This adventure race held around Kleinmond and the Kogelberg Nature reserve has to be my favourite of the year. Two reasons; one there is lots and lots of wate and secondly there is no mountain biking (my broken wrist does not appreciate being bounced around).

The event started at a new location this year at the campsite on the palmiet lagoon. However prepration began much earlier. The biggest topic of conversation was whether or not to wear a wetsuit for the river crossing and the river rafting that would ensue. I chose to wear one which was IMO a good choice as both James Leisegang (my partner in team upsidedown) literraly lived up to our name and we turned upsidedown by anothe team a head of us the decided to use our boat to soften the blow when they fell out of ours....

But back to the start of the race. The open mens started first a full hour ahead of the mixed teams (although that did not stop Inky and Colin of team Rudeawakenings and Rould and Aileen of team BMC from easily passing half way through the race but anyway..)). After a quick briefin on how to stay alive if we capsized, we started of with a slow jog along side the edge of the lagoon. It was a bitterly cold morning so the run was most welcome. After about a km we had to swim across the palmiet river. This would have been a simple procedure except due to high volumes of rain the river had turn into a treacherous beast and pulled many an adventure racer far down stream before making it to the other side :). After that it was quick run (read walk) to collect our boats, pdfs and the like and then a strol down to the put in point for the river rafting section.Â

James and I, the experienced team that we are, made light work of the rapids and made it right through without bailing out of the boat...that was until the incident described earlier...if i ever get their names...:). After lots of fun in the water we jogged back to the start and switched to running gear for the remainder of the race. This included running along the beach, cliff paths, a lagoon and up and down mountsides in our pursuits of pc points. After that it was a kloofing section that would have made a great location for a vietnam movie and then a quick swim against the rapids followed by a traverse across the palmiet river. This entailed tight rope walking while a rope in each hand to stabilise. As you can imagine lots of people fell. I used an alternative techinque. The photgrapher mentioned to me that it was fastest he had seen anyone do it. Basically it brought the two ropes above to together which i found easier. James chose the easier option as he was cramping. He jumped 4m into the dark rushing water and was quickly on the other side.

 After that it was another quick jog along the lagoon to make it back to the finish ( a full 2 hours behind our two teams entered :)). Fortunately, despite me unusually not placing in the top 3 team, I managed to get a lucky prize of a Salomon runners pouch which was donated to Inky who has been coveting one for a while :).Â

All in all a superb race with excellent organisation (thanks to Quantum Adventures). The weather was superb as was the atmospher and comradery. I look forward to next year!Â