Expedition Africa 9 -13 May 2011

Just how does one eat an elephant? Well one bite at a time, of course!
So that's what we set out to do....right from that first 'preparation' race in February. We tested necessary gear, sleeping times, ingredients for meals and transition strategies. Unfortunately, we were to discover that what works for a 'short' 250km race, does not fit an expedition race! Mainly it was about handling 4 hours of exercise, versus a leg of 16 to 20 hours. You are not just 4 times more tired, but something like 10 times more! Luckily, we also discovered that as the days passed, we became stronger to meet the challenge! William put some thoughts together about the journey we took.

Getting There

Once we got to the airport in Cape Town it was cool being able to collect a bakkie from Sue’s sister to use for the week. Man did we pack that bakkie to the limit, Sue and Nando sat with a pile of luggage between them on the back seat and I had a backpack stuck between my legs.

Pre-Race
We had two tents per team, being almost the first ones there was fun and we sorted ourselves out, visited the shops etc before most of the teams arrived. We had a good meal in Hermanus on Saturday. Making large cardboard boxes waterproof is a bigger job than you would think and we spent a good few hours with packing tape and black bags getting them waterproofed.

Race Start – Leg 1 – Hike/Orienteering – 14km
Due to high winds early in the morning the sea kayak was cancelled and we started in more traditional fashion with a quick hike/run through Hermanus, the highlight being the trip up Hoyskop a small koppie in the middle of town, and then the trip up the kloof behind Hermanus and back over the mountain with the wind howling around us.

Leg 2 – Lagoon/River Paddle – 20km
Most of leg 2 was a peaceful paddle up the lagoon with some wind in the later part of the lagoon making it a wet experience as the waves broke over the boat. Sue and Nando must have been soaked sitting in front of the boats. We struggled to find the river that fed into the lagoon that was our way up to Stanford a few kms upstream. In the end it was a case of everyone go in different direction until we found it, I fell waist deep suddenly and nearly had my foot trapped underwater – but at least we found it.

Leg 3 – Hike – 36km
From Stanford we retraced the length of the river and lagoon to end back on the beach again before hiking along the beach all the way to Gansbaai. Gansbaai has changed a lot since the maps were drawn up and we overshot the checkpoint by a good 2kms or so. We retraced our route got the point and finished the leg. At the transition we stopped for about 2 hours of sleep. (End of Day 1)

Leg 4 – Cycle - 140km
This leg felt like it went on forever. We cycled inland toward the town of Elim, just before getting to Elim we changed direction and headed back to the coast via the Agulhas National Park. We visited the Lighthouse, and saw a dead whale in the little bay as well as a dead seal later along the beach. Once finished with the beach we headed back to Elim where we stopped for a few drinks. Just outside Elim I buckled my back wheel and while we tried to get some sort of rear brakes working in the end I continued for the rest of the race with no back brakes. At transition we again slept a few hours. (End of Day 2)

Leg 5 – Hike – 47km
The hike started with a direct assault or about 5km through the fynbos up the side of the mountain. The alternate route was about 13km along roads. The fynbos was thicker than expected and it seems the alternate route was faster. Once over the mountain we had a similar choice of 8km through the fynbos vs 13km through town.

The option of stopping for breakfast in town won and we headed into Napier for a really good breakfast. Coming out of Napier is where Con’s feet started being a problem. The hike continued going over another 2 mountains and then finally going around a mountain late the afternoon. By this time Con could hardly walk and I think Nando’s back problem was really starting to hurt. Once darkness fell Con and I entered Zombie state and Nando and Sue kept us going. Con’s feet got progressively worse and in the end we called Heidi to organise him to be picked up, while the rest of us continued.

In transition Con had his feet seen to by the Medic – he got the full treatment including ‘staal drupples’ injected into the blisters to dry them out. At the time we did not realise that the major problem he had, was bruising rather than the blisters. (End of Day 3)

Leg 6 – Cycle 105km
After a good sleep, we chose to have a longer sleep to give Con the best chance of recovering we headed off again, unfortunately Nando’s back had not improved sufficiently and after a few kms he decided it would not be possible to continue and he returned to Transition. The rest of us continued meeting Erik on the way and stopping late in the afternoon in Greyton for a late lunch.

Leg 7 – Trek 23 km – replaced with Cycle 30km
Once we reached the next transition we knew that there was no chance of Con doing the Trek, as a team we decided to therefore ride around the Hike leg and continue on to the next transition. It was an easy Cycle being all on Tar roads, but the long uphill really got us down only to be replaced with the joy of the long downhill to Theewaterskloof dam. At transition we took it leisurely, having decided to skip the paddle and complete as much of the last day as possible. (End of day 4)

Leg 8 – Cycle 70km
This cycle made it over 200kms of cycling in a row. It started off just as dawn arrived and had us cycling in the mist over the bridge across the dam, before once again turning off onto dirt roads back towards Hermanus. Just before we reached the next transition we met up with the camera crew and while they were filming us Cyanosis arrived (by car) and handed out ice cold cokes as an encouragement to everyone.

Leg 9 – Orienteering – 4km
Sue and I did the short orienteering leg (pushing our distance on foot to over 100km on the Official race distances). Con lay on the grass and had a good sleep.

Leg 10 – Cycle – 8km
Off we went on the last cycle, a lot of it being on tar roads through Hermanus and Onrusrivier back to the start/finish area.

Post Race
We were about the 7th team to finish after 103 hours of racing. Officially we finished 19th due to losing a team member and the fact that we missed 2 legs of the race. We got some great trophies that I am going to treasure. The trip back was peaceful and unexciting. It was a wonderful experience that I look forward to repeating next year.

Racing thoughts

Team Lickety Split is on short finals for Expedition Africa, so I spent a couple of minutes today reading race reports from races similar to EA. Getting my mind around the race, so to speak.

Tatum Prins hit the nail on the head with this insight from AR World Champs - October 2010.

"This sport is so incredible. It has this way of humbling you. You end up having this love hate relationship with it. One minute you are crying and ready to call it quits and the next you are laughing hysterically and loving every second. All this changes in a matter of seconds. Quite simply, it’s a beautiful kind of crazy! Your highs and lows are amazing, so much so you can’t understand them. In fact I can’t even try. All I know is that AR sucks you in and keeps you there. It bares your soul. At times it rips it apart and just lays it open for all to see. It teaches you the importance of living life. It puts life into perspective. It teaches you to never give up, to keep looking forward. It pushes your limits. Emotional, physically and spiritually. It shows you the importance of having 3 friends as team mates because without them in AR you are nothing. They are your world for those 5 days. It’s you, them and the elements. Life becomes simple again."

It's going to be uber cool to be taking part in the same race with all the 'heavyweights' next week! Mighty Mouse.

Kinetic Sprint - Amazingwe Lodge

17 April 2011

Mike & William - 3rd in Men's Pairs

Con & Sue - 4th in Mixed pairs

YstervARK LEGEND - 8/9 April 2011

Captain my Captain William, This is my Swansong Con, Flying Portuguese Nando and Mighty Mouse Sue.

The final race in the series - rumoured to be LEGEND - we had to be there! As usual it was not plain sailing before the race. William managed to pancake his front wheel rim while riding to work on Monday - this is a model for which you can no longer get spares, AND you don’t want to buy a new bike the week before a race! Then we discovered that one of the canoes we had counted on using, due to a mix up in communication, was not available to us any longer.......!

This had William running around organizing bike parts and canoes frantically in the evening, so that we could test them at Emmarentia on Thursday. The Gods were on our side, as the canoe he bought - a Foxbat - turned out to be perfect for our needs, if you discount the fact that more than half of the team do not want to spend more time swimming it to the nearest bank, rather than paddling it! She’s a Foxy Lady....fast and unpredictable!

The trip out to Aasvoelkrans Resort went like clockwork, William, Con and I in William’s car with bikes and boats on top - we were there by 7......with no sign of race organizers anywhere. We thought we had more than enough time to prepare and maybe even fit in a little sleep? However, putting bikes together, doing kit check, stuffing down food, shuttling boats to the dam at Olifantsnek and testing out our shelter for the anticipated kit check on route, took us right up to race start. Clinton had managed to raise 11 teams from a total of only 2 on the Monday, so we had the usual quantity of racers. A quick check of hands, revealed that around half of them were virgin racers, looking a little chilly and apprehensive in the dark.

The first task was a quick orienteering run around the resort, using verbal clues to collect our passport - surprising how difficult it was in the dark and unfamiliar territory. The teams now split up a little, we hefted our backpacks, mounted our bikes and set off into the dark. (45km MTB)



Knowing we were in the Magalies area and the roads were all likely to go UP, did not actually help at all! Race Director Nico had found the longest district road in South Africa that goes UP AND UP AND.......The trouble with cycling in the dark is that you cannot see how far you still need to climb, but after an hour of climbing, you would just really like to KNOW? Anyway, the turn onto the farmer’s mealie fields was a welcome sight, the grassy jeep track.....a change of scenery, the view downhill heavenly! Into transition some time after midnight and happy Hallo’s shared with Uncharted. They were just exiting the caves and Lizelle was pumped up by everything she had seen and done. She assured us that it was “GONNA BE AWESOME”!
The first of the surprises Clinton had promised us.......this is the Weltevreden Caves - our entry an abseil (30m) down a pit entrance, where miners used to mine lime in the early 1900’s. (3.5km orienteering) We were given a map and instructions to stay away from the fungus on the floors - rumoured to cause illness if inhaled. It being around 2am in the morning, our trip around the caves was somewhat otherworldly! I almost felt as if I had fallen into a Star Trek movie, trekking the 3.5km around underground looking for checkpoints. The ground underfoot was loose and slippery, but we spent time sneaking quick peeks around at the stalagtites and formations, while checking below for fungus, ducking flying bats and negotiating slippery rocks! So odd to be wandering around alone and far away from the ‘real world’ then bump into familiar faces of other racers, around the next corner!

Nando bravely volunteered to crawl into all the small muddy spaces to find hidden checkpoints and Con did a fantastic job of keeping us on route. One vertical boulder strewn shaft was a little beyond our sensible capabilities and we elected to go back by the safe route. With flagging headlamps, we completed that leg and sat down to change batteries and transition back onto bikes. Tshwane had organized hot and cold drinks at this point, and it was very welcome. Thanks, Guys! It was not only AWSOME, but also LEGEND!

Now for the long leg through the dawn to the dam (50km). Knowing that we had climbed so much, we anticipated a long run downhill, back in the direction we had already come. The downhill took a while to arrive, but finally we were tearing into the dawn back to the dam. Several teams were in the area when we arrived, and upon seeing a chilly looking group entering the water for a swim, we told ourselves that they had obviously forgotten their canoes and elected to swim instead - little did we know this was the next surprise engineered by Clinton!

A quick anti-cockwise trip around the dam (7km), into slightly choppy waters, gained us checkpoints at the Willow tree and a trip up the bank for the Cave checkpoint. Back to the log strewn exit from the dam, where Con very nearly dragged me off my feet in his eagerness to get onto the next leg. Here was Eric to preserve the moment with his camera. William whipped out his penknife to remove the headlamp from his bike helmet and being somewhat sleep deprived, left it in the grass, hereby losing us 10 hard earned minutes from our finishing time! Not that it mattered.............





Now we discovered that we had to chose between a hike around the dam, or a swim directly across - of course this being adventure racing, it was the swim (200m), which turned out to be the best option, as the hike lost a couple of teams their final places in the race. Stripping down to as little as possible, exchange some insults with Eric and we set out kitted in life jackets, which then needed dragging behind us for the rest of the race (20km), but as I said before, this is adventure racing! We had exchanged race position with team Stealth several times during the race and were running a ding dong battle with them right up to the dam wall where we left them having a bite to eat and looking a little tired - maybe they were just tired of our incessant banter? The hike to the dam wall was interesting, mainly for the quantities of fauna and flora, specifically the Nephila Clavipes - better known as Golden Orb-web Spiders. Boy! There were plenty of them! Large and carnivorous looking.....though we told ourselves they were not poisonous....we have the odd arachnophobe in the team, so William took up a large stick and beat the trail for the rest of us!

The route away from the dam wall checkpoint, lead straight up the cliff face, past the first peak, then onto the second and at last we could see the first beacon shining high in the distance. That done, we could see the next 2 checkpoint beacons somewhere further into the clouds before us, but this is what we have been training for.....the shrubbery even looked like fynbos, so on we went. William was particularly thrilled to be following a trail only a metre wide, with steep dropoffs on both sides - we felt a lot like we were doing Salomon Skyrun just there. Somewhere on the top of that peak, we met Nico running alone and in the middle of nowhere. He explained that he was just out checking on things and that we were close to the next checkpoint, where we would start descending. Whoop! Whoop!

At that checkpoint, came the expected gear check. We hunkered down and squashed ourselves under the flysheet - unexpectedly discovering the largest ‘penknife’ we have ever seen, lost in the grass. You could skin an elephant with that thing! That completed, we elected to miss the boulder route off the mountain and try the chain ladder - because it sounded like more fun! It must have been quite a climb up, as we discovered Eric (again) and Karin flaked out in the grass at the top. A quick stop to satisfy the photographer and then a shaky descent down the slippery ladder......will it ever end? Legs wobbly and untrustworthy by this stage.

At last on solid, if not horizontal ground, we spent what seemed like hours trailing Con, who could smell the finish, down the foothills and back to the Aasvoelkrans Resort. We told ourselves if just one person clapped, we would run through the finish - well exactly one person clapped, so we raised a jog and completed our race happy......and well before prize giving! We finished in 5th place in a time of 16h05 with a warm welcome from Clint and a bottle of Coke for our troubles.

Congratulations to Hawkstone on a highly deserved win and to all the other teams who took part - you're all winners!

Thanks go to Tshwane Adventure Racing Club for organizing yet another excellent race! We even managed to each win a Buff! (by default) Thanks guys.......it was LEGEND! We’ll be back!

Mighty Mouse

Race Report: Kinetic Double Moon

Kinetic Double Moon Adventure Race

March 2011

Team Lickety Split

Members: William Cairns (Captain), Sue Belcher, Nando Santos, Con Loubser (Navigator)

Fetching: Mike Underwood and Trish Black

An adventure race consists of more than just racing. Finding team mates, getting to the race, understanding the challenges of the particular race, understanding each team members strength and weaknesses and knowing what to pack and how to transition are all critical aspects of the race. Getting home must also be planned for.

Lickety Split has been together for 18 months now. So finding team mates is a real pleasure as we can rely on finding 4 of the team mates to do the race. Often we can rely on the other team members to help us out with seconding. For this race we knew we were going to be tired after the race and therefore arranged with Mike and Trish to come and collect us from Bethlehem after the race. A really good idea, as on the way home all of us had a good sleep.

After the race briefing and before plotting the maps the team sat down together and worked out the estimated times we would be taking on each leg. This is a great way of planning your requirements for each part of the day, and also for knowing where you need to push (to use daylight on hiking legs) and where you can take it easy (cycling at night) as well as knowing how to pack your race box, and what food you need each day. By planning the times per leg you can also identify the best spots on the route to sleep. Our planning worked out spectacularly and at all times we knew which sections needed the hard work and where we were able to rest.

We took turns plotting maps, with another team member checking the plotted points. We did discover that there was a point that we had not plotted and corrected it. We also spent time tracing the whole route to ensure that every point was plotted correctly.

Out of interest, our team is able to cycle at a good speed at night, not quite our daytime speed but not considerably slower. However we find that hiking, especially where there are not roads, we travel half our daytime speed, or even slower. So by trying to do as much hiking as possible during daylight we significantly improve our times. (Rough averages: Daytime cycling 15-18kms per hour, night time cycling 10-14km per hour, daytime hiking 5km per hour, night time hiking 2-3km per hour, at night hiking over rough rocky terrain without paths, as low as 1km per hour)

Orienteering Trek - 14km, 7OPs, Collect in any Order

- Estimated 3:00, Actual 2:49

We knew there would be about an hour of Dark at the start of the leg and due to the fact that we did not know the quality of the tracks marked on the map we decided to stick to the larger roads that were well marked on the map. This had us starting with the highest point on the leg as the first check point.

Obviously a lot of teams had made the same decision as there was a long queue up the hill. For the rest of the leg we followed the smaller tracks marked on the map and found them to be pretty good roads.

Knowing that we would be hiking during the late afternoon (leg 4) we knew we needed to save as much daylight as possible and ran as often as we could on this leg. While this made this leg faster over all it hurt us as I suffered from heat exhaustion later in the day and Sue struggled with energy levels on the cycle.

Paddle Orienteering - 5km, 4OPs, Collect in any order

- Estimate 1:30 (inc Transition), Actual 0:50 (inc Transition)

On the hike we had already passed 2 of the checkpoints for the paddle, in both cases we were close enough to have clipped them. But back we went to each and clipped them. Having seen the points made it very easy to navigate to them and just having watched some of the teams ahead of us we already knew where a third point was as well.

We have been doing lots of paddling training as we know EA will require many KMs of paddling, I really felt that the paddling training had helped and was feeling more comfortable than normal on the bath tubs.

Cycle - 64kms, 3 CPs, Collect in order

- Estimate 5:30 (inc Transition), Actual 5:50 (Inc Transition)

Pretty soon on the cycle we realised that the running in the first leg had taken more out of Sue than we had realised, Con pulled out our brand new towing system and hooked her on and towed here speedily up the hills, Nando and I struggling (and usually unable) to keep up. Temperature went up quickly and I started suffering from Heat Exhaustion, which made us slow down significantly as I needed to rest in shade regularly.

A stop at a middle of nowhere shop for an ice cold liter of cooldrink really helped but I only really recovered after a swim at the Meiringskloof transition.

As a team we have never really used towing as an option before. However after this experience I admit that it makes a massive difference to the teams overall speed and a towing system should be considered as an option at all times.

Hike - 18km, 6CPs, Collect in order

- Estimate 6:30 (inc Transition), Actual 8:50 to Abseil (Inc Transition)

After a rather slow Transition as I tried to drop my core temperature we went off on the hike. The overhanging cliffs, the tunnels and the kloofing were all amazing. Definitely a place to take the family camping.

Once through the tunnels we climbed a mountain, and went down the other side, climbed a mountain and went down the other side, by now it was dark and we were not traveling very fast, a stop at the check point to refill water and off we went, climbed a mountain and went down the other side.

Con's navigation was pretty much spot on except near the checkpoint where we went the wrong way but soon realised the mistake and recovered. This shows the importance of knowing where you are at all times, and if you don't know exactly where you are on the map you need to continually evaluate your position to identify where on the map you are allowing you to find out if you have made a mistake.

On this hike we met the owner of one of the farms and she offered us water etc, but clearly she thought we were mad to be traipsing round the country side like we were.

As usual I was rather slow on the abseil - I have just never got used to heights and go down at the speed I consider safe rather than trying to save time. When I started adventure racing I must admit my fear of heights made abseiling really difficult, however as time has gone on it has become easier and easier, and mostly I just take the attitude, close your eyes and go!

Sleep

- Estimate 3:30, Actual 5:53 (Inc Abseil)

Back at the transition we decided to have a 3 hour sleep, giving us about an hour and a half of night time riding before sunrise. But when it came to waking up I just could not get going. In addition I had left a flat tire to be fixed after waking up. This meant that we spent about an hour extra getting ready to go instead of going. Looking back at this it was rather disappointing as usually I wake up quickly and am on the go seconds after waking.

I also believe that if we get everything ready before going to sleep we would save a lot of time. I think I could ride my bike while half asleep, but cant change a tube nor pack the box properly.

Cycle - 67kms, 3CPs, Collect in order

- Estimate 9:00, Actual 8:48 (Inc Lunch)

Cycling out of Fouriesburg on the tar road was great, after just waking up we needed a nice easy ride, even the dirt roads we rode on were of good quality and made riding easy. Sue had regained her strength and was doing well, my body temperature was doing ok, and as a team we were progressing well. The tar road down to the Lesotho border was fantastic, and we reached speed of over 50km an hour. I remember thinking that Con better have chosen the right road as there was no way I wanted to cycle back up the tar road.

Cycling along the Caledon river with South African mountains to our left, and Lesotho mountains on our right was like a fairy tale, I personally love mountains and being between them like that was beyond my wildest dreams. The sandstone cliffs, buttresses and valleys were fantastic to behold. At one point we could see what looked like four ranges of mountains one behind another lying in front of us.

Just before we reached the mountain pass we had been told so much about, we caught up to team Hawkstone, a team consistently faster than us, but were struggling as Alec was not feeling well. We greeted them (Nando sharing some of his secret pills with Alec) refilled water at the farm and continued.

We reached the pass and I towed Sue up the first 2 corners. By then I felt like I did the day before, all energy gone and core temperature rising far too quickly. Con once again took the tow and headed off, leaving myself and Nando amazed at the speed he and Sue were traveling. I started dousing myself with water at ever stream and puddle we saw on the pass, this seemed to help as I never reached the same level of heat exhaustion on the route.

Once over the pass we greeted Eric the photographer, who really made us feel as though he were the team personal photographer and headed on toward Clarens. As we came into Clarens we stopped at the supermarket and bought cooldrinks and food, then stopped at a local cafe for lunch. The food we had was really good and made us feel great.

We realised that by stopping for lunch before going into transition we saved time as it meant a short transition, while people that went into transition first completed their normal transition times and then still stopped for lunch. It makes me wonder if an effort should be made to drink remaining fluids and eat more food just before you reach transition would not make for faster transitions.

Hike - 10km (shortened to 6km), 3 CPs (Shortened to 2CPs), collect in order

- Estimate 3:00 (plus 0:30 Transition), Actual 2:20 (plus 0:12 Transition) - shortened route

The hike from Clarence into the mountains was really just there and back to see how far it was. The one CP was removed as it was taking teams too long to get to and would therefore influence the race end time. When we reached the top of the cliffs we found that the landscape did not match the map and we ended up needing to orientate the map purely by compass. This was interesting as normally I tend to orientate my map more by landmarks that I can see than by compass. Many teams felt that the CP was plotted incorrectly but once we found the CP and really compared it to the map we felt it was placed correctly.

On the way down we met Hawkstone (Alec looking strong), Dew Point and Senseless coming up the mountain. We suddenly realised we were sitting no worse than 5th as we knew about some teams that had already withdrawn. This actually made us decide to push hard as it was possible we were actually racing for a podium position. We pushed hard for a quick transition but looking at our times we just didn't get it right.

Cycle - 35km, 2CPs, collect points in order

- Estimate 3:00 (plus 0:30 Transition), Actual 2:20 (plus 0:28 Transition)

As we left transition I found I had a puncture. We stopped right there in Clarens and changed the tube. (Now both tubes were slime filled) and continued, over the rest of the leg we continually found that my tyres were going soft and had to stop and pump them up. Soon we switched to bombs just to save time and try and stay ahead of Senseless who we believed were right behind us.

Just before the next transition we stopped at a stop street for warm clothing and Hawkstone, with a fully recover Alec, came charging past us as if we were standing still (we were). We followed them into the transition and quickly onto the dam. (Later Hawkstone told us that Senseless was about 500m behind us at the time.

Paddle - 20km (Shortened to 12km), 2CPs, Collect in order

- Estimate 4:30 (inc Transition), Actual 2:34 (Inc Transition) - shortened route

We headed off into the dark, Paddling in the dark is always a surrealistic experience for me. You seem so much smaller in the dark and on the dam it feels so silent. Even when noises reach you from the shore it still feels as though you are in a bubble out there on the dam. Con asked if we should go for the closest point first, and I reminded him that we had to visit the points in order. We quickly reached the first point and then we headed off into a headwind to get to the next point. The boat was bouncing on the waves and splashing Nando in front of the boat on a regular basis. While we were heading to the second CP we encountered 2 teams doing the points in the worng order, having a great tail wind helping them across the dam.

Cycle - 17km, 2 CPs, collect in Order

- Estimate 2:30 (inc Transition), Actual 1:43 (Inc Transition)

We transitioned quickly and headed out, Soon we reached the first CP and headed off home, unfortunately we hit some soft sand on the road. This made the going tough for Sue who was too tired to manage without falling, resulting in her and myself pushing our bikes through the sand. We rode the hard packed roads where possible.

If Sue had had a chance to sleep either before the leg, or during the leg we would have coped on this section a lot better, but as she was tired it became a bit of a slog.

We rode into the finish, in 5th spot, behind Hawkstone and ahead of Senseless. At the finish we were treated to a winners podium with champagne. Nando in his post race state found that adding champagne to the end of a race caused lightheadedness and he required a little rest before continuing with the nights festivities.

Overall we were only 55minutes slower than our scheduled time, but about 4 hours of racing had been cut from the course.

Prize giving was fantastic. When we were called up in 5th spot we had as big a cheer from the other teams as the first place team got. That made us feel really special.

Team Lickety Split had set out to use this race as a trial run for Expedition Africa, learning each others abilities and weak points as it was the first time this combination had raced together. We did far better (about 7 hours) than we had expected to do. We found our weak points, and we know what we need to improve our overall performance. As a team we have one more opportunity to race together when the Ystervark Legend race happens next month. We hope that at the Ystervark race we can finalise our preparations.

Thanks

A big thank you to Mike and Trish for making the trip to Bethlehem to collect us.

A big thank you to Heidi and Stephan and their team of helpers and Marshals for organising the race and making it possible for us to travel the country in such a spectacular way.

Also a thank you to all the Land Owners in the area that gave permission for us to travel over their farms.

Double moon - Our Route

Con spent some time recreating the full route we followed on the race, including the small navigational error. In the end:

Hike Orienteering - 16km distance, 398m elevation gain
Paddle Orienteering - 4.5 km, 52m
Cycle to Meiringskloof - 64.1 km, 881m
Meirinskloof Hike - 20.3 km, 830m
Cycle to Clarens - 63.4 km, 1538m
Clarens Hike - 7.1 km, 368m
Cycle to Saulspoort - 35.8 km, 338m
Paddle on Saulspoort - 11.5 km, 54m
Cycle to finish - 13.9 km, 234m

Total Distance: 236.6 km
Total Gain: 4693m (and that includes google's surprising elevation gains on the paddles!?!?!?!?)

Bike: 177.2 km
Hike: 43.3 km
Paddle: 16 km

YsterVark AMA-Zing Race - 28/29 January

Written by our guest team-mate Karin Joubert.
Mike, Nando, Con and Karin with William seconding)

Wow! Awesome! AMA-Zing race! I truly enjoyed it….and thank you to Lickety Split for the opportunity to race with you!

Con, Nando, Mike & William – you are all gentlemen – thank you for being so kind, supportive and taking me into your team. I am going to try and say a few things about the race, however, not sure if I am ‘William Shakespeare’, though!!

(I’m not going to write the normal race report – rather want to share my experience)

We all arrived safely at Mnweni – a few of us only a bit earlier than others. We all had a few hours sleep, got up at around 2am – made sure of last minute gear, and ready for the 3am start. Nando however, had to do his last ‘admin’ a minute before the race started – the team did say, ‘that’s Nando’. J And off we went….into the dark – 20km hiking/kloofing! I wasn’t sure how long this would take us….never thought it will be 8 hours! Phew! Surprise-surprise! And it did take us more than 8 hours! What an experience!

Walking – hiking - climbing – kloofing – it was wonderful! The beautiful Drakensberge and surroundings were ‘picture perfect’! (first time in the ‘Berg’ for me!) Going all the way to the top of the mountain, to one of the caves, was difficult, but fairly doable. Not quite sure what the time was when we reached the top, however the sun was already awake and smiling at us.

But now the ‘difficult’ part started (for me though) – I never realized that I am so ‘afraid’ of heights. I couldn’t even stand close to the edge, to see how far we have to go down. I really wasn’t aware of this ‘short coming’ of mine. We started going down the mountain – slowly at places – cause this ‘bangbroek’ just couldn’t get a move on. Thank you for the 3 of you, Con, Nando and Mike for helping me. You know where and when! Finally we reached the bottom! And the legs/thighs talking in foreign languages! But I made it – all smiling!

The last part of the hike, myself and Con was chatting and walking at a steady pace, with Nando and Mike strolling along! We waited for them, and as a team we arrived back – with our wonderful second waiting to take a photo! He was so happy to see us! He filled up our bladders, checking our food supply, making sure my blister is fine, I could feel the energy he was having – thank you William – it was awesome.

Off to our first MTB leg – it felt wonderful just to get of your feet and onto the bike! Really bliss! We were going at a steady pace, I would say, enjoying the moment, moving on swiftly. Until Con told us – yip, we are going to the top! We then realized that this is not going to be an easy ride! Through rivers, up hills, sun laughing at us – 35 degrees! Have to say on few hills – ‘in granny gear’ I was passing the guys – felt really good – hehehe! But it didn’t last – the really tough hills I had to push my bike up – I wasn’t the only one, a lot of the other teams had to do the same!

I really think we had a great bike ride and then it was time for the paddle! And William waiting for us, ready as always, making sure we have everything – paddles, ‘plakkies’, water, and and! Thank you William – you were great!

Have to say, the ‘paddle’ around Emmarentia dam really helped me, and I was ready to start the paddle with Con in the K2! And so were Nando and Mike! The paddle went smooth, and we return to ‘base’ (hehehe) just under 2 and half hours! This was awesome guys! And waiting with warm spaghetti bolognaise – our wonderful second – William, damn you were a star!

The sun was setting and we still had 2 legs to go – MTB ride and a last hike! We were ready and started the ride with smiles on our faces. We were trying to use the last bit of sunlight the day had to offer. This didn’t last long! We got the next CP quite easy and then started heading back to transition point 1 – but knew one more CP was up for grabs before we get there. I was really enjoying every moment of this!

We were counting the river crossings – and it seemed that we were just not getting to the road where we have to turn off to get the last CP at a bridge. Myself and Mike were wondering how far to transition. Nando was ‘just’ riding his bike and Con very determined to get the last CP of the bike ride. Con then said, let’s go down this road, the other 3 of us realized, if we go down this road, we have to come back up again. Luckily it took us to the bridge (only about 1.5km down) and there Nando spotted the CP point. We were all very pleased with Con’s navigation skills, I even asked him, ‘how did you know it was this road’? He just said: ‘I had this feeling’! I then told him: Well done, really proud! J

Heading back to transition was really putting a sparkle into my eyes! Knowing that we got all CP points up to now! Very happy campers – that were all of us!

Still feeling good, not really sleepy – I was ready for the last hike. Or I thought I was ready….don’t want to say much about this last part, just that it was amazing to head back into the mountains at that time of night, through rivers, going up steep hills (yet again I was a bit afraid of the height).

I had a wonderful experience with you guys, I really enjoyed every moment! You are gentlemen through and through! Would love to race with you guys again – hope I didn’t disappoint!

Thank you so much for all the help and support! The gear, motivation, and and....

Bicycling 24hr MTB at Rietvlei - 2nd place!

The team: William, Con, Adri Ferrari and Goofy Mike.
Lickety Split attended the event with experience gained from last year. We arrived early and set up our gazebo's in the hot, hot sun - right next to the Do it Now gazebo, staffed by Keane, Lizelle, Wiehan, Weylin and Waldus - racing as www.kl.aar. Cat-i Carine also joined our little huddle of tents. She had planned to race as a 2-man team, but found herself going solo, to her horror - but she is game for anything! Time passed quickly and we found ourselves seated amongst a full score of racers - all shapes and sizes, for race briefing. The start was a midday sprint in cleats down the road to your bike. Con was nominated to get us a good lead on the slower teams and beat his way through the field.

The afternoon was hot and VERY windy - entertainment provided by gazebo's rising like balloons and bowling across the field. We checked ours....and added more tentpegs and ties, after three of them tried to get away! Dust and heat coated racers, turning to mudpacks with sweat. The organizers had set up a computer for racers to check their progress - to our surprise, the first couple of laps had pegged us into second place in the mixed fours....and there we stayed! The team was determined to try to close the gap with first place and plugged away hard throughout the night....we hoped that our experience with 'going all night' would serve us well, when other teams slowed down to sleep.

The campsite stayed busy all night....riders coming and going every few minutes, although a few teams stopped to sleep the dog shift. We changed from single laps to double laps to give our tired riders a chance to sleep for a couple of hours. The course was twisty and technical, with a whole new section punctuated with young trees to squeeze through. A soft dusty track and negative camber made sure that riders ran into trees on most laps and during the night, those trees took quite a beating.


Dawn arrived with the cries of peacocks at the unearthly hour of 4.10, during Adri's 2-lap shift. Hot and dusty, it was soon windy again! A check of the computer revealed that we had indeed pulled away from the third team during the night, unfortunately Edenvale Wheelers had been going all night as well, and now had a lead on us that we could not hope to close. Con had been hoping for a podium position and second place it was to be! Actually quite a successful placing, (we did more laps than several other teams who won their categories) we felt somewhat cheated by being unable to win, consoling ourselves by agreeing that we had run our race as efficiently as possible, not wasting a second in transition! Amazingly the solo men's winner managed to completely eclipse the number of laps turned out by any team and was deservedly the winner in all eyes. Cat-i was narrowly beaten into second place by a determined younger rider, while she slept a couple of night hours. Well done Carine, well done Lickety Split! Thanks Do it Now for the support and companionship!

William and Mike win Veteran Mens Foot Rogain

The whole team attended the Rogaine at Kaapschehoop this weekend. William and Mike won the Veteran Men section of the Foot Rogain. But were so tired that they only finished 3^rd in category on the Mountain Bike Rogaine.