Scatterlings of Africa

Adam Rose / 16.05.2017

"Copper sun sinking low
Scatterlings and fugitives
Hooded eyes and weary brows
Seek refuge in the night
They are the scatterlings of Africa"  
- Juluka

As the first teams hit TA6 after the Baviaans trek, it was apparent that Skylotec were going to be hard to beat. Despite a push from East Wind, Skylotec had a strong lead going into the next biking leg, but it wasn’t going to be easy to maintain the pace. Race director Stephan Muller is aware of how to balance a race, so that teams don’t feel caught in a grinder, moving from one insane stage to another crazy challenge – there has to be an ebb and flow of effort, rewarding teams and allowing them to recover before hitting the next wall. A dance, if you will.

The flipside is that the terrain doesn’t always allow such poetry. Often times it’s more like thrash metal, an assault on your senses, battering you down.

The Baviaans trek wasn’t terrible, to be frank, but it was hard. Virtually every team to reach TA6 commented on two things: the outstanding natural beauty, and the physical toughness of the stage. Of the former, they can be grateful to have experienced a route off limits to the public. We asked about doing it at some later date, and the answer was a flat ‘no’. A real pity, but that’s one of the draws of adventure racing – going where few are privileged to go, to see the jaw-dropping.

Regarding the latter comment, the difficulty was in the constant change in the terrain. Rounded rocks, boulders, water, sand, scratchy thorn bushes. Rinse and repeat. Nothing hard on their own, but when you mix it all together, a proper challenge. Rene of Blood, Sweat and Beers (#5) said they couldn’t settle into a rhythm, but hey, it was awesome. Building a fire on the canyon floor, and having the luxury of a 12hr rest midrace proved very attractive to those midpack and slower teams. Plett AR said it was the “trek of a lifetime”.

The lead teams had it harder, as attested by Castel Lite. By trying to beat the dark zone, they had to move faster, which meant less time to attend to feet, to remove sand, to jump on problems before they became issues. Adrian Saffy said, “It didn’t help to kill yourself on the first day (and) the last two stages could be the make or break for some teams, if you don’t have anything left in the tank” - a long bike then a beach trek.

I didn’t see extreme blistering or trench foot, but the word being bandied around at transition was that some teams were ‘trashed’.

DAR Dingle (#1) found the trek very hot, with not much water, and sore feet. They didn’t see any other animals besides baboons and a lone buffalo in the distance. More experienced locals Ecobound (#29) also saw buffalo, but Nikki Smit (wife of Smelly) enthused about the loads of fresh leopard spoor, including a mother and cubs. At least they weren’t confronted by a puffadder, a highly venomous and aggressive snake, which Kokoro 20x (#15) only escaped with an instinctive leap.

At TA6, many teams took a time out, tending to those feet, getting the new maps, some opting for sleep. Not the front teams, however. Skylotec was out of there stat, in less than half an hour. We tried to intercept them, but somehow they slipped past us. Hiking up the road that was too rugged for our vehicle, we couldn’t see their tyre tracks, but we were definitely on the right route.

No major mystery, they’d taken a side route instead of the obvious line, a choice that somehow escaped the notice of all subsequent teams. It was a canny move, showing their experience, and we were reassured when their tracks joined ours, though we still didn’t manage to catch up. (Later, on the last bike stage, Skylotec did canny navigation again, in their fight against Thunderbolt AR for the lead).

Thunderbolt AR arrived behind us as we summitted a hill, in excellent fiddle, confident enough to pose for a few photos then set off in pursuit of Skylotec.  We followed in their wake, hitting CP22 near a river crossing in the dusk. Jabberwock arrived, quickly scouted a path through the reeds and crossed to an island. They’d suffered on the canyon trek, especially their feet. After a quick confab, they realised they’d forgotten to get the CP a good few hundred metres back in a ruin, and wasted time running back to find it. Another 15 minutes on the clock. While a highly-respected team, they often do themselves a disservice with such oversights.

At the ruin, East Wind emerged out the gloom, positive in appearance as usual, but Machiko Nishii had quite a cough developing.

Back in the T6 transition, a situation developed with team Running Shade. Whenever a team forms from four strangers, it’s more difficult to race with one mind, a crucial ingredient for success. The female member had been towed on the first biking leg, a bad sign so early on, then had a rough time in the canyon. Eventually, nerves raw from the mental, physical and emotional stresses, the team was at breaking point. The debate about whether to continue or not became quite heated, but it wasn’t personal as much as frustration on all sides. Eventually they reunited and set out on Tuesday afternoon, for what I knew to be an even tougher leg. How would they cope?

Team Olympus (#20) showed great promise in the earlier stages, holding third position at one point, but during the ride, they slowed considerably. Speaking to Alex Wagner on Tuesday evening, he admitted his team were quite disappointed in their progress. During the first part of the ride between CP22 and CP23, they’d found the going considerably difficult. The team had lost between 4 and 6hrs by ‘faffing’ around, looking for the route. As that section of trail is overgrown, reduced to horse and wildlife paths, the earlier decent section had lulled them into false expectations. They’d hunted for ways to cross the river (1.5hrs), and even once across, then struggled to find the ongoing path (more hours), then slept out of frustration (an hour or so), only to find they’d been within 20 metres of the right route thereafter. His lesson learnt was to ‘push through’ rather than surrender – you never know how close you are to success.

They weren’t the only ones to shudder at their recollection of this stage. At 5:30 Tuesday morning, we found Jabberwock again, now in third place, just outside Patensie. Craig Metherell said the hike-a-bike was so difficult to get through, with thorns and scrub, he’s “never hiked a section as tough as that, let alone with a bike!”  The stage had either been speeding along at 30km/h, or carrying his bike. No mid ground.

They’d also noticed French team Nantes appeared to have missed CP22, claiming it was absent, but Jabberwock confirmed its existence to them. Nantes said they’d taken a photo of the ruin, but didn’t intend to return to the location. If true, will this come back to haunt them?

DAR Dingle had expected to ride at least 90% of a stage labelled as mountain biking, but this had been ridiculous. They also conceded, though, that things would be far less painful in recollection AFTER the race, and weren’t holding a grudge. They’d also learned the hard way that tubeless tyres were the better option in thorny South Africa, with eight punctures on that stage, and one buckled wheel.

Mistakes began to emerge with other teams, the strain taking its toll. At the final kayaking stage (TA8), leaders Skylotec forgot to transfer the CPs from the master map on to their local maps, requiring a run back to TA7. They were a little fractious, but only had themselves to blame. Fortunately, the TAs were close.

Castle Lite also set out from TA8 on their kayaks, after the zipline down from Rooiklip (spectacular, especially when we saw it lit by a flaming sunset), only to return stone-faced 10 minutes later, not having collected CP33.

Now that teams are heading out of the mountains, the pain meter should subside, but the endurance meter is definitely being taxed. Two beach hikes remain for many teams, one 18km section along to Jeffreys Bay expected to take 4 hours for the fastest, and the final trek has a massive dune field. Beautiful but maybe less attractive after so many hours. But hey, pain is temporary.

The battle for first place should be resolved on Wednesday morning. Estimates have changed from 7:00 to 11:00, but regardless, we should be able to crown our champions even as the tail enders are only starting to learn the pain of the hike-a-bike. Across this epic landscape, they are the scatterlings of Africa. 

Follow the action live at www.expafrica.live 

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