Merrell Transkei Tuff
What an adventure!
We left Joburg on Thursday evening for a sleep over in Bloemfontein to break up the long trip to the Transkei.
At 3.30am we wake up for the last drive to arrive in Coffee Bay ready to register and prep our supply boxes which Will meet us at 2 Transition Areas along the route
We had to be smart to pack our boxes with loads of food and warm clothing and the correct clothing during the race. We then dropped our bikes off at Hole in the Wall Hotel with a bag full of helmets, cleats and Bibs. Then it was map prep and sleep for a 04:00 start!
We started on the beach outside the Ocean View Hotel and headed to our first check point. Running along the beach in the dark and climbing massive hills along the coast we could only imagine the spectacular view beside us. Our navigation was going well and our team was running where we could to keep moving as quickly as possible.
Hitting all the check points with not too much searching our spirits were high! We had a Beautiful sunrise but we were worried about the weather that was predicted as lightning was around us,
This was a short 9km trek which we managed in about 2 hours 30min.. Next up was to get the bikes for a 60km bike leg with 2000m elevation!
Leg 2 – 60kms 2000m Elevation.
We picked up our bikes and headed out for this massive cycle.
We missed our first turn off by 7kms but luckily ended up at a land mark which we should not have been at. We quickly turned around and headed back to make the turn.
We cycled through some beautiful forest with some technical riding through rocks and up some massive hills.
We were going well up to check point 5 then….. we went wrong.
Cycling too far again and missing our turn we ended up on the wrong tar road and got completely lost thinking we were on a different road we kept circling through the bush, over mountains, through villages, over rivers, hike a biking and kept ending up were we started.
Eventually a marshal came to find us and told us were needed to make our way to the Kayaks and not finish the bike leg because we were running out of time.
A little despondent and upset we could not collect our last check points on the bike leg we kept our heads up and headed to the Kayak leg.
We are a new team after all and we have lots of mistakes to make and alot of things to learn.
This was a test on my training. Definitely feeling stronger on the bike up the massive hills
Next up short trek to Kayak.
Leg 3 – 2km Trek – 10km Kayak
We arrived at transition on our bikes ready to eat some food and get some dry clothes on. The spectators told us how they watched us get lost in the live tracking as well as one other team.
The Team that won also made the mistake of getting into the wrong road but they quickly realised and corrected their mistake. Comes with experience I guess. After some food, quick change and refueling our packs we headed out for a walk/ run along the beach to the river where our Kayaks would be waiting for us.
We made sure to have rain jackets in our supply boxes to keep dry on the kayak and some hot food to eat which we made at the re supply point. The idea was to tow each other so some could eat while others paddled. This worked sort of.
Our tow line was too long and the back boat just weaved but we managed to get some warm food in. We saw a cow stuck in the mud which was quite sad, a king fisher catching a fish and a fish eagle. No Sharks as we were promised
Smashing out the 10km paddle we hit the river bank at the transition point soaking wet and cold. We packed our boxes well with a complete change of clothes and more food.
Next up our last leg. 17km Trek and and an abseil.
Leg 4 – 17km Trek
Leaving the Kayak Transition we were cold so we got moving as quickly as possible.
It was now 4.30pm and the weather we were worried about had not arrived yet until now. The rain started but it was a light drizzle. We also only had about an hour left of sunlight so we started running to cover as much ground as we could before sun down. The light drizzle stopped soon after. Our first check point was at the river where we had to cross.
We found some kids hanging around so we asked them to take us to the river crossing and gave them some treats to say thank you. We then stripped down and put our clothing into a dry bag as well as our packs. The water was cold but refreshing. We got across and quickly put our warm clothes back on and headed out to find the next check point. We searched for this one, walking through swamps and through bushes and a bit of quarreling about which way to go.
Eventually Every one of my team mates found a path and said “let me just go down here and see”. He found it. Celebrations . we could move on to the abseil.
We needed to get to the cliff edge with the ocean below us. This we found challenging at night. We ended up walking past the Abseil check point with out realizing it and eventually bumped into another team who told us that the abseil had been canceled due to big swells and we had to head straight to the finish line.
We had 3 check points left. The abseil at the top, inside the cave at the bottom of the abseil and on at the dam before the finish line. We were told these check points were canceled and to head home. We arrived at the finish line at 10pm. Full of adventure and happy to get some food in and some sleep.
Endorphin Junkies had an absolute ball. Thank you Aloe adventures for the Transkei Tuff and holding such a great race and letting us do things we love doing.Getting lost in the mountains is always a good idea specially with 3 great people. Thanks to my team for pulling me up mountains and for great laughs along the way.
Looking forward to the next one!
