Training Log Archive: nmulder

Expedition Africa Kynsna with Team Cyanosis (Mac, Nathan and Alex A.)

Legs 1 (Kayak) / 2 (Kayak-O) / 3 (Kayak)

The race started at the Knysna Waterfront with all the boats lined up in a straight line (as drawn by a 2-year old). Flat-out sprint to the Thiesen Island Jetty to collect a Kayak-Rogaine map of the Island channels. We had a bad start despite moving ourselves out to the one-side, with Nathan probably only picking up the map in 25th position out of the 53 starting teams.

The Kayak-O was quite fun. Alex gave us commentary on who lives where. We went anti-clockwise through the canals. Popped out back at the Jetty to hand in our collected rubber bands before heading off to the Knysna Heads for a CP on a catamaran moored between the Heads. Got into a rhythm here, but were unable to move up any places from the 15th or so that we found ourselves in.

After circling the catamaran, it was back into the Lagoon for the transition at the Featherbed Reserve Jetty. Checked in about 10th position, but only because we were quicker than everyone else around us with portaging the boats up to the trailer.

Leg 4 (Trekking and Coasteering)

Ran out along the Featherbed trails towards the Heads before the main trail started climbing up and over. A bit confusing with all the trails all over the place and we caught Jabberwock for a while as they took a dead end.

After the reserve we had a few more CPs in and around Brenton-on-Sea. With high tide we started using the road rather than dicing the rocks and crashing spray. At CP7 we found Merell Mentors (led by Smelly) only 90s behind us on the stairs after 2.5 hours of racing.... No local knowledge advantage my foot!

After Brenton it was a long beach run to Buffelsbaai where Team Painted Wolf were already 34 minutes ahead of us, 12 minutes clear on the 2nd team! We were still down in 10th position, which we were quite happy with as we felt we were doing a good steady pace and believed there were 4 or 5 teams ahead who were racing far too hard.

Leg 5 (Ocean and Flat-water River Kayak)

Picked up boats and headed out into the surf at Buffelsbaai. I was paddling with Alex. The bay was pretty well protected by Walker Point, so it was quite easy getting our. We rounded the headland and then headed west for the Goukamma River Mouth. Conditions were a bit more severe here. I tried to find the main rip to come in on, but didn't see it in the end. We were about 50m to the left, the line that the vast majority of teams seemed to be on, which seemed to be straight over the main sand bank in front of the river mouth. We had some great views of teams stuffing up the surf exit as we approached the backline. Waited for 1 or 2 breakers and then went flat out, but we got caught about 50% of the way in. The resulting swim wasn't too bad as we chased our boat to shore. Passed a few other teams here who were having pretty awful swims, including Jabberwock who was trying to swim out of the rip.

Portaged over the sandbar and continued paddling up river, picking up our backpacks at a CP. We'd moved nicely up the rankings here into 6th place, so passing 4 teams in the surf exit. We were about 10 min slower than Painted Wolf on the leg, but about the same time as Sweco and Merrell. Rest of the river paddle went nice and smooth, a lot quicker than I expected. Finished at the Blackwater River Lodge.

Very quick transition. Fastest team was only 11 mins.

Leg 6 (MTB)

We didn't have a great leg as we cycled from Blackwater River Lodge to Beervlei in the Knysna Forests. We handled the sandier sections poorly and got passed by San Juan, Jabberwock and Sportsson.

Packed our bikes down and got ready for a long 12 hour hike in the Knysna Forests.

Leg 7 Trekking

Trekked out of the Beervlei Forest Station and out onto the Outeniqua Hiking Trail in 8th postion, leaving Sportsson behind in transition. The trail route would follow the entire way to the end of the leg. It was fairly easy going to start with. I missed an opportunity to use a forest road shortcut early on, but it would only have saved a few minutes. About 8km in we got passed by Raid Gallaecia, with whom we'd have a battle right to the finish line. We also soon caught and passed San Juan, who were having major chafe problems.

Went off the main trail just before the first CP at Windmeulnek Hut, coming in via the escape route and bumping into Merrell 30 min ahead of us, taking the forest track route to the next CP. We were in two minds as to which route to take, but seeing them go via the forestry roads confirmed our choice and we followed.

It worked pretty well and we rejoined the main trail just before the CP at Kagiesberg, with a fast-moving Gallaecia passing us again shortly thereafter. They let us know that we'd finally overtaken Team Olympus! (so we were joint 5th / 6th now with Gallaecia).

We re-caught Gallaecia at the next Hut (Platbos) as we all refilled on water. We then had different route choices again, with us taking forest roads around and them staying on the trail. They re-caught us again 6km later. The bonus for us was that we got to see elephant dung along our route! There was one final route choice in the approach to the 3rd hut of the night (Millwood), but we didn't take the forest roads. In hindsight, probably a mistake as the main trail didn't follow the route marked on the map and was thus slower.

We last saw Gallaecia disappear as we approached Millwood Hut, but we decided to sleep here for 1.5 hours. A good sleep and reasonably warm. On leaving found that another team had also moved into another room and we soon came across yet another team sleeping in the road before we caught and passed Sportsson hiking at a slower pace on the trail.

Easy jog with Nathan from Pine Lake Marina down the railway line to the Rondevlei Reserve, then back along the top of the dune trail to the Swartvlei and back to the Marina.

Drove down to Knysna. About 12 hours.

Around Chartwell.

Av 21.8
Mx 57.0

World Orienteering Day event at Fourways High

Mass start score event, 45 mins time limit, with 9 bonus controls to be found via map memory cards at unknown CPs.

Had a decent run. Did a 90' in the building and got disorientated for about a minute. No other problems. About 50-60 people in the mass start, so quite busy for the first few controls. Managed to string the controls together nicely and the bonuses worked out well as I managed to memorize 3-4 at a time.

Managed to sneak in to the finish just ahead of Alex and then KG. Steph won the women's so the first ever Mulder double.