Endorphinmag News
Expedition Africa's 550 kilometres of long-lasting memories
It took only 81 hours for the New Zealand adventure racing team Seagate to complete the 550-kilometre course at Expedition Africa by foot, mountain bike and kayak. They crossed the finish line at the Port Edward Holiday Resort two-and-a-half hours ahead of the defending champions, Haglöfs Silva (Sweden).
Race winners, Seagate, were one of 16 international teams to visit South Africa for this fourth edition of Expedition Africa. While this was their first Expedition Africa experience, teams Haglöfs Silva (Sweden), Tecnu Adventure Racing (USA), R'ADYS Switzerland (Switzerland) and Beast of Ballyhoura / V Graph (Ireland) - as well as a host of South African teams - were back again. And the conditions and locations couldn't have been more different! Last year teams experienced cold and snow in the Drakensberg mountains; this year it was all about warmth, humidity and coastal terrain.
The race played out across KwaZulu-Natal's South Coast, the Eastern Cape's Wild Coast and the rolling hills of the interior. But, for the teams, it won't only be the spectacular beaches, densely vegetated canyons, impressive waterfalls or open grasslands that will stand out in their memories long after their blisters have healed; but rather their interactions with the local people in the settlements through which they passed.
"We saw a lot of the local people, I really enjoyed this aspect, passing people's houses, seeing all the school kids walking home, cheering and waving us. It really is a privilege to pass through these areas, places you’d never ever visit as a tourist," says Nathan Fa'ave, captain of Team Seagate, in an interview with New Zealand's Sportzhub website.
Stories abound about tired teams being sheltered for a few hours by villagers.
"I get emotional thinking about last week's race," says Adrian Saffy. A racer from Bloemfontein, Saffy has competed in every edition of Expedition Africa.
"The locals accepted us into their huts and gave up their beds for us to rest. The would refuse to let us sit on the floor and insisted on laying mats down for us to rest on. They would run down into the valleys to pick oranges for us to feast on and also shared their precious drinking water from near-empty tanks."
This region is an ideal destination for a non-stop, multi-day and multi-discipline event like Expedition Africa. In the sport of adventure racing the teams of four navigate between checkpoints and transitions using only a map and compass. With its lack of fences, labyrinth of dirt roads and an abundance of foot paths and cattle tracks, teams really had free reign to take any route to get them to their next point. Some interesting route choice options emerged and friends and family following the live online tracking could almost be heard shouting at their teams "Don't go that way!".
In a race of this magnitude, badly blistered and painful feet are par for the course. Surprisingly, by the fifth morning (Thursday), all teams were still in the race. This is almost unheard of. But, by mid-morning attrition had set in. Many teams left ill and injured teammates at transitions, under the care of the event's medical crew, to continue as three-person teams - aiming only to still reach the finish.
Within eight hours of the race start, team Bloed en OMO were already four hours behind the leaders. This team of mature racers decided to make up their own route, skipping most checkpoints and travelling instead from transition to transition to keep in the race. Abel van der Merwe (62), Jan Bezuidenhout (61), Nic Labuschagne (52) and Sue Peterkin (47) reached the finish in good spirits on Saturday afternoon, six days and eight hours after starting.
"Our main aim of Expedition Africa is to enrich people’s lives and wave them goodbye with long-lasting memories of their experiences here," say race organisers Heidi and Stephan Muller. Experienced adventure racers themselves, this dynamic couple have been presenting a range of events for many years, including the four editions of Expedition Africa.
"Through Expedition Africa we're able to show the incredible beauty and diversity of South Africa through its people and landscapes. Racers pass through areas on foot, bike and kayak that normal tourists would never see of even hear about. It is out there that the magic of our country is most felt."
Dates and details for the Expedition Africa 2015 have yet to be released. Not wanting to give away too much too soon, the Mullers say only that "it will be another epic destination; one that will entice teams to return once again to experience another wonderful facet of Africa".
Endorphinmag
June 2014.
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