Expedition Africa
Team Merrell Adventure Addicts Wins Expedition Africa
Rob Howard / 12.05.2011
Team Merrell adventure Addicts crossed the line to win Expedition Africa last night at 19.54, recording a total race time of 2 days and 13 hours. ( 61 hours total race time). The team of Graham Bird, Tatum Prins, Hanno Smit and Donovan Sims finished off the second part of the race with a good lead in hand, which they maintained through an 80km cycle ride, a second paddling stage and an orienteering challenge. They are the most successful South African team in recent years and held off nearest challengers Team Cyanosis.Cyanosis boasted two equally experienced racers but for this race had two team members new to this length of racing and while they could not catch Merrell on this occasion they were a comfortable second, finishing almost 3 hours behind the winners and 3 hours ahead of 3rd placed Team Accelerate.
The British team were delighted with their podium place and after a brief sleep Andy Mitchell got up to see 4th placed Team Jabberwock cross the line, then recounted how the race had gone for the only visiting international team.
“We had a great race starting with a quick run round town and battling strong headwinds and big waves on the lagoon. We hugged the shores which unfortunately meant we overshot the river entrance and ran aground in the shallows. We pushed through the reeds, popping out just behind Pennypinchers to the comment 'Livingstone I presume' and with a few leeches feeding on Caz.
“We ran all the way along the beach with the waves rolling in and sand as far as you could see. We ran the whole leg to get back in touch with the lead teams and opening a gap on the teams behind. We caught Cyanosis on the way to transition and spent the first part of the night cycling with them. It was a surprise to see Merrell coming the other way along the track and we realised we were swapping the lead with Cyanosis. A mistaken choice of track by us on the Walker Peninsula gave them a gap and we settled in for a long night cruising along corrugated dirt tracks watching the stars come out.
“We were surprised by the long, long nights - 12+ hours of darkness against the 6 we'd left in the UK. A quick transition and a pathless ridge caused us a few problems. In the UK you can pick a spur walk up it and run along the ridge ... here we battled for 4 hours through dense tangled scrub finally popping out onto trees and large boulders that were no easier to cross. My knee started playing up with the effort slowing us slightly. With hindsight the next route choice to stay high and follow a fence was wrong and we struggled across a ravine losing hours to Merrell and Cyanosis. See All Event Posts
