned rat Kel knocked on the farmer’s door at 5am and we were given a room to get out of our sopping clothing and crawl into a bed for a nap. We slept from 6am-7:30am and planned to leave by just after 8am Saturday but the Jefferies were so friendly and gave us a warm breakfast and tried to dry our clothes a bit in their tumble drier. Their kids helped us dry off our bikes and brought us towels- just so special to be looked after like that. By 9:30am we finally got going with a magnetic pull drawing us to the end of the race. We still had the most beautiful section to come as we cruised down through Morgan’s Bay and started along the coast to Double Mouth.

Luckily the rain had eased up a bit by now and it wasn’t too cold. We took loads of photos and savoured our surroundings while reflecting on the distance we had covered to get this far. At Haga Haga the CP was gone and there was a note telling us to head straight to the finish. After a bizarre encounter at Ninky Noo’s pub on the hill (I wasn’t sure if I was hallucinating, beer-drinking sheep and chickens in the bar, guinea fowls scratching in the dirt at the door- all just too weird for that stage of the game) we plotted a route down to Bosbokstrand, only realizing with chilling reality that it was high tide and we wouldn’t be able to ride on the beach. I think this was a blessing in disguise; we walked along barefoot pushing our bikes and reflecting on the race. We knew we had a lot of people waiting for us at the end and so many people who had been willing and cheering us along all week. We collected some shells and smiled as a beautiful rainbow appeared over the sea. Those 5kms on the beach to Cefane will be even more engrained in my memory than most other parts of the race. Kel and I had jokingly dared each other last year October to take on The Bull and then built it into a fundraising initiative for Masimanyane- we could never have imagined the power of the whole experience.

As the sun faded on our 7th day of racing we got our shoes on and started up the hill for the 10km to Inkwenkwezi. When we reached the Chintsa East road other teams in their cars saw us and hooted and cheered us along. We were completely overwhelmed by seeing friends and family who had spent the week worrying about us and supporting us and had now come to find us and cheer us into the finish. We couldn’t believe it was all coming to an end. My legs pumped up the hill with renewed energy and we turned into Inkwenkwezi Game Reserve. Nothing could have prepared us for the reception; I supposed you could say it was extremely good timing on our part (all planned of courseJ) because every single team, their friends and family, sponsors, marshals, logistics crew were on their feet cheering us in with virtually no room to wheel our bikes through- it was completely surreal and fantastic! We had raced for just under 178hrs on little more than 12 hours of broken sleep and made it across the finish line.

I am so proud of my girls- Kel, Tam and D, well done ladies; it was a pleasure racing with you! I had such fun and enjoyed sharing this incredible experience with you. Now, already 5 days have passed since we finished but I still wake up every night trying to navigate to the next CP, I wonder when this will stop? There are so many people to thank for supporting our dream, not only to complete The Bull but also to raise funds for Masimanyane.

Of the 42 teams that started, 12 completed the full course, another 7 completed the short course, 10 were unranked due to losing at least 1 team member and 13 (?) withdrew. We ended up about 19th on the leaderboard.

To Pam, Val, Grant and Justin for cheering us up those last hills to the finish and all those family and friends who supported us through the training and preparations and who sent us over 50 pages of messages during the race- we knew you were thinking of us and trying to make our Sportstrack triangle move faster!

To Hano and Sonja and your fantastic sponsors and support team, thank you for a life changing experience. We thought the route itself was beautiful and you can certainly be very proud of putting on a world class expedition race- thank you!

To our fantastic team sponsors without whom our participation would not have been possible, we thank you for your loyal support.

Shape Magazine for your financial contribution (http://www.shapemag.co.za/)
Salomon for Salomon XA Pro 3D’s and XT Wings (http://www.salomonsports.co.za/)
Kreature.co.za for your financial contribution (http://www.kreature.co.za/)
Safari Dried Fruit & Nuts (Pioneer Foods) for snacks throughout the race (http://www.sadfoods.co.za/)

Jockey for our sports bras and pants (http://www.jockey.co.za/)
Whasp Gels for that extra boost of energy (http://www.whaspgel.com/)
First Ascent for the excellent technical gear which we relied on so heavily (http://www.firstascent.co.za/)

To Dr Lesley Ann Foster and all the angels of Masimanyane, we hope the R100 000 will enable you to continue your fantastic work successfully empowering women and children! It has been a pleasure getting to know you and the work you do- we wish you every success for the future. http://www.masimanyane.org.za/