The Bull of Africa 580km Expedition Adventure Race had finally arrived and we, the
Sandown Mitsubishi Red Ants, found ourselves amongst all the excitement of pre-race kit
checks and proficiency tests at the Augrabies Fall National Park.
There were 25 teams taking part and 11 of them were international teams, some being some
of the best in the world. Nathan Fa’avre of the New Zealand team Balance Vector had
been Brians AR hero for years and the rest of us were a bit concerned as to how he would
react when he finally met Nathan. But to our relief, it was a calm and collected “Hi,
I’m Brian, Team Sandown Mitsubishi Red Ants”. When Nathan left, was when we had
to calm an ecstatic Brian down.
The race was to start Friday late afternoon on the SA side of the Ontseepkans border.
Before the race started we all got our passports stamped so we would be able to move in
and out of Namibia without hassles. The race started with a round about 60km hike
following the orange river, we all started with a run amongst all the excitement but that
ended for us when we climbed the first fence and we then settled into a fast walk. At the
first Check Point (CP) we had to swim across an icy orange river, the first of many
crossings during the race. Thanks to the special force divers for ensuring our safety
across the river.
We continued hiking along the river and we were with the Brazilin team FAAP Adventura,
with whom we all got to celebrate Bruno’s birthday just after 12 that night. We even
got a taste of birthday cake at CP2, which he had been carrying with him. Lucky for the
Brazilin team, we were not always too far from them as they were dropping beanies, life
jackets food along the way which we carried until we saw them next (the food we ate -
sorry). We did warn them however not too drop a whole back pack as that would be way too
heavy for us to carry for them. The hike took us to a grotto in the mountains, a church in
the town of Pella and eventually to the first transition area at a campsite along the
Orange River.
After a quick bite to eat, a very soothing foot wash in an ice-cold pool we were on our
bikes for the start of a very long bike leg. Our first CP on the bike leg was at Little
Pella, after plenty bike pushing we got to the CP only to discover that there were toasted
sandwiches and cokes available… you don’t need to ask us twice and we
immediately tucked into a quick sandwich and coke before we started the long stretch to
the next CP at the Groot Meklboom. More bike pushing was to follow and when Garry was
eventually ridden off the road by the sleep monster we decided to have a quick sleep
before continuing. The temperature dropped like crazy as we headed down to the river in
the early hours of the morning and we found a very cold Century 2000 who had taken a quick
nap at the way Point (WP) “Witbank Tourism information Center” - a tiny building
in the middle of nowhere.
The rest of the bike leg (bike push) was taking its toll on Brian’s knee as his ITB
was getting worse. By the end of the cycle Brian had reached his pain threshold and he
decided it was time for the 3 of us to continue and to try pick up the pace as Brian
withdrew at this point from the race.
The next 60km odd hike followed the Orange River the whole way with a few compulsory river
crossings as the one CP was on the Namibian side of the river. By CP9 the first check
point on this hike, Garry’s right shin was taking strain and we decided to have a
long rest in the hope he would recover, unfortunately it only got worse and at the next
check point, CP10 Garry had no choice but to also withdraw from the race. It was now up to
Gerrard and Me to keep the Red Ants name flying high.
With the 2 of us now carrying all the compulsory kit minus the crucial map to the abseil
and paddle, we set off in pursuit of CP 11. Being 2 people we were not allowed to continue
alone for safety reasons. Sterling Hilfiger arrived at CP11 just after us, so after we had
finished raiding our first food box, we tagged along behind them on the short cycle across
the border to the River Adventure Resort - Felix Unite.
From here we hiked to the top of the abseil, still tagging behind Sterling hilfiger. The
abseil was a staggering 152m long and unfortunately we got there early morning when it was
still dark so we were unable to enjoy what would have been an amazing view! After a rather
nerve racking abseil with prussic’s jamming, petzel stops not stopping and rocks
flying everywhere us and Sterling Hilfiger gathered on the banks of the orange river for
another chilly morning swim across the river.
We were now at the start of the paddle leg and were unable to continue with Sterling
Hilfiger as they were still an official team and would have to help us, being only 2 if we
ran into trouble. Thanks Sterling Hilfiger for the legs we were able to do with you.
Lucky for us Team Sorfrana from New Caledonia and France who had with drawn earlier from
the race had come to do the paddle leg for fun and were more than happy for us to join
them on the paddle. It was a great paddling experience to paddle with such a sharp team of
paddlers, we shared many laughs, took lots of photos and shared plenty AR war stories.
Thanks Stephanie, David and the rest of Team Sorfrana for a very enjoyable paddle.
Now we were stuck, just the two of us left waiting for the next unofficial team to finish
the paddling leg so we could join up with them. 21hours later after a hot shower and
plenty good food, Century 2000 eventually finished the paddle. They had a quick bite to
eat and we soon all on our bikes, now on the shortened route (only 60km of mountain biking
was taken out), heading for CP22 - the Richtersveldt Base Camp.
After yet another frustrating bike push a.k.a cycle leg we got to CP22 and now had our
second food box to devour. Here we got our final instructions - a 73km hike with a jumar
and a 50km bike leg to the finish. We set off later that evening after plotting the next
legs and restocking of food. We arrived at the jumar in the early hours of the morning and
Adam (the ropes guy at the jumar) advised us to wait till first light to start with the
jumar as we had to swim through 3 rock pools during the jumar and the water was extremely
cold and he had just rescued a team from the jumar. After completing the awesome jumar we
headed towards window falls, the beacon on top of cornels kop and to Erksteenfontein where
we would collect our bikes.
We were hoping to get to Cornels kop before dark so we could see our way up to Cornels kop
and find our way down towards the jeep track as it was going to be very tricky, but
unfortunately we did not make it. We decided to stop for a bit and wait for the moon to
come out so we could see better, but unfortunately the moon didn’t come out till late
in the night and when it appeared it was so small it didn’t help us at all. At first
light we set off again in pursuit of the beacon on Cornels kop.
Later on while hiking towards Cornels kop we realized that we were not going to make the
cut off and tried to radio to headquarters for advise but we were unable to make radio
contact until 2 in the afternoon when we were higher in the mountains. At this stage we
had lost our maps so found it rather amusing when Hano asked whether we had plotted our
GPS coordinates onto the map… Not to worry Hano we knew where we were going! A couple
hours later we were sitting on the jeep track waiting to be picked up, a few minutes later
K9 Search and Rescue came to our rescue with a cooler box full of beers and coke - thanks
guys. We then headed off to Erksteenfontein where our seconds were waiting to take us back
to the finish - Felix Unite.
Although extremely disappointed we could not finish the race, we did get our moneys worth
of racing, a good 6 days 22,5 hours!
The Bull of Africa was an amazing experience, especially racing amongst such a quality
field of racers. Meeting and chatting with the international teams was definitely a high
light for us during this race as they were all so friendly and willing to chat. We will
certainly be back next year to tame the Bull!!!
Thanks
A very big thank-you to our sponsor SANDOWN MITSUBISHI MOTORS for making this amazing race
and experience possible for us.
Thanks to Hano, Sonja and all the marshals for a GREAT race!
To our seconds Hume and Richard, at times it looked like you were having more fun than us,
but thanks for all your time and hard work
A special thanks to Louise and Maureen for making sure we were well fed before the race
started.
Thanks to Jonene at Linden Cycles for always ensuring our bikes are in top notch working
order and for all our bike spares
Thank also to Front Runner for sponsoring the Roof Rack, it was extremely usefull.
Thanks to Century 2000 for letting us continue the race with you guys.
And last but not least, to all the teams that kept dropping food along the way, thanks we
ate it all!