Bull of Africa

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Richtersveld Revealed

Mark Gray / 23.06.2005

The harsh glory of the Richtersveld was revealed to me when I accompanied Hano Otto, Bull of Africa race director, on a three-day journey into the heart of this desert of jagged mountains and narrow valleys.

His mission was to take Cape Town-based rope rigging experts Adam Liebenberg and Rudi du Toit into the area to set up two ropes courses that would be a highlight of the 580-kilometre expedition-style race that starts on Friday June 25.

We camped at CP 22, a crucial transition in the Richtersveld National Park. Here racers will get their second food box. About ¾ into the race they’ll reach this point. Having just completed a tough 105-kilometre hike-swim-a-bike MTB section they will leave this checkpoint to begin a 70-kilometre trek over some of the harshest terrain in the world.

Included in this 70-kilometre trek is a unique rope-ascending course that will take teams up a 120-metre staircase of four, very cold, very deep rock pools and finally into a drinking hole frequented by leopard.

Otto and his wife Sonja saw leopard spoor in March and we saw the tracks again on June 19, freshly and deeply imprinted in the mud, while rigging this section. There is no doubt the leopard will be lurking in the cliff tops watching the exhausted racers struggle through this highly technical section with 15-kilogram backpacks wearing their personal flotation devices (PFDs).

They will be wise to wear their PFDs as they jumar up each 30-metre pitch and haul themselves along the rope through each pool.

Liebenberg, the abseil supervisor said, “It will look surreal watching teams wearing PFDs as they work their way up a cliff face in such a barren environment.�

Apart from the leopard, the only other witnesses to this event will be two black eagles and troops of barking baboons.

The pools below each drop will provide an invaluable opportunity to replenish water bottles. Although slightly sulpherous, I gulped down two litres with no ill effects.

On we progressed. I lugged 22-kilograms of abseil equipment on the next 30-kilometre stretch between base camp (CP22) and the ropes section. Liebenberg and du Toit – the rope instructors - had 35-kilogram packs! The distance is only 8km as-the-crow-flies but the distance we covered was almost double, which gives an indication of the twists and curves of the rock-strewn peaks and valleys that the competitors will cross.

Otto pushed the pace to around 5kph and I found myself lagging behind by 200-metres with bruise-blackened toenails – the outcome of 2-days of hard trekking.

Fortunately most of the route, which Otto plotted, followed goat paths carved by Nama shepherds and their animals (the Nama people have ancestral rights to the Richtersveld National Park). But we did clamber over a particularly nasty boulder hopping section through a dry riverbed and up a steep 350m scree slope before entering the leopard’s domain.

Apart from using me as a mule, Otto’s primary aim for dragging a journalist along was to give me a taste of what the competitors would experience out there. The area is tightly contoured and will thoroughly test each teams’ navigation and canyoneering. They will only receive their maps for this penultimate trekking sections at CP 22 where we camped. Until then they will have no idea what awaits them.

“This is the make-or-break leg of the race,� says Otto who expects several teams to throw in the towel somewhere on this trail. “I have pulled out all the stops for the Bull and I will not have done my job if all the teams finish.�

ENDS
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