Monday, July 28, 2008
Industrial Mountaineering
One of our product sponsors, SCAFF TECH, kindly arranged for the team to practice their rope-skills at one the tallest buildings in the Johannesburg CBD. The top 3 story's are hollow and allowed us to practice our Jumaring and Abseiling techniques utilising a variety of different equipment before the mammoth abseil to street level, 147 metres below !!
Thursday, July 17, 2008
The Bull of Africa ................
......is almost upon us
The countdown has started with 3 weeks to go before the biggest and longest Adventure race on the South African calendar.
42 teams, half of which have travelled from various countries throughout the world, should start arriving in East London from Wednesday 6 August for registration, pre-race skills testing, race planning and to finalise logistics.
Last night Hano Otto, race director, emailed through a newsletter that gave details as to what we can expect and there are a couple of mammoth legs.
The race will consist of 16 legs with a total minimum distance of 567 km's split into the following disciplines...
Trail running: 1 Leg : 10km
Trekking: 5 legs : 159km - longest leg 70km
MTB: 7 legs : 334km - longest leg 93km
Paddling: 3 legs : 64km - longest leg 40km
Ropework: 2 x Abseils & 1 x Ascend
The race is totally unsupported with Race staff dropping off each of our race crates at check-points equally split amongst the race distance.
We will be carrying a Sportstrack GPS device for the duration so our progress can be monitored via their website at http://www.sportstrack.net
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Well done Elsie & Ian !!
At the recent Entabeni Big 5 Marathon held in Limpopo on the 28th June, Elsie crossed the finish line of this gruelling 42 km race as the 2nd lady.
The route runs through the pristine game reserve in the Waterberg District and as the name suggest its run in Big 5 territory with rangers out to “marshal” the more dangerous animals. The race itself is organised by a Danish travel company and attracts a large overseas contigent.
On the 12th July, Ian and Tony travelled down to the remote North Eastern Cape town of Rhodes for the 20th edition of the Rhodes Trail Run (formerly known as the Rhodes Ultra Marathon). Entry to this race is purely by invitation and people have been known to be on the waiting list for upwards of 7 years. Fortunately, substitutions are relatively freely available. 326 people started the race at 07:00 that saw temperatures hover around the - 14 degree mark.
Ian, having decided to rather take it easier this year finished an impressive 7th, whilst Tony ran at a more sedate pace and crossed the line in 40th.
According to the inhabitants of Rhodes it was too cold to actually snow however water pipes froze solid during the nights and only defrosted around lunch-time. Although there wasn't any snow in the town itself, there was plenty on the race route and in the valleys and mountains where the race traversed.
(photo's courtesy of Pat Kelly)
The route runs through the pristine game reserve in the Waterberg District and as the name suggest its run in Big 5 territory with rangers out to “marshal” the more dangerous animals. The race itself is organised by a Danish travel company and attracts a large overseas contigent.
On the 12th July, Ian and Tony travelled down to the remote North Eastern Cape town of Rhodes for the 20th edition of the Rhodes Trail Run (formerly known as the Rhodes Ultra Marathon). Entry to this race is purely by invitation and people have been known to be on the waiting list for upwards of 7 years. Fortunately, substitutions are relatively freely available. 326 people started the race at 07:00 that saw temperatures hover around the - 14 degree mark.
Ian, having decided to rather take it easier this year finished an impressive 7th, whilst Tony ran at a more sedate pace and crossed the line in 40th.
According to the inhabitants of Rhodes it was too cold to actually snow however water pipes froze solid during the nights and only defrosted around lunch-time. Although there wasn't any snow in the town itself, there was plenty on the race route and in the valleys and mountains where the race traversed.
(photo's courtesy of Pat Kelly)
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