Expedition Africa Namaqua West Coast 2018
Merrell Mentored Adventure Team Have Done it!
Press Release / 25.05.2018
The second last leg of the race proved to be the toughest and longest leg for all the teams. What everyone thought would take the leading teams 12hours to do ended up taking the leaders almost 24 hours.
After leaving transition 6 at 11:00am on Wednesday, the mentored team headed into the kloof/canyon with the thought of the finish not too far, little did they know that this section was overgrown and moving was slow going.
As night fell upon the team, the going got slower. It was round 1:30am when team leader, Graham, made the decision to sleep, this would mean that by the time the team were awake, they could move more easily through the harsh terrain in the daylight hours.
5 hours of sleep later, the team managed to make short work of the last stretch of the 57km kloofing section.
It was only at around 2pm on Thursday (11hours later than expected), that they made it to the top of the abseil, this meant a short trek to transition 7 before the final leg, a 57km cycle, a sprint home.
Not far behind them as they left transition 7, was British team, Endurance Life UK. The Mentored team knew they were close and had to hammer it home.
At 21:00pm on Thursday evening the Merrell Mentored Team made it home, after over 100hours of racing, the newbies to the sport made it home in 6th position. This, from a team who’s 3 out of 4 members have never done an event of this nature.
It all came down to trust and good navigation, a veteran to the sport Grahm Bird led the team to a top 10 finish in a world class field. This with the dded combination of grit and determination from his young team, the Merrell Mentored Adventure Team made it.
Now it’s time for some rest and time to reflect on the magnitude of what this team has just achieved.
Thanks to everyone for your constant support messages along the way, while the team didn’t have access to them on route, they are busy going through the messages now and are overwhelmed with the support.
“I’ve gained a lot of respect for the people that do this sport, women especially” - Nicolette Griffioen
“I didn’t come here for a haircut” - James Speed
“I’m so proud of these guys, they’ve truly got what it takes, I hope this only made them want to do it again and didn’t scare them off” - Graham Bird
“It hasn’t sunk in yet what we have actually done, but for me, best part was the beauty of our surroundings, especially the big walls in the kloofing section, I just wanted to climb them” - Pierre Jordaan
#ARWS #ExpeditionAfrica2018 #EA2018 #namaqualand #Merrell #MerrrellMentoredAdventureTeam #AdventureRacing #Adventure #VisitNWC
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