Expedition Africa 2012

Expedition Africa Heats Up on Day 2

Louise Foulkes (ARWS) / 09.05.2012

24 hours into the race teams are spreading out across the course. Merrell is still out in front with Red Ant on their heels. All teams are currently still racing as teams of 4. 

Leg 5, at the end of the kayak up the Kariega river was a fairly straight forward hike along a road between two game parks. The last part of the hike had some navigational challenges which were amplified for the mid pack teams as there was a thick fog. 

Most teams reached the end of this trek during the night and embarked on a 23km kayak down the Boesman river. This is the second longest tidal river in South Africa and the longest boat navigable river in the country. In spite of this title, the paddle was anything but straight forward. A combination of low tide and extreme fogginess meant teams found it difficult to find the main channel.  The result was that they ran aground on banks regularly. The only way over these banks was to drag their kayaks through knee deep mud. Teams arrived at the end of this paddle looking tired and happy to be getting off the water.

The next leg saw teams bike 80km inland to the roping/canyon point. The ride was technically easy but over rolling dirt roads. Teams were riding either up or down the whole way.

Merrell finished this ride at 05:52 in the morning. At this point they had a 4 and a half hour lead over Red Ant. When they arrived Merrell looked tired and said they had been battling the sleep monsters for the last few kilometers. After finishing the ropes their plan was to continue travelling with no sleep until they reached the midway point.

Red Ant were slower than expected on this leg and lost a further 2 hours to Merrell. Landie had a bad fall and broke her helmet. She said she was OK and continued on. 

By the time the later teams embarked on this bike leg the day had heated up. Many teams at the end of this leg were saying that the hardest part of the race so far had been the heat. With temperatures expected to reach 35 degrees tomorrow, a full 5 degrees more than today, teams will find it hard going.

Castle Lite lost a place to Capestorm WCAD on this ride as they suffered from a broken crank arm and chain. They have managed to patch the crank arm back together and they are hoping it will hold to the end.