One year down the road

It is now about a year since the inception of Team Katberg Golf Estate, there has been no significant AR developments in that time. Merilene had a chance to race with Martin Dreyer at a Spur Adventure event in Port Elizabeth. They came first in that event, well done Merilene (and of course Martin).

David Bruiners off to G4 National Selections in Lesotho

We are very proud that one of the Kats has been selected to try out for the final 4 spots for the Land Rover G4 Challenge. We wish him all the best and hope that he has a great time up there in the mountain kingdom!

Race Report for the The Bull of Africa by Merilene Janklaas

At the end of May Hano Otto invited us to do the Bull of Africa in the Eastern Cape area. As we knew that this was very short notice, David, Garth, Werner and I quickly decide to say YES to this opportunity. We tried our best to become as fit as possible and to get all the logistics in place. Personally I knew that a race of that magnitude, we should have actually been prepared months in advance. Nevertheless, we decided to say yes and give us our best.

We left Knysna, Wednesday 06 August and arrived at the Reef Hotel (one of Kat Leisure’s hotels) 1^st class accommodation. We did pre race packing the Thursday and Friday, plotted checkpoints and set out our route choices. Garth plotted the map to early hours Friday morning. Friday, when I got to the skills testing I was so blank I forgot completely how to set up my Jumar and Gri-gri for a ropes ascend. The abseil instructor asked me to practice a bit again and than come back to him. I eventually got it right, but we could not make it for questions and answers!! 15h00pm all bike boxes and all our 3 food crates had to be with the race organizers.

We tried to get to bed early the Friday as we need to be at the Balugha Inn by 3h00am the morning.

DAY 1: We woke up by 1h00am and luckily packed all our bags the previous evening. Arrived at Balugha Inn, climbed in the busses and tried to sleep for the duration that the bus traveled to the start at the Katberg Golf Estate. When we got there it was very chilly and we unpacked our bikes, got our passports and were ready by 9h00 am for the start of the supposed 10km trial run. We forgot our Sportstrack at the start in another bag. My apologies, we only got it after the first leg. The supposed 10km trial run turned out to be a mountain hill hike that took us 4.5 hrs. As the terrain was so dense, and there was no path leading up to the check point on top of the mountain, it was quite tough going. We than stumbled down the mountain to find CP2,CP3 and CP4.

At the transition Garth’s bicycle had a puncture and we were probably there about an hour. Cycled for 35 km to the Katberg Dam for a paddling rogaine. There were 7 CP’s scattered around the dam and we had to find 5 of them. So at the transition we changed into our paddling gear and off we went. The first CP was compulsory and was at the bottom of a waterfall and was very beautiful down there. We went on to find the 4 other CP’s on the dam as darkness fell upon us (did I mention that the temperature drops dramatically when the sun goes down?).

At about 20h00pm we left the transition to do another 35 km cycling leg towards Hogsback via the very steep Mitchell’s Pass. The cycle was very tough, Garth and Werner were taking some strain, due to sleep deprivation. We walked up a 9km steep uphill, not rideable. We arrived at the transition about 12h00am. As I was carrying a small pot and stove with us, we cooked us a meal and dissembled our bicycles. It was freezing cold, luckily there were fires and we decided to sleep next to the fires till dawn. Even with the fires next to us it was bitterly cold; it felt as if the cold came from underneath the ground and filled my body with utter coldness. We woke up early morning and discovered that the water in our water bottles were frozen.

DAY 2: We left 7h00am, on foot to do a 90km Hike, through the Amatola mountains. It was still freezing the morning when we hiked to the first CP at Kettlespout Falls. We walked along the Amatola Hiking Trail and the scenery was magnificent, high mountains and a section of huge rocks where we had to climb down. We’ve decided to take a break at one of the rivers and made Cup a Snack in a pot and tried to sleep for an hour, was mid day. We thought it would be better to sleep during the heat of the day as it is too cold to sleep in the mountains at night. We walked the trial and Werner got some stomach cramps, luckily David doctored his cramps to full recovery. We decided not to go all the way down to Myamane Hut and then walk up out of the valley again so we decided to walk on the ridge and to follow the contours. We used the cattle’s footpaths as it was at times very unmanageable to walk and had to use all fours to stay on top. Darkness fell upon us and immediately became very cold whilst we were on the trial. We eventually saw a red light flickering (Cata Hut) where our next CP should be. The trail made a zig-zag foot path and took us another 1hr to get to the hut. That was about 22h00pm. We decided to sleep for about 2hrs and start the hike after mid night. There were plenty of teams sleeping at that CP at the time, so again we had to sleep on the floor to take a nap.

DAY 3: We woke up after 12h00, I was having a nightmare so was very confused when I first woke up. We started with our hike in the early morning. We helped a team called HALO (from the UK) our trail just ended and our navigator decided that we all should do a short cut over the mountain, that was extremely steep, we walked straight up the mountain and clawed our way the top like real cats. On the other side we got lost for a short while next to a dam but soon found the path again. Dawn was breaking and this made life slightly easier for us. We found a farmer’s house and he had his water sprinklers on and the water was frozen on the leaves. He invited us for coffee and biscuits, as we were running low on food already.

The day became warmer and we bush whacked our way on top of the mountain, to find CP12. David attended to my blisters, that were already so sore from all the walking. After that we came down the mountain and found a river where we scooped some water, the temperatures rose and it felt like 30degrees. We had our bearings wrongs on CP 13 where we must find where the 5 fences meet and after another big incline we made our way to Thomas River and our transition to our bikes. We arrived at Thomas River at about 16h00pm and my feet were already so sore and luckily there were a foot doctor that made it all better. We ate and assembled our bicycles, we were only allowed 3hrs in that transition and stayed the full 3hrs plus. We eventually climbed on our bicycles and did a 20km wrong turn and lost 2hrs of riding in the wrong directions. We found the right path and 1 by 1 we were falling asleep on our bicycles. I am riding and have these deep dreams and when I found my consciousness I am lying on the ground. So after going under the N2 we found a black wattle plantation where we could get some sleep.

DAY 4: We woke up early and quickly climbed back onto our bicycles. We found a the CP in a rural area and enjoyed our only short stint of tar road cycling down towards Stutterheim. At about 12h00am we had our “breakfast” (we had a dry mix of Pro-Nutro, Weetbix, milk powder and sugar in Ziplock bags – all we had to do was add water and enjoy). We rode through some awesome farms with nice downhill sections towards the Wiggleswade Dam for our 2^nd 40km paddling leg. We hit the water at 15h00pm and the wind was blowing furiously on the dam , the Fluid Synergy boats we used was not very friendly steering boats and it became a real agony to paddle that over the dam. The waves were so big it felt as if we were paddling in the sea. Luckily for me the 3 guys ran across an island to clip a CP and I had an hour nap. After the paddling we decided to rest for an hour as it was already about 20h00pm. We had Team Thule, Team Nubi, Team Bloed en Omo and Dewpoint in the transition with us. From there we were the VIP teams , also the last teams to arrive at all the CP’s and transitions and everyone always waited for us. At that stage Thule came with us on the cycling leg. I personally had so much fun and spoke to Cathy from Thule and made the ride so much more enjoyable. We cycled through a farm and at the bottom got to a river and had to hike our bicycles up a steep cliff. Not very good idea as it was 23h00pm and luckily for us we were 3 teams. We made a human chain on the mountain and we passed our bicycles on towards each other. It was difficult alone just to try and get yourself on the mountain, let alone a bicycle and yourself. On top of the mountain we could not find the right path between the 4 teams and scouted and were there for another 2hrs. We were thinking of staying there, but the cold gave us a fright and said that it would be better to rather come off the mountain. We eventually found the path and all 4 teams were basically together and cycled off to find the Buffalo game farm. At this game farm there were buffaloes and apparently we should not disturb them. Riding in the early hours of the morning about 3h00am. We got the gate, everyone was too scared and too tired to try and go in the gate, so Garth and I went in to scout the area and everyone stayed back. Quite funny as we were now 4 teams together and still anxious about this alleged buffalo. We came back and said that this was definitely the way and everyone followed. We were so lucky at the lodge, 2 women were waiting for us with bread rolls, coffee and a fire and even a bed for some of us.

DAY 5: We woke up with hot coffee and climbed on our bicycles to go down a steep cliff towards the river section where we had to hike our bikes, down the valley and than up a steep cliff again. We eventually found our transition for our hike of 45km. We knew than that we will not make it for the cut off time but decided to do the hike in any case as the massive ropeworks section was waiting for us on this leg. We started our hike and got the Kubusi River, our path has ended and we had to bundu-bash our way towards the river. After many lantana thickets and thorns that were clinging to us for life, we managed to get out of the “Devil’s Garden”. It was horrible the thorns scratched us and we crawled underneath the bushes on duiker paths as there was no other way out. At that stage, the Kubusi River was Werner’s downfall and he was in great pain. His knees were giving problems. We than decided that he would need to withdraw and the remaining three of us race on unofficially. We eventually found a steep path out of the valley and darkness over fell us. Garth had to break the seal on the emergency phone to call for help and the race organizers told us that there were a hunting farm just up ahead. The farmer came and met us at the gate and too Werner in the car. We than decided to have a long rest at the Kei Rivers Safari Lodge and showered for the first time that week. We also slept in a comfortable bed. We slept about 5hrs.

DAY 6: After a good night’s rest, but sad that we were leaving Werner behind we continued with our hike and with the help of the farmer we managed to find the CP at the confluence of the Kubusi and Kei Rivers. We were still having some bad luck with the Lantana, as it stole some of our gear that we attached to our back packs to get dry. My socks, other people’s helmets , jackets and a few other items. We managed to get out of there alive on our way to Moordenaarskop. We were so supposed to do the Abseiling there, but due to some unstable rocks they cancelled it. We clipped our CP and did a short detour to the Ascending wall. After a few kilometers of kloofing, and passing HALO en route we got to the jumaring whilst Dewpoint was still on the ropes. We did our jumar (ascend) and I think personally I did very well for my first jumar up a mountain of about 140m. We got off the ropes and it was already late afternoon. We than had to find a CP at a boma and next to a river and after searching for 4hrs, finding Team Halo and Dewpoint there, we managed to find the CP. It was than already 23h00pm. We were trying to get our bearings of the mountain to find Mpotjshane Game Lodge. We had different route options and as we were so tired we thought of doing a 10km detour on a train track and saw some lights in the distance on the mountain and decided to follow the lights. There were no official path and was very difficult and very steep up the hill. We climbed the hill and whilst we were still climbing a huge cloud of mists fell upon us and instantly we were all shivering. We climbed a few fences to get to the Game farm. It was about 3h00am and we were out of food but found a mattress to sleep on at least.

DAY 7: – We woke up and bought some breakfast at the Game farm. We rode our bicycles down wonderful game farms and saw a lot of game en route, like the wildebeest, the bush bucks, some guinea pigs and “vlakvarke”. It was amazing down to the Kei river . We had to cross the river at the shallower points and rode into the Transkei. There were so many paths and so difficult to find the right path to Mr. Russell’s Cash store. Our Xhosa was very poor, we asked for directions and everyone pointed us in the complete opposite direction. Nevertheless, Garth managed to speak some Zulu (which is close to Xhosa) and we found our way through the rural area. Mr. Russell is a white man, speaking fluent Xhosa. He is staying there with his wife, mother and children in the heart of the township. He gave us some bread rolls with peanut, honey and banana. Heaven’s food at the time. We slowly found our way down to Seagulls where we had to get our unplotted maps out and plot the last bit of the map. When we got to Seagulls, we saw that the Short course still had about 9 PC’s and we arrived there before 17h00pm. As the Kei Ferry last trip is 15h30, we would not make it in time. We were already short coursed at the Game Farm, where they took out our 35km beach hike and some CP’s on the 95km MTB Leg. We looked at the map and decided that it will take us more than an evening to finish in time for the cut off at 8h00am the next morning. So we decided to call it a day and vowed we would be back if circumstances allowed.

I had the best race of my life and realize that it is definitely your mind that matters most on a race of this magnitude. Your body will keep going so long as your mind is willing!

I would like to thank the Katberg Eco Golf Estate for paying the entry fee and for accommodation at the start and end venues, and for amazing New Balance clothes.

Mr. & Mrs. Warner – contribution towards our petrol and food money

Mrs. Fraser – towards boat rental

Greg Chauncey – contribution of 1 tank of petrol

Magnetic South team – Batteries, energy bars, energy drinks

Action cycling – MTB equipment

Knysna Electronics – boat hire

Knysna Racing Kayaks – Paddles

Ellies PE – Duracell Batteries

Face Adrenalin – Waterproof jackets and climbing gear

Bennie @ Salomon – Salomon shoes and back packs

First Ascent – waterproof jackets

New Balance – for technical apparel and footwear

Hammer Nutrition – for excellent endurance fuels that kept us going and going and going!

It's showtime! (almost...)

Phew, after 2 months of increased training, and preparing for the race, we can hardly believe the BIG TIME has arrived! In a way there are butterflies in my stomach and I know I will miss my wife and son while I am at the race, but there is not much time to worry about that right now as I am just going through all the checklists to make sure I don't forget anything, not to mention trying to finish my work before I head for the hills for 10 days! We leave on Wednesday 6 August for the long ride to Gonubie (East London) and then register, get maps, do skills testing etc. Thereafter we will be shipped off to the start somewhere in the Amatola Mountains to begin our epic journey! Hopefully we will finish tired but in one piece 7 days later at Gonubie!

So what will we be doing in between, here is a snippet from the race director's newsletter:

Course Details.

BULL of Africa 2008 will consist of 16 Legs:

Trail running: 1 Leg

Trekking: 5 Legs

MTB: 7 Legs

Paddle: 3 Legs

The Race will start with a 10km Trail run to break up the field a little bit. Breakdown of other disciplines:

Trekking: 159km; longest leg: 70km

MTB: 334km; longest leg: 93km

Paddle: 64km; longest leg: 40km

Rope work: 2x Abseils; 1x Ascend

Total km: 567km (shortest distance).

Please take note that there will be a cut-off at a specific CP on the morning of Day 6 – Teams that arrive at this CP after the cut-off will be put on a Shortened Course, in order to cross the Finish line before Race cut-off on Saturday morning.

Race Disciplines.

Trekking: the hiking legs will be tough, especially through the remote areas – some Locals have not even been there. On some of the valley sections it is advisable to choose the safer route option as you can easily get “cliffed out”. Bike helmets will be Compulsory on all your Hiking legs – there are quite a few very slippery sections on the Route.

Mountain Biking: some of the legs are very long but very interesting with various route choices, especially in the Transkei, where there are tracks all over the show! Please take note that there are LOTS of thorns at certain sections, so Teams must insure that you have Lining and Slime in your Tyres; or Tubeless with lots of spare tubes and patches to repair punctures … you are warned about this – please come prepared. There will be Hike-a-bike sections, but all of them will link to another track or road.

Kayaking: mostly flat water. Strong winds can be a factor. At night the cold can be a problem, so ensure to have the right Base layers on when paddling. There will be safety Boats on the water. Teams will be expected to hike off the Boat to collect Check points (CP’s).

Rope Work: make sure you are comfortable with your Rope techniques – this will be tested of course. There will be NO safety lines – teams will have to ensure their own 2^nd point of attachment. There will be 1x Ropes Instructor per site.

Swimming: there will be quite a few River crossings; not all of them will involve swimming, but you will get wet. There is 1 section where you will be swimming with your Bikes (less than 100 metres). You will not have PFD with you (unless you want to carry one on your Bike), so make sure that you are aware how to stay afloat with your Bike … there are a few techniques.

Navigation: will be technical at certain sections with numerous Route options on other sections. The Maps that you will be using are not too old (SA standards) 1996 – 2003. They are pretty accurate but many tracks used by the Locals are not on the Maps.

It looks quite daunting! But we will take it one bit at a time.

To follow our progress you can trawl one of the following sites to glean some info on what is happening to us in "deepest darkest Africa.

There will be live race coverage; leaderboard; articles & daily photo's on the following websites:

http://www.sleepmonsters.com Live leaderboard, articles & photo's
http://www.sportstrack.net/v2/default2.aspx?Mode Live satelite tracking of Teams
http://www.checkpointzero.com/adventure_racing_world_series More articles & photo's
http://www.ar.co.za More articles & photo's by Lisa

There will also be Team photo's and daily race photo's on the BULL website:
http://bullofafrica.com/index.php?option=com_rsgallery2&Itemid=68

Tuinroete Burger Article

The following article appeared in the TuinRoete Burger on 30 July 2008. Of note to racers is the paragraph that says "Die wedloop begin vanjaar in die Amatola Berge"

New Sponsors welcomed

We are very pleased to welcome some new sponsors on board and would like to thank them for there investment into our Team!

Hammer Nutrition - Meal Supplements Sponsor
Tried and tested by multi-sport and endurance athletes, the Kats will be using Hammer Products as their primary fuel source during the Bull.

We will be using mainly Pertpeteum. This a carbohydrate and protein mix that provides your body with the energy to race hard and long.

To replace electrolytes we will also use Endurolyte capsules, this will prevent cramping.

When we do take a break to catch up on sleep we will use Recoverite to replenish and nourish our bodies.

The benefit of these products during an expedition race like is they are easy to pack and prepare when we cannot depend on regular meals.

New Balance, First Ascent and Salomon - Apparel, Trail Shoes and Back Packs
New Balance are our primary apparel sponsor with First Ascent coming on board for extreme technical gear - Dry Lite all weather jackets, and Evolution cycling shorts.
New Balance and Salomon are also supporting us in the trail running shoes department, it is good to have different shoes as they effect your feet differently. Both these brands have excellent products and with 170 km of trail running and trekking, our feet will appreciate good quality shoes!
Salomon are also supplying us with our racing back-packs.

Face Adrenaline and RAM Mountaineering - Climbing Sponsors
Between Face Adrenaline and RAM Mountaineering, they will be supplying us with our climbing gear requirements. Both these companies have good reputations with Face Adrenaline running the Blouwkrans and Gourits Bungee Jumping Sites and RAM Mountaineering importing Black Diamond climbing gear.






Other sponsors:
Ellies PE - Duracell Batteries
Magnetic South - Batteries and USN Bars
Squirt - Squirt Bike Lube
Jovil Jaunts (Pty) Ltd - Transport and Food Costs
Greg Chauncey - Transport Costs
Mrs Fraser - Cash Sponsor
Knysna Electronics - Cash Sponsorship

If anyone else would like to contribute towards our race, please contact Merilene Janklaas at 072 859 3239.

Oyster Festival Report Back

Well the Oyster Festival has come and gone, we were all pretty tired after a week or so of events, but it was good training and "money in the bank" for the Bull of Africa.

Merilene and I did the 75 km MTB, and was good fun with some nice singletrack. There were some long grinding hills but the weather was good.

Next up was the Nite-Run, here Werner Jonkers and Jumay Taylor managed a poduim finish on in the junior competition.

After some wet weather, the MTB Nite event looked like it was going to be a slippery event, with cool drizzle some of the course was a mix of mud and cow dung which clogged up the bikes and forced us to push, pull and carry our bikes. It was good as it helped us get some mental toughness!

With there being no rest for the weary, the Featherbed trail run was definitely a highlight of the week! The cruise across the lagoon was great and the first hill quickly sorted things out. Werner Jonkers showed some good form and managed to come in under the top 10 or so. After the tough hills my calves were still hurting on Saturday when the 42 marathon came along.

The team also did well at the X-Terra where David and Merilene got a 5th place in the pro- mixed category.

David managed to also get into the Waterfront Rush quarter-finals and Merilene did the Lagoon Challenge 18 km paddle to finish off a good tough week.