Team members: Franco Olivier, Dewald Van Wyk, Heidi Katzke & Thinus Matthysen
This is now the 3rd race in a row that Team Addicted2Adventure (A2A) has claimed 3rd spot. Racing behind some of the top teams in the country is always an honour and seeing how they perform is just incredible.
The Merrell Transkei Tuff course ALWAYS offers an infinite amount of route choices and this year was no different. With paths EVERYWHERE you go, it is sometimes difficult to pinpoint exactly where you are. Therefore, teamwork and micro navigation are very important.
The race started again with a “secret start”. We had to light a tiki torch before we could start the +- 9km trek. Thinus had a great idea to break our candle into 2 pieces so we could have double the chance to light the torch. Unfortunately, that didn’t work, and only got to light the torch on the second go. That put us a little behind with most of the teams in front of us, but with great route choice, we made our way back into the top 4. We had a good tussle with Team Fast Festive Furious Fun on that 1st trek. At one point we opted to stay high on the ridge line and they decided to stay on the coast. With the tide being so high our route choice was the better one and we got a small edge on them. With 2 km to go on the leg, I slipped on a rock and heard a noise you never want to hear. The ankle ligaments are torn…The realization that our race could end right there and then was horrifying and I could see the disappointment on my teammate’s faces. They even told me to sit for a bit so that we could assess the damage. Knowing that there was nothing to do at that point, I jumped up, shrugged it off, and just kept going through the pain. Arriving at transition my ankle was already double the size, but there was no time to faff. Cycle shoes on, some food in the mouth, and off we went.
Highlight of the leg was just finishing it, as there were glimpses of not doing that
The second leg was a 60km cycle with 2100m elevation. MASSIVE LEG. We had created a bit of a lead on the 4th and 5th teams at this point but never knew exactly where they were. The reality of the Transkei is that the routes on the map seldom reflects the routes on the ground. With 2 errors, we got caught by Team Fast Festive Furious Fun. Standing at the same point, contemplating which way to go, both teams went off in different directions. Our route ended up taking us directly to the CP and we never saw them again. The hills were brutal, but the team worked very well together and that made the cycle easier. After those 2 errors, Thinus’s navigation was spot on, and we came into transition with quite a big advantage over the teams behind us. Highlight of that leg was when we had to hike a bike out from a river and Heidi asked us how to put the bike on her back to make the hike a little bit easier, rather than to push the bike up the hill. This was the 1st time she had done hike a bike with the bike on her back and she owned it properly!
We quickly transitioned to a 2km hike leg. The medics taped me up, gave me some pain killers and I was ready to go. What’s that saying – have a spoon of cement and just harden the %^&* up. And that’s what I did. We had a lekker beach run to the kayaks, eating and chatting all the way there.
Next up was a 10km river paddle. We timed it perfectly as the tide was turning as we arrived. With the high tide pushing us inland we made quick work of that paddle as we worked well together sitting in each other’s slip stream. The last 200m we had to walk in the river as the water level got very low. This was a slight problem for me, but Thinus helped through the water while Dewald and Heidi pushed the boat towards transition. We knew this was it, 1 more leg to go.
Off on the 15km run towards the end we went. Ran up on a road, crossed onto a path directly back to the river where we had to swim across. At that point no team had passed on the paddle and we knew that we were relatively safe, but never took the gas off the peddle. Navigation was spot on again and we hit the CP’s perfectly. We were very lucky that the tide was once again on our side as we could run where teams later on could not even walk as the water level was too high. Off to the abseil we went. When we arrived, the weather started turning for the worse, with rain and high winds confronting us on the high cliffs. I was the 1st one down. When I arrived at the bottom, I started to check how we are going to get out of there, as the tide was too high and we had no way to scale around the cliffs. I was proper worried. Heidi was 2nd to come down. When she came down, she offered to climb up onto the rocks to see if there was a way out behind the cliffs. Still there was none. The only option was to climb back out from the bottom. That was one of the scariest things I have ever done. We must have climbed at least 50m of near vertical cliffs with only grass and shale rocks to hold onto. With great teamwork, we managed to climb out. It was then that the abseil was cancelled due to horrendous weather. The last few km’s were bliss as we enjoyed our incredible view and surroundings, the beauty that is the TRANSKEI.
Our last obstacle was maneuvering around the cliffs again to get to the finish. We counted the waves and made a b-line after every big wave.
We managed to keep our 3rd place, regardless of what was thrown at us. Another great race with great teammates.
Now, take a seat and enjoy this EPIC race video of Team Addicted2Adventure!