Full Steam Ahead, Load Bearers!

Adam Rose / 14.05.2017

Day 1 on Expedition Africa Baviaans started at a hectic pace, and so far, hasn’t let up. It’s almost bizarre, because it’s not as if any team can start the Baviaans trek leg earlier than 4am Monday, but that doesn’t seem to have discouraged any of the leading teams. No matter.

Assembled on the beach by 6:30am, racers huddled behind a sand dune to avoid the wind, then with 5 minutes to go, hurried out to the start line for the 7am go. Wind is a thing in this area, and might take a toll on some teams as the race progresses.

They followed the initial coastline 5km to what would have been TA1, then continued on foot through the marina of Port St Francis, to the collection point of the replacement map. This lead them along the coastline to CP3, where they had to transition to kayak. Uneventful in itself, the heavy sit-on-tops had to be carried a hundred metres or so down to the St Francis canal network, the largest in the country, where the teams would search for a handful of CPs.

Nevarest Jabberwock (#8) were first in by a small margin, followed by Skylotec Adventure (#25), then East Wind (#9), Castle Lite (#2), Buco Adventures (#23), Thunderbolt AR (#26), Olymmpus (#20) and Quasarlontra Brazil (#38) in a rush. The car park quickly become clogged as teams hauled their kayaks in single file back down the path in the face of arriving teams.

There was hardly any space on the edge of the canal, and filled with adrenalin, teams rushed to be off on the hunt. East Wind took longer than expected, and increased their delay by tying their kayaks together head to tail, to improve overall team speed. It was time consuming, but eventually they pulled off past the white-walled, thatched residences, each with their own private dock.

More teams gathered on the water’s edge, and hardly had Thunderbolt AR begun their paddle than they were asking about CP3. Where was it? Behind them, of course, back on the shore. Two more teams had the same problem, too hasty to be paddling. And 10 minutes after they had departed, East Wind was paddling back to the CP, no longer tied bow to stern, clearly irritated to have made a rookie error.

Back at the transition, team Alquimistos Trevo (#35) had packed the wrong gear, which meant they wouldn’t have dry clothes waiting for them after the final kayak leg, and they were worried about the wind chill. Too late to do anything about that.

Under a cloudless blue, teams made their way through the canal network, to emerge on the broad Krom River, to paddle upstream. It was a roll of the dice whether to hug the eastern or western shores, which meant some kayaks had to be hauled through muddy shallows while others had sped past, only for the situation to be reversed a few hundred metres later.  

Skylotec started to establish a lead, passing under the Krom River bridge by 8:55, followed by the same lead group they’d seen in the transition.

Over the 20 kilometres, Skylotec lengthened their lead, powering up to CP6, before retracing past following teams to take the fork to CP7. CP6 became chaotic itself as the bulk of the field arrived in short order, kayaks littering the landing stage, teams refuelling with coke and bananas, refilling water bottles against the morning heat. Marshals reported many in the lead group were showing signs of strain from having pushed so hard to maintain pace.

TA2 was just nasty. Having landed, teams could leave their backpacks behind but had to carry the heavy boats at least 600 metres up a very steep jeep track, in the heat. Kayak handles aren’t made for such. Skylotec didn’t seem to mind, making the ascent, transition and descent in under 15 minutes, a time no-one else matched.

Some teams came more prepared than others. The ‘boere’ of Rustproof (#16) had a cunning plan: having anticipated the effort required, they’d brought two stout poles in their kayaks, and together with baggage straps, produced a much easier sedan-chair method for carrying the load. Other teams were both impressed and envious, though admittedly a couple used straps over their shoulders – hands free!  

Castle Lite were doing well in fourth but Adrian Saffy carried both kayaks at the rear for much of the ascent, which wasn’t a happy place. A few other teams did likewise, but he was limping when he left on the descent back to retrieve their packs.

The 6km run to TA3 continued upriver, at water level, getting into thick brush for CP9 before teams broke from cover, out of the ravine, to run across dry scrub and fields. A short leg, but there was no way to paddle to the Impofu dam, and kayaks were quickly moved to the new stage.

Skylotec were first to leave on the 15km paddle, again upriver, but as it was in a dam, the paddling was no longer subject to the tides. A major plus was the strong tail wind, and all teams made good time on what otherwise could have been a wretched leg.

Not all was so pleasant, of course. The water level was low, and coupled with the distance of the TA from the launch site, again teams had to carry their heavy kayaks for a good few hundred metres.  Many stopped repeatedly to rest their hands.

The team order was similar to the earlier leg. Nevarest Jabberwok, Thunderbolt AR, Olympus, East Wind then Castle Lite. Quasarlontra Brazil have now been christened the Smurfs by the media, as their familiar blue tights make them identifiable from miles away.

Philippe Chod of Running Shade (#39) was clearly in charge, his wealth of experience obvious in the quick commands he issued his crew. As a team of four nationalities, it pays to have someone as captain who remembers every detail. Less reassuring was how one team mate needed to instruct another on basic paddling technique, but hey, we’ve all been there. On this race, any team with good paddling skills had a real advantage on day one.

Transition 4 was on a farm just above the river, with a large marquee holding the stacked bike boxes. It was also the first transition to have proper food – boerewors rolls and stacked burgers.

Skylotec rolled into the TA at 14:10, over an hour ahead of the fastest projected time. Part of this was due to the cancellation of the sea kayak, part to the tail wind, but certainly part due to the excellent shape the team was in. Quite chatty, they moved quickly from the river, but didn’t enjoy the fourth portage of the day. They, too, stopped to swap hands at intervals, even carrying the kayak itself, ignoring the handles. They transitioned to bikes in less than 15 minutes. Eaten, changed, assembled, refilled and gone. Sweet. No interest in the burgers.

The next five teams hadn’t changed in order, and each moved through the transition as rapidly as possible, each slightly slower than the last. Castle Lite looked the least comfortable, both Saffy and Tracy Campbell shivering from the cold. As other teams confirmed, it wasn’t from the paddling as much as the wind chill at transition. Hot chocolate was required to perk Tracy up, though by the time they left the TA, both she and Saffy were full of chirp.  

Other teams were varying in their responses about the race to that point. Thunderbolt AR said they were feeling good, and truth be told, didn’t like biking, but at least it was better than carrying boats. Olympus suffered from both kayaks leaking. Janneke Leask of Nevarest Jabberwock wolfed down baby porridge (“It’s amazing!”). Quasarlontra Brazil added their voice to the chorus of how the tailwind was a mixed blessing – the slightest deviation meant endless zigzagging. Buco Adventure has three world class paddlers in their team, including Dusi winners and top contenders, but still found the paddle tough work. They wished the sea kayak had taken place, partly because it would have separated those with real skill from those lacking the same.

A2A Rangers (#37) voiced a common sentiment, “Don’t the Swedes (Skylotec) know there’s a dark zone?”

RAF (#14) were, like many teams, aiming to get to CP17 by 4am for the lifting of the dark zone, and would leave at that time no matter how little rest they’d had by then. They also were not used to racing so fast on day one of a 500km race.

Gone Racing’s (#20) Martin Fraser-McKenzie needed his foot bandaged after rolling his ankle on the 6km trekking leg. A silly mistake, he was dosing on the pain killers. The kayak had been fine, but any upcoming trek might be jeopardised.

Freyer Scollay of Hardtale (#34) had a proper chest cough, which predated the race by at least a week. She wished it was simply from racing too hard, in which case she could recover by throttling back, but this isn’t likely to go away any time soon. She turned away from the coughing.

Also one to mention, Merrell Mentors (#4) has three AR novices led by the powerhouse of Donovan Sims. Don was full of vigour in the TA (no surprise) but so were his team. They’d found the zigzag frustrating, though Don seemed to help Dean Findley’s kayaking technique by bashing him with his paddle. It must have worked because Dean said the race so far had been “hard work but awesome!”. Troy was loving it, wishing only that he had started adventure racing earlier than 41. The team priority was to stay warm, and not over exert themselves getting to TA5.

These teams headed out into the dusk and the red dust of the local farm roads. As of this writing, at 20:00 on Sunday, two teams have already made it to TA5: Skylotec and Thunderbolt AR, which gives them around 8 hours of recuperation before the rush into the Baviaans. Whether they’ll stay at the TA or move to CP17, which is the limit for the night, will probably set the tone for the rest of the teams in their wake.

Bloed en Omo (#7) and Cadena Challenger (#11) are at the opposite end of the field, still in TA4, but they were never going to gun for it. B&O, based on past performance, might well take a creative route to the next TA.

The bulk of the field should make it to TA5 before 4am, where it’s almost as if the race will restart. Come to think of it, has this opening saga of sweat actually been the prologue?

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