Another fantastic race hosted by Kinetic events Africa, to make such a short race feel like a great adventure really is an awesome achievement.

We had some fast cross-country running to start off with but a rhino and her calf decided that the ‘open field’ of CP 2 was exactly where they wanted to chill – racing in Africa is cool! With some good advice from the Red Ants team we carried on (did anyone get CP 2?) and blitzed the run leg and were out in front onto the bike.

With a few nav errors and a slow puncture on Jaco’s wheel we kept trading places with the male pair from Red Ants and the Mixed pair from Jabberwock. The venue, Cradle Moon lodge had some fantastic cycling trails but as always, with a map board and the constant need to navigate, it’s a little difficult to appreciate them properly. Nevertheless, on the last CP for the bike leg we caught and passed both Jabberwock and the Ants with some cross-country cycling (I mean literal cross country, not XCO). Now it was onto the paddle…

The drama was not finished though, with the map being blown off the boat and paddling back to fetch, the now soggy piece of paper. Fortunately, we remained ahead – just. With the quick, hard paddle around the dam in the bag we could run up to the finish to claim 1st overall. Jabberwock came in just behind us as the 1st mixed team and then the Red Ants.

Congratulations to all those who completed the race and I’m looking forward to seeing everyone next weekend for the 120km of adventure in Swaziland. Thanks, Jaco for being such a cool guy to race with and Nevarest team, Keyhealth, Toyota and First Ascent for making all this possible.