Due South Adventure Quest
By:Nicky Wolff
The much-anticipated Due South 100km Adventure Quest had finally arrived and we were wondering exactly what Tweet had up his sleeve for us. With Tweet being one of the top adventure racers we knew we were going to have fun as well as a tough time during the race.
We arrived at Venterskoon early Saturday morning in pouring rain and set up base camp. While our seconds dropped our bikes off, we sorted out our kit and then waited patiently for the CPs to be given to us to plot. The team for this race was Nicky Wolff, Brian Gardner, Gert Forster and PJ Doyer who was joining us for the race since Ryan was at the Xterra in Cape Town. We were privliged enough to have 3 seconds for the race, Gerrard Booyens, Routies Doyer and Garry Townsend who was joining us all the way from Haenertsburg at the last minute. There was a central transition area (TA Central) so the seconds would not have to work too hard during the race.
The race was to start at 12pm with a short run down to the river and then about a 13km paddle downstream on a rather fast flowing Vaal River, but Tweet had his first surprise for us and we were told we would first paddle about 2km upstream to a Mens Health banner, where we would leave our boats and climb a "Small" koppie to collect CP Surprise. Not being the worlds greatest paddlers we made it to the banner in 4th place and start the long climb up the koppie, we made good ground during the hike to CP Surprise and got back to our boats in 1st place. We got in the boats and started the paddle downstream, as PJ and I were getting stuck in a Willow tree whilst we were launching Cyanosis passed us, we were later passed on the paddle by Team USN who were paddling really well.
We got to the end of the paddle and were soon on our bikes heading for the next checkpoint. This mtb leg was relatively easy riding, no big hills but lots of thick sand and mud. We had USN in our sights near the end of the cycle and raced them to the last CP of the bike leg, which was on the Vaal River bank. Tweet had originally said we would have to bring floatation with to help us swim across the river with our bikes, but given the fast flowing river, he decided to be kind and had arranged Indian canoes for us to use to get across the river. Gert had a puncture so while he pumped his tyre in the canoe I paddled us across with PJ and Brian not too far behind until they found themselves entangled in a willow tree. We got to TA Central a few minutes ahead of USN and quickly had a bite to eat while we changed into our hiking shoes and filled bladders.
Tweet had another twist in the tale, we could either do the hike first or the second mtb first. Us with USN chose to do the hike first while Cyanosis who had come into the TA first had opted for the mtb leg first. We would now never know where we were in comparison to them so we had to start racing the clock.
USN was quicker than us in the transition and set off on the hike just in front of us, but we passed them before the next CP. The hike was going to be tough, it was up and down mountains the whole way on rocky terrain. Daylight was fading so we were trying to get as much distance in before it became dark as the pace would start to slow and the navigation would become harder. We reached CP 10, the entrance to the tunnel with the instructions to find the marshals. There was no bunting in the maze of tunnels and after a few wrong turns we found the marshals. (Sorry Kobus and camera man who followed us in the tunnels for the wild goose chase, but if you could have maybe dropped a hint as to which direction to go, it would have been quicker to the marshals!) At the marshals we then abseiled down a tunnel into another maze of tunnels to the exit. After collecting the last 2 CP's we were eventually heading back to TA central to start the last mtb leg.
The last mtb leg was going to give us a tough time, with all the rain recently it was a very muddy affair. There were mud puddles after mud puddles, some with the thick sticky mud that jammed your wheels, breaks, derailers - everything!! For an mtb leg that would have been relatively quick and easy, it was turned into a long slog through some of the mud puddles with our bikes slowly packing up. Tweet had said we might struggle to find CP16, and he was right… there were no roads marked on our maps, yet there were jeep tracks going in every direction. At last it was PJ would stuck gold and found the CP. One more CP and then we were on our way home. The last CP was not hard to find and soon we were on the last bit of hiking trail single track before the main dirt road which would take us to TA Central, the finish. We climbed over the last gate and were about to start the last 3km's when I realized I had a puncture, not wanting to swop the tube, Brian inflated it with a bomb hoping the slime would seal it, we managed to go about 1km before it was flat again, still not wanting to swop the tube so close to the finish we blasted it again with a bomb, this time it held to the finish.
We arrived just after 5AM in the morning. We knew USN were close on our tails on the bike leg and were happy to have beaten them this time (thanks for a great race Team USN), but we had no idea where Cyanosis were since they had opted to cycle first while we had chosen to hike first. At the finish we heard that Cyanosis had won the race earlier in the morning - Well done guys! and we had finished in a great second position.
It seems that the option to first do the 2nd mtb leg and then hike was definitely the better option of the two as it payed to have daylight for the mtb leg.
Our thanks must go to:
Our seconds: Gerrard, Routies and Garry
Our sponsors: Sandown Mitsubishi Motors for there continued support and USN for the Nutritional supplements
Tweet, Kobus, Bubbles, Cindy and all the others that helped Tweet put on such a great race.