The Bull of Africa
South African teams take the lead
René Taljaard; Photo: Wouter Kingma / 10.08.2008
The team navigator decided to ignore the beaten track by cutting a straight line from point A to B. They hiked throughout the night to complete a strenuous shortcut over the mountain – a move which placed them almost two hours ahead of the other teams.
The next two teams to arrive were also South African – uge.cyanosis and McCain Adventure Addicts, who arrived at 8:07 AM and 8:08 AM respectively.
Covered in scratches from cutting their own path through the bush, but full of energy, the McCain Adventure Addicts team members were highly satisfied with their progress: “We didn’t sleep a wink last night,� said Graham Bird, stressing what must be their team slogan: “No pain; no McCain�.
Spanish team, Buff Coolmax and French team, Bjurfors Adventure Racing, were the first international competitors to reach the Thomas River transition area at 9:45 AM.
Here, teams are given access to one of three of their equipment boxes in order to prepare for the next leg of the race – they will only be able to access their next box once they have travelled a further 155 km to the Clifton Grange Lodge, which is 10 km outside the town of Komga.
So far teams have been spending an average of half an hour at the transition area, where they typically grab something to eat at the restaurant and recharge their GPS devices, before receiving their equipment boxes and assembling their mountain bikes for the 65 km ride to the Wriggleswade Dam, where a 40km paddling session awaits them.
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