Race story Expedition Africa

After almost 100 hours of racing, day and night around the Drakensberg area we crossed the finish line as winners of 2013 years Expedition Africa.

 

The race started with a brutal 76 km trekking on the world’s heritage mountain Drakensberg, most of the time spent above 3000 m altitude. The scenery was amazing, with one checkpoint placed at the world’s second highest waterfall. We also had perfect weather, though a little too hot for Swedes coming from winter. As the sun set we started to descend the mountain and we reached the transition in fourth place, with three south African teams ahead of us who had taken a different (apparently faster…) route choice.

 

 

A 2 hour MTB section took us to the next big challenge, 75 km kayaking on a big lake and a narrow and partly fast flowing river. We kept a good pace directly from the start of the section and team spirit rose as we started to see teams in front of us. Halfway into the section we had climbed to second position and just as the sun rose and we entered some tricky rapids, where we passed team Cyonosis who had the lead until then. Ironically, as we were on a river, we all suffered pretty bad dehydration over the last hours of this section. We were told that the amount of hazardous chemicals in the water made it undrinkable even if treated, and our water bladders were empty since hours ago.

The sun was brutally strong and there was no wind to cool us of as we started the next 89 km long MTB section. We saw giraffes, zebras and antelopes and passed many small villages with local people cheering gladly as we passed. Happiest was probably the guy who had a small shop in a high mountain village who sold us three big bottles of coca cola and got to keep the change.

We extended our lead and arrived to mid-camp in the late night where there was a six hour compulsory stop. After a meal of pasta, sorting out gear for the rest of the race and marking out maps for the coming sections we finally got three hours of well needed sleep.

 

The expedition continued with a 56 km challenging trek with several thousand meters vertical and tricky navigation and route choices. Once again the sun was brutally hot and as we reached the rope works and the end of the section we were happy to see the sun set and temperature dropped.

Next was the longest MTB section in the race (163 km) and we took a 90 minute sleep to keep our minds fresh as this section started in the dark. It was really hard to find water. Creeks coming from the mountain were all empty, the only shop we passed was closed (middle of the night) and the water close to the farms was too polluted to be drinkable. Smiles rose as we passed a small school in the morning and got water from their pump, school kids fascinated watching us pale Swedes filling bottle after bottle.

During the last hours of the bike we were working hard in a strong headwind and as we reached the next transition of the race, we saw huge waves out on the dam with kite surfers having a ball.

 

A 15 km kayaking section followed by 25 km of trekking was the only thing left between us and the finish line. We knew that we had a lead of at least two hours and thought that we would be able to finish the trickiest part of the trekking in daylight.

It turned out to be bit of a challenge for us to cross the dam, since the combination of the strong headwind and big waves on the dam almost made us feel like we were standing still. We had to push 100 % to reach the other side and were freezing cold after being constantly flushed by cold water for two hours.

With a great relief we left all the soaking wet gear by the kayaks on the shore and started trekking towards finish. This final section contained only one checkpoint, though a bit tricky, and we all agreed on a safe, though a little bit longer route choice to minimise the risk of problems. As we reached a high pass before the last checkpoint the weather quickly changed. The wind dropped and a wet thick mist came over us. Within the next 15 minutes, visibility was down to a few meters and it was impossible to use the highest intensity level on the headlamps as it all got stuck in the mist. Anyway, we found the checkpoint in a small ruin after some 15-20 minutes searching together and set off towards the finish, less than 15 km away!

The mist was still very thick and visibility poor. Thanks to a great job with compass and altimeter we managed to find the ridge up to the final pass and started to look for the ridge line to take us down. On the map there were two ridgelines that looked promising but every time we tried to follow them we ended up by big cliff drops. We spent many hours in the dark trying to find a way down from the mountain and as the rain picked up we all gradually got colder. Finally we saw no other choice than putting up the tent and wait for daylight (2 hours), although realizing that it probably would cost us first place.

 

As sun rose we crawled out of our tent. The mist was still thick, but now with enough visibility for us to realise that there was no passable way down on the ridge as it looked on the map. Luckily we found a small, barely visible, path (not marked on map) in a different direction which to our great relief took us down from the mountain. The trail took us partly in the wrong direction, but at least we were moving again. We kept on telling each other that even though our last 12 hours had been chaotic, other teams might also have faced problems.

We managed to keep a surprisingly high speed on the last 10 km and reached the finish line with cameras flashing on us, relieved that it all was over. Still, we had no idea about the outcome of the race and when we were told that we were first, all smiled and a few tears of relief were shed. What a fantastic finish after an almost epic race for us.

We have collected the best of Andreas Strand’s photos in a gallery.

You can find reports, look back on the live-tracking and read news from the race on the following links:
www.kineticgear.org
www.ar.co.za
www.sleepmonsters.com
www.multisport.se

Peter Dobos followed the race online via websites, Twitter, Facebook, team pages, online magazines, friends/family of racers etc and posted it all on his blog and on Breathe magazine:
www.breathemag.ca/flashblog/category/expedition-africa-2013/
www.bits-of-life.com

Videos from the race:
ar.co.za collected links to video clips

Local media in Sweden:
After finish
Soon finished
Extending the lead

Media in South Africa:
www.doitnow.co.za/content/dart_may13_8
www.runnersworld.co.za/events-races/race-news-reports/expedition-africa-the-challenge-of-the-drakensberg/

 

//Björn, Josefina, Mattias and Robert