Discussion: expedition africa 2014 - port edward

After following last year's event here, I'm glad to say that I've got my house in order and will be on the startline. I did the first two editions, and am really looking forward to this year's course - last year's really got supersized, and the entry list has some real quality to it(it's bumped from 500 to 575 km already).

Racing in team rustproof #14. We'll be happy with a finish in the top half
steve burnett

We'll be watching!

ok. some background to the race area. It's sort of from the other side of the country for me, so maybe we can get some better expert views.

The race region is southern Kwazulu Natal and northern Transkei.
The first is labelled 'the hibiscous coast' and is populated with seaside holiday towns about every 25km. Very popular retirement areas. go inland and things get rural quite quickly but there is a fair amount of commercial farming and forestry around.

The second is labelled the 'wild coast', need I say anymore? It's almost totally undeveloped along the coastline, there isn't even a continuous road along it. Most settlements are a bit further inland and quite isolated on hilly regions with mud huts being the standard building. There's a river/lagoon about every 10km and many of these have a big lodge/resort on them. Here it's small scale subsistence farming, and cows/goats roam at will.

I'm going to avoid the history lesson, not that it's unimportant but it's complex. We've really got two totally diverse race areas, and they're split by the umtanvuna river.

what to expect?
some short sea paddling, slow tidal lagoons and maybe even some whitewater
trekking is going to be mainly along the beaches with river crossings, flat on the sand, hillier the further you go away from the coast/towards gorges
biking is going to be further inland to make up the distance/ up down up down up down stuff with many confusing tracks.

disclaimer: this is what i'm expecting, could be way off the mark but no doubt it's going to be spectacular. Logistically this is probably the hardest area to run a race in our country, as a 25km trek down the coast could take vehicles 100km to find a bridge.

Sleepmonsters
http://www.sleepmonsters.com/v2_races.php?article_...

Team Merrell did a 2013 training expedition and video in the 2014 EA race area...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X3fyNLb42c#t=12

Several useful points from Lisa's article for spectators:

With sunrise just before 07h00 and sunset around 17h00 the teams are in for short days and long nights. But, on the bright side, the weather should be sunny with highs in the mid-to-low 20s and lows in the mid-teens. Light showers could be on the cards.

Opening ceremony and official team introduction: Friday, 23 May 2014, 19h00
Community project: Saturday, 24 May 2014, 08h00-10h00
Start: Sunday, 25 May 2014, 07h00
Prize giving and dinner: Saturday, 31 May 2014 at 19h00
Final cut-off: Saturday, 31 May 2014 at midnight (161 hours)

Live tracking, team information, feeds, leader board, photographs, daily videos: www.kineticgear.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/kineticgear
Twitter: www.twitter.com/kineticgear
hashtag: #expafrica

Team Spirit Canada includes 3 Attackpointers:

Urthbuoy
FB
Willderness

Urthbuoy and FB have been adventure racing longer than just about anyone; they started in the mid 90s. Willderness is FB's son and is finishing up his final weeks of high school after getting offers from a bunch of universities. Some Dads might buy their kid a car but FB is taking Willderness to Expedition Africa. He actually seems pretty happy about it. Willderness is a veteran of multiple adventure races in his teen years, including two finishes at the 24-hr Wilderness Traverse event.

Their 4th teammate is from South Africa, and I don't think she is on AP but she has lots of local knowledge!

Got some good info here already. Keep it coming while I still have a connection with my phone!! :-)

Got through without any additional baggage fees beyond the two extra bags (bikes) I already paid for. Slightly over on two. Bang on on the other two. Now just the stress of our gear being on same planes as us??? And clearing customs in Jo-berg getting our gear and reboarding in less than 2 hours. Our race has begun. :-)

Hope you and your gear - and Urthbuoy and his gear - have a happy reunion tomorrow.

You'll have wifi on your phone in Africa, right? And I think incoming texts are free, depending on your carrier.

I'm in Jo-berg right now. Waiting for last connection flight. I had two red-eye flights in a row and really don't know what day it is. But I'm starting to see bike boxes. And somehow I got my gear this far for only $50.

The farther I get from home the greater my fear of losing wifi. Reminds me of a woodpecker joke. :-)

@FB: Will be cheering for you guys, great that you are racing in EA. I'm jealous ;)

Willderness and FB in the news:
http://www.simcoe.com/news-story/4531324-young-bar...

Lots of action on the Facebook page. Nice to see Andreas Strand back with his camera.
https://www.facebook.com/Kineticgear

Btw Kyle Peter of Tecnu was missing a piece of luggage, which is always stressful pre-race. It has now been located in London and should arrive in Port Edward tomorrow.

We're at the first briefing now. As I post. Saw Tecnu earlier. All seems good. Saw Nathan ... He was quaking..... Thought I was here to rob him :-)

Excitement is building!!! Weather is hot and humid (for us at least)!!

Nice to hear from you! Willderness must be having the adventure of his life!

From FB at the race briefing :)

Maps for the first 3 legs will be distributed on Saturday after mandatory gear check at 17:00. (It is 6 hours later than Toronto.) For now, teams have a route book with detailed course information. We'll probably get a better version later but I'll post this for now; it's from Tecnu's FB page.

Team Spirit Canada - a "before" photo. :)
https://www.facebook.com/Kineticgear/photos/a.7079...

Oh, this is so exciting! :)

Here's a more detailed description of the race legs and the times when teams will get maps.
http://www.ar.co.za/2014/05/the-course-legs-distan...

And here's a useful Quick Reference Guide to the race.
http://www.ar.co.za/2014/05/expafrica-quick-refere...

Here's Team Tecnu's pre-race portrait.
https://www.facebook.com/Kineticgear/photos/a.7079...

And Shebeen's Team Rustproof.
https://www.facebook.com/Kineticgear/photos/a.7079...

Lots of photos and updates on the Facebook page - opening ceremonies with local performers and today's community project where each team taught a local student how to paddle. They went out in breaking surf, and apparently both the kids and the racers did a lot of swimming.

Yeh
Nothing like a panicking child that cant swim being dumped in the ocean break
..

Maps now. Go time. Still no bag. Race starts in 13 hours but they say it is on truck coming to me now. Fingers crossed.

@Urthbuoy: You're talking about FB, I presume. ;)

@KP: Hope the bag arrives shortly!

Got it. 11 hours to spare.

Urthbuoy is the expert paddler so he took our young lady out into the abyss. But I'd did get to go out and get thrashed around a bit while we searched for my paddle that she let go of. You also won't be seeing our cdn flag in any more pics but we did get the paddle back. Also we're pretty sure urthbuoy has a broken nose from a boat in the face. Up high on the bridge. Watch for black and yellow eye bags in future pics! :-)

Oh no!

A few more details on Legs 1, 2 and 3.
http://www.ar.co.za/2014/05/legs-1-2-3-a-quick-loo...

Ouch, a broken nose! Thanks for all the updates so far. Looking forward to following along.

After the first 3 legs, Tecnu is 6th, Rustproof is 12th, and Spirit is 19th of 40 teams. They've now received a few more maps and have started the 80k trek. Top teams are moving crazy fast! Silva has the lead for now but they are part of a lead pack separated by minutes. Night will fall in a few hours.

Hmmm... interesting route choice Tecnu is taking after the Mnyameni River. The road will be faster, but it looks like quite a detour. Wonder when they'll cut towards the coast again?

These top teams are flying! Seagate has quite a lead on this trek already.

Edit: could just be tracker delays though. I see Merrell and Painted Wolf's last spots are quite old now.

And Olympus - wow that's an unconventional route choice going far inland! Chris Fisher will be one of the navigators on that team and is well-known for his route choices. For example, he was on WCAD at Expedition Africa last year and they found themselves in 1st place after a sneaky route choice straight up the mountain.

It's great that Stephan designs courses (and control placements) to allow such a variety of route choice in his races.

And Rustproof looks to have skipped CP7 and had to go back for it from CP8... ouch.

Team #20 (Team Life) is heading off to the North. Methinks they turned inland, looking for the abseil a few km too soon. Here's hoping they realize their mistake soon!

So when do you Americans/Canadians wake up?

nonamesport.au has taken the very long way around on the road from the abseil to CP10. Playing it safe in the dark I suppose.

These Canadians are awake but we've spent most of the day on a canoe trip! Looking forward to getting to a computer. Thanks for your updates.

Well you'll be glad to hear that Tecnu is up in 3rd again! Just ahead of Merrell/Silva but an hour or two behind Seagate and Painted Wolf. Night nav looks challenging where they are now...

Where the heck is Costa Rica(23) going? :)

I just noticed how many teams there are from South Africa!

Ahh, looks like 23 is getting back on the course

At 3:30 a.m. race time, Seagate has a big lead and is approaching the end of the long trek. Painted Wolf, Haglofs Silva and Merrell Adventure Addicts are relatively close together on a road in 2nd, 3rd and 4th on their way to CP13. I can't see any scale on the map to get distances between teams; am I missing something?

Tecnu is in 5th but they are attempting a more direct cross-country route to CP13 instead of taking main roads around. So far Seagate is the only other team to take this route. It could work out well for them.

Spirit Canada is in about 20th place a third of the way between CP11 and CP12. It's been slow going for the last couple of hours for all the teams in that area.

Rustproof is 60-90 minutes ahead of them in about 17th place. They've done the rugged crossing of the Mtentu River and have started the long trek from CP12 to CP13.

This live tracker has some nice features but either it's missing some important features or I'm not finding them. The missing map scale is one problem. The other is the tracker history. We normally infer information when we see that a team's tracker has not moved over a period of time, e.g. maybe they're sleeping. This tracker's history lacks that level of precision. Although we can see the team's current speed in kph, a team that tracks at 0 kph might still be on the move so we can't rely on that info.

Anyone found any good tricks? The "Show Tracks" history is moderately useful but not as good as being able to check the times of individual points along the track, e.g. to estimate the number of hours between two teams.

Tecnu moved ahead of Merrell into 4th with their shortcut to CP13 and are now close behind 3rd place Haglofs Silva.

I missed a lot, but did Tecnu just overpower the other three teams on foot? Did the others rest? Or was it nav? It seems like they did a big jump into 2nd, ahead of HaglofsSilva.

Once Tecnu hit the road around CP13, they started running. The other teams had already been on the road whereas Tecnu had been moving more slowly on a more direct cross-country route to CP13. Perhaps that helped them rest up for a final push to the end of the trek.

Shortly after sunrise, Seagate is moving through the canyoneering section on their way to TA3. Tecnu is now solidly in 2nd place as they approach the end of the trek. Haglofs Silva and Painted Wolf are 3rd and 4th with Merrell a little farther back in 5th.

There's a big gap back to 6th place Cyanosis, who are just ahead of Arverne Outdoors. Then it's another big gap back to Olympus (8th), Cinnober (9th) and Black Diamond (10th).

Thanks. Pretty cool regarding Tecnu. We know how much Kyle and Bean train, Mari is an amazing athlete, and I hope their new navigator Rob can keep their pace. Because they'll be exciting to follow for sure.

So the Transkei night seems to have caused some havoc with team navigators and teams have been quick to take the longer roads around after a few hours wandering around in the dark early on. In particular, it was the Msikaba river crossing for the front teams and CP11 (fence at hut – that one must have been like a needle in a haystack in the dark!) for the teams in 9th to 15th place that caused problems.

Of the top 5 teams (Seagate, Painted Wolf, Silva, Tecnu and Merrell), it was only Silva and Merrell that crossed closer to the coast, with the other three teams taking a more direct crossing higher up and picking their way through the cliffs. This seems to have cost Painted Wolf some time as they had to backtrack a few times to find the best way down to the river. Tecnu have done well to move up the field, now in 2nd place after a slowish paddling start (for them).

The most entertaining tracks to follow (sorry Cobus and Piers) were those of Jabberwock and Warriors as they hunted for CP11 at around midnight. Black Diamond hit this one very well, moving carefully but navigating straight to the CP via a very direct route. All these teams are now on the other side of the Mtentu River, about to deal with the Msikaba crossing, in daylight thankfully.

Positions so far:

Seagate (started the kloofing leg at about 6am)
Tecnu (near the end of the trek, about 1.5-2h behind Seagate)
Silva (15mins behind Tecnu)
Painted Wolf (10-15mins behind Silva)
Merrell (30mins behind Painted Wolf)

Then there’s a large gap of about 5-6h (probably shorter during the day) before we have:

Cyanosis
Averne
Olympus
Cinnober
Black Diamond
Haveacrack

At least all of these teams get to do the kloofing leg during the day!

Oh and Bash, the only time stamp I've been able to see is the "last updated time" - it's in the same pop-up window where you see the average speed after clicking on a team's icon.

Without the scale and the time points along the historical tracks, it is indeed difficult to estimate the time gaps.

Thanks Stijn for a great summary.

It's going to be a long week.

Thanks Stijn! Interesting stuff going on out there. I was also concerned as to why Cyanosis lost so many positions at the start of the long hike. Looking at the tracks, it seems they also missed CP7 and went to CP8, only having to backtrack to get CP7. Big mistake this early on! Not what I expected from the likes of Cyanosis! I raced in this exact area back in 2007 (race was 300km called Singletrack Africa, started in Port St Johns, ended in Port Edward) - all I can say is that the nav is BRUTAL. Countless paths/ tracks and roads all over the place, and most of them not on the topographical maps.

Thought I saw Arverne travelling at 40+km/hr on the spot 2 before the last update and a big jump in position. Did I miss something? Now again at 14.7km/hr... Hope they're ok...

Not sure what's happening with the Averne spot. Their track is also way ahead of their spot at the moment (close to the start of the kloofing). It has followed roads all the way, so they may be in a vehicle with an issue?

Many of the spots with old time stamps have much more recent data when you select the track history btw.

Edit: nevermind, refreshing the page brought all the spots back up to date.

It's possible that Averne has just been running hard on the roads, hence having gapped Cyanosis by a few km over the last hour or so. Their progress is pretty normal again now that they are descending to the gorge so maybe the instantaneous speed readings were just incorrect.

And Seagate reaches T3 at 10:12am. so that's 22h30m for the trek and kloofing legs combined, which is 90mins slower than the race director's estimates. They were slower on the trek but faster on the kloofing.

Now let's see what the gap is back to Tecnu et al... I'm guessing 3h.

Does anyone know if there is a specific rule that says teams must stay in the canyon for the whole canyoneering section?

Yep, they have to stay in the canyon/gorge - race rules.

@Fred, yeah,

"NOTES: Teams are instructed to stay in the canyon between CP15 and CP16. They can exit only after CP16. T3 has tents with mattresses as well as facilities, including a restaurant."

So the gap between the top 5 and Averne/Cyanosis is much smaller than I estimated earlier. Looks like about 2.5h to Averne and a further 30mins to Cyanosis.

Thanks guys. Stephan the race organiser is legendary for climbing out of ANY canyoneering section as early as he could when he was racing. His aversion to canyoneering started in this very same area and I think it may have been the exact same canyoneering section as they're racing now.

Fred - i remember this well! :-) I just found our old race report of that very race back in 2007. Great memories of the Transkei!

The big paddle leg is going to be very interesting. I think the first 15 or 20 km stretch is going to be quite 'boney' and the last 10km or so into Port Edward can be very long if you have the tide against you.

Looks like the final paddle leg has been drastically shortened.

That is a massive reduction! Being strong paddlers, that's probably not what Seagate wanted. :-) There is most likely very little water in the upper reaches of the river, so Stephan has reduced it to avoid a hike-a-boat situation over all the sand banks... Look forward to the "official" statement on the shortened paddle.

Painted Wolf checks in at T3 at 1:19pm - just over 3h after Seagate. That's quite a healthy lead they have already!

Silva and Tecnu are just about to hit the road after the kloof and should be in T3 within the next 30mins.

Trying to figure out if Silva are on the wrong side of the river, or if their tracker seems to be offset somehow. Their track moves remarkably parallel to the course lines

Silva's tracker is definitely offset or incorrectly calibrated. They were always east of the main route down the canyon section (sometimes shown completely out of the canyon) which is fairly impossible...

It seems to be drifting... it looks like it was dead on until shortly befor cp13, after which it seems to get worse and worse. Looks a bit funny now because it appears as though they then tried to cross the river.

That whole mid-pack are going to be in the canyon ALL night. Ouch

The shortened paddle leg means a significantly longer 1st MTB leg. This race may have in excess of 400km of MTB'ing now

Its likely that with the shorter paddle there is also no darkzone on the water now.

There wasn't a darkzone AFAIK, since the water was too low to be dangerous.

According to the Route page on the website their was (is?), although i do also remember reading in one of the articles that there wasn't (isn't?)

There are no rapids at all below that put in so I'm pretty sure there won't be a dark Zone. Dark Zone was only to avoid teams having to navigate rapids at night

Havacrack seem to be storming through the field. They came out of T2 in 24th and are now up to 11 or 12.

Team 13 SandgropAR are also moving pretty well after a slow start. Both Aussie teams. They flew over together.

Yes, it sounds as though they are racing each other, which motivates them to do well overall.

Merrel may have seen Tecnu and Painted Wolf riding up the road they are walking down. It seems that despite arriving at T3 over half an hour ahead of Tecnu, Painted Wolf left T3 at the same time as them

Just saw Seagate currently doing 30km/h, where Tecnu at 14km/h and everyone else less. Of course Seagate is probably going downhill, but they are so dominant it's almost not funny

:D

Where are Tecnu off to ?

Re: Tecnu...yes, they seem to be taking a longer route.

And now painted Wolf following suit

Yeah. I wonder what Tecnu and PW saw or didn't see. Whereas Seagate took the more direct route.

Edit: re: route from CP 17 to 18. In case Kyle/Garret read this later.

Also, if you going to double back there is another earlier route visible on google earth. probably not so visible on the ground or the maps though.

Thanks for all the updates guys! Now that work is done, it's time to focus on the tracking again :)

At 6 p.m. race time, Seagate is well in the lead halfway between CP20 and 21. They deviated north of the suggested turn at Emaramzeni, not that it matters much.

Meanwhile, 2nd place Tecnu has cut the corner at Lusikisiki, taking a shorter route around this major town. They have a decent gap back to 3rd place but it's close enough that they'll need to keep pushing.

Haglofs Silva and Painted Wolf took different routes through/around Mpondombini, and Haglofs Silva emerged with a slight edge in 3rd place. There is a gap back to Merrell, then a huge gap from the top five to 6th and 7th place Arverne and Cyanosis, still at T3.

It's dark now.

At 6:30 p.m. race time, Spirit Canada is approaching CP13 in about 25th place. This puts them about 14 hours behind the 2nd-4th place teams. (I only know this because of my AP comment at that time. I really miss the detailed history feature on this tracker.)

Lots of news and photos on the Kineticgear Facebook page. A couple of insights:

- Teams were hot and tired as they approached the canyoneering section. Too much sun on the trek. The midpack and back-of-the-pack teams who are going into their 2nd night on the trek must be feeling the effects.

- When asked how the long trek was, Tecnu's Mari Chandler referred to the canyoneering section saying, "It was fine until this!"

Nice video summary of Day 1.

For those of us who are wondering what the maps look like.
https://www.facebook.com/Kineticgear/photos/a.7098...

Spectacular photos from Day 1
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.70970197...

Tecnu at the start
https://www.facebook.com/Kineticgear/photos/a.7097...

Paddling through the ocean break was tough for the inexperienced.
https://www.facebook.com/Kineticgear/photos/a.7097...

Bash, that maze of tracks on the map you linked is why the night nav has been so challenging on this race. As Brian alluded to earlier, the maps are a tad old, so it's only really the large gravel roads that you can rely on with certainty.

Back in Bull of Africa 2008, we were on a MTB leg through the Transkei (further South from where this race is happening) and were enjoying a fast gravel road as it was getting dark. Problem was that we had to leave that wonderful road and cross one of these typical valleys that the teams have been struggling with to reach another good gravel road on the opposite ridge. Luckily for us, we were riding through a village that had seen many teams passing before us, so knew an opportunity when they saw one. A bit of haggling later and we had 6 local school kids as guides to take us along the optimal cattle track across to the other road :)

If we had had reliable trackers back in those days, we may have impressed a few dot-watchers with our accuracy! ;)

:)

Day 2 photos are posted now including some beautiful pics of the canyon.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.71026478...

Some nice shots of Tecnu including this calendar shot of Kyle. ;)
https://www.facebook.com/Kineticgear/photos/a.7102...

And another map shot.
https://www.facebook.com/Kineticgear/photos/a.7102...

At 8 p.m. race time, Tecnu and Haglofs Silva are neck and neck on different routes to CP20. Seagate took the same route as Haglofs Silva but Tecnu is on the suggested race route. Painted Wolf has fallen back a little into 4th. Merrell is entering Lusikisiki in 5th.

Re: the calendar shot of Kyle: he's sexy and he knows it...

Ladies, get in line! ;)

Seagate has been stationary for a while...

They must have found some wifi reception.... they're staring at the photo of Kyle too.

Arverne and Cyanosis (6th and 7th) finally left TA3 to start biking around 20:40 race time, more than 4 hours behind Merrell.

Like Seagate, Tecnu has gone north of the suggested route at the turn at Emaramzeni. Haglofs Silva is on the suggested route and is currently in 2nd place. Their route choice to CP20 appeared to be faster. The two teams are very close though.

Painted Wolf (4th) has dropped back and is now about halfway between Tecnu/Silva and Merrell (5th).

Olympus is doing well in 8th place, currently at TA3 after the canyon. Behind them, a bunch of teams including Shebeen's team Rustproof are still in the first third of the canyon. It must be tough going in the dark.

@Carbon - LOL

Tecnu is back with Haglofs Silva after their little detour. The 2nd and 3rd place teams are approaching CP21 and appear to be gaining on Seagate, who may have had a sleep but are now riding.

Speaking of sleeping, it looks like Spirit Canada has found a nice place for a nap on the outskirts of Ntlavukazi after CP13. That will make Willderness' Mom happy. :)

Ja, Rustproof is doing really well! Trading places with the usual suspects in South African AR - Pennypinchers, Castle Lite, Antimatter and a stack of other teams. Must be quite "festive" in that gorge!

Bring it On (#29) needs to get off that road soon or they're going to have to base jump into the gorge.

Looks like Painted Wolf has been sleeping. Merrell will likely arrive at CP20 in 4th place.

Cyanosis is taking the long way to CP17. Arverne hasn't updated recently but this may give them sole possession of 6th place - for a little while.

Cyanosis speeding past Arverne. Not too bad a move :)

Tecnu stopped.

Haglofs moving fast.

Well done, Cyanosis! Arverne took the shorter route but now they've made a slight bobble to fall behind a little.

Man alive! The teams in the gorge now are hurting, it's cold and they still have hours left. I really feel for them.

Tecnu stationary for some time now. Hope no bustications.

Warriors 38 are having a fine time in the gorge, lol. Sight seeing? :D

Looks like Tecnu (3rd), Merrell (4th) and Painted Wolf (5th) are all taking breaks right now. Tecnu is at CP21 and Merrell is at CP20. It's almost midnight on the 2nd night - not a bad choice. Seagate is not far from the transition to the shortened paddle leg.

Like Alec says, I feel for all those teams crawling at a snail's pace through the canyon at night. Hopefully some of them are sleeping.

Spirit Canada is moving well after their nap. Looks like they should be able to join the teams in the canyon before sunrise.

At 0100 race time, Seagate is at TA4, the bike/paddle transition. Haglofs Silva has been making good time in 2nd place and were only 2 hours back until they made a wrong turn (which they are just correcting). If Seagate stops to sleep, the top two teams might see each other, although someone commented that Seagate appeared to nap during the bike ride.

Tecnu, Merrell and Painted Wolf are all awake and biking in 3/4/5 places respectively.

Cyanosis (6th) has stopped in the town of Lusikisiki; they are about half an hour ahead of Averne (7th).

Olympus (8th) has started biking.

The 9th through 17th place teams all appear to be in the canyon. It's finally looking as if some of them might emerge before dawn!

Hmm, I guess it's possible that Haglofs Silva made that route choice on purpose although it's less direct than the way Seagate went. Speaking of which... Seagate is paddling already. No wasted time at that TA!

Oops! Spirit Canada was on the correct route to the canyon when they decided to turn back and take a different road. They've now realized their error and are heading back to the junction. Not too much time lost - looks like 20-25 minutes.

Phew! I hope they're all doing ok:)

At 3:30 a.m., Seagate is about halfway through the paddle.

Haglofs Silva is at the bike/paddle TA4.

In the last 2 hours of the bike section, Tecnu is taking a very different route from the top two teams, both of whom stuck close to the suggested route. (In case any new race spectators are wondering, the "suggested route" wasn't suggested to the racers. I'm referring to the route drawn on the tracking map by organizers, which isn't necessarily the best route.) It looks like it could shave some distance off their ride although it could be challenging to find their way on minor roads in the dark.

There's a gap back to Merrell (4th) and another gap back to Painted Wolf (5th). The gap back to Cyanosis (6th) has shrunk considerably; they're within striking distance of the top five. Arverne is 30-45 minutes behind them in 7th. Olympus (8th) is the only other team biking.

The next 12 teams (at least) are in the canyon. GPS trackers don't always work well there. It looks like Havacrack may reach TA4 around dawn in 9th place - unless a team with a wonky tracker (and there are several) is closer.

Looks like RustProof may have had a nap in the canyon.

Spirit Canada was starting down the trail into the canyon 75 minutes ago, then their tracker stopped working. They are probably down there now.

Just heard that Spirit was planning a short nap before entering the canyon.

Here's the Day 2 summary video.


More photos added to the Day 2 album
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.71026478...

Some night photos from the midpack on the trek
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.71049379...

And a rare photo of 17-year-old Willderness and his Dad FB on Spirit Canada. Looking strong!
https://www.facebook.com/Kineticgear/photos/a.7104...

Ouch! My feet hurt just reading this. It's not a foot-friendly race course, apparently.
http://www.ar.co.za/2014/05/expafrica-d2-feet-3/

Ouch indeed!

Enjoying the video summaries.

At 05:30 race time, Seagate is at TA5, the paddle/trek transition. It looks like 2nd place Haglofs Silva is sleeping at TA4. Tecnu arrived at TA4 several hours later in 3rd place but they won't need to sleep.

Cinnober has arrived at TA3 at the end of the canyon section. Based on the Facebook page, it sounds like they're in 9th place. (Not all trackers are working well.)

Spirit Canada must have had a very short nap. They are making good progress in the canyon - by canyon standards, anyway! They'll have some light soon.

A few details from Facebook:

It is "freezing cold" at TA5, the end of the paddle.

Seagate in good spirits at T5. Changing into dry clothing and are going to sleep for a while. They say they have a bit of chafing and wonder how many ticks they have on their bodies..looking very good.

Cinnober took 11.5 hours to get through the canyon.

"It was long and very exotic. We were feeling bad not to see it in daylight but now we see the stars instead." They are dry (except feet) and not cold. They put on jackets down there. "We had one swim" says Ida. "We put on dry clothes and after that priority one was not to get wet.

It looks like HaglofsSilva is still resting, while Tecnu is out on the course headed for the river. Yes?

Tecnu has started paddling in 2nd place. It's only 16 km so they aren't far behind Seagate at this point.

Haglofs Silva remains in TA4 in 3rd place, probably sleeping since they didn't sleep along the trail like Tecnu.

Merrell (4th) is taking the western route that Tecnu took in the last part of the bike section. It seemed to work out well.

Painted Wolf (5th) has narrowed the gap to Merrell and widened the gap back to Cyanosis (6th).

Over the last 1.5 hours, teams have been flowing into TA3 at the end of the canyon.

9th - Cinnober
10th - R'ADYS Team Switzerland
11th - Havacrack
12th - Pennypinchers AR
13th - Sportotal (arriving shortly)

Haglofs Silva got on the water shortly after Tecnu passed them to move into 2nd. They look to be about 30 minutes apart. Seagate, who took 3.5 hours on the river, is still resting at TA5 at the end of the paddle. The sun has just risen.

Spirit Canada is moving well in the canyon and appears to have moved up a couple of places.

I'm not at all surprised at the foot distress. The teams are travelling on dirt roads and hard packed trails. That alone is very hard on the feet. Add to that the fact that they started with wet feet and have had to make numerous river crossings until after Mtentu and of course the final canyoning leg into Mboyti. It's a sure recipe for damaged feet.

You have to spend a lot of time on your feet in training for an expedition race. The hike legs are always massive.

Thanks night shift! I have an all-day conference today so if day shift (Fred, Brian, Fuddam, thnjdk et al) could keep the updates coming, that would be most appreciated! :)

The river paddle took Seagate 3.5 hours. The tidal range is probably going to reach all the way to the put in. Today's tidal fluctuation is 1.5m which is quite big. High tide was at 2.55am on the ocean and would probably be high on the river at about 3.55am. Seagate put in at 1:13 and were done at 4:45. That means most of their paddle will have been on a high and rising tide. They would have been paddling against the flow of the water BUT what works in their favour is that the majority of the sandbanks would have been covered.

Low is 8:55 on the sea - 9:55 on the river. I expect to see the chasing teams like Tecnu and Merrel put in faster paddles because they'll be riding the tide out. What is going to be nasty is that bunch of mid pack teams tackling the river at night on a low tide. Expect more war stories from there and some very slow paddles.

Brian you've paddled that section of the river as well. You know what a nightmare those sandbanks are in the last 10 - 15km

Merrel out of T4 minutes before Painted Wolf arrive at T4. I wonder if they saw each other. Will Merrel be the carrot for Painted Wolf? It will be interesting to see how fast Painted Wolf transition. These two teams know each other well and they could work together for the paddle and the last hike.

The race for 9 and 10th place is hotly contested. Havacrack(Aus) are out of T3 first at 8:32 but expect R'ADYS(Swi), Pennypinchers(SA), Sportal(Arg),nonamesport.run(Rus),Namaqua(SA),SandgropAR(Aus) to be hot on their heels. A top 10 placing in an AR World Series event is great incentive to push hard.

I feel for my friends from Olympus(currently in 8th) who are dangling in no mans land between Havacrack and Averne. It's a lonely place with no help from any other teams and no idea where anyone else is. Lets hope they can keep their pace up and keep on moving forward with no navigation errors.

Great stuff Fred. And it's awesome to see Olympus doing so well!

That river is a nightmare when it is low! I am actually glad for the teams that Stephan took the decision to cut the paddle short due to low levels. It would have been hike-a-boat chaos higher up the river at low level, and added further insult to already injured and battered feet. Stephan had made the right call here, even though it may not be the most popular decision with some of the top teams who are strong paddlers.

The race for 1st place is far from over. Tecnu in at T5 at 8:50 only 80 minutes after Seagate left. All the lead teams slept during the night and about 5 hours separates Painted Wolf in 5th from Seagate in 1st.

It's getting fascinating in front.

You can see how important it was to get through the kloof (canyon) before darkness yesterday. Massive gap has now opened up! So good to see Olympus up there! I raced Tierra Viva 2011 with Tim and Alex who are racing on Olympus, I can just imagine how much fun they are having and knowing them will be pushing hard on the bikes right now!

Looks like the back markers will be in the canyon tonight. Gone Racing, Bloed and Omo, Bad Medicine, Lunar Chicks, Anger Management. I cant' see them getting to the start of the canyon before it gets dark. Not at their current pace.

They may even get to see the front teams in the transition at Mbotyi in the morning.

Uh Oh - looks like Averne are badly off course. Maybe heading for the original river T4 before the change? Although that seems unlikely because I assume they got the same maps as the other teams at T3. So then they've just strayed a little.

Just a thought i had. CP21 to T4. Might it not be a decent route choice to cut back to the R61 road and through Lusikisiki again and rejoin the suggested route at Gencoqe. R61 is as big and as good a tar road as you will find in the Transkei, could move quite fast. Opinions anyone?

Averne are on the same line that Merrel and Tecnu took

thenjdk - I think you'll find that the R61 is out of bounds EXCEPT for that one section.

I didn't check the other guys tracks but I see that now. Thanks.

Haven't seen race rules, but it makes sense to keep it out of bounds.

Great to see Havacrack and SandgropAR doing well - not only are they both mostly Aussie teams, they're Western Australian teams and mostly APers... we're westerners are allowed to be parochial ;-)

Looks like Sportotal are about to attempt a high risk navigational coup

Sportotal are getting themselves into a world of hurt there. No way do they climb those cliffs with bikes on their backs. There are a couple of goat tracks that will get them onto the plateau but they'll be hard pressed to find the right ones.

My prediction is they'll spend the rest of the day trying to get up there. Better to just go back to the road. If not then they will have created a new AR discipline 'climb a bike'

Either Seagates tracker has been on the blink and we missed the bit where they got the CP, or they have turned inland and missed it for some reason?

Silva have possibly made a parallel error. they are cutting seawards far earlier than the suggested route, and are going to have an extra river mouth to cross.

tecnu also seem so be offtrack, having turned further inland...

I think Seagate got the CP - their line jumps from just before they would have got it to a little after.

I don't think that's a great route choice there though. They have to cross through a valley and over a really jungly ridge before getting into the Mntafufu valley. But they have a topo and I don't. They're world class navigators and I'm not. Maybe they've located trails we can't see.

I've scouted those areas heavily in the past though and I think the coastal route is by far the easier.

Both Haglovs and Tecnu seem to have gone astray. Haglovs will at least hit the coastal road but it's a major bundu bash from the top of the hill to the road.

Tecnu have clearly missed what is a wide dirt road running straight to the CP.

Re Sportotal. perhaps their route is to join up with the hiking route in green, and then head up the cliffs at Gwexintaba. It appears there is a medical marijuana research facility there...

Sportotal finally turned around. They're heading back to the main route. Pennypinchers also started on the same route as Sportotal but they have at least turned around a lot earlier.

Thanks - keep the good info coming, SA! I may be away from my computer for much of the day so we'll need some other North Americans to chip in later on.

Sportotal gave up 4 hours with that nav error and dropped at least 6 places on the leader board. Some of the middle teams have made a real mission of their navigation in the tea plantations and I'm sure we're going to see lots of places changing due to navigation before this race is over.

Unlike Sportotal, it seems Seagate's unconventional route choice might be paying off. They chose to go inland early while Tecnu and Silva worked the coastal route together.
Meanwhile, Merrel approach the point where Seagate headed NE, will be interesting to see if they consider the same approach as Seagate.
The Wolves are on the trot now, having just left T5 to try and chase down Merrel. They are stronger on foot than on the bike, so they will be looking to overtake and put some time into Merrel before the long bike.
Cyanosis are finishing up the paddle too, approaching T5, so it's going to get interesting in positions 4 to 6 for the top SA teams.
Remains to be seen if any of them can catch the Big 3 up ahead. All it takes is one mistake...
Further back Averne have arrived at T4 while our friends Olympus take the westerly route into to T4, a few hours back. Then it's a massive gap to the rest of the field.

Hey all! Thanks for this coverage! Very exciting, indeed!

There was Radio silence from Silva for about an hour from the spot where Tecnu still are at the river mouth. They have just shown up a short way down the beach continuing on the coast. Possible that they tried to find the green route and failed.

EDIT: and tecnu have just shown up in a similar area.

Cinnober are storming along. Looks like they've made a sneaky nav choice on the bike leg that will put them ahead of Havacrack and into 9th spot. Maybe another fun battle developing here for 9/10th spot

Well spotted Fred! And to add insult to injury, Havacrack have mistakenly split off route to the north! EDIT: No, I see that is a route option that some teams took e.g. Olympus

Olympus were in to T4 at 15:00 according to the leaderboard. Their tracker seemed to be stuck.

Seagate are probably past CP24 by now. Their tracker stopped at 2:20pm. I think they may be into the final transition at Mbotyi before 8pm tonight.

Merrel's tracker is stuck at the moment. will be interesting to see where it pops up again, what route they take from CP 23. Painted Wolf have just shown up as hiving got through the jungley bit to the coastal road, so still at least an hour and a bit gap to Merrel.

Cyanosis have just left T5 on the final hike leg. They're 2 hours behind Painted Wolf who are an hour behind Merrel who are 3 hours behind Haglofs and Tecnu. Navigational choices and errors are going to make a significant difference here. The dark is also going to play a very important role on this hike for the front 6. But teams will slow down after dark.

If Seagate, Tecnu and Haglofs can get past CP24 before dark then that will give them a bit of a lead on the chasing SA teams. It's still not over because that bike leg is long and there are a multitude of route choices and places to make mistakes.

I don't think the first 6 places are finalised yet.

Seagate's tracker just updated. they have CP 24 but haven't progressed much from it.

Thanks for the updates.
Looks like Sandgrop is taking the same route as Sportotal out of T3. Hopefully they reconsider their route choice sooner than later.

Yup there they go. Same route.

And BloednOmo seems to have made the 'tactical' decision to skip canyoning as the light starts to fade - they're using the district road to T3.

I think Bloed and Omo have decided that they will not be canyoning and they're headed along the road to Mbotyi

Bloed en Omo's Track from yesterday also shows they skipped CP 11 and 12

I'm looking at the tracks, and maybe Seagate took that trek route to get that community and a store? It looks they went to a building.

BloednOmo use the CP's and race booklet as a general guideline. I remember them doing the same thing at The Bull of Africa 2008 and at one point they were a good 80km off course which had race management pulling their hair out. At least this race they're staying roughly on the course. Albeit with a couple of missing CP's.

When you're over 60 and still adventure racing, YOU get to decide what you're doing and what you're not doing, not the race director!

The nice thing about this race leaderboard is that it is very up to date. It's actually the first time I've seen that.

After a huge nav error early on, Jabberwock are making a strong charge! They have probably passed at least 15 teams in the last 24 hours. Great stuff!

Yes the leaderboard has been impressive. Lets hope they can keep it that way as we move towards the pear shaped end of the race

wow, thanks for the updates everyone. holiday weekend in US = not a lot of time refreshing the race tracker. but now i feel informed!

no one is bothered by the Comic Sans on the very-up-to-date leaderboard? :)

any chance that Seagate will catch some of the back-of-pack teams at TA6?

Merrel have popped up at last at the Mntafufu mouth. They took the coastal route.

Its mostly up to date... there are a few funnies like tecnu leaving transition T4 30 mins before they arrived there....

And Cobus must have done something very odd very early on... they were miles behind where i would have expected them. good to see them coming back into it.

And Merrel just reappeared at the Rivercrossing where tecnu and Silva disappeared for a while.

EDIT: Ah, didnt see Fred had just posted the same thing

Brian, Jabberwock look to be in 13th place on the road. Lets hope they keep charging. It must be that new 29'er Cobus recently bought.

Have a look at Jabberwock's track history around CP11 - that's where it went pear-shaped on night 1. They seem to have stopped to wait for daylight as they only covered about 5km (in the right direction) on that entire night.

Awesome to see (hear?) them flying now!

Lunar Chicks and Bad Medicine have been in the canyon for a while now. Only Anger Management(seems like an apt name given their navigation) and GoneRacing left to get in there.

I'm anticipating the long 230 km/3000 m climbing bike race between 2nd-3rd places.

Painted Wolf now also at Mtafufu crossing. Quite hard to know whats going on there as it seems to be a dead zone for trackers, but Painted Wolf may be catching Merrel. Merrel stamped at 4:36. Painted Wolf at 5:22, so gap down potentially to about 45mins

EDIT: although the tracker points are at opposite sides of the river bank...

And Tecnu and Silva close in on CP24. I estimate the gap at staying steady at 2 hours.

Is it my imagination or is the chasing pack chewing away at Seagate's lead?

Cyanosis are having some fun. Its at the same spot Tecnu went awol earlier, and Seagare, Merrel and Painted wolf also seemed to hesitate in the same spot.

Seagate are going to be in T6 / T3 with a whole bunch of teams. Just shows how fast these top teams can cover ground. And about 5 teams aren't even going to reach T3 by the time Seagate have left.

SandgropAR still trying for the non-existent short cut to CP17.

Cinnob and Havacrack exchanging places on the way to CP21.

Tecnu and Haglofs almost at CP24.

Seagate less than 2 hours from the final transition at Mbotyi.

Merrel and Painted Wolf still chasing in 4th and 5th spot respectively.

Looks like a long night of cycling ahead for the top 6 and it's still wide open for final places.

This time tomorrow, the race could be won, if the race director's times are to be believed.

Hard to tell if Seagate are losing ground at this stage. It would take a pretty special effort from one of the chasing teams or a complete screw up from Seagate for them to lose 1st place.

I have been totally overawed by their fearless navigation and the relentless pace that they race at. They leave no margin for error it seems. Just 100% commitment.

Yep, they are very impressive. Pace, great nav, quick transitions and never stopping except to sleep as required. Pure efficiency. First place pretty much wrapped up.

I wonder if Jabberwock will manage to break into the top 10. What a comeback, if they do.

I think Sandgrop may have found the route through! they seem to be heading up a gully towards a visable path. It certainly wont be the quickest route, but they at least wont have to backtrack like Sportotal did.

Also, anyone else have a thought on cycling to CP24 and then north to CP17?

Re: 24 to 17...I'll assume that bike points only while on bike, and trek points on trek. And 17 and 18 are pretty close, so nothing really gained, and likely time lost while on foot. I like the out of the box thoughts though.

Love your work guys! Was up-to-date all day thanks to this thread...

Holding my breath to see if SangropAR gets through. It would be a long way back if they didn't!

Seagate trekking into TA6. Looks like there are 4 or 5 teams still there, except they are technically in TA3: BloedOMO, CostaRica, 3Latte1Platte, Senseless, and maybe BallyhouraBeast.

meanwhile, Tecnu seems to have opened up a small gap on Silva. but my tracking map doesn't have a scale, has anyone else figured out how to judge distance?

Short of measuring distance using Google Earth separately, I don't think it's possible on this tracking software.

Jabberwock have taken the easterly route choice to CP20 - will they beat RADY Switzerland there? Pick 'em off one by one :)

Painted Wolf's tracker has updated only just a bit further from the Mntafufu crossing, a full 90 mins later. Surely the crossing didn't take them that long? Or perhaps they took a nap...

This now puts them 2.5h behind Merrell.

Olympus about to meet up with Averne at T5. That'll boost their spirits after racing in no man's land for the last 24 hours. I don't think they've seen any other teams in ages.

SandgropAR has made it up onto the plateau! Not the fastest route choice, having left T3 at 15:18 (4h ago), but I'm sure they had quite an adventure finding that line :)

Seagate took 11h10m for that trekking leg - significantly longer than the race director's estimate of 8h (and they did it in daylight). Another one the later teams are going to get "value for money" on ;)

Merrel are now beind the wolves! Silva also were at the river crossing and then an hour later appeared again just down the coast, tecnu were right with them then too. My guess is that they tried to find the direct route through, failed, and went around. Seems likely the same thing happened to Painted Wolf and Merrel. That small patch of jungle seems impassable!

Ah, the mystery of Rustproof's static tracker in the canyon last night has been explained. "We made such a mistake. We meant to sleep for 5 hours but we slept for 9!" They slept relatively well and weren't too cold.

Nice to check the tracking map after half a day away and find Spirit Canada finished the canyon, through TA3 with a good nap and past the first CP (16) on the bike leg in 24th place. Great job!

Olympus has left T5 in 7th place, with Averne still in transition. Go Saffas!

The 230km Team Time Trial between Tecnu and Silva is going to be quite exciting to follow!

Tecnu and Silva approaching T6 and Seagate has not left yet. The gap is smaller than I thought.

@Stijn if only we had a map scale! :)

Indeed! I'm guessing about 2km to go for Tecnu.

Cyanosis are approaching the magical mystery zone at the Mtafufu river. This is about 4 and half hours since Merrel got there, but about an hour and a half since they left there. If they immediately go around the jungle instead of attempting the through they will have gained a lot of time

All top 3 teams are at TA6. Seagate have had a nap, which will be a massive advantage, but I think the race for 1st place could still be on! 230km's team time trial is a looong way...

I bet Bloed en Omo must be mighty chuffed to have caught up to Seagate again ;)

Word from Team Costa Rica's support crew/photographer at TA6: "Team Tecnu Extreme Adventure Racing just arrive to T6 on second place ... And you know what? Team Seagate are sleeping !!! This will be interesting !!"

@Stijn - I can't wait to read Oom Abel's race report on this one!

Tecnu arrived at TA6 about 2 hrs 40 min after Seagate. Haglofs Silva is almost there now.

Looks like Spirit Canada #11 are trying to find the same direct cross-country route that Seagate took to CP18 (with the benefit of daylight). I can feel their frustration as I look at their track for the past 30 minutes. The Park Rangers just snuck by. (21:40)

Classy! Today is Mattias Nyströms (Team Haglöfs Silva) birthday. At TA6, Mbotyi River Resort gave him a cake, which he gave to some of the back-of-the-pack teams that were also at the resort. They needed the energy and happiness also, he said.
https://www.facebook.com/Kineticgear/photos/a.2744...

Seagate started the final biking leg before 22:00. Tecnu and Haglofs Silva are still at TA6. Organizers estimated 20 hours for this leg so we should see a winner tomorrow evening.

Seagate departed TA6 at 21:37, 22 minutes after Tecnu arrived. Haglofs Silva arrived 10 minutes behind Tecnu.

Here's Kyle making a fashion statement at TA5. Not sure this one will sell as many calendars.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4124028089...

As if this race wasn't challenging enough, there go Sandgrop making it even more difficult for themselves yet again. After getting CP17 they've doubled back to get to CP18 from the east/north.

Spirit Canada appears to have settled in for a nap after their extra exploration south of CP18. It looks like they napped about 8 hours ago in TA3 so they probably won't stick around too long. Or maybe there is a bike problem... Hope not.

Sandgrop is taking the route pioneered by Sportotal earlier today.

Spirit #11 is also getting terribly lost around Mzizangwa trying to get to CP18. After probably an hour or so of trying to find a path, they've decided to get back on the main road.

Looks like Jabberwock have been stopped at CP 20 for a while, Warriors have just left them, but there is a swarm of teams catching them now. All their good work making places back looks to becoming undone.

I'm still seeing Spirit Canada off the road in the same spot they've been for awhile. Looks like a post-nav-frustration nap.

Bash, you're correct. Similar route choices on two different occasions... funny that.

The beauty of adventure racing, positions change quickly if you stop to take a nap, but you can only postpone sleep for so long!

radio silence from the Merrel and cyanosis trackers makes figuring out the 4th to 6th race rather frustrating. Paintedwolf closing in on cp24. they are at least 5 hours back from Silva and Tecnu.

Spirit Canada is moving again!

Senseless must have been pretty frustrated looking for CP17, bit of back-&-forthing... But seem to have it now.

Where/when on the trek did Wolf go past Merrell?

Heyo. Just so you know, I raced with one of the members of SandropAR in the Bimbache last year. We ended up biking UP a scree slope - the only team dumb enough to try that route. We didn't know there was a scree slope involved when we took the 'shortcut'.

;)

After a bit of wandering, Spirit Canada has punched through a bit of jungle and should be able to make that shortcut work. Good persistence! It's soooo Canadian to look for a nice bikewhacking section.

Is that Silva on the move taking an alternate route?

Merrell has been stationery for some time, and Cyanosis is hot on their heels with an old time stamp. Quite likely to have passed Merrell by now.

Silva is taking the same route as Seagate - wise move as avoids most of the beach sand

:)

Havacrack is stuck in the wilderness at the top of a big drop en route to TA4, no doubt pondering and/or sleeping.

Interesting route choice.

Looks like Merrell took that route earlier and seem to have made it through.

Is encouraging to see Seagate going at 5km/h on bikes right now - they ARE human. Mebbe even pushing....

;)

Olympus backtracking, seem to be struggling to get through to the road in the dark.

Do Kinetic test for bionics cause Seagate is not human!

Arverne likewise

What is causing them to turn around, terrain must be rough? Night nav is always fun.

Ok. I was just studying Seagate's recent tracking. Did they miss CP 23 with their trek detour?!

Looks like they just lost tracking reception between their two spots before and after CP23?

Unlikely, reception is sketchy in that area, looks like they got the point and backtracked a bit to go inland.

Ok. Seems likely. Thanks.

Olympus still headed back towards CP22 and Arverne still headed North.

Looks like Olympus is going to go back down to T5 to go around the bottom. That must be disheartening.

Tecnu possiby headed out of T6 about 45min behind Silva

5 teams still in the Canyon, I'm pretty sure they've run out of food by now.

Any idea what Arverne is looking for/planning?

Olympus backtracking may be disheartening but compared to Arverne it looks a safer bet (from the armchair)...

Spoke too soon, now Olympus headed North too. Guess they're both hoping for a route around from the settlement just North of Arverne.

Fancy Olympus will get around before Arverne get through on their route, interesting choice,

Spirit Canada had almost reached the road by CP18 when they decided a little more jungle bikewhacking would add to their fun. Oh dear. :( They are almost there though. Hope they realize that in the dark!

And now Seagate is going 44.2 kph. Nope, not human.

Spirit Canada is back on the road! The last part of their track is so weird that it almost looks like a GPS error. Even now, their track isn't right on the road. Phew. (I'm currently e-mailing with Willderness' Mom who is watching their track very carefully too!)

now the Leaderboard is not quite as timely w its updates but it seems like Tecnu left TA6 around midnight race time, Silva officially out at 2310.

Seagate
Silva +1h33m
Tecnu +2h23m from Seagate

the 230k bike is estimated to take 20h. if i remember correctly the top teams' times for previous legs have been both faster and slower than estimated times. so who knows what could happen!

I just checked in and spotted the earlier comment about Seagate doing 5 km/hr on the bikes and possibly being human. Nah, they were probably sleeping (on the bikes. and still doing 5 km/hr)
;)

As for the photo of Kyle modeling a blanket, my guess is: drying out "the bottom half" of the body for a few minutes at a TA.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4124028089...

Seems like most of the bike climbing on the last leg is in the first half. Do people think that could matter? It seems that barring mechanicals or falls for the top 3, that it will be hard to pass a team once the major climbing and downhills are over. Since they are all such great athletes.

Also, of course, what's left in the gas tank.

Can anyone remember where the original paddle put in was? I am curious if Havacrack have got confused with the course change.

Any word on Merrell/Painted Wolf and if they are at the TA yet? My Leaderboard isn't working and their locators are inaccurate.

My leaderboard wasn't working for a long time but it's working now, and it doesn't mention Merrell/Painted Wolf at TA6. Neither of their trackers is current so that doesn't help. The Kineticgear Facebook page doesn't mention their arrival, and they've posted info within the past hour so I'm guessing the teams are not at TA6 yet. Remember that Seagate took longer on this trek than organizers had predicted - and they did it mostly in daylight.

At the front, Seagate's track shows a couple of wrong turns between CP26 and CP27 that were corrected relatively quickly. The bike nav must be tough in the dark, especially when racers are now so tired. It sure would be nice to have a map scale or detailed track history but it looks like Haglofs Silva (2nd) is about 2 hours behind the leaders. Tecnu (3rd) looks to be within half an hour of Haglofs Silva.

Anything can happen!

Day 3 Photos
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.71090032...

Day 3 Summary Video

A great - although kinda stressful - story about the change in location of TA4, the start of the shortened paddle.
http://www.ar.co.za/2014/05/d3-mapping-101/

At 6 a.m., the sky is starting to brighten. Seagate passed CP27 within the last hour. Haglofs Silva (2nd) looks to be about 2.5 hours behind. Tecnu (3rd) is within an hour behind them.

The leaderboard, tracker and Facebook page have no further news on Painted Wolf and Merrell, the teams we assume are in 4th and 5th place.

Cyanosis (6th) has passed CP24 on the trek so their next stop is TA6.

Olympus is probably in 7th but their tracker hasn't updated for an hour. Arverne is probably in 8th; they're at CP23.

Cinnober (9th) is the only team paddling - about halfway through.

Nonamesport.ru (10th) is at TA4 at the start of the paddle. Havacrack and RADY Switzerland (10th and 11th) are taking the westerly route down toward TA4. Behind them is a gap to Rustproof (12th).

Spirit Canada is moving along the eastern route to CP20. They've already passed a couple of teams who had passed them during their "tour" around CP18.

It's getting late. Over to you, Californians and Australians - or earlybird South Africans or Europeans!

Thanks Bash. Great update.

For the purpose of timing the gap between HaglofsSilva and Tecnu, HS just passed CP 27 at approx 0640. Give or take a minute or two.

Cyanosis passed Painted Wolf who are still to get to CP24. Wolf probably had major problems (or maybe some shuteye) during the night to give up so much time to Cyanosis. Cyanosis now chasing down Merrell who are probably within sight of TA6 by now.

That's local race time.

Thanks Motlatsi. I missed seeing Painted Wolf's tracker becoming current. There was a website or FB post suggesting that one of the P. Wolf's teammates was having a hard time.

Good morning all. Tecnu is trying the shortcut that both Seagate and Silva tried and failed to take before them. If they get through (with daylight on their side), they will have eaten into Silva's gap nicely.

That's unfortunate for Wolf, if true. This is where I expected them to make up time - they're strongest on their feet.

Tecnu got through the shortcut and reached CP27 at 07:43, 1h behind Silva as per afsheen's timestamp above.

For Motlatsi, per AdventureLisa:
http://www.ar.co.za/2014/05/expafrica-d3-in-other-...

Veronica Bravo in Painted Wolf has been taking strain and to get through to the end, with assistance and support from her team mates, is going to be a matter of survival. She is strong and she has taken the physical punishment of this course and fast pace of her team without complaint.

Has Silva slept much this race?

Morning all. Thanks for the constant overnight commentary. Seems that this forum and the live tracking together provide the perfect race coverage. Now if we just had one of those mini-helicopter cameras....

Fantastic to see Bad Medicine and the all girl team of Lunar Chicks into T3 a little after 5 this morning. Those 2 teams have raced the entire event together. Team captain of Lunar Chicks raced with Bad Medicine at last years Exp Afr. Mark Human is the only remaining member of Bad Medicine from last year if I remember correctly.

Anger Management and Gone Racing bringing up the rear are the last teams in the canyon.

California is going to bed. Maybe the daytime crew, if they catch it, could use upcoming CP 28 as a mark to measure the time gap between 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Thanks.

This pic shows what it looks like as you climb from T5 to the beacon at CP22.
The river and the bridge in the background are where the teams passed just before arriving at T5. The transition itself is just below the little bit of shadow on the knoll between the last racer and the river. They have to find a hiking trail from T5 which then leads on to the beacon.

https://www.facebook.com/Kineticgear/photos/ms.710...

The race between Averne and Olympus is interesting. The problem with tracking is that the areas close to the coast have very poor cellular coverage. Which is why trackers seem to freeze and then suddenly reappear. The trackers update via the cellular network not satellite.

Tracking on the final cycle leg seems to be working just fine.

The track for Olympus shows them going up to the beacon at CP22 and then dropping back to the road. A safer route option at night would have been the navigators call. The road they followed is a well defined dirt road all the way to CP23 and they would have been able to make good time

Ouch! Merrel checked into T6 at 8:05 today in 4th. Cyanosis are about an hour out of T6. Expect them at T6 around 10am and an hour back are Painted Wolf. Hopefully these teams slept out there and get going quickly on the bike leg.

Looks like the battle's developing are for 2nd/3rd between Tecnu and Haglovs. 4/5/6/7/8 is almost an all SA'fer affair between Merrel, Cyanosis, Painted Wolf and Olympus with Averne brining up the rear and adding a bit of exotic flavour.

Cinnober seem to have 9th spot at the moment but the battle for 10th is really hotting up. Black Diamond have got themselves into contention with about 5 teams in the chase for the final 2 places in top 10. On the road they are 9th Cinnober(Aus), 10th nonamesportru(Rus), 11th RADYS(Swis), 12/13th Black Diamond and Havacrack.

CP28 for Seagate is roughly 9am. Their track has stooped for a bit. Lets see what time Tecnu and Havlovs get through.

I'm away from my desk for a couple of hours. Somebody get this.

Spirit are on the R61, seem to have missed the turnoff for Cp21.

Cyanosis are already in at T6, with Merrell still there. They are old rivals at the competitive end of South African AR - this should be interesting.

Merrel just moved out, by the looks of it just before Painted Wolf arrive.

Merrell taking a different route out of T6 to what Haglofs, Seagate and Tecnu took...

This is turning out to be a nightmare leg for Spirit. Looks like they're going to drop another place after all the hard work they did since their CP18 adventures.

Painted Wolf now in T6 with Cyanosis.

There are a stack of teams at T4 now, getting ready to start the paddle: Jabberwock, Rustproof, Pennypinchers, Sportotal and Warriors, in 14th to 18th positions.

Morning all! Thanks for the continuity.
Just checking if I'm reading this right - did Merrel, Cyanosis and Wolves take around 18 hours to do the trek?

Closer to 20. left at about midday yesterday and only checked in at 8am this morning.

At the front, Seagate have just hit Cp29

Painted Wolf and Cyanosis are both on the move. Cyanosis taking the north route as taken by the front teams, wolves taking the beach to the south as taken by Merrel.

Nightmare continues for Spirit #11. They seemed to be making good progress towards CP21 after taking a detour on R61 (which by all accounts may be out-of-bounds) but have now inexplicably turned back towards R61. Had they pushed on another, say 20km, they would've hit the right road.

chasing team Haglov's have yet to reach CP28 it looks as if Seagate have at least a 2 hour gap at this stage and Haglovs are pulling away from Tecnu

Costa Rica are also playing on the R61 now

Looks like Tecnu may have had a problem, or had a sleep (unlikely in daylight though?), as they have been hovering just north of CP27 for a while. Haglofs have sped off into the distance... Tecnu are a strong biking team, so this is interesting.

EDIT - they back on the move, but not going all that quickly...

maybe Stephan has started removing CP's for the back teams?

Seagate is attempting a risky-looking shortcut which may involve some hike-a-bike to get to CP30.

Re short course:

http://www.ar.co.za/2014/05/expafrica-d4-short-cou...

I think its unlikely he has removed anything yet

taking out CP21 would allow teams to take the R61 almost all the way to T4

Jabberwock made a fast transition at T4 and have caught up to 13th placed Black Diamond. Rob on Jabberwock is a very strong paddler so would have preferred the much longer paddling leg methinks.

Ja, looks risky. There seem to be cattle tracks in the area (and crossing the river). Might be slow, but not too difficult.

and has anyone else noticed that CP30 is in the wrong place.

Looks like Technu has started moving again after a bit over an hour stopped, maybe sleepmonsters?

Ah - I hadn't read the short course article. Thanks

Cyanosis and Wolf are now both on the beach road to CP25, with Wolf just ahead (Cyanosis took the longer route, that's why they emerged on the beach behind). Cyanosis are stronger on bikes, so I expect them to open up a comfortable gap once they get off the sandy tracks.

Stijn, Black Diamond have Leon Pieters in their team who is also a strong paddler. James Lea Cox also on Black Diamond raced this area along a 'similar' route with Merrel in the 2007 Singletrack event. Previous knowledge, will it be a hinder or a help for Black Diamond.

Cobus of Jabberwock also raced the same event - I just don't recall which team he was in.

Merrel aren't as far ahead of Cyanosis as I expected them to be given the lead they had on them yesterday. My predictions for 4th,5th, 6th are Cyanosis, Merrel, Wolf. Then I'm calling Olympus for 7th spot, Averne 8th. Hoping Black Diamond can sneak into the top 10, possibly Jabberwock, but that those last two spots are going to be the hardest fought of the lot. The Russians are doing an incredible job considering the conditions they must have trained in back home.

silva just passed CP28, and Seagate approaching Cp30. seagate about 2:30 ahead of Silva then. Tecnu have moved very very little in a long time now.

Seagate at CP30 at 11:36. Lets see what the gap is back to the others

Sportotal have also edged themselves back into that middle pack. That's quite a recovery after their navigation blunder yesterday afternoon.

Spirit and Costa Rica almost back on the correct route to CP21

Tecnu certainly in some sort of trouble. They stopped for an hour earlier today, then only 3kms up the road, they have stopped again. The last 4 or 5 GPS track updates have been in the same place. I don't think it's sleepmonsters at this time of day, and the fact they have stopped twice in such a short space of time... makes me think... I am so looking forward to watching the Merrell/ Painted Wolf/ Cyanosis battle on this last MTB leg! :-) One of these teams will miss out on a Top 5 place (if Tecnu gets their act together soon!).

Just goes to show. You never ever stop racing.

Could Cyanosis and Merrell also be having some trouble? They're both going slowly compared to Wolf.

Mo, That climb is very steep from the beach to the tea plantations. Things should speed up from there. Having said that Merrel and Cyanosis do seem to be standing still compared to Painted Wolf.

When they get to Emazizi at the road junction that's when it flattens out.

Whoa!. Painted Wolf just went charging past Merrel.

Roughly 550m of elevation in the first 25km. That's nasty.

Senseless #24 turned left instead of right in Luqumbeni. Now they're in no man's land and it's costing them. Hopefully they'll get back on the right route before BallyhouraBeast sneaks past.

Is Antimatter #33 heading for the original put in of the paddle leg?

Mo, A lot of teams have taken that route including Merrel. It seems to be a little quicker.

Tecnu Tracker moved again, its inside a house now.

Olympus have opened up quite a gap on Averne who seem to be struggling to find CP24

Merrell surely have a problem. They've hardly moved in the last 40 minutes. Painted Wolf passed them and Cyanosis are creeping up on them, slowly.

Fred, you're right on Antimatter's route. It just looked like they'd missed the footpath to the right, but I see now that they joined it further down.

I wonder what's up with Tecnu and Merrel. Neither would sleep in daylight on the last stage. Must be mechanical or injury. The Wolves smell blood and have dropped the hammer.

Lunar Chicks seem to have broken up with Bad Medicine. They left T3 on the cycle at 11:30. Bad Medicine are still in transition. Maybe Nikki got word that she was going to be short coursed. I'm sure that would have lit a fire under her.

Merrell drop one more place; Cyanosis have passed them rather slowly.

Whatever was troubling Merrel they seem to have recovered. They're up and riding again.

Did the Lunatics see Merrel at transition 3/6?

Talking about dropping the hammer... Painted Wolf are flying!! Not only passing Merrell who seem to be looking for parking, but they have blazed away from Cyanosis who was right with them only a couple of hours ago... Watch out Tecnu!

Lunatics and Merrel were in transition at the same time. But Smelly isn't racing this one

Silva just hit CP29. Seagate were there at 10:40 or so which means gap staying steady at 2:30

more on the Seagate/Silva gap: it was about 1:30 leaving T6 so Seagate continues to pull away.

just woke up here in US and very concerned about Tecnu's lack of movement!!

@brian love the "looking for parking" comment. funny!

And Seagate are now passed CP 31, they are back into KZN and about to start heading back south towards the coast.

Looks like Tecnu are moving again!

Merrell and Cyanosis now neck and neck - cruising together, methinks

:)

Cyanosis and Merrel now have the Hammer down.

and Tecnu absolutely flying as well.

Our good old friend Sakkie Meyer (ex SA now living in Kiwiland) on Team Bring-it-on is going in circles... Check that track out!

Bloed en OMO went into Lusikisiki, then around the west up the R61, then back east and up to CP19. Then they went back into Lusikisiki. then back north and have now turned west again... i suspect they may be short coursing themselves again, perhaps direct to the paddle?

Sakkie just took a detour to one of the local bush pubs I'm sure

some good updates happening on the Kineticgear facebook page:

#1 - someone made a spreadsheet of split and TA times! https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1020161480...

#2 - Seagate expected to finish at 1700, and there is an escort of local cyclists. sounds awesome, festive, and probably a relief not to have to nav the last few km.

Team Spirit needs a bit of nav help. After finding CP21 (which took them ages), they are now going in completely the opposite direction to where they should be going. Oh boy!

They could be aiming to ride the R61 all the way down. We dont have confirmation that it is out of bounds....

Speaking of nav choices Merrel and Cyanosis split at the T Junction and went in OPPOSITE directions to each other. It's going to be interesting. Painted Wolf also went right at the T

Merrel taken the west split, cyanosis the east on the way to CP26

Ha! we both spotted that at the same time

All teams ahead of Cyanosis and Merrell have gone East at the T junction. will be interesting to see how Merrell's option works out...

Havacrack, Black Diamond and Jabberwock all finished with the paddles

Word from Lisa is that Tecnu didn't sleep in any of the previous T's - so maybe their stops were just to get some sleep.

Merrell going west: they don;t have any more uphill before the next CP, whereas Cyanosis still has a hill to climb

I vote on Merrell in this one :)

far be it for me to doubt Nic's nav, but i have to agree with you on that. Merrel got my vote.

Wolves have CP26, lets see what the time is back to Merrel and Cyanosis

What are Seagate up to?

Scratch that - they're back on the route.

@fred i am thinking the same thing. maybe they are trying to use the bigger N/S road?

Cinnobar - coming back to T4. Seems they couldn't find the way down.

Western route was better

along that same line, where are Tecnu going? maybe trying to cut across the "recommended" route and do an out-n-back to CP28?

Tecnu seem to have a good line i think. There is a very visible track seeming to run almost directly from where they are currently to the CP

Merrel and Cyanosis are at the CP26, so the gap is around 30 to 40 mins. wolves tracker has gone stale just beyond the Cp though.

What happened to Cinnobar? They're returning to T5.
That blows the race for 10th spot wide open. There are now 9 teams in contention for that spot. Bets please.

RADYS and Cinnobar have come back down. Black Diamond are on the way up. This may be Black Diamond slipping into 10th spot if they can just navigate their way down

I'm placing my 2 rand on Black Diamond. James is an excellent navigator and this team is unchanged from a few successful prior outings. Solid. That, and the fact that they have just set off ahead of the rest.

The track Tecnu is currently on comes to an end a few km (? - no scale) from CP28. Then it's a bit of hike-a-bike and a river crossing to reach the road that the CP is on.

Consider this: AngerManagement last saw a transition on Sunday. They are in the middle of the canyon. Speed = 0 km/h.

I too think Black Diamond have it. But I want them to cross the finish line WITH Jabberwock. #ShowingmySAColors

I think managing their anger has taken a backburner to managing without food. They will be very pleased to see T3.

Looks like nonamesport.ru made it down without any problems. Not sure what's up with Cinnober and Radys then?! Oh, and Anger Management have changed their name to Hunger Management. 3 days with only 24 hours worth of food!? I'd frikken die!!

Olympus 30 minutes from T6

Yip, there goes Bloed en OMO... Short-coursing themselves AGAIN and making a bee-line for the paddle. Maybe they didn't pack enough food to last them 6 days? Should have stopped at the Shoprite in Lusikisiki.

I'm looking forward to reading some entertaining race reports after this one! If anybody finds any in the next few weeks, please be sure to post links here. Especially the foreign teams, sometimes hard to find their race reports.

yup Cinnobar and RADYS are on the coastal route

Bloed en OMO - they are pros at what they do. Gotto hand it to them - whose position would you rather be in - Hunger Management or theirs?

Cinnobar were SOOO close. They'll be cursing themselves afterwards.

Brian, bloed en omo did go back into Lusikisiki after the cp19, they may well have stopped at Shoprite :)

Jabberwock the next team to move from Transition out of the massive group there. Balck diamond haven't moved much since they were passed by cinober going the wrong way... probably having a good hard look at the map

Ja, can't fault that, they are pros... AND they not hungry either after passing through Lusikisiki not once, but twice to buy food. Pros.

Olympus are minutes away from T6 now. Got a good gap on Arverne. GO boys!

Black Diamond not perturbed by Cinnobar and RADYS failure. Heading off on a good line. Right behind them are Jabberwock

Seagate on the home stretch. In before 5?

And speaking of Lusikisiki, Spirit have just gotten back there again themselves.

Silva have hit Cp31. Gap possibly closing slightly to Seagate, but its all over bar the shouting at this point.

Seagate are no more than 10 minutes from the finish

from the FB Page : "Team #13 Sandgroper .. wow … full of surprises :) We lost the tracker just after 20h00 last night, we knew more or less where they were. Happy to say, they just checked into transition 4 – we have been told that it will be a short stop, after which they will start with the paddle. Welcome back – #exp"

Meanwhile at CP28, Tencu negotiate a hike-a-bike down a mountain!

Brian that just looks like some slick rock riding

That's it - Seagate have done it

What a lesson in racing - wow

And that's it, Seagate finish 1st! just a shade under 81 hours.

Seagate went thru CP28 at 9am this morning. 7 hours of riding from there in daylight by probably the worlds best AR team.

They made it look easy

Congratulations, Seagate!

Painted Wolf seem to have snapped the rubber band. They've opened up a decent lead on Cyanosis and Merrel.

Well it looks like, contrary to popular belief, the coastal route from T5 is way faster, because Cinnamon and Radish are now properly ahead of Diamond and Wock

Spirit Canada's ride to TA4 looks like a decent route choice if R61 is a permitted road. They're making good time and didn't stop at the major town of Lusikisiki so everything seems OK. I don't remember seeing any other teams doing that so I hope they're not O/B.

Yeah but they'd already clipped the CP. It's not like they started at the CP together. BD and JB only got to the CP about 45 minutes after the other 2 had got to the road.

Bash - we're not sure if the R61 is in or out of bounds. Under normal circumstances it would be O/B because it's a very busy road with loads of traffic. Also no other team has chosen that route which in itself is an indication that maybe it is O/B.

It wouldn't have been a sensible route choice to the old kayak put in, so its possible that Stephen didn't bother to make it O/B as it wouldn't have been necessary. Given how late in the game they made the put in change, its very possible they didn't update any O/B rules....

Looks like Tecnu made it through the hike-a-bike and to the CP

Interesting point, thenjdk. Spirit Canada (the two core members) have been racing since 1996 and have a history of staying tough and hitting the finish line. I can't see them intentionally disqualifying themselves at this point.

I have Dejavu - I'm yelling at Cobus on a cliff again from 600km away.

That little slick rock adventure took Tecnu more than an hour... Maybe they were bored of all the road riding? ;)

All i know is i would have defiantly taken the R61 if i had been there =P

I've just shared your idea with Willderness' Mom, who has been understandably concerned about their journey down R61. Makes sense.

Summary at 17:00 race time:

Seagate (1st) finished an hour ago

Haglofs Silva (2nd) is nearing CP32, the last bike CP before the finish line. They assume that Tecnu is right behind them so they're not wasting any time.

Tecnu (3rd) is well back after starting this bike leg 40 minutes behind Haglofs Silva. They've just left CP28 after some earlier stops indicating possible bike trouble or sleepmonsters. They just took a tough-looking hike-a-bike route into CP28 so they are aggressively working to make up time.

It's a big gap back to a tight race for 4/5/6, all on their way to CP27. At the moment, Painted Wolf (4th) is ahead (maybe half an hour?) but Cyanosis (5th) is pushing hard behind them with a similar gap back to Merrell (6th). There's lots of time left on this leg for bike problems, sleepmonsters or navigation issues to be a factor. The sun is setting now.

Olympus (7th) has just started the final bike leg.

Arverne (8th) is approaching TA6, the trek/bike transition.

Meanwhile back in the canyon, Lanterne Rouge team Anger Management was last tracked at 4.3 kph so they seem to be moving well in spite of a presumed food shortage. At least there is lots of water. :)

Jaberwock right behind Cinober who look to have stopped for a bit

Thanks for all the coverage from various sides of the world since this began. Interesting to read how things have unfolded for a number of the teams. Hope Team Spirit are doing okay!

@Bash aren't you just itching to type "meanwhile, back in the mangroves" ?!?!

Nonamesport.ru (9th) hasn't tracked in 1.5 hours but they were at CP23 then.

RADY Switzerland (10th) was near CP23 10 minutes ago.

Looks like Jabberwock has passed Cinnober to move into 11th place between CP22 and CP23. Cinnober still isn't moving. Black Diamond (13th) is very close and may pass them soon too.

@Silkychrome, yes I am! :) I keep looking for opportunities to sneak in the phrase "meanwhile back in...".

The next 4 teams (14th-17th) who have passed CP22 are Warriors, Havacrack, Rustproof and Sportotal. They are within reach of the Black Diamond group of teams.

Pennypinchers AR (18th) are almost at CP22. Namaqua and CastleLite (19th/20th) are still at TA5, the end of the paddle.

Spirit Canada has returned from their Tour de R61 and are back on the suggested route into TA4, the bike/paddle transition, in 29th place. It's been a long ride, and it's going to be dark for a long time so it's probably a good place for a sleep.

Team Spirit Canada has arrived at the TA4 bike/paddle transition around 18:15. They were out for 26 hours - twice as long as Seagate - and dropped 5 places due to some nav snafus. There's been no obvious sign that they are having any physical issues or bike problems but putting myself in their bike shoes right now, they're probably feeling a little frustrated and very tired now. It's dark and warm - a good time for a sleep and a real meal. Trekking at night will be harder so they might as well take a break now and do more of the trek in daylight.

We're not sure if their route on R61 to TA4 was out of bounds but we only wonder that because we didn't notice other teams taking that route. I like thenjdk's suggestion that R61 probably *would* have been O/B under normal circumstances because of traffic but it wasn't a practical route choice on the original race course with the longer paddle so the rule may not have been stated. So fingers crossed that it was OK.

"Meanwhile, back in the canyon..."

That's what I've been waiting for...

:) And you can still say it for a little while longer. Anger Management still hasn't reached the exit although they are getting close.

Haglofs Silva has just crossed the finish line in 2nd.

Great photos of Seagate's "victory ride" to the finish.
https://www.facebook.com/Kineticgear/photos/pcb.71...

Proof that they have way too much damned energy. ;)
https://www.facebook.com/Kineticgear/photos/pcb.71...

Bash - I'll get official confirmation on the OB rules in the next hour or 2.

Well done Haglofs Silva!! Looks like Merrell are in a spot of bother, or they taking a sleep. Whichever way, they have fallen way behind Painted Wolf and Cyanosis. My money is on Cyanosis to take 4th place.

Tecnu is at CP 29 at 18:36.

@Fred, thanks!

lol re the mangroves. that came into one of my tweets a good 36hrs ago - it seemed inevitable

:D

This has been an excellent race so far. Superb course, I wish I could have done it. :)

Merrell had better get a move on... Olympus is coming! The sleepmonster is going to play a huge part in the final night for these teams.

Yes, the gap from Cyanosis (5th) back to the sleeping Merrell (6th) is now almost the same size as the gap between Merrell and Olympus (7th).

It seemed for awhile that Cyanosis was going to pass Painted Wolf (4th) but the two teams seem to be moving at the same pace just north of CP27.

Meanwhile, back to the 'mericans... ;) Tecnu is approaching CP30.

And Anger Management is just about to the leave the kloof!

I think I hear strains of the Hallelujah Chorus, even from this distance.

:)

Warriors are taking Seagate's earlier route choice on the hike. The other route across the Mntafufu river mouth (and impenetrable forest beyond) caused Merrell & Painted Wolf to lose plenty of time, so this may see them leap-frogging a few teams, especially in the dark.

Spirit Canada must have slept on the bike course while I was away from the tracker. They only took a short break at TA4 and they're portaging down to the river now. Because they're mostly Canadians, please pronounce that in your head as "port-AHJH-ing". ;)

They've passed one team doing this, and two more are close ahead. I guess they still have fighting spirit!

Warriors have a very experienced navigator in Piers. As long as you can keep him from charging. This night navigation and sleep strategy are going to be make or break for teams trying to get into the top 10

RADYS and noname picking the safe route along the coast. It's not the quickest but it is the surest.

Photos of Haglofs Silva approaching and crossing the finish line at 18:29.
https://www.facebook.com/Kineticgear/posts/7113016...

Unofficial confirmation from race HQ - R61 is NOT out of bounds

Merrell are moving! That could have been a well planned strategic sleep. I am sure Cyanosis and Painted Wolf will have to take a nap sometime tonight, so Merrell will be the well-rested chasers... It could go down to the wire!

Thanks, Fred - great (unofficial) news! :)

Tecnu has stopped a little off the road for at least 15 minutes. (I wasn't checking earlier.) They're about a third of the way between CP30 and CP31. It's a little after 21:00.

Day 4 photos - spectacular as always. Lots of nice pics for Merrell and Warriors fans in particular!
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.71135879...

Today's calendar shot. (Not Kyle this time although he probably isn't looking much better after 4 days of racing!)
https://www.facebook.com/Kineticgear/photos/a.7113...

Painted Wolf now past the point where Tecnu took their bikewhack-y route to CP28, but they are staying on the recommended route. Interesting to see if Cyanosis or Merrell use it to their advantage! (although I'm not sure if anyone has determined which route was faster)

Tecnu is moving again. Looks like they stopped for about 30-45 minutes.

On the river, Spirit Canada is very close behind Ballyhoura Beast, Costa Rica and Senseless - three of the teams who passed them on the bike leg. They passed Outnorth Adventure in TA4. So proud of the way they've pushed hard on this paddle, not getting discouraged after a tough bike ride!

Is it possible that Olympus are closing on Merrel? Enough to beat them to the finish!?

Some good nav in the first section of leg 8 trek could catapult many teams, including Spirit, ahead of others stuck on the plateau.

Any word on the street about Tecnu? Are they stopped again? At this point 3rd is theirs to lose, but I'm thinking that they either have an ill teammate or a nonfunctional bike.

Tecnu now going fast. :)

Thanks. I can't wait for the stories.

Glad to hear Tecnu is moving well again. Yes, I wonder what was up?
And really looking forward to seeing Spirit move up some positions. Good on them to stay fired up after some discouraging moments.

ooo! Cyanosis (currently 5th) trying the cut-across to CP28 as well. except they've stayed north where Tecnu went southeast, maybe they are planning the out-n-back.

Update at 1:30 a.m. race time:

Seagate and Haglofs Silva are still finished. :)

Tecnu (3rd) is a short distance past CP32, the last CP before the finish. They should finish in 60-90 minutes.

Painted Wolf (4th) is approaching CP29. Cyanosis (5th) is approaching CP28 via the scenic route, similar to what Tecnu did. So far, so good.

Merrell (6th, we think) is just past CP27. Olympus (7th, we think) was almost at CP26 2.5 hours ago and they haven't tracked since. If we had track history, we could make a better guess on whether they might have caught Merrell. Any idea how long it has been taking teams to go from CP26 to CP27?

Arverne (8th) is the only other team biking.

Spirit Canada is one of 7 teams currently resting at TA5 before the last trek.

Update at 3:45 a.m. race time:

Tecnu finished in 3rd. From the Kineticgear Facebook page:
Team Tecnu Adventure racing just crossed the finish line at 02:57 in good spirits!! All smiles and tired. They said they had a good battle with Haglofs Silva until the end and are obviously disappointed that they did not get the 2nd place but they were more surviving at the end than racing.. They thought that the race was even more spectacular than last year and just love the scenery and people!

Painted Wolf (4th) is at CP30. Cyanosis (5th) is a third of the way between CP28 and CP29. Merrell (6th) hasn't tracked in a long time but they are shown just past CP27. Olympus (7th) has tracked recently, and they're about a quarter of the way between CP26 and CP27. Arverne (8th) is about 80% of the way between CP25 and CP26 but they seem to be taking a break.

There is a big gap back to the next teams, several of whom are in the area of CP24 on the last trek.

I'm not sure what is happening with poor Sportotal. Check out their track from TA5 on (the two most recent time periods). Wow. They seem to have looked for CP22 way too far east and now they're looking for it again.

Our friends at Spirit Canada are still resting at TA5 with several other teams.

Thanks for all the updates everyone- it's really appreciated:)

I missed it. Did Cyanosis find the better, more direct way to CP 28?

Yup!

Step away from the cliff edge, Sportotal! Watching them right now reminds me of the nervewracking final night of last year's EA.

Photo of Tecnu at the finish line
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4131770588...

Tecnu relaxing after the finish
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4131778821...

Today's calendar shot of Kyle
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4131776788...

At 6:30 a.m. race time:

Seagate, Haglofs Silva and Tecnu are asleep.

Painted Wolf (4th) is between CP31 and CP32. Just one more CP before they turn south to the finish.

Cyanosis (5th) is at CP30.

Merrell (6th) is shown just past CP27 but they have not tracked for 4.5 hours.

Olympus (7th) is 2/3 of the way from CP26 to CP27.

Arverne (8th) is a little past CP26.

No one else is biking. Warriors are now in 9th, almost halfway between CP25 and TA6 on the trek. Nonamesport.ru is very close behind in 10th.

If Havacrack has been moving OK, they should be somewhere around the same area as these teams but they haven't tracked in 7 hours so I'll exclude them from the rankings for now.

RADY Switzerland (11th) is just about to reach CP24. There's a small gap back to Black Diamond (12th) and another small gap back to Jabberwock (13th). There's a bigger gap back to RustProof (14th).

After that, there are lots of teams trekking. Sportotal hasn't tracked in an hour, which is disappointing because they definitely have had the most interesting track of the night. I hope they're OK.

Spirit Canada seems to be walking around at TA5 about 6.5 hours after their arrival. They've had a good sleep that will hopefully get them through the final push.

Lanterne Rouge team Anger Management recently biked past CP17. They are doing a short course.

It's sunrise. Over to you, people in other time zones!

Wait, just one more thing! An awesome photo of 17-year-old Willderness, who apparently impressed the locals.
https://www.facebook.com/Kineticgear/photos/a.7113...

"I wish Dad would just let me stay in school."
https://www.facebook.com/Kineticgear/photos/a.7113...

And a pic of his father, FB.
https://www.facebook.com/Kineticgear/photos/a.7113...

Good morning all.

Warriors are on the charge and into 9th. Looks like they chose a good route to navigate at night. I think they had a short sleep so don't expect them to be slow through transition.

A little behind them are noname, RADYS and then Black Diamond and Jabberwock all of whom slept some last night. I think Jabberwock went for a full 6 hours.

Lasts nights sleep is going to play a massive part in how well teams finish this race if the first 7 places is anything to go by.

NEWS OF THE MORNING!!!

Olympus are past Merrel.

and Merrel just went past Olympus who seem to be having a sit down

and now Olympus are ahead. Wow! Who would have thought that Olympus would be dicing Merrel in the final leg for 6th place. Just amazing.

Totally amazing! (Just got some popcorn. The promises to be exciting.)

Wow, I wonder what happened to Merrell then? When i first checked this morning, Merrell hadn't tracked since about 2am this morning, so I though they were much further along. Surprised to see them where they are now that there tracker is on again! Race on!

Anyone seen whats been going on with Cinober. They backtracked to TA 5 and are now heading towards lusikisiki at 60km/hr

According to leaderboard they pulled out at CP22. I also see Jabberwock and Senseless have both had a member pull out.

Top of the morning to you all! Thanks, nightshift.
This is brilliant! A dice between Olympus and Merrel! Olympus the underdogs, with everything to gain. Merrel the top dogs, under pressure.
Painted Wolf the joker in the pack.
South African adventure racing has just been shaken up, big time.

We've got a timestamp within 1 second on Olympus and Merrel.
By my estimate Olympus are 2km ahead.

Not sure if I missed it, but Painted Wolf is at the finish. So they sealed 4th place - well done!

Olympus have stopped at a roadside house. They're asking the locals about a shortcut. They're approaching the point at which Tecnu and Cyanosis took the "scenic route".
This could be the defining moment.

My tracker has just shown Painted Wolf finishing! Well done!

To have been a fly on the wall (on the backpack?) when Olympus realised they were catching Merrell! Man that must have given them an energy boost of note!

We have had a lot of defining moments already.

From FB: "Cinnober have withdrawn. Three of them have diarrhea. They are now travelling by car to Port Edward. They're disappointed but they're fine. (I saw them about 10 minutes ago before they left). They did have a rough night and couldn't find a way from CP22 to get through the bushes. So they came back to transition and went down to the beach. They phoned this morning to be fetched. Lisa"

This was a good showing by Painted Wolf. They clearly still have it.

Anyone know what happened to jabberwock and who has withdrawn?

Olympus still static for the last 30 mins. Merrel taking the non-scenic route

Olympus on the Scenic Route!

So Painted Wolf come out of retirement "feeling like rookies" but clearly they still know how to do it. Fantastic performance. They only found their team lady a few weeks before the race. I hope they are out of retirement for good now, it's great to see a third SA team at that level. And the combined force of Olympus/Capestorm WCAD looks super-strong too!

Could have been a strategic move by Olympus - Chris is quite cunning in that way. Spot the shortcut, let Merrel pass, then nail it. We shall now see which route is quicker. Has anybody done the maths yet based on previous teams? It's clearly shorter, but that last bit is rather tedious.
Come to think of it though, Merrel also stopped when they spotted Olympus ahead, probably had the same idea. Cat and mouse.

Olympus now at 44kph on the scenic route. Apparently the road is not too bad

Word from Cindy (at race HQ) about Jabberwock - Cobus had serious stomach issues all night, he is now very weak. He made the call to Stephan to be collected at CP24. They are still hiking slowly towards CP24. Cobus will make a final decision when he arrives there if he is going to withdraw or not (if he has recovered ok this morning?). For now, Jabberwock are still official and hiking on. They are very close to CP24, so we'll know soon. Cobus is not one to just withdraw, it must be serious.

Thanks Brian. I hope they are all ok and cobus has recovered enough to continue. They were moving really well until this hike.

Painted Wolf just proving that form comes and goes but class lasts forever.

I think Olympus have their tracker at the bottom of somebodies pack. Their signal comes and goes. Last track was at 10:03

A pity to hear that. Clearly the water quality is suspect in some areas - Cinnober had 3 team mates with something similar.

For future reference - anybody know what was the brand of that stuff Silva kept putting in their water?

Olympus is now way ahead of Merrell! Lets see how the finer nav/ hike-a-bike near CP28 goes for Olympus. Still at least 7-8 hours of riding from CP28 to the finish, so much racing still to be done between the two teams. Exciting!

Olympus/Merrel - too close to call. There's a good chance that Olympus see Merrel clipping the CP below as they beat their way down the ridge. Tecnu took an hour for that bit.

@&*&#$ temperamental trackers!

In the meantime noname are out of T6. How soon will warrior respond. This is the battle for 9 and 10

Classic BloednOMO: “We sleep a bit every night and I’ve got my cooker so we make coffee – for other teams too,” says Abel van der Merwe.

(http://www.ar.co.za/2014/05/expafrica-d5-morning-u...)

Jabberwock no longer showing as pulled out on the leaderboard

noname seem to have missed the road to the beach. They've continued up the hill

Cyanosis about to clinch 5th

What a great recovery for them and not a bad result given their start.

Is it just me or did they finish along the beach instead of along the road?

Tracker error. It currently shows them about 100m offshore

Pretty sure Merrel and Olympus must be in visual contact now. I think Merrel may have the advantage. It's guesswork.

Both trackers updated. Both heading north (so Olympus must have got the point) Olympus behind, but tracker slightly older. likely the two teams are back next to one another. Route choice appears to have been neither here nor there

@greatescape: they were using Xinix - purifies water in 20 seconds or something, instead of the usual 30 mins for chlorine etc.

Been meaning to get some myself for some time.

:)

http://www.xinix.se/?lang=en

wow! drama in SA! cool to see the race shake up so much in this last big bike leg! thanks everyone for keeping up the great commentary!

@fuddam - thanks for that! I wonder if one can get it in SA.

@thenjdk - looks like the "defining moment" was less so! Olympus and Merrel neck and neck again. Who wants it more?

Another opportunity for a defining moment coming up soon, where Seagate took a shortcut to CP30

Olympus clearly ahead now

leaderboard is starting to take strain...missing a few check in and departure times... and i think averne's departure time was 10pm last night, not 10 this morning

"As you can see the addicts have slowed down and lost a few places. Last time I checked in with them Craig was battling with his feet. I'll update as soon as I can." from Merrell's fb page.

Leaderboard has been updated it's looking correct now

Merrel have popped into a corner shop for some refreshments

Arverne taking an interesting route at the moment

Re the scenic route to CP28 (in case we see another battle there): When Cyanosis took it, they hit the road a little north of the CP and did a quick out and back to get it. It seemed faster than Tecnu's more direct route.

Pity with Olympus's dicey tracker we cant get a better handle on their route there.

Just so we North Americans can appreciate the Olympus/Merrell race more, can someone please explain a little about Olympus and why this is so cool? (I imagine everyone here knows Merrell's excellent reputation.) Also, please explain the proper use of the word "dice" when discussing adventure racing. ;)

(Not "dicey". We use that too.)

@Bash - dice is used to refer to a "race" or a "duel". Merrell and Olympus are "dicing" each other, meaning they are battling each other for a position... (in a nutshell!)

Ah... Thanks.

The reason this is so exciting is that Olympus (and Capestorm WCAD team) who have merged for this race, have long been on the fringes of AR in South Africa. They have always had solid performances, but have never managed to beat the likes of Merrell or Cyanosis (or Red Ants :-) etc...). So, if they pull off beating Merrell here, it will just be massive for them as a team and individuals. It is also exciting for AR in SA to see Olympus mixing it with Merrell who are world class.

Olympus tracking again, well ahead of Merrell.

Thanks X 2! :) I'm a Merrell fan but I just might cheer for the underdog then.

Like I said much earlier in this thread, I have raced with Tim and Alex before (in Argentina), and they are just solid races and always have a joke to crack! I am most certainly cheering for Olympus here! :-) With Painted Wolf beating both Merrell and Cyanosis, this throws AR in SA wide open! You gotta love this sport. Damn, it is at times like this that I regret taking an AR sabbatical this year! It would have been awesome to have tried to mix it up front there as well!

Painted Wolf arriving at the finish. (Lots more photos on Facebook in Heidi's transition photos.)
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4132417821...

And some pics of Cyanosis at the finish.
https://www.facebook.com/Kineticgear/posts/7116299...

Looks like Spirit Canada had a good night on the trek after a refreshing stop at TA5. They are on the beach just east of the Mntafufu River and are near a couple of teams who arrived at TA5 well ahead of them. Time to go out into the real world but I'll check my phone occasionally. Thanks to all!

Meanwhile, back in T6...
Jabberwock have arrived.
Black Diamond have just departed in 12th, hot on the heels of the Swiss. Further up the road Warriors are trying to hold down 10th and the Russians are 9th. All these positions are close enough together and far enough from the finish that nobody is safe.

Incidentally, another rivalry to watch is the one between Rustproof and Antimatter. Rustproof have had the upper hand so far but it ain't over yet, with Antimatter closing the gap nicely after a slow start.

When you think Merrel have blown a 7.5 hour advantage over Olympus already, there is still so much to play for in the midpack... Castle Lite are right near Anti-matter as far as i see, and CostaRica and Pennypinchers not far back from them.

Merrel is right on Olympus' heels. They aren't going down without a fight. This is going to be tough for both teams.

Olympus crossing the KZN border about 1640 local time after another bout of tracker unresponsiveness. Merrell behind them, but maybe not by much since their last tracker update was 1630 local time.

EDIT: ah! just as i posted Merrell tracked again, neck-and-neck w Olympus! dice away!

(is that proper use of "dice" ?)

news on the Leaderboard notes: SandgropAR: "Out at CP 23,start at T6 again with bike"

Estimating from the tracker timestamps and distance between them, Merrel have caught Olympus EDIT: @silkychrome - didn't see your update when I posted this and yes, that is a new variation you've just pioneered for dice

Both just updated a second apart. Olympus leading by what cant be more than a few hundred meters. This is going to be photo finish i think

Olympus leading by about a kilometer have just missed a turnoff, or opted for a longer way around

Pretty much every team has opted for that route that they on so far i think

@thenjdk - oh yes I see now

Olympus pulling away again. Merrel have stopped!! They have been stationary for at least 20 mins now

I've been away from my computer for a while now. At this point it looks as if Olympus has this in the bag.

It's a definite win for AR in South Africa to have another quality team in the mix.

Go Olympus!

and Lunar Chicks are on the water. I see they've met up with Bad Medicine again but I suspect the friendship is over and the racing is on

but wait, Merrell are moving again... Popcorn: check. Hot chocolate: check. Live tracking: check. Watching the drama unfold. Aah, the life of an armchair racer.

Olympus is at CP32. From here, it took Tecnu about 75 minutes to the finish. Merrell is moving fast now but it looks like they've been out-diced in this round. (Is that a proper use of "dice"? ;) )

Yes, i suppose you can use dice like that! :-) However, overuse of the word could become quite dicey.

just an aside. Maybe it's the same in other countries as well but in South Africa the pool of adventure racers is actually quite small and if you've been around adventure racing for more than a couple of years then you know at least 60% of all SA adventure racers(I'm excluding sprints).

At some point you've raced with them, swapped war stories or just grunted at each other in transition, oh yes and also diced them. We're a friendly bunch who share a passion for AR. I have friends on almost every SA team in this race and I'm rooting for all of them.

In the Olympus/Merrel dice - I can't resist a good underdog win.

oh and I've also swapped war stories with Ballyhoura and CostaRica and they too are friendly fantastic folk

AR is a friendly sport in Canada too, although our geography lends itself to regional relationships. The drive from Halifax to Whitehorse is more than 7,000 km - and there are adventure racers even farther out than that! Luckily, Attackpoint and Facebook make it possible to forge and maintain relationships across the country - and with racers from other countries too.

Merrell just passed CP32 about 20-25 minutes behind Olympus. But it looks like they're gaining?

Warriors are on their own tour of the Transkei. Some sleepmonsters creeping into their navigation...

Go lunar chicks! :)

Just got a call from Cindy, who is with Jabberwock at T6. Cobus on IV drip. Got serious stomach issues. Jabberwock down to 3, Cobus not carrying on. Rob, Deon and Ina will have a good sleep and start the last ride later tonight or tomorrow morning.

Ah sorry to hear that - Jabberwock deserved a good finish after their awesome charge so far!

Ja, they did. Meanwhile, back at the finish, Olympus are done! They get 6th place, ahead of Merrell!

Well done to Olympus - fantastic race for them! :)

Fred called it, almost 24 hours ago!
"fred@roverprod.: Is it possible that Olympus are closing on Merrel? Enough to beat them to the finish!?"

when that was posted I thought "no way" but there WAS a way! wow. good on you Olympus!

Indeed, well done to Olympus, they so deserve it!

Congrats, Olympus! Merrell is riding through Port Edward now. What a great finish.

Its been a very tough last bike ride for Merrell, but they are in! Well done guys! War stories aplenty I'm sure.

From Facebook:

Olympus arrived with a big family support at the finish at 20:00!! with the words: "What was that.....what was that...."

Olympus finished at 20:00. Merrell was in at 20:20.

Day 5 photos, mostly featuring Sportotal (yay, they didn't fall off that cliff!), Castle Lite and Costa Rica
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.71178030...

Although they're not racers, I think this is today's calendar shot.
https://www.facebook.com/Kineticgear/photos/a.7117...

Meanwhile, back in the Mzintlava valley, Spirit Canada has started inland along the road to CP24. They're just behind Namaqua and a little further behind Ballyhoura Beast. I think that puts them in 20th place, if I'm correctly counting dots and subtracting short course and unranked teams.

I'm really stoked about how Olympus quite literally wrestled Merrell for 6th. And Merrell, notwithstanding the problems they had - and they clearly had them from CP29 - rose to the challenge, no quarter given none asked. Great battle to have watched.

Here's a little nugget to consider, for those not from SA: the water at these low altitudes is often home to bilharzia, a nasty little parasite that originates in fresh water snails.

Presumably no-one drank water straight from the rivers, but any open cuts/lesions are ripe sites for bilharzia to enter the bloodstream. Infection of the urinary system or intestines. Growing up in Natal, we were always cautious of streams for this reason.

Worth mentioning in case anyone develops symptoms after the race. Won't be immediate.

Wiki details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schistosomiasis

:)

BTW: this wouldn't have been an issue in the Drakensberg race last year - too high an altitude. Can usually drink that water straight from the stream, without purifying

:)

In her blog, Lisa mentioned watching a racer drink straight from a stream early on. Can't remember who it was but I think it was a top third team at the time. She asked the racer if he had water purification, and he said yes, then proceeded to drink it straight. Yikes!

Just checked back - it was Cinnober. Didn't they stop because of diarrhea?

Yup, 3 of them had it, and it forced them to stop.

That was probably just crap in the water (literally). Bilharzia itself takes weeks to manifest. Fun fun.

New report from Lisa - the Trek to T6: http://www.ar.co.za/2014/05/expafrica-d5-the-trek-...

:)

Ahhh!! Where is Spirit going...turn around, you were so close to the right path!

They haven't tracked in over 2 hours. Fingers crossed they figured it out. Sooo close!

They had been with Namaqua so maybe the teams met head on and chatted after Spirit turned around. Namaqua is headed in the right direction.

Lisa's article on teams that have withdrawn, lost members or just aren't feeling perfect.
http://www.ar.co.za/2014/05/expafrica-d5-the-statu...

Spirit Canada has had "tummy troubles since Day 2" and their South African teammate Tarryn Povey, a physiotherapist, believes she has a torn MCL. Ouch.

Teams only have 4 more hours (i.e. 6 a.m.) to finish the trek and continue on the full course.

27 stitches???!!! And still continues?! Amazing:)
I hope team Spirit has enough will power and energy to continue and finish the full course!

No pun intended.

Ha! ;)

Now the hard racing starts. The guys pushing to stay on the full course. This is where the tough racers are.

I'm sure that T6 looks like a war zone. My thoughts go out to all the teams still out there.

There are still some interesting battles going on. The race for 9/10th place looks to be hotly contested between RADY, Warriors, noname and Black Diamond.

Good news, Spirit's tracker is back and it looks like they took a rest near Njojo and going in the right direction now that they are back at it.

Yay! They'll do a short course bike route from TA6 but at this point, I doubt anyone will be complaining too hard. They're still heading toward a solid midpack finish.

Arverne is approaching CP32 and should be finished before 7 a.m.

There's a big gap between RustProof (13th) and a chase pack of 5 teams (only 3 of them ranked) that started the final bike just before first light. They're approaching CP25. RustProof is halfway between CP25 and CP26. There's a big gap in front of RustProof too so they're probably going to have a lonely day. Keep going, Shebeen!

Wow, that last report by AdventureLisa, ExpAfrica D5: The status quo, was quite the list of who's who in injuries and illnesses. I'm also tickled by the guy who got 27 stitches!, and kept racing. Internal and external stitches. Probably not a great idea to keep racing, as we have all seen how cuts and such can get infected. I wonder if he was also taking antibiotics during the race too.

Yikes. Looks like Spirit are wandering off course again.

Warriors and Noname are really going at it. Who got the most sleep?

maybe i missed it somewhere, the Leader board says 2 members of Warriors pulled out?

Oh No! I missed that. I think the leaderboard got a recent update. Damn - that's disappointing.

to make it more confusing, it says 2 out at T5!?

And Pennypinchers have 1 out too.

Well they did seem to pick up the pace after T5 quite significantly

Just scanning through some stuff on facebook: "They all need to leave by 6am to do original full course. After 6am course variations will be implemented to get teams home by Saturday afternoon" so that would seem then that Park Rangers are the last team left on the full course

Re Sportotal and the unrecorded letter of the CP - how do they know Sportotal didn't just memorise the letter and record it later. Fact is, they were there.

I think that what happened is that they walked/rode right passed it, and didn't record the letter. When they handed in the race passport at the TA it was missing. Essentially, they went to the control but did not punch it.

Very disappointing for Warriors. Couldn't have been an easy call.

Bull 2008 - Merrel(they may not have been Merrel then) rode past a CP which was pinned to a fence alongside a gate. The CP board was literally less than 5m from the gate. They rode through the gate, their track showed that they did and they were DQ'd from 1st place. Those are the rules.

I failed to say - they did not write down the letter.

I believe they raced as Due South then.

I wish Black Diamonds tracker would just frikkin turn on now.

If the tracker showed they weren't there, but they had the letter (e.g. somebody told them or they took a guess, nothing to lose and reasonable odds), what would happen then?

same result - a DQ

Lunatics approaching transition. Do they get the full bike ride from here?

Out north;s tracker has jumped miles? shows speed of 80km/hr. any ideas? likely just a glitch

Full course cut-off was 6am at T6. They'll be on the direct bike leg.

Those Russians are crazy. That is one serious tiger line they've chosen

This from race HQ

"The remaining teams at T6 have been a number of route options, missing various CPs, depending on their frame of mind, so they may all choose to take different routes"

Nice to see Spirit Canada resting at TA6 in 19th place. Looks like the last part of their trek went smoothly. They arrived at 12:22, a little over 3 hours ago. Look forward to seeing them cross the finish line ranked on a modified bike course. When Will gets back to high school next week, his friends are not going to believe what he's been up to!

Amazing to read that Spirit has climbed into the top 20. That's gonna feel like a longgg bike ride at this point in the race. Hopefully it's not too painful.

Looks like RADYS for 9th, Nonamsport.ru for 10th. Warriors 9th on the road but with the one withdrawal - who knows?

but we dont know where black diamond are... they left transition an hour after RADYS...

Yeah, go Spirit!!!! Willderness is rocking it!!!!

What ARE the russians up to? they backtracking along the odd route they took earlier???

I'm guessing that complete teams will be ranked ahead of incomplete teams and that it will then be by CP's collected and then by time.

I have no idea what the russians are doing. Maybe didn't write down the letter of the CP and they're going back for it?

Ouch now they've got themselves back to the same route only further back. The navigator might be in some trouble when they re-join the road they were on.

My guess is that they took the turnoff/shortcut early, then second-guessed themselves to such an extent that they decided to go back to last known position. When they realise that they were in fact on the right road, they'll kick themselves. No harm done though, no places lost.

Spirit are doing great, especially considering Tarryn has injured her leg. She writes entertaining frank reports, no holds barred, so looking forward to reading that one!

Spirit Canada has just passed CP25 on the bike. The sun will be setting shortly so at least they shouldn't have to worry about the heat. Great job!

Look forward to Tarryn's report!

Go Spirit!!

Anyone else read Andy Magness's recent article on Breathe? This race illustrates his point to a T.

:)

http://www.breathemag.ca/lifestyle/adventure/ar-ma...

I saw that. Thought provoking!

I won't have access to tracking maps until later tonight. If you get a chance to post updates on Spirit's progress here, I'll be most grateful!

Spirit is moving along the "optimal route" for the bike. Seem to be ok, a couple bobbles, but nothing major. Bigger quesiton is how they are feeling!

Spirit has covered a chunk of the bike distance but there is still a much bigger chunk remaining. Man, that's a long bike ride, especially this late in the game.

If I read the leaderboard correctly, the fastest time on that final bike section was about 18 hours, with many teams taking more than 24 hours. Ugh.

On the GPS tracking, it looks like Spirit is at the finish....!

Some great messages to Team Spirit on the news page of the race website or their team message page as they were approaching the finish and after. Sounds like the gentlemen let the lady cross first. I'm guessing she impressed them by toughing out her injury right to the end.
http://www.kineticgear.org/teams/team-11/#tab-3

Yahoo!!! Congrats to them all on completing a tough race. The leaderboard isn't updated but they'll rank between 16-18th out of 40 teams. Btw CO, teams who started biking after 6am yesterday were all on a shortened course, which is how they finished more quickly than earlier teams.

That explains it. When I saw them at the finish sooner than I expected, I thought it might be a bad thing (I.e. Transported by a vehicle).
I'm sure they were very happy with a shorter ride.

Congrats Spirit, what a massive race, what an experience, way to keep pushing and hanging in there!

Amazing! Congrats Spirit!!!!
And congrats to all the teams that finished:)

Yes, huge congrats to Team Spirit!

A great shot of Team Spirit at the finish
https://www.facebook.com/Kineticgear/photos/a.3636...
The boys have their beer (what's the legal drinking age there? ;) )
And Tarryn is smiling, so hopefully her knee isn't too painful and will be okay.

Meanwhile, back on the bike leg.....where is Sensless going??

A very cool video of Team Olympus at Expedition Africa 2014. Didn't take them long to stitch this one together!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeytvF5HfEg

Thankfully they've sent out a vehicle to get Senseless. They're without their navigator, so this could otherwise be a looong night for them.

I think the drinking age in SA is 18, and Will is within 3 weeks of that birthday!

An AR team continuing without their navigator? Let them keep going, and roll the cameras for some reality TV! ;)

am back at home in cape town(officer actually).

I have a lot of catching up to do here, but in brief...

the blisters were a game changer for most, will have to look at what went wrong and what to do. Never had an issue before personally, so was quite disappointed to get such bad feet from day 1.

The route was really tough, without looking at the stats I think mainly due to the steep terrain, it's up...or down. in saying that, it's visually a stunning part of our country that is in many places stuck in a timewarp to simpler times.

The spirit was amazing, both between racers and with the locals. Had my honeymoon in the area 2 years ago(mkambati/mtentu might mean something to you guys now) and have already promised the wife a return trip.

The video operator from Olympus is a genius called Chris Fisher..who has raced as team WCAd previously. He's a machine in churning them out, and even got a race video done for me before the final competitor was over the line.

go check out all his gems here
https://advlog.wordpress.com

Well done Rustproof on an awesome result. I think well ahead of your top 20 prediction Shebeen.

have just trawled this thread now, catching up on what the spectators and speculators were saying at the time. Also helps that the trackers have some sort of history function, even if timestamps would be wonderful.

haven't got round to a race report yet, but here's some comments on queries i saw here.

R61 – definitely out of bounds from CP21 – this was indicated on the master map at transition.

Sportotal missing CP21. Saw them at the end of that leg as they discussed with marshall. They couldn’t find the CP, but were in the area. The description was ‘diggings’, which is essentially a little quarry and I’m guessing that this didn’t make sense to the Spanish speakers. They did it at night, and the CP was visible from the road with reflective strips.
Rules are rules, and I suppose to make sense they need to be upheld for them to be absolute. The instruction in this case was to take a photo of area incase CP was removed, but if later teams found it in correct place, tough luck. All CPs had a backup anyway, a spraypainted letter on the ground.
I actually disagree with this system of CP, as it’s open to abuse (no punch on the CP, just a clue which can be verbally swapped) – it requires GPS trackers to be working to keep it fullproof. The problem is that clippers look valuable, and get swiped down here!

This is a real pity for them, quite a strong team from what i could see. We diced them a bit on the beach on trek1 at night, until they decided fast walking was boring and broke into a 5km timetrial speed run.

They are damn good paddlers too, look at the time - took about 30minutes out of all of us teams at that stage (the midpack).

They kicked our butts on bike2 as well, but we did have a man down with stomach issues.

some other nav titbits that might have been missed by those not on the ground.

CP12-CP13. there was a track across from the Mtentu river crossing, quite hard to find, so many teams went a bit further north
there was shortcut across the Msikaba river as well, we got a hint from the reserve staff there and cut out about 4km by not going all the way down to the beach. Tracker didn't seem to pick this up on the history.

CP14 - start of the canyoning was quite hard to find as you had to cut across a small stream before descending.

lusikisi had the only formal stores on the route. two gas stations with 24hour convenience shops.

the approach to T4 had a few options.
a)turn off a into the west of valley early and go down a footpath, initially of slate sheets.then climb up the otherside
b)turn off directly into this early valley and go down a road
c)follow the plateau between the valleys and follow a road off the cliff
d)ride around as indicated on the route/tracking.

only options a and d were indicated on the map, options b and c were on big roads that were not indicated.

there was a beeeeetch of a portage getting to the river. a good km and those Fluid Synergies weigh about 35kg.

I think the problems of going from CP22/beacon to the beach road have been widely noted. it didn't seem to be a problem during the day. there was a well defined red herring cattle trail that took us through a forest and too far north. We came very close to the actual route, but had an hours fight through dense dense dense DENSE bush to get through. I'm talking about 8 branches/lantanas etc to get past each meter. We got lucky in that we started about 50m from where the path cut through, but all in all it was 'emotional'.

after the Mntatafu river, i haven't seen any tracks actually follow the 'suggested route'. it was on the map but hard to find. it actually start at umcingi which is a group of holiday cottages, all very rustic. problem was there was a road for cars. it took us a while to realise that they arrive by boat to a jetty, and there was a mini army type troop carrier car that moves from the ferry. best bet was to move up the beach through Lujazu. We met lots of guys here who had caufght crayfish and were going to hawk these to holiday makers other side of the river.

CP24 was actually in the wrong place. it was where indicated on the tracking, but marked about 50m upstream at the river confluence on the master maps(labelled 'sangoma trail' on g earth). this confused a few teams no doubt.

coming into T6, we got an unrequested escort from schoolkids who showed us their way to school. the first 6 kms was cattle track. the next 6 on a sketchy road. That's a 12km round trip(24 if they miss the bus/it doesn't exist)..and they still take tourists for tours for a few sweets. (kids were ages 4-9 years old!)

options at T4 - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0ZOkd42SBC0Vk9lU...

I found the Merrell (then McCain) adv addicts report from singletrack africa 2007 on line here. i wasn't aware of this race(more into mtb back then), but pretty sure Heidi and Stephan would have done it as a pair(they did everything)

http://advaddicts.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2013/01...

McCAIN ADVENTURE ADDICTS CONQUER THE SINGLETRACK AND COUNTDOWN TO RIO

The McCain Adventure Addicts squad moved into final stages of preparation for Rio de Janeiro’s 2007 Ecomotion Pro with a win in the Singletrack Mania 2007 Adventure Race.

The event was hosted by Singletrack Africa with Cremorne Estates in Port St Johns marking the start of a 220 km race along the Wild Coast. Loads of Singletrack through
unspoilt wilderness, great rivers, scenic hiking and spectacular rope work made for an action-filled adventure race to the finish at the Port Edward caravan park. 

Some entertaining rapids, dramatic mountain bike sections, monster climbs, a breathtaking 145m abseil; much slipping, sliding, a
few bruised body parts and many kilometres of hiking, swimming across rivers and bundu bashing through coastal forest - among
other challenges – saw the McCain Addicts oust 8 official teams and 4 unofficial pairs to cross the finish line in first place in a race
time of 37 hours and 24 minutes. Thanks go to Angela Segal, Nicole Walder and Katharine Hill for their superb seconding skills; to
Singletrack Africa for staging a race that ‘put the adventure back in adventure racing’; and to the sponsors that support the
Addicts’ adventurous lifestyles, including McCain, PVM, Giant Bicycles, Salomon and Island Tribe

Wow, lots to read here!!

Nice to be back on the racing side of this vs the following side, but I didn't feel that way for the entire race!! :-)

BTW R61 definitely NOT out of bounds. The master map had R61 'hacked' off a little past the Mntafufa river crossing,, about 2-3 km past the "Ntile?" turnoff which linked back up to the suggested route on the tracker board. Part of the reason we decided to choose that route was the fact that it seemed a curious place to suddenly mark the R61 out of bounds (shortly after the turnoff to T4) so we thought that might be an indication of a preferred route. In the end I don't think it was any time advantage or disadvantage, but it did provide us many options for purchasing food and drinks... and ANOTHER rest stop :-)

http://ar.attackpoint.org/discussionthread.jsp/mes...

FB, I stand corrected - but remember seeing the route blanked out on the master map from Port st johns going north. If you guys got a route through lusikisiki that worked then well done, was good going the other way but tar would have been quicker(and the la boutique store at Total would have taken our money twice!).

ps. there's a bit of discussion going on the local SA AR mailing list, call it a public service announcement for those not yet feeling 100% (and I'm not talking about ligaments, joints and muscles). This all comes as anecdotal advice, any big issues and best you go see a doc in person.

For those with 'liquid constitutions':
Howzit guys! Getting a carpenter to comment on the specifics of tropical gastro is probably ill-advised, but my 2cents worth anyway....

Mbotyi Belly is most likely to come from water contamination not food.

Had a mildish dose myself but settling now eventually.

Best solution is let it run thru but keep hydrated...not always so easy! Remember official definition of diarrhoea is >6watery stools in 24hrs. Sometimes Immodium required if cank keep hydrated but then you're no longer "flushing the bug out". Probably the best is Kantrexil which has antibiotic properties.

Things to watch for...blood or mucus suggest dysentery needing an antibiotic. Usually Ciprofloxacin works well but in our case beware tendinopathies.

Persistence >5-7days suggests it's time to hand in a stool sample (great fun!)
Intermittence over several weeks beware parasites like Giardia...also needs specific anti microbial.

Otherwise just enjoy the weight loss, don't think I've weighed this in the last decade! For me though trying to get back to work is causing my greatest symptoms.

Get Well soon guys

Dr Mark Human (team bad medicine - yup the guy who gave a team mate 27 stitches mid race!)

Tickbite fever:
I went almost directly to the doctor after finishing, had weird swelling of the glands in my groin from one leg on the final run into the finish.... an inspection of bites on my foot and immediate diagnosis - tickbite fever. I got this (along with many others) after EA port alfred, but then it took 3/4 weeks to incubate/take me down before i got it checked out. The solution was so mind numbingly quick and simple, started a course of doxycyclin and i already feel 100%.
DO NOT F with this fever, it's terrible. anything flu like and go to the doc. i suggest even using it as an excuse to get your wife/girl/man/partner to do a full body inspection for bites....click on the link for a pic of what they look like(not that gross, trust me)
http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/images/10-0258-FA1-tn.gif

Awesome race report from FB of Team Spirit Canada:
http://ar.attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp/user_2827/pe...

they are coming in thick and fast...need to get typing myself!

http://www.ar.co.za/2014/06/expafrica-bloed-en-omo...


http://www.ar.co.za/2014/06/expafrica-castle-lite-...

Expedition Africa 2014 Highlight Slide Show by Bruce Viaene