The Maloti Drakensberg Transfrontier Challenge Blog
Running the Dragons Back higher and longer
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- the driver and the second for the challenge.
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Rescue ops in progress
They are cold, snowed in with 3 to 4 foot of snow. he ended the sms in his usual cheery "see you l8r" kind of way, but deon is the consumate "don't flap"-man, and I can imagine is showing a great deal of self-restraint at this time, largely as a strength to the others as well. he's made no mention of any medical emergencies, so we breath a little easier for now.
the chopper can only fly if they can see where they are goin… Continue
Posted on April 21, 2008 at 8:28am — 1 Comment
team effort
By all means, the conceptualisation of this mission probably happened a year ago, no doubt over a glass of wine between Nic and Deon. Both of whom are accomplished mountain men, climbers, hikers, scouts etc etc. and one of those "a good idea at the time" moments. But, as the months moved on, the intensity of desire to actually get this thing off the ground grew and grew, until finally a possible future d… Continue
Posted on April 20, 2008 at 2:56pm —
zero viz, snow everywhere, a devastating blow for the team...
finally, around 13h00 today, the sms came through. Deon sms'd the following:
"Complete white-out. 0 viz. Snow. holed up in NDUMENI cave. Please let all know we are safe, col… Continue
Posted on April 20, 2008 at 2:32pm —
The start and the lead-up to it...
Hit-it-Nora!
Posted on April 20, 2008 at 11:08am —
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I am addicted to watching their progress at the moment seriously its worse than sodding facebook!!!! Keep working out how far they have travelled and then making my predicitions!!! I need to get a life
I was packing the Pajero with all the left over kit, kit-bags,food boxes etc when the deciding moment came as to whether or not I left for home. The wind got so strong, it blew my pillow down the driveway, and down and down some more. I was out of there. No way was I going to mess with the fury of the berg weather in Paul's Pajero.
Anyhow, the message in this is that I looked up at the Amphitheatre, breathtaking as always, and what was looking crisp and clear at 6.30am, slightly cloudy by 10 am was covered by noon with cloud- the ominous dark shadows they cast over the mountain left me feeling more than a little apprehensive as to the comfort our team would be experiencing in the next few hours...
Nic thought that they may just escape the worst of the weather as they were skooting around the edges of the clouds on the satellite images. I hope for them all that he was right. He kept an eye on the moon-lit clouds throughout the evening and kept shaking his head at the wispy striated clouds covering us overnight - the indicator of the cold-front to come.
My sms from Deon last night describing how he was feeling? "Cold Tired".
But I know these boys, and Gina is a strong girl: mind-over-matter. Anything with them is possible!
And then the time came for time-keeper Nic to line up the troops and count down to 6am. The start was quiet, with last hugs goodbye, last motivational offerings, but a very genuine eagerness to get on the road. The three left at a brisk walk (you want to see the steep hill they had to start climbing on!), and looked like a glowing,reflective advertisement for First Ascent, kitted in matching lumo yellow rain jackets, black power-stretch tights and their green-mamba Salamon shoes. Led by Nic (and Nora), then Gina and Deon behind. And so began the long snake-like jig-zag up the Sentinel hill. I looked on for some time, they came in and out of view. They looked happy, chatty, their pace was good, and from the interactions that I was privvy to, the ideal folk to team up for this challenge.
After Notties, we headed into the Free State, into glorious weather, up to about 2200m asl at Witsies. In case you're wondering what the 3 cut-backs on the satelite at the start were, we test-drove the route from the hotel to the start. all of 15minutes.
Then started the monumental task of packing! The team laid out all their gear and food all over the communal verandah and stared at the floor in utter disbelief at how much was to be squashed into such little space- and also having to minimize weight. I suspect for Gina, the disbelief was probably mangled with the angst of how such few clothes were going to keep her warm in what is predicted snow for Sunday.
First started the food-all of which came prepacked and weighed from Durban (hasn't Ziploc made of profit off this run!) It was promptly decided to ditch elemements of what was about 1-1,3kg of food for each day. Gina tossed nuts, dates, energy bars- the culumative weights of it all were just too heavy. Deon even left behind his precious Chilli Lindt chocolate, so just know how frugal they were! Oh, and the lucky bearer of Nora? that would be Nic. Trust me, when every 100g's count, Nora is no petit featherweight, they don't call her a brick for nothing. She is the size of, and maybe half the weight of a brick!
Then came the ditching of clothes. Heartbreaking actually, as there weren't many to start with. The team is moving with some of the best gear on the market, so applying the concept of quality vs quantity (in terms of bulk). so, the extra pairs of shorts, extra socks, (er, jocks??not sure how many ACTUALLY made it into the bags) all got left behind.
There came a point in the evening that Nic actually had his foot in his backpack to squash his clothes so that his food could fit in. These bags were packed and unpacked no less than 3 times to get it right. And what made me laugh, was that after all of them were closed and clipped and finished, every single one of them remembered something they'd packed in the bag that should be available for the start, and so the unpacking-repacking began all over again. No-one lost their cool, and despite the long day on the road, were still managing to see the humour in what was going on.
Bedtime happened around 21h30, and alarms were set for just after 4am. The team had their last brekkie, last civilised bathroom stories, packed up the Pajero, and were off.
Any news on the progress of the team?? The cold has reached PMB and so I hope that it was lifted that side??
Sending lots of warmth:-)
Caroline van Lingen